Sunday 20 December 2015

The ZMOT & The Moments That Matter

After reading Jim Lecinski's book. "Winning The Zero Moment Of Truth" several times over, I have come to realize that true and long lasting success in digital marketing will not likely come from carrying out arbitrary activities using digital tools.




This post should guide you away from following the crowd in wasting their time dumping links on social media, and basically constituting a nuisance to those who actual use social media for "social" reasons. 

It should also guide you away from overestimating what you can achieve with SEO; and also wasting money buying pay per click ads that send you a whole bunch of curious window shoppers and no actual buyers.  

This post should actually guide you into understanding how real life people truly use the Web, and how you can truly begin to know these people.


The Zero Moment Of Truth 

And All Those Micro Moments

Now please don't get me wrong; I think SEO is great, Pay Per Click Advertising is awesome, and Social media marketing truly builds brands. In fact I employ all of these activities and more, and I suggest you do so as well.

However, what I am saying here is that all these activities need to be done in a such a way that it is must be about meeting your customers at the very point of their need. Not yours.

And there is more and more technology springing up to help you do this with scary levels of accuracy these days.
Think about it seriously...Would it not matter to you if you could distinguish between a young lady who Googled your product, "Shea Radiance Brightening Cream" while standing in the isle of a store, from someone else who Googled it from a desktop at the office?

Understanding shoppers' Intent is a big deal in modern marketing. And you should be getting comfortable in that kind of business process before your competitors catch wind of it. 
And lucky for you, most of them (your competitors - at least those in Nigeria) are still asleep.

The "rules" are changing dramatically: Shoppers are like military authorities dictating these new rules for you and your competitors. Google search, YouTube, Facebook, Reviews on Google plus and reviews on blogs, even Whatsapp are some of the tools they are using to dictate these new rules of engagement. And Learn how to engage, you must!

Shoppers are looking for your products. Their technological sophistication does not stop them from having needs. 
It only makes them more tactical and confident at finding exactly what they want.
 
Many of these clever shoppers are seeking answers before they step into the store. They are asking questions; seeking a special experience. An experience, they are convinced that THEY have total control of. And this control they feel is psychologically empowering!


We Must Now THINK In Moments

Believe me; This is all about thinking. Theirs and yours!

Let me let you in on a "secret"......that moment when shoppers want an answer to one of those questions of theirs' has been very well understood by Google.
They call it the Zero Moment Of Truth.
I am not going to go into definitions here.
The likes of Jim Lecinski and Brian Solis have written plenty on this topic, so serious business leaders need to seek these out.

I have also written so much about it already. And I think you can find perhaps my easiest definitions ►here or maybe ► here. My article about the FMOT (First Moment Of Truth) should also help you get a clearer psychology of what I am trying to do here.

But if you are one of the few wise ones, who need a more detailed, step by step guide on how to implement ZMOT campaigns, then ensure to add Jim Lecinski's free e-book to that reading list.

So anyway, what I want to talk about here today is the fact that Google have again recognized that this concept of the Zero Moment Of Truth can now be further broken up into billions of micro moments. Yes! Everyday they see billions of searches from people around the world.

And these are the moments that really matter to any smart marketer. And trust me, it is all about thinking.

The Magic is in Mobile.

The increasing use of smartphones is what is causing the explosion of these countless micro moments. The ease at which an internet connected phone can fit into our pockets has changed everything: phones can be everywhere we are. Even the bathroom. So we are virtually taking the world with us everywhere we go.

Never have we known such....."ridiculousness". Yet most of today's marketers think about this thoroughly when we are planning, doing research, or writing our ad copy.

Computers and the Web brought consumers online, mostly because of the ease of shopping without having to drive down to the store and join thse long checkout queues.

But today's clear and present reality is that consumers now just simply live online? Thanks to their mobile phones, they don't come and go any longer. They are always online....as long as their is WiFi or data from their network provider. 

So for the thinking marketer, these billions of moments can be arranged into the following four categories; plus an additional one I added:

  • Want To Do Moments
  • Want To Know Moments
  • Want To Buy Moments
  • Want To Go Moments
  • Want To Express Moments
Now, I do not want to simply regurgitate stuff I read from Google. And I also believe that you will learn better by doing your own research. So I will very briefly just guide you through these groups of moments, and we can both go and do something else.


1. Want To Know Moments

The most prominent of the moments on Google.
People are always trying to find out stuff. We are always seeking information. And most especially because we now realize that we can get informed any moment of the day. Whether it is stuff they want to buy, or just stuff that they are curious about.

Helping people know more about stuff can put you in very good standing with them whenever they want to buy that stuff in the future. 
So think.....is there an opportunity there?

e.g. There is a sudden hike in Nigerian women's searches for information about baby food (even though most will still buy their baby's food from the shop next door).
Your company sells baby food.
What to do?
 

2. Want To Do Moments

Very similar to want to know moments because it is also about learning. But these are "Show Me How" searches that people are making to learn how to do things.

These searches are much more frequently done on YouTube, which is a video (long and short) streaming website that bears some of the qualities of a search engine as well as some qualities of a social network. 

I personally learned how to navigate the user interface of the Google Analytics tool by watching a YouTube video. Today I am a practicing Certified Google Analytics professional. 

Other people are using YouTube videos to learn how to prepare Gbegiri Soup, or how to snap a screenshot with a Samsung Galaxy S4, and so on.

Again, imagine a company that sells instant Amala powder or Poundo Yam should be taking advantage of promoting videos such as this. 


3. Want To Buy Moments

I would say this type are the only moments that the few digital marketers in Nigeria are paying attention to right now. 
Funny thing is that these are among the fewest comparatively among the shoppers moments of intent.
Shoppers searchers here are usually more specific.
"Cheap men's loafers". "3.5 KvA generator with delivery". "Pizza in Wuye area Abuja".

It would be funny if you sold men's loafers, generators or Pizza, and were not thinking of how to make yourself visible for such queries.
 


4. Want To Go Moments

Are simple. They want to go somewhere. Sometimes they are already driving, or already walking. And they ask Google questions like "Suya Spot near me" or "Good restaurants in Lekki". This usually works best when the searcher uses geo-locating services on their mobile devices by the way.

I remember a friend of mine once searching for "Drycleaners and Laundromats close to 1004", but none of these dudes offering this service was smart enough.

Extra. Want To Express Moments

This is mostly observable on social media. You may call it the new selfie craze.
Like it or not, people all over the world are crazy about their selfies. It seems to be instinctive human behavior. 

And here in Africa, it seems to me that we are even more selfie crazy. But it is not just about selfies; it appears that people want to be showing off their food, their trophies, their medals, their badges, etc.

There could be opportunities here as well. But I prefer you think (that magic word again) of a clever way to spot and respond to this opportunities and tell me in the comments. 
Or better still, come and ask me in private via any of my social channels using this unique hashtag = #OrimsThinkExpress

Hahaa!

So there you have it!
These are the moments that matter!
But each industry has its own unique moments, and you should be learning how to master those moments.
Unless, of course, you want the future to rob your business of its position in that industry.
Thanks for reading.


If my writing has any positive impact on your marketing, or if you have more questions, please connect with me and let me know. I would love to discuss more with you. 
You can find me on Google Plus, Twitter and LinkedIn. 
Also come and ask broader questions about the Web as it related to Africa in the Digital Community where I am one of the moderators.  

See you there.
You may get further reading on the ZMOT in my other post which has Nigerian examples.