Guest Post: From discovery to purchase - how brands can use micro-moments to convert consumer browsing into sales

Lee Wilson, service operations director at Vertical Leap, said: "Travel firms must entice potential customers at every level of the purchasing process to stay competitive." He discusses how to go about using micro-moments for increased conversions.

Researching holidays is always fun. Hopping from one website to another, trying to decide whether you want to be sipping a drink on the beach, or breathing in fresh mountain air. But with so many choices available, capturing the attention of potential customers at different stages of the buying process can be challenging.

Brands need to stand out to survive. Travel firms must entice potential customers at every level of the purchasing process to stay competitive.

Enter micro-moments.

What are micro-moments?

Micro-moments are the small actions consumers take between discovery and the final purchase. They are points when your potential customers are searching for ideas and comparing options, before eventually booking. These micro-moments can happen at any time and on any device, which makes them an important consideration when planning your search marketing campaigns. 

How to make micro-moments useful

To make the most of micro-moments, it’s important to understand the different stages of the buying process that your customers go through. These can be broken down into four stages:

• Inspiration – when your customer is just starting to think about their travel plans. This could be as simple as someone coming across a blog post, whether that’s about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or swimming with pigs in the Bahamas.
• Consideration – when your potential customer is actively researching different options and comparing prices. For example, the customer might have viewed offers about flying to the Bahamas by this stage.
• Ready to book – when your potential customer has decided and is ready to make a purchase. Travel marketers ideally need to create a sense of urgency here, to encourage them to take that final step.
• Booked – when your customer has already made a booking with your brand. The sale has been completed!

By understanding each step, you can target your campaigns to specific audience segments. This creates highly focused marketing messages designed to move customers on to the next stage of the sales funnel. You can utilise these messages across different marketing campaigns. There is a three-step procedure to follow to boost bookings once a target audience and key messages have been confirmed:

Step one: Use ‘audience segment targeting’ to increase your bids

With the help of ‘audience segment targeting’, brands can raise their bids on search terms for a person on their audience lists only. Because they are on the brand’s remarketing list, the advertisement will appear more often when the customer searches for a particular keyword. 

When targeting clients who are at the inspiration stage of the purchasing process, this can be very helpful. For instance, by slightly elevating bids, brands can ensure their ad is more noticeable to buyers who have already expressed interest. This is a fantastic approach to keep people thinking about your company and increase the likelihood of booking with you..

Step two: Get specific with dynamic remarketing

The focus of your brand’s messaging should narrow as your prospect advances to the consideration stage of the sales funnel. Dynamic remarketing can be used for this, and you can raise bids for specific audiences. 

The objective is to persuade consumers to act; for example, by making a shortlist of hotels or submitting a request for more information. Brands can increase the likelihood of conversion by dynamically tailoring the content of remarketing adverts to the pages the user has previously seen.

Step three: Create urgency and bid aggressively

Finally, brands can create a sense of urgency and bid aggressively when your prospect swims into the “ready to book” pool, where they are most likely to make a purchase.

By successfully utilising the power of analytics, it’s possible to gain a wealth of insights to guide digital decision-making. By examining how customers use your site and tracking their movements across various platforms and devices, you can develop a user view that can predict future behaviours and ensure you target buyers at the right time, with the right message.

No matter whether a customer is scrolling for inspiration, comparing prices or about to press the ‘book’ button, your brand needs to be seen every step of the way.