In the last years, we have seen more and more brands starting to realize the importance of real time marketing. In this article we’ll cover the meaning of real time marketing and the benefits of embracing it into your strategy.
First things first, what does real time marketing mean? Taken word-by-word it means marketing made on the go. Just like a to-go coffee! On a more in depth analysis, real time marketing represents the ability of brands to engage with their audiences based on real time data, changes of the data and breaking events. The difference between real time marketing and other strategies is that, while your day-by-day strategy has a strict schedule, real time marketing is flexible, focused on the present and on the relevant trends generating immediate feedback from the audience. Basically, real time marketing revolves around the needs your consumer has right now and trying to connect them with products and services they could use.
When thinking about real time marketing we might be biased to think only about those actions many brands take when something big happens around the world: holidays (like Christmas, National Inventors Day, etc), TV Events (Superbowl, The Oscars), milestones, celebrities issues, politics or times of crisis. But there are more types of real time marketing, like the following ones:
Live event promotion happens when the brand has activations during an event and broadcasts it through its channels. For example, presuming you own a digital agency having a presentation at the biggest digital conference in the world, your actions on Social-Media related to that event is considered real time marketing. Social media real time responses to engagements are again part of RTM. So are the triggered emails you automatically send to your users when they take a specific action.
Let’s see what are the benefits of using real time marketing in your strategy.
People love instant gratifications and marketers know that! This is no news, but it’s useful enough for you to act on it. Social Media is one channel popular among marketers who praise this strategy. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter can be used in order to gather in-time relevant information about your audience and quickly create a personalized piece of content for it. Giving your targeted customers a message tailored on their needs, in times of need you’re going to win their hearts. It not only brings you instant engagement, but also helps you start or tighten a relationship with your users.
Another advantage of using real time marketing is that you don’t have to plan it ahead. Which means less time spent on creating strategies and content! Real time marketing gives you the opportunity to create quick, easy, and effective content. An Instagram photo posted at the right time, with the right copy and hashtag, may bring you more attention than an in depth analysis or blogpost. So keep your eyes wide open and take advantage of anything that might come up and might bring you and your audience value!
I believe in generous content. Right now we’re trying a new strategy on our blog, based on 10xContent. But that doesn’t mean that we ignore small and medium types of content. Content snacks as I like to call them: funny Instagram posts, tweets related to trending hashtags and so on and so forth. You shouldn’t leave them aside either. Real-time marketing gives you the chance of creating catchy content in a short period of time that diversifies your strategy and puts you in the spotlight for a period of time. Why would you want to miss this?
TIP: Don’t worry if you get creative blocks from time to time. Creating content, big or small requires a great amount of energy and thinking or sometimes… not at all. Joseph Kalinowski, the creative director of Content Marketing Institute said something in an interview for Flipsnack that might help you:
“Honestly I think that every every person experiences creative blocks! It happens to all of us at some point. When this happens to me, I step away from the project for a while to read, web surf, sketch or doodle.”
A study made by smartinsights says that 25% brands believe that real-time improves conversion and ROI. If you plan on taking the real time marketing journey, we encourage you to be twice as aware of what happens both online and offline, be aware of your customers behavior and needs and try creating a habit out of being “in the game” not on the benches.
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