Google Says Life Is Lived in Moments, Not Days or Years

First, you all know I am a sucker for a good video. Well, let me start by saying here’s a great video from Google about micro-moments. Come on, watch it—it’s really sweet. It has babies and kids in it, and it makes a really great life-point.

Now, let’s talk about some numbers—some big numbers:

• Google processes an average of more than 40,000 search queries every second.
• That’s 3.5 billion searches per day, more than 100 billion searches per month and 1.2 trillion searches per year.
• And, for your next trivia contest, when Google was founded in September 1998, it was processing 10,000 search queries per day.

Searching and marketing share a natural connection. People search for information, answers and solutions. Organizations (both businesses and nonprofits) exist to provide information, answers and solutions.

Now, I have another video for you—Google presents “A Year in Search for 2015.”

Trust me, this one is even better than the first one—it has lions, soccer, refugees, gay marriage, Star Wars, the pope and so much more in it. You can easily see how all those big search statistics really represent how we are consuming information every day, every moment.

And, because of mobile devices—our quest for information and, frankly, our expectation for delivery of that information has changed everything and created many moments throughout the day where we not only search but intend to act. This is a quote from Google:

“Mobile has forever changed the way we live, and it’s forever changed what we expect of brands. It’s fractured the consumer journey into hundreds of real-time, intent-driven micro-moments. Each one is a critical opportunity for brands to shape our decisions and preferences.”

As you would imagine, Google has some tremendous data at its fingertips, so it shouldn’t surprise any of us that it even has data on how people are making decisions in this fast-paced, mobile environment:

• 82 percent of smartphone users turn to their phones to influence purchase decisions while in stores.
• 62 percent of smartphone users are more likely to take action right away toward solving unexpected problems or new tasks because they have a smartphone.
• 90 percent of smartphone users have used their phones to make progress toward long-term goals or multi-step processes while “out and about."
• 91 percent of smartphone users turn to their phones for ideas while doing given tasks.

According to Google, these moments are becoming increasingly important to brands since they present ripe opportunities to connect, engage and activate people.

What does this mean for nonprofits? (Did you watch the second video? If you are asking this question, you probably didn’t.)

What it means is that today’s society and tomorrow’s donors and volunteers are not going to wait until they are home or at their computers if they want information, want to help or want to get involved with a cause, problem or particular mission in the world.

So, is your nonprofit prepared for those micro-moments? Is your nonprofit ready to deliver the right information for the various devices that could be used or across the various channels that could be visited?

Here’s how your organization can better reach searchers in these micro-moments:

1. Anticipate the micro-moments that are relevant to your target audience. What are the moments when a potential customer would need you? What would he or she see or do that would inspire a question, problem or need for content you can answer, solve or provide? Think of different scenarios where the search journey could ideally lead to your organization.
2. Create content to directly address the needs of those micro-moments. With information from the first point in mind, what Web pages, blog posts, landing pages or other online resources can you create to directly meet the needs of people in those micro-moments? You’ll also want to identify keywords—or keyword strings—that would be likely searched in each micro-moment.
3. Make sure your content is optimized and tailor-made for mobile. Google underlined the fact that these micro-moment searches are done on mobile devices. That’s immediacy at work. People grab their phones when they’re watching TV or cooking dinner. So you need to deliver a superior mobile experience, making it quick and easy for people to find what they need and take action.
4. Make a strategic effort to connect with micro-moment searchers. Why do we search? What compels us? Thinking of your own recent search experiences—what spark inspired you to grab your phone, jump on the Internet and head over to Google? Put yourself into your micro-moment searchers’ shoes. What would you want to know, see or do when the moment strikes? Use that inside thinking to create online content and experiences that offer the ideal answer or solution in those all-important moments of intent.
5. Use search to rise to the top. Use both organic and paid search (a combination of both generally works best) to get your content at the top of search results, and provide relevant, useful and valuable information that quickly and directly meets the need of the searcher within that micro-moment.

Perhaps Google said it best—and frankly, it is exactly what I believe: “People move seamlessly across screens and channels. Your brand must deliver seamlessly. Don’t let competing objectives or department silos stand in the way. To account for today’s complex, fractured journeys, [your organization must] anchor completely on the consumer and organize around moments."