Google's Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) - amazing resource for online retail

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Google’s Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT), Why consumers buying behaviour has changed forever.

Up until now, leading brands have been the ones who consistently win at two ‘moments of truth’ for their consumers:

  • The 1st moment is the consumer experience when they’re about to buy something; standing in front of a shelf with hand on the product
  • The 2nd moment is what happens when they use it for the first time; opened the package and using the product

Google argue that the ability to create and share your own content about brands has given birth to a new moment, the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT). Consumers can now discover a great deal about you before making a purchase; without going anywhere near your marketing or sales. Their research found that people now look at over 10 different sources of online information before making a purchase. 

This means that as marketers we need to understand how to win at ZMOT and to explain this, work through your own model

Step 1: what do I want to buy today? Ah, plane tickets to Spain!

Step 2: Make mental list of who I know that sells tickets

Step 3: Do some initial research to create a shortlist of providers with the best combination of price and flight times

Step 4: Pause… how to choose between them?

Step 5: Open a new browser window and type “BA flight review” and repeat for other options.

Step 6: Skim the scores, start reading what people say about their personal experiences and make your decision taking all this on board.

So how do you start?

  • Collect social data that talks about you and your category (from review sites, blogs, tweets – wherever).
  • Review the hard data: see how you score, who’s talking about you and where.
  • Properly analyse the comments, blogs, tweets etc., this is where hearts and minds are won. It’s here that people share compelling personal experiences about brands. Social Media Research techniques can help you manage this as it lets you create real insights from thousands of natural online discussions.
  • Repeat on a regular basis to observe how your market is changing.
    When you can see what they see, you can then:

1.      Design a content strategy that speaks directly to consumer interests.

2.      Use the insights to make better products or improve your service.

3.      Engage active or insightful consumers.

4.      Understand about what’s going on in the market.