Want to know why your fridge is making that noise? Grab your smartphone and Google it. Watch a YouTube video.
Realise you need a spare part? Grab the phone again and search for your local supplies business. Maybe it’s only a 1km away but it’s closed. That’s OK, they have an online store where you can purchase it right then and there.
It’s these consumer moments, coined as micro moments’ by Google a couple of years back, that are helping marketers understand when and how they can influence consumers and drive more business.
They are moments driven by the fact that we have our smartphones by our side pretty much all day.
But with new technologies emerging, customer expectations are evolving.
With access to so much of the data behind these micro-moments, Google has identified three emerging consumer behaviours that marketers should be aware of and understand how they can engage them.
- The “well-advised” consumer
Try if you can to cast your mind back to a time before the smartphone. It was so long ago, wasn’t it?
Would you have turned on your desktop to research your next holiday? Of course you would have. But would you have bothered to look up what sort of toothbrush you should buy? Probably not.
But with our smartphones being by our sides, we search for this info and much more from the mundane to vital.
If we have this type of access, then we might as well make the best decision we can when we can. So, we research everything.
Google identified that, “Mobile searches for ‘best’ have increased 80 per cent in the past two years.”
Oh, and searches for the “best toothbrush”? They’ve “grown more than 100 per cent on mobile in the past two years”.
- The “right here” consumer
What do you do when you’re trying to find an Italian restaurant? Do you add “Melbourne” to your search? You don’t need to. Google will serve you local results regardless.
They do this to cater for the “right here” consumer who wants to be delivered personalised search results and information.
The same expectations are placed on your business and your website or app. We expect that with our smartphone in hand, you know where we are so you should be able to deliver location-specific information.
I don’t want to reach the final page of the checkout only to be told you don’t ship to my location. You should have known that and saved me the hassle.
Or another example, if I’m browsing the website of a footwear brand and eventually head to their “Where to Buy” page, I expect that I will be shown my closest retailers.
- The “right now” consumer
Knowing that we have our smartphone in our pocket empowers us to be as organised or disorganised as we like. I say that because we can wait until the last minute because of our smartphones.
For example, need directions to a meeting? That’s fine you’ve got Google Maps in your pocket. Need a ride? No worries order an Uber.
We can get just about everything on demand straight from our smartphone and Google found our expectations are growing, “Smartphone users are 50 per cent more likely to expect to purchase something immediately while using their smartphone compared to a year ago”.
The empowered consumer
The power is with the consumer and it has been for some time now.
Expectations are higher than ever and this presents a responsibility and opportunity for the marketer. Keep informed of your customer’s experience, their expectations and keep one eye always on the emerging technology and how it will influence those expectations into the future.
Quentin Aisbett, Digital Strategist, OnQ Marketing
