Micro Moments: A New Consumer Behavior in Marketing

Successful businesses understand that consumer behavior in marketing does not stay the same. Consumer behavior changes based on a variety of factors, including new tools and ways of using those tools. The smartphone drastically changed consumer behavior in marketing. This happened somewhat recently, yet people already spend roughly 3.5 hours a day on their phones. The way that a person interacts with their phone is much different than how they interact with TV, magazine ads, or their computer. As a result, marketers must expand the ways in which they engage with consumers in order to continue capturing their attention.

For example, smartphone usage has resulted in a new consumer behavior in marketing termed “micro-moments.” If you want to capture the attention of your mobile audience, you must find a way to take advantage of these micro-moments.

What are Micro-Moments?

People regularly pull out their phones to look something up, but only spend a few seconds doing so. For example, maybe they’re talking to a friend about a movie and they can’t remember the name of the main actor. A quick Google search on their phone will give them their answer. Or if they’re trying to decide where to eat, they can do a quick mobile search for restaurants in their area. These interactions with their phones are called micro-moments because of their brevity.

Why Are Micro-Moments Important?

Although consumers may only use their smartphones for a few seconds in such micro-moments, they have a purpose that they are trying to fulfill. The buyer’s journey, which many businesses have carefully planned for in a linear fashion, is no longer linear. It’s fractured in hundreds of micro-moments that are intent-driven. They are an opportunity to shape the preferences and decisions of your target audience. As such, you need to position yourself in a manner allows you to address the needs of your audience during these micro-moments. The following are the main reasons why you need to do this:

1. Find new customers – It’s estimated that around 90 percent of customers are not committed to any brand. This means that if they find you during these micro-moments, they may choose your product or service as a result.
2. Beat the competition – A third of all smartphone users make a purchasing decision based only on the information provided to them in the moment that they needed it. This means you could steal customers from your competitors as a result.
3. Boost awareness – Over 50 percent of smartphone users discover new brands during micro-moments.

How Can You Leverage Micro-Moments To Your Advantage?

The following are a few tips on how to position your brand to meet the needs of your audience during micro-moments:

1. Know their purchasing triggers – Find out how, when, and where your audience is researching and making purchasing decisions. This allows you to create an engaging strategy for consumers during micro-moments across all channels
2. Make purchasing easy – You want it to be easy for consumers to make a purchase the moment they’ve made a decision. If it’s not easy for them to buy right away, they may change their minds.
3. Provide relevant content – Figure out what keywords consumers are using to create content that provides helpful answers during micro-moments.

Using the Buyer’s Journey to Create Great Content

Increasing smartphone usage has changed the way consumers behave. The new consumer behavior in marketing you must address is the micro-moment. Micro-moments have quickly become an important part of the buyer’s journey