Let’s take a few moments and map the typical customer path to purchase. Let’s focus on new customers, folks who have never purchased from you and in fact don’t yet know what the solution is to their challenge. Let alone that you have it.
Put yourself in their shoes.
Where would you start? Probably by Googling: How to... When you ask this question from your mobile device, the process is an example of what Google calls an “I want to Know…” micro moment.
A quick micro moment search for knowledge - what will you find?
We’ll turn this into a concrete example so we can experience what happens next. You are a marketer wanting to produce a video for the web. You haven’t developed video before and while you are aware of YouTube, you have no clue how you to get a video uploaded, let alone have it be discovered by your target customers. So you have a number of questions.
In the good old days
You would have pulled out the Yellow Pages, looked up video production companies and probably made a few calls. You would have felt at a disadvantage because you didn’t know who is good or what you should have to pay for a quality production? Could you trust that the sales people you connect with understood what you need? Will it be a fair price? If you were lucky, you might have been able to check with a colleague or two about who they would recommend. Still, you knew that to get answers and advance your project you were going to have to leap into… the dreaded SALES FUNNEL!
You're in the driver's seat with mobile micro moments
These are the days of the Internet! Your online research will make you an educated buyer. No need to talk to a salesperson and fall into their funnel. You start your search. What better way to learn than with a video? You can learn anything on YouTube, right? You have a few free moments do you take out your phone and start.
“How to produce a video to promote my product”
The typical search results for an “I want to know…” micro moment
Solutions presented without any understanding of your problem. Straight ahead promotion. Nothing to learn here….so you move along.
Do it yourself info on the nitty gritty details. Hmmm, you don’t know if you plan to shoot the video yourself? At the very least it doesn’t seem too relevant at this early stage.
Content that leads to a sales wall – give us your email address for more information. In other words…dive into our funnel. Oh no…not yet!
You are thwarted
At this point you are only just beginning to formulate an idea of what you need to know to make a wise decision. You know the information you need should be out there but nobody seems to be offering it to you.
Frustrating!
The videos play fine on YouTube but half the sites they link to don’t really work on your phone. That one with email gateway completely trashed your surfing. You couldn’t get the pop-up to close and had to restart your browser.
Do you have a strategy for delivering the answers your customers need via mobile?
If your content marketing isn’t working, you can be 80% sure that the reason is too much focus on awareness content - not enough truly educational content.
In 2013, half of consumers felt that their laptops or desktops were the most important research tool for making a purchase decision. Three years later this has dropped by 14%. In contrast, mobile continues to grow in importance, even surpassing computers. Today, 44% of consumers report their mobile devices — smartphones or tablets — are the most essential aid to their decision.
It’s no secret that consumers are completely attached to their phones. Mobile is an essential tool for communication, entertainment, and especially commerce. This dependence on mobile has fundamentally disrupted the path to purchase.
Smartphones haven’t only become an important decision-making tool, in many cases they are now the only tool used to make buying decisions, and therefore the only touch point between marketers and consumers along their path to purchase.
What are your potential customers learning from you to answer their questions?
In just 30 days you can be well on your way building a winning mobile marketing strategy. Learn how Mobile Marketing That Educates is built on five essential steps. Grab the 5 Step Blueprint and our free 4 week course.
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Can they access the information they want effortlessly on their mobile device?
In our next installment we’ll take a look at how you should be making effective use of video networks.