Using the Zero Moment of Truth in Your B2B Marketing Strategy
Like the rest of the world, I’m under quarantine this month, hiding out from COVID-19. In trying to make the best use of my time, and I have found Kevin Hartman’s MBA classes on Digital Analytics Theory a good way to explore new dimensions of digital marketing.
His class introduced me to the concept of the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT).
Introducing the Zero Moment of Truth
The idea comes from theories of consumer behavior. P&G had long described the marketing process in three distinct stages:
Stimulus: Something triggers the customer to buy
First Moment of Truth (FMOT): The consumer evaluates the product on a store shelf
Second Moment of Truth (SMOT): The consumer’s experience of the product when they bring it home
Google identified an intermediary stage between Stimulus and the FMOT, and they labeled it the ZMOT. This is the messy, chaotic stage enabled by the age of the internet and the smartphone. Consumers google stuff, they look at rating sites, they text their friends and family, they explore a brand’s website, they watch unboxing videos, they post on social media. In short, they do all of the things they couldn’t do before the digital age. And they do all of it before they actually touch the product on the store’s shelf.
Why should B2B marketers care about the ZMOT?
The big brains at Google intended ZMOT to apply to B2C and maybe digital commerce, but the ZMOT holds tremendous value for the B2B sales cycle as well — maybe more value. If you’re purchasing a pair of socks or a toothbrush, how many searches and FB posts are you going to do? If the product you buy is crap, you’re out a few dollars.
But if you are purchasing big-ticket B2B software or services — business intelligence software, CRM, a marketing automation platform, or even a new advertising agency — the consequences of a bad decision can be dire. They can be career-ending. Bad software purchases have cost firms many millions of dollars.
Smart managers know this, so their ZMOT stage is often extended and goes on for longer. And almost every action the user takes during this stage leaves a digital footprint.
Reading your customer’s digital footprints
For B2B marketers, the ZMOT is a crystal ball. If you know how to read the footprints, you can anticipate a lot about your customer. You can understand where they are headed and meet them there.
For example, questions asked in search or on social about your product or category will reveal what your customers care about, and the dimensions on which your products are being evaluated. Tools like SEMrush are great for diving into search data, and BuzzSumo is great for understanding social. These are just two I’ve used; there are many great products in both categories.
Digging into the ZMOT data can help product marketers understand what their customers find most compelling about their product, letting them prioritize and stack rank features & benefits in their messaging. Content marketers can reverse engineer content to anticipate questions before they are asked — proactively driving organic traffic to your site. You can craft better sales enablement with insight into actual objections. (Each one of these probably warrants its own blog).
Your own web analytics in Google Analytics, HotJar (for heatmapping) or a similar tool can be another, untapped source of data about what your prospects and customers really care about. Marketers often just want to see the traffic graph go up and to the right, but often ignore the underlying story, Looking at popular journeys through your site. When a prospect lands on a certain page, where do they usually go next?
This can all indicate areas of real interest that allow marketers to craft better messaging, content and buyer journeys.
This is where you can influence behavior (in a non-creepy way)
I’m a strong believer that advertising is not about misleading customers. Most consumers, especially in B2B advertising are intelligent and discerning, and long sales cycles let them see through deceptive marketing.
But savvy digital marketers know that the ZMOT is perhaps your last opportunity to break into the consideration set. Even with all of the digital tools at your disposal, this extraordinarily difficult for marketers and can be costly. According to McKinsey, 69 percent of brands purchased by consumers who switched brands were part of the initial consideration set. (This is a strong argument in favor of investments in brand advertising). Nevertheless, I’ve seen good success from targeting acompetitor brand names in SEM, or targeting digital ads at audiences who are showing purchase intend, in order to create awareness of your brand, even once the sales process has started.
Everyone wins at the Zero Moment of Truth
Overall, analyzing data from the ZMOT can be a win/win proposition for marketers and customers alike. Marketers get a better understanding of their audience’s needs and wants. This, in turn, can help us marketers create more focused journeys, more helpful content and better products for their customers.