Although we associate the term with brand’s clever reactions to current events and trends (and it can backfire: see examples of failed RTM), it also describes an approach focused on responding in real time to expectations, needs and actions of our users. So we address her when she is visiting our website, searching for a product, using our mobile app or passing by our physical store.
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Real-Time Marketing
Such philosophy reflects a change in customers’ behavior. They know what they want, and they want it now! According to Forrester Research, 89% of consumers will take their business elsewhere after one bad experience. It forces marketers to adapt more dialogical approach: we want to fit users’ needs and let them customize our website, e-store or products.
RTM doesn’t mean single actions, but a complex attitude to the customers. But how to put it in practice?
8 Ideas for Real-Time Marketing
1. Dynamic banners: recommend products or solutions in real time. Marketing Automation Platform will analyze visitor’s history and her current behavior to show offers matching her search and interests. That’s how dynamic banners work: they don’t have set, fixed content, one for every user, but are tailored to every single person. Remember that you can display such banners also to anonymous users (who didn’t leave contact data).
2. Personalized content in mobile apps: Similarly, you should personalize content in your mobile app. Thanks to Mobile Marketing Automation Platforms, such as APPmanago, you learn what apps your user installed on her device, in which modules of your app she spends the most time, and you track her behavior. With all that knowledge, you can react to her actions in the app with matching content.
3. Geolocation and beacons: data about your customer’s current location will help you match your message to the context and send an offer (with SMS or push notification) exactly when she passes your store by. This data also enrich customer profile.
4. Push notifications: they’re a valuable tool for increasing engagement and sales (provided that you personalize them and send 1-to-1 notifications instead of bulk pushes). Send it when you can see customer’s interest in the product.
5. Live chat: give your customer an opportunity to contact you quickly when she can’t find something or needs a quick tip.
6. Alerts for sales department in B2B: when lead who seemed to lost interest goes back to your website and checks out your price list, call! Now she has time to consider your offer and talk about it. Thanks to alerts, salespeople can react in real time and reach out to leads in the most convenient moment. Don’t think about Real-Time Marketing as a B2C or ecommerce tool only, where shopping is more spontaneous. 42% of B2B marketers introduce RTM solutions (Econsultancy).
7. SALESmanago Copernicus – Machine Learning & AI – collects data on user’s behavior on the website: not only what they click, but also what they view. Thanks to that you can see how far down a person has scrolled your catalog or has she seen a given picture. The engine collecting so many data also provides advanced recommendation mechanism – you can suggest products to a customer basing on what other users with similar history viewed and bought. You can display offers on banners or send them via email.
8. Dynamic contact forms: such forms reflect users’ interests in real time and correspond with what they search for. Instead of displaying the same form to all users, add a pinch of personal attitude: refer to the products a visitor viewed or to the content she consumed.
Real-Time Marketing is above all a philosophy of communication: a willingness to respond as soon as possible to customer’s needs instead of forcing one campaign to every user. You reach out when you see that customers consider a purchase, not interrupt her with her message in a random situation.
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