What Are Micro-Moments In Out-of-Home Marketing Campaigns?

Micro-moments refer to the reflexive, fast, and intent-driven decisions users typically make via their tablet or smartphone. They include answers to four primary categories of consumer inquiries, including the need "to go," "to know," "to buy," and "to do." Hence, proper micro-moment marketing allows you to address the consumers’ demands at every unique instance, leading to more targeted campaigns and improved return on investment (ROI).

Although the behavioral change comes from increased use of smartphones, micro-moments are an essential strategy you can incorporate into your Out-of-Home (OOH) marketing campaigns. The present-day digitized society enables you to apply OOH strategies via traditional or contemporary methods. Traditional outdoor campaigns involve promotions on such as billboards, benches, buses, and wall postings.

In contrast, modern online OOH marketing includes advertisements on your website and the sites most visited by your prospects. The ongoing pandemic means more people stay at home, with few remaining outside. Hence, you can adopt the digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) approach into your campaigns, whose revenue jumped nearly 80% over the past year. DOOH allows your clients and potential customers to access your online ads wherever and whenever via their devices, increasing your reach among indoor and outdoor visitors.

Thus, what are micro-moments in OOH marketing campaigns?

Micro-Moments in OOH Marketing Campaigns

The increasing smartphone dependence fractures the customer journey into hundreds of real-time and intent-driven micro-moments. Each moment is a vital chance for your brand to shape a prospect's preferences and decisions. A person typically turns to the phone reflexively to act on a specific need, making the moment a prime opportunity to capture and convert a prospect into a customer.

Google processes over 3.5 billion searches each day and summarizes the users’ researches, interests, and needs into four primary moments, which you can identify and customize in your OOH and DOOH marketing campaigns according to your business needs. These are:

1. I Want to Know

You encounter this micro-moment when a user has an appetite for information. For example, if you operate a heating and cooling service company, your prospects can hear about your services from friends, see your outdoor ads, and read online reviews. You can include links to your online website on outdoor posters, with your landing pages giving more details about your products and services.

You can also advertise the latest car model on a touch-less billboard around business districts, shopping malls, and high-end neighborhoods. The touch-less feature lets prospects interact with the screens, explore the car, and book test drives.

2. I Want to Do

A consumer searching for instructional information via videos or blogs falls into the I-want-to-do category. For instance, a user with a broken garage door will look for repair and installation tools and guides on repairing the door or installing new components.

You can post ads about various tools for your target market on permitted neighborhood walls, benches, buses, or on digital platforms like blogs if you own a hardware store. In addition, you can include tutorial videos to help DIY prospects learn how to address their repair or installation needs, with approximately 60% of internet traffic over the past year revolving around video. It is necessary to include links to your online website and social media address for visitors to your store, such as integrating your address on stickers and printable receipts.

3. I Want to Go

The I-want-to-go moment refers to searches a user does for a site they intend to visit, expecting the search results to yield suggestions that accurately give their preferred location. For example, if a target audience looks for a French restaurant, they expect Google to present a list of eateries stationed near them. This moment means the user wants results for nearby restaurants and not a list of the top restaurants in the United States.

Apart from this, you can use DOOH and apply micro-moment marketing campaigns via an app. In this case, you can tailor the application to offer additional information, such as directions to navigate to a selected restaurant. You can also include price details and traffic information to make a user's journey convenient. The more accurate and convenient the search results you offer, the more likely your visitor will turn into a customer.

4. I Want to Buy

A user looking to purchase an item presents the I-want-to-buy need and possibly the most significant micro-moment marketing opportunity for enterprises. The essential aspect to turning a target audience into a paying customer is providing precise and relevant content. Many people often buy products from different brands without maintaining loyalty to a particular one. This change often occurs because a competitor offered the relevant information required by the user in this micro-moment.

You can identify and personalize this micro-monetization moment in your OOH marketing campaign according to your target audience’s needs. For example, if your store sells phones, you can attract a prospect interested in the latest iPhone by including free delivery or phone accessories in your advertisement and package.

How to Market to Micro-Moments

You can market to the micro-moments above during your OOH campaigns by focusing on the five Ws, which are:

1. Who

The “who” of your target market can include demographics, their needs, and complaints. You can use this information to identify their shared features and refine your target audience into segments, creating a competitive and relevant micro-moment marketing campaign.

2. What

Consumers typically search for the same things, phrasing the queries differently. You can build a smart marketing strategy by researching "what" your potential customers search for in every micro-moment. For instance, I-want-to-buy moments often feature a few sets of keywords, whereas I-want-to-know moments mostly involve a variety of keywords. Knowing your target audience's search patterns enables you to integrate the phrases into your DOOH marketing strategy to improve reach and get ahead of your competitors.

3. Where

You can identify an I-want-to-go moment by studying the search behavior of your target audience, helping your business focus on specific areas most relevant to the prospects’ needs. For instance, most people in a downtown area discover and go to a restaurant in the downtown neighborhood. You can optimize your Google My Business or put up more OOH advertisements around the Downtown area.

Besides, you can better understand your potential customers' needs by looking at where they visit your website. For example, you can address an I-want-to-go moment if your prospect searches for your hotel's amenities.

4. When

You can create a performance-driven and smart micro-moment marketing campaign using the “when” of a micro-moment. It can include a time of the year, time of the week, or a time of the day. If you run a night restaurant, you can manage a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign year-round, scheduling it to run during specific days and hours of the week. You can also set up QR codes with limited-time coupons within your mall since 92% of U.S. consumers utilize coupons for shopping.

5. Why

You want your business to answer users' "why," showing why they should pick your shopping mall over a store six minutes closer. You can form a creative and customized campaign by understanding the “why” that drives a prospect, motivating them to select your business over competitors.

Understanding micro-moment marketing helps you boost your marketing and customer acquisition skills. You can leverage these moments to maximize your OOH marketing impact and ensure your campaign accurately addresses your target audience's needs. This strategy enables you to keep up with consumers that make decisions faster than ever before. You can meet their heightened expectation for speed, aid them in accomplishing their task, and effectively increase your reach and conversion rates.