The phrase ‘real time marketing’ has been embraced and praised by the media, marketing experts, and brand owners. It’s seen as a favorite in the marketing world and works well with the rapidly growing social media. It’s no surprise that it has become a more popular option for marketers since it quickly links customers to their brand.
If you look closely you will see how marketers are always concerned about boosting two major business metrics — customer retention and enhanced conversion rates. For both metrics, it is felt that real time marketing can be an elixir to help turn things around quickly for a brand.
How can real time marketing be employed to enhance a brand’s image? I will look into this in a larger perspective. Let’s start.
Real Time Marketing, what is it?
A common definition of real-time marketing is that it is a strategy that makes the most of the marketing channels during an event. This aligns with the online definition of real-time, which means ‘the exact time when a process happens or an event takes place.’ Real-time marketing has shown to be an effective way to connect with an audience directly through content, ads, and other promotional efforts.
More than a tactic, real time marketing is a well-thought-out, inventive strategy. Many brands have achieved success and earned great media attention and audience engagement via real time marketing. Using the tactic to their advantage, brands connect to events and trends, and display the real time audience engagement and commitment with them.
Let’s explain this phenomenon in the points below:
- It connects the online audience instantly, in the actual time.
- It is a channel for transmitting trending content.
- It turns into an ideal medium to get across to a larger audience, both online and offline.
- It engages and aids in the exchange of conversations.
- It builds a brand, and grows along with its audience.
Four Real Time Marketing Tricks
In February 2013, we all saw how Oreo tweeted: ‘You can still dunk in the dark’. Well, the Tweet became very popular and generated about two millions retweets to establish this real time Oreo moment. The reason behind its popularity was that the Tweet was made when darkness filled the Mercedes-Benz Superdome due to power outage.
“The Oreo Moment”
Since then, brands talk about creating a similar Oreo moment and make a real time blast.
Get ready
Be ready to roll, you may be required to play an important role anytime soon. A lot of work goes behind the scenes in real time marketing. You need a team to keep a watch on the market and its surrounding. Get your team fired up and ready for a high-performance. For this, you need a good team of marketers, strategists, developers and content writers that can keep a close watch on market trends.
Make a pitch
Research and find out how your high-level communities relate to your brand, and make a pitch for them.
For example, if you run a campaign around Valentine’s Day, you can create two different kinds of content to show it to men and women. Let male viewers see a different content than what women viewers see. It can be fun as it will offer both different opportunities, based on their gender.
Quick as a wink
You have an excellent team to bank upon when possible situations take place around your brand. After having learned about such an occurrence, your brand needs to become active. It is the time your team needs to react and be as quick as a wink.
Great content
Content in real time marketing is big league. You have a dynamic team which does research to find out the time of action. Your team needs to deliver high-quality, unique content across all channels for effective content marketing. Be personalized to connect fast with your audience and make an impact. Here are some useful, must-see tips for creating great content.
- Create regular campaigns to draw attention.
- Keep a track of top viral content and don’t forget to retweet it on social channels.
- Pick ideas for content from social conversations.
- Social ads are effective tools for public engagement.
Tips for Success in Real Time Marketing
It you want to head for success in real time marketing, use these tips to improve your audience engagement and minimize risks.
- Be real and relevant. If you do not have anything refreshing or effective, wait for a better occasion.
- Engage with people and talk to them. Pay attention and listen to their conversations.
- Do not interrupt social conversations on social channels. Remember, no one likes intrusion. Not even you.
- You can pass up a few posts or tweets and not necessarily exchange at every moment.
Challenges for Real Time Marketing
It may be very challenging and demanding to monitor trends and make a mark online via real time marketing. In case if you don’t do it right, it can be damaging for a brand and for building customer relationships on social channels. I have discussed some of the challenges that come in the path of real time marketing below.
- Spontaneity is the greatest challenge, as it may sometimes be hard to respond quickly.
- To find the right channel for your brand is quite difficult.
- Hard-pressed for time, it may be pretty tough to generate relevant content that can shape the brand rightly on social channels.
- Consumer behavior demands the ability to respond directly in their favor or to address their needs.
Real Time Marketing & Brand
You have seen how the relationship between real time marketing and your brand performs. The true resonating factor in this relationship is brand sentiments. They grab your customers’ attention and get them into the real time social milieu.
I had mentioned earlier that it would be hard to predict the consumers’ behavior. But, it’s consumer behavior that directs the movement of your brand and also its success. If your real time result is a blast and is able to generate customer satisfaction, nothing like it. Consumers or potential audiences are constantly looking out for a beat that boosts the real time reach of your brand.
Summary
Despite the challenges in its path, you can’t afford to ignore real time marketing for your brand’s success. This is because many of these hurdles can be overcome with sound management, good resources and practice. At the same time, you need to pay attention to market trends to be effective. Believe me, the results of real time marketing can boost your brand — and fast!