Google’s Tips for your Digital Marketing – micro moments & the mobile experience

Googles tips for your digital marketing

Recently we were lucky enough to attend Google Partners Connect event on digital marketing, being hosted at the office of The Online Director – our Google AdWords partner, and one of Adelaide’s very few Google Premier Partners.

 Googles tips for your digital marketing

We thought we’d share with you a few key takeaways from the event that might be of use to you in your own digital marketing plans.

Micro-Moments in Digital Marketing

These are the moments in which your customer is going to try to find you.

For a windscreen repairer, the micro moment is when someone has had their windscreen broken.

For a new home builder, the micro moment could be when someone buys their first home, or when a family has children and needs to up-size, or when an older couple have their children move out and they want to down-size.

Think about what the micro moment might be for your clients, and ask yourself – will you be there when your customer tries to find you?

For the windscreen repairer, he’s going to want to have an excellent mobile website and rank highly in the search results, or (even better) be running a strong Google AdWords campaign.  People who are looking to get their windscreens replaced are usually wanting to get it done in a hurry.  They’ll be searching on their mobile device, and will click on the first few results to see who will answer the phone first, who has the best price, and who can get it done the quickest.  This is a very short path to purchase so the mobile website will want short, concise information with easy contact touchpoints like ‘click to call’ numbers and short enquiry forms.

Google Search for Windscreen Repairs Adelaide
Here we can see why a well optimised Google AdWords campaign is so important in industries where there is a short path to purchase.

 

For the new home builder, he’ll also want to have an excellent mobile and desktop website experience, but he’ll want a social media presence as well.  People who are in the market for a new home take their time to research builders (often on a desktop).  They will be looking at floorplans, finishes, virtual tours and more.  Some will also turn to their social networks to ask who might knows a good builder they would recommend.  I’m sure many of you have seen someone post on Facebook asking for a reliable plumber, a good website designer, or the best place for brunch on a Sunday!  We like to social proof our activity in an attempt to get it right, and get it right quicker.

Given that the purchase of something like a new home build has a higher path to purchase (more research and it takes a longer time), it is important that the builder also has remarketing campaigns in place.  This means that after someone has visited their website to research, they are then followed around the Google Display Network and Facebook with ads, gently reminding the user of the home builder’s brand, keeping them front of mind so that when the user is ready to buy – the builder has a stronger chance of being in front of the pack.

Facebook Remarketing Example from Insightly
An example of Facebook Remarketing for CRM software Insightly.

 

So, your homework for micro moments:

  1. Identify your customers’ micro-moments
  2. Be there when they need you
  3. Understand how they use different touchpoints to buy from you

 

The Mobile Experience & Digital Marketing

It’s been coming for some time, but now it’s official – more people are using their mobile devices to conduct Google searches than on their PC/desktop.  In line with this, people are spending a whopping 177 minutes per day on their mobile devices!

With that in mind, as business owners we need to make sure that the mobile website experience we are delivering to our users is second to none.

Google tells us that there are 3 key areas we should focus on:

  1. Content
  2. Performance & Speed
  3. Design & Functionality

 

Content

Firstly, take the time to think about what your users will want when they hit your website, as opposed to what you want to tell them.  Studies show that users will leave a website when customer intent and website purpose don’t overlap.  Think about the micro moment your customer may be in when they reach your website, and make sure that those key pieces of content or information they’ll be looking for are easy for them to find ‘above the fold’, or with minimal scrolling.

The best websites think from the customer’s point of view.  So even though you might be really tempted to have something like an automatic pop-up on your website homepage that prompts users to give you their email address, remember that your purpose (building your email database) should never override that of providing a great user experience!

 

Performance & Speed

Would your customers wait in line for your website?

If you have a product they desperately want – such as concert tickets or a coveted piece of clothing – then maybe they will.  But for most of us, this isn’t the case!

Your website needs to load quickly so that you don’t keep people waiting.  It’s not like a physical store where you can see the line building and acknowledge people for their patience – in the online world they’ll just click ‘Back’ and scroll down to the next website, likely that of your competition.

We also know that page speed is a ranking signal for Google’s search results – and we all want to rank higher on Google, right?

If you’d like to test your website speed and mobile friendliness, head to Google’s Test My Site page to get an immediate idea of how things are going: https://testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-au/   – you can also give them your email address to have a detailed report emailed through within an hour.

Google test how mobile-friendly your website is

Design & Functionality

Google’s top tip is that no matter what – faster is better and less is more when it comes to your website.  Statistics show that as the number of elements on a page goes from 400 to 6,000, the probability of a conversion drops 95%.

Keep things simple and design mobile-first when it comes to your website.  Mobile screens offer much less real estate so we tend to simplify things for them and this is great.

Google shared a few of their top tips for mobile website design that we loved:

  • Keep calls to action front and centre – always place them above the fold and in a visible location
  • Don’t let promotions steal the show – make them subtle
  • Use click-to-call buttons for complex tasks – don’t make elaborate requests for information cause users to drop out of your conversion funnel
  • Choose the simplest input method for tasks – mindfully choose between dropdowns, radio buttons, multi-selects, toggle buttons etc. Remember that long select options are often difficult on mobile.

 

 

To summarise, ask yourself what the most valuable action is that you would like your customers to take when they come across your digital marketing.  Do you want them to call you?  Maybe you want them to find your brick and mortar location so they can come in store?  Or maybe you simply want to increase brand awareness?

Whatever the end goal, take a step back and think about it from your customer’s point of view and make sure that your marketing touch points – social media, Google AdWords, mobile-friendly websites and more – all make the achievement of this valuable action easy for your customers.

 

 

 

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Simone Douglas

Simone Douglas

Simone is co-founder and Senior Principal Solutions Architect of Digital Marketing AOK. Simone offers over 17 years in corporate management roles encompassing generalist HR recruitment and development of small to large teams across multiple sites, industry sectors and states. Experienced in a variety of social media platforms and their complimentary applications, social media strategy, risk management, disaster recovery and associated HR policies and processes.