If the title of this article appeals to your curiosity, rest assured, you are not alone. Since 2009, and the explosion of internet and social marketing, it has become increasingly challenging for marketing professionals to get their messages across multiple mediums. For business professionals in the private service sector this task has become daunting and for those in much larger organizations – incredibly expensive. So, what inspiration and hope can you derive for your own brand’s message?

Let me introduce you to ZMOT. A kind little acronym that I learned a few weeks ago at a much needed Google seminar designed for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) professionals. A little acronym coined by the folks at Google, and a vocabulary word many in my profession have been seeking for years to describe the messy tangle webbed flow chart of the modern consumer’s buying experience.

ZMOT describes that incredibly small measurement of time when a buying decision happens. Today, it may be that aha moment when you finally find the right combination of words that returns a search result that makes sense to whatever it is you are looking for. At your home mailbox, it may be that one piece of “junk mail” that comes two days after you decide to accomplish a task (ie: a postcard for piano lessons two days after decide to learn how to play the piano).

Today’s consumer is hungry for information about their purchases, whether it’s how to find the best deal or how to solve a task in the most efficient manner. The more information available (online or offline), the more likely the consumer is to continue the search for more questions and more answers. It is in that search, when the aha happens – now called ZMOT – Zero Moment of Truth.

The trick today for today’s marketers is to have your product or service “findable” whenever and wherever that ZMOT happens. Offline, this can occur in a community magazine, newspaper, billboard or my favorite – mobile billboard advertising. Online, this can happen in social when a friend shares a link, through email and of course through search.

With today’s marketing budgets so tight, it is easy to focus on one or two mediums. Successful brand managers know, that you need to be findable in ZMOT when and where it happens, and in other places to reinforce the decision. ZMOT, don’t get passed up!