Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT): Key For Digital Survival 

Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT), are the moments before people buy:

• where first impressions happen
• which triggers the purchase journey 
• which kills the purchase journey

One can easily survive in a Jurassic Park with Dinosaurs. But to survive in the cut-throat competition in the digital world is way tougher. Well, if you disagree, think again:

Algorithms in the Digital environment are changing every second. 

Consumer preferences are changing like a scroll on a touch phone. 

Every minute a new website appears as your competition.

Billions of searches happen and every time results may change. 

SO, what is Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) and how it helps? 

Well, few thousand years ago, when consumers wanted to buy something, they used to go to a nearby retail store, which had a line of products neatly packed on the shelf. When consumers saw a familiar brand (brand recall due to mass advertising), the ‘first moment of truth’ occurred.  Later, when consumer used the product, the second moment of truth happens. Now fast forward to today’s world, when a consumers want to buy something. Probably, the first thing is to go online and search for it. This ‘search’ before buying is called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT). One can easily guess that majority of the buying decision (intentions) are made based on first few search results. 

Looking for a restaurant for dinner, what happens if you see the rating below 3 with top negative reviews? Got the point?

Interestingly, the FMCG giant Procter & Gamble coined the first and second moment of truth. Whereas, you would be surprised to know (well may be not) that ubiquitous ‘Google’ gave the term of Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT). 

Every so often, something comes along and changes the rulebook. ZMOT is one of those things that changed how companies work and think about consumers. 

Each company is trying really really hard to win that ZMOT, to get into consumers consideration set, to be there when consumers are just thinking about something to buy. 

Now few tips and recommendations to use ZMOT to survive and kick the competition.

Very strong Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Build a strong, positive, favorable word-of-mouth

Social media is your angel – use it to build consumer base, fan base, support base whatever you call.

Find the negative reviews, find the consumers and solve their issues. 

Convert the naysayers to your promoters

 

Note: This article is based on the book “Winning the Zero Moment of Truth” by Jim Lecinski, Managing Director of US Sales & Service and Chief ZMOT Evangelist at Google. Readers can download the free pdf from Think With Google website.