By harnessing the power of micro moments, finance brands can gain more loyal customers and increase their consumer base. In fact, Google reports customers are more loyal to brands that satisfy their needs in-the-moment, than ones they have used previously. Micro moments are those fleeting periods when a consumer wants to either know something or do something. By ensuring finance brands satisfy those wants in the moment, they can gain a competitive edge over brands that don’t.
Harnessing the power of micro moments
Micro moments are opportunities for engagement not distraction and can provide a prime opportunity for finance brands to gain a new customer, increase brand awareness or generate greater trust and loyalty.
Micro moments can be divided into four different categories and when finance brands tailor their marketing strategy to them, they can capture a vast array of new customers. These categories include:
- I-want-to-know-something – Finance brands should provide important information about particular finance topics to satisfy this need.
- I-want-to-go-somewhere – Finance brands should provide their location to harness the moment when consumers are searching for a company or store to visit (this is particularly important for financial services such as banks).
- I-want-to do-something – To satisfy this need, finance brands should look to provide informative ‘How To’ content such as videos and podcasts to teach consumers about how to perform certain tasks, such as invest or open a bank account.
- I-want-to-buy-something – This ones a little more obvious, but finance brands should look at creating content that funnels consumers into purchasing a product or service.
To ensure finance brands are able to harness these micro moments, they must understand their customer’s needs and identify where these micro moments are occurring. Finance brands should focus on producing content that targets these moments and provide useful information that engages consumers at specific points in time. By demonstrating that a finance brand can help in a customer’s moment of need, this will create greater trust and loyalty and change a consumer’s moment of a want-to-buy to a must-buy.
Strengthen your content to strengthen your profits
Finance brands should aim to provide high-quality and relevant information to customers’ queries as they happen, to not only inform customers but funnel them into buying a product. Strengthening a finance brands’ SEO and web content to align with the relevant micro moments in their target customer’s consumer journey will enable them to gain the attention of users. In fact, 69% of customers agree that the quality, timing and relevance of a business’s information influences their perception of the brand.
Mobile-friendly marketing is king
“ 82% of consumers state they consult their mobile before making a purchase in store and 91% turn to their phones for ideas mid-task.”
Mobile phones have heightened the occurrence of micro moments, fracturing the consumer journey into small instances of interest, where needs are high while patience is low. In fact 82% of consumers state they consult their mobile before making a purchase in store and 91% turn to their phones for ideas mid-task. A mobile-friendly web design is critical in engaging consumers and converting them from a visitor into a customer with one in three mobile users having purchased from a brand other than the one they intended to, owing to information provided at the time they wanted it.
It pays to be speedy
Micro moments are short-lived, meaning customers aren’t patient. By ensuring a finance brands’ website is not only fast but also accessible, it’ll ensure users stay on the site and remain engaged. With one in four people abandoning a site if it takes over four seconds to load, finance brands should look to eliminate any blocks to their customers’ ability to access the information they need.
Micro moments make big impacts
Micro moments are fought by finance brands in those brief periods of procrastination. To ensure finance brands win the battle and harness the power of micro moments they must understand their customer’s journey and create a targeted content plan that aligns with it. Finance brands that capitalise on these moments and make sure they aren’t going to waste by aligning their customers’ in-the-moment needs with valuable and accessible content can gain a competitive edge.
