Getting those magic mobile micro-moments right

The shift to shopping on mobile has been underway now for a couple of years but some companies are still living in desktop times.

Google has a handy suite of resources at its Designing for Mobile Micro-Moments hub to help your company develop a better mobile experience for users. You can’t afford not to think mobile-first, so it’s worthwhile checking out what Google has to say.

Google has identified what it calls “micro-moments”: “Thanks to mobile, micro-moments can happen anytime, anywhere. In those moments, consumers expect brands to address their needs with real-time relevance.”

Anyone who uses a smartphone knows these moments. You’re out with friends in the city and you decide it’s cocktail time so you search “best cocktail bars Sydney” and pick a suitable looking place, which has usually ranked high on the first page of the returned search and which has the best looking, easiest to navigate mobile site.

In this case, a bar called Bulletin Place comes up first in the Google My Business listings. The bar owners have obviously done their work here as there’s a well-lit, professional photo that makes the bar look enticing, a short, smart description of the bar, relevant opening time details, and the reviews look excellent.

Furthermore, you click through to the bar’s website and it loads quickly, gives you all the relevant info and has a photo gallery that further whets your appetite for something exotic like a Black Fig Wibble!

So in that micro-moment, my friends and I decided on where we were going to partake in a cocktail with the help of Google and the mobile-friendly work of Bulletin Place’s website.

That’s just one example of how consumers use mobile for on-the-go, off-the-cuff buying decisions. The fact is people have now become very happy to lay on the couch and do a bit of shopping while watching TV; or do some research into an upcoming holiday while they are on public transport; or conduct some price comparison shopping while they’re checking out an item in a bricks-and-mortar retail store.

Here are some interesting stats from Google on mobile shopping habits:

51% of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product through search;
Showing up in mobile search ad results can increase unaided brand awareness by about 46%;
One in three smartphone users have purchased from a company or brand other than the one they intended to because of a mobile search;
73% of consumers say getting regular and useful information from an advertiser is the most important attribute when selecting a brand;
51% of smartphone users have bought from a brand other than their intended one because of useful information provided by a competitor;
61% of smartphone users say they’re more likely to buy from companies that customise to their location;
40% of shoppers will wait three seconds before abandoning a retail or travel site;
29% of smartphone users will immediately switch to another site or app if it lacks relevant information or is too slow; and
87% of consumers do research before entering a store.

Some of the pertinent lessons to come out of those figures are the importance of good content, quick loading times, and customisation for location. You need useful, informative content that is mobile-friendly and targeted to the people you want to reach in terms of location as well as demographic.

As Google puts it: “Be there. Be useful. Be quick, Connect the dots.” Because if you’re not being those things, you’re not going to be anywhere in the minds of consumers.

Fi Bendall is CEO of The Bendalls Group, a business that leads STRATEGY : ADVOCACY : MOBILE delivering the business acumen to drive effective positive results in a disruptive economy for the C-suite. Fi has recently won a Westpac/AFR 2015 100 Women of Influence award. See more at: https://www.bendalls.com.au.