Google has just released a new report that shows the importance for having a total online presence, including Google AdWords and YouTube video ads.

Google’s research on micro-moments shows that people now consume media in a fundamentally different way – in “numerous short bursts of digital activity throughout the day”.  This has major implications for businesses and the importance of being found online.

Micro-moments are those moments “when we act on a need—to learn something, do something, discover something, watch something or buy something”.

Two things immediately come to mind when I think about this: Marketing Strategy and the need for a Marketing System.  The Duct Tape Marketing System Marketing Hourglass is a very useful way to think about this research.

The Marketing Hourglass consists of the following seven marketing phases: Know, Like, Trust, Try, Buy, Repeat and Refer.

When you think about our typical day in a digital world, there are hundreds of moments each day that consume media digitally and from a variety of sources – social media, online search, text, email, and so on.  When you think about the content consumed in these moments, any brand messaging is typically passive and falls into the “Know, Like and Trust” phase.  I think it’s likely that “Refer” fits here too.

What Google points out in their research is that most importantly for buying decisions – the “Try, Buy, and Repeat” phases is when customer intent happens.  Micro-moments emphasize the need to have content that is findable online at those intent-rich moments.  As a business, it means that you better have a strategy to have “Try, Buy and Repeat” phase content that has been optimized to be found at those precise micro-moments. More and more these micro-moments are happening through mobile devices.

This doesn’t happen without a Marketing System and an effective Marketing Strategy.

When it comes to intent, an online search is far and away the most effective way to get people to take action.  Email Marketing and Social Media are a distant second and third when it comes to buying decisions.

Creating content that is optimized for search is crucial in the micro-moment world.  Google AdWords and YouTube video ads are very effective in these intent-rich moments.  But so is creating content that can be found through organic search results.

Online advertising is a great way to ensure that you are on the first page of search results, and so it should be a part of the mix. Online ads have some challenges that need to be considered though. People doing searches only click on online ads less than 25% of the time.  People recognize ads, and they are skeptical of clicking on an ad from someone that they have never heard of. This experience is improved when the same business that runs an ad is also found on the first page of organic search results.

Developing a total online presence is important.  It does two important things for a business.  First, it creates a presence where your potential customers are already spending time online.  Second, an effective total online presence has the cumulative effect of improving overall search engine optimization.

Based on the results of Google’s research, developing a strategy to claim local listings, get user reviews, and to create and optimize content to be found by search – blogs and YouTube videos – is really important for organic search results. Having a presence when a person is searching in a micro-moment means you’re either part of the consideration or you aren’t.

In a micro-moment, everything can change. Is your business ready?