One of the great things about social media and the web in general is that it’s a great way to deliver on the basic precept of marketing – getting the right message to the right audience at the right time.
Let’s focus on “the right time” in a concept Google is calling micro-moments. I’ll define that as “the moment someone realizes they want something”. Take dining for example. Almost half of us – who don’t know exactly where we want to eat – wait to search for a restaurant until an hour before going.
This explains why “near me” searches are on the rise. In fact, Google search interest in “near me” has increased 34% since 2011 – and nearly doubled since last year. In the last quarter of 2014, about 80 percent of these searches came from mobile devices. Here’s how to take advantage of these micro-moments:
The implications of this are pretty clear. You need to make sure that you show up in mobile search results in that micro-moment – that moment when people intend to buy.
So how can you do that?
- Check your listings in all local directories paying particular attention to Google+, also known as Google My Business. It’s critically important that your directory listing be properly categorized and that your address is correct.
- Optimize your local directory listing. Add additional categories, photos, videos, and links to social media if allowed.
- Make sure your website is mobile friendly. I’ve talked about this before.
Since identifying these micro-moments (buying moments) is so important, I thought it’d be fun to look at the top “near me” searches for a weekend.
Saturday morning
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Saturday night
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Sunday morning
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(Taken from Google data on March 28th and 29th of 2015)
It’s mildly amusing that after searching for the “liquor store” on Saturday night – on Sunday morning they’re looking for “Urgent care” or repentance… Church related searches. 🙂
As you can see, a few brands pop up – but many of the top searches for “near me” are pretty generic, i.e. “restaurants near me”, “breakfast near me”, and “coffee near me”. Convenience seems to trump brand loyalty in the micro-moment.
You might gather that most of these searches are for low ticket items. Not necessarily so – remember we were looking only at a weekend. Many other “near me” searches are for things you might expect – jewelers, shoe stores, appliances, etc., but others are for things that might surprise you. People have begun to search for “dermatologist near me”, “plumbers near me” and other things usually associated with a higher price tag.
As you can see, it’s pretty easy to capitalize on these “micro-moments” in order to get more clients / sales / customers in the door. You should do it now while you’re thinking about it. 😉 Need a little help? Buy me a raspberry mocha and we’ll talk.
If you like this sort of thing, stay tuned for upcoming Chamber sponsored webinars where we talk about social media, positioning, marketing, and other business topics all of the time.
About the Author: Ken Ivey, affectionately dubbed ‘the Web Czar’ by peers – has been helping businesses embrace technology for 27 years. Contact Ken here: ken@livingwaterdigital.com
