In A Flash: Micro-Moments Can Transform Brands Into Mind Readers

Harnessing these powerful moments of impulse and marrying them to a deep understanding of customers’ preferences is the next milestone on a path to a truly personalized relationship.

In A Flash: Micro-Moments Can Transform Brands Into Mind Readers

The introduction of smartphones and the ubiquitous Internet has changed the way we interact with each other and the world forever. As consumers increase their reliance on their smartphones by using them for instant information and on-the-go decisions, micro-moments are increasingly important to the buyer journey.

So-called “micro-moments” are the countless times you pull out your phone because:

Just to name a few.

Some would argue that micro-moments favor the consumer at the expense of the marketer. After all, how can a coffee shop chain build a relationship with a customer who wants coffee so badly the customer will buy from whatever store is nearby? How can a grocery store chain capitalize on the knowledge that a shopper has never seen a papaya before?

For companies equipped to capitalize on micro-moments, they represent a truly unique opportunity. Micro-moments are filled with immediacy, intent, and context—the ultimate recipe for understanding your customers’ intent to take an action or make a purchase.

Micro-moments are almost as good as reading your customers’ minds.

Harnessing these powerful moments of impulse and marrying them to a deep understanding of customers’ preferences is the next milestone on a path to a truly personalized relationship.

These micro-moments boil down to four different types. Each presents a powerful opportunity to collect preferences and build engagement with the connected consumer.

I-Want-To-Know Moments

When your customer is unsure of the answer to a question, needs help with a problem, or seeks information about his or her relationship with your company, their first inclination is to take out a phone. Tapping into these moments is a step toward solidifying an ongoing relationship and providing information when your customer most needs it.

Responsive mobile websites and retargeting allow marketers to capitalize on these opportunities by taking this a step further and using these micro-moments to invite your customer to opt in to an awareness campaign or to establish a relationship across previously untapped channels.

And don’t forget transactional micro-moments. Allowing your customer to provide a temporary preference (an alternate email address or phone number, for example) may be the best way to solve a customer’s immediate need.

I-Want-To-Go Moments

Customer preferences around where they want to go, how they want to go, and what they are willing to pay vary greatly.

Companies that treat all customers the same way risk alienating their customers along the journey, especially at the critical moment the customer is making a “go” decision.

Instead of offering a discount to a customer, the enticement of an upgrade or other benefit may be more powerful. Only by asking, tracking, and acting on your customer’s preferences can your company take best advantage of this micro-moment. A 10% discount may strike some customers as less enticing than a free drink or meal voucher. The up side? You are more likely to close the sale, and the alternative and more compelling offer could cost your company less.

I-Want-To-Do Moments

Impulse decisions regarding entertainment, eating, and recreation can be far more powerful than advertised discounts designed to spark interest, especially when these micro-moments are used to upsell a customer from an initial introductory package.

Understanding what type of activities your customer prefers and what add-ons are compelling to the person is the secret to driving greater conversion and more successful micro-moment campaigns.

Several online reservation apps have taken notice and allow restaurants to provide bonuses for less popular times to book a table, giving customers incentives to change their plans slightly to keep the restaurant humming.

Micro-moments allow a dialogue between customer and company that hasn’t existed in the past. It’s far better to encourage a patron to move to a different time than have the person’s evening ruined by a long wait for a table.

I-Want-To-Buy Moment

And of course, the very best of all moments for your company, the point at which a customer decides that it is time to make a purchase.

Many retailers make the mistake of ignoring these powerful micro-moments and complain about customers merely using their store locations for showrooming. With beacon technology and geo-fencing, these retailers could instead take advantage of this virtual hand raise to entice the customer to make an immediate purchase.

Imagine replacing the physical “push button for help” stations located throughout a store with a request for assistance embedded in an app or on a website. Not only can the right person be sent to help answer the customer’s question, the person can also be equipped to collect additional information about the customer to help get the right product the customer needs right then.

The emergence of marketing technology and swift adoption of enabling technologies by the consumer is quickly leading to the micro-moment economy. To take advantage of this powerful step along the buyer journey, companies must be equipped and enabled to collect the right information from the customer at the right time and store that information so that their understanding of the customer grows over time.

But don’t take my word for it. Go ahead and look it up on your phone.