How to Use Real-Time Marketing the Right Way

Your life as a marketer in today’s world is seriously overloaded. You are inundated with information and it is cluttering your space. Everything is about data, analytics, Smart AI transformation and all that stuff. Often, you become paranoid about collecting data and analytics and have a constant urge to engage in “real time”.

But, quite frankly, what are you doing about this data? Are you utilising it in a way that will get you the best possible results?

The difference between being exceptional and being good is very minimal and that thin line is what makes you stand out from the herd.

Let’s dive into real-time marketing and see how we can get the best out of this data and attract attention in a crowded market space:

What is Real Time Marketing? ?? 

Real time marketing (RTM) is the act of engaging with your customers instantly based on their behaviour or trending events and news.

When we talk about real time marketing the most famous company that comes to mind is Oreo. They killed it during the super bowl. That’s real-time marketing.

Feb 3rd, 2013 – There was an interruption during the Superbowl Finale and Oreo tweeted “Power out? No problem!” with the accompanying image saying, “You can still dunk in the dark”.

And guess what – they got 15,739 Retweets and 6,517 favourites… for zero cost by the way.

When used correctly, real-time marketing can drive your tons of engagement with little to no cost.

4 Steps to Using Real Time Marketing for Effective Engagement

#1. Set an objective

What are you trying to achieve?

Would you like to grow engagement? Build brand awareness? Drive sales?

It always helps if you can start with the end goal that you want to achieve.

Remember that whatever objective you focus on must align with your whole business strategy!

#2. Identify triggers

To be able to identify triggers, you need real-time data.

You can use Twitter Trends, the Facebook trending option and Google Trends to get to know the latest news and updates.

Then you can creatively involve your brand in the flow of that current trend.

Just like what Oreo did above.

The best free tool to access your real time data is Google Analytics.

Then you can create a marketing strategy with personalised customer journeys.

Examples:

Using websites’ google analytics real time user info to deliver a push notification to collect email and then send offers and to drive sign ups!

Using LinkedIn to collect phone numbers and build SMS lists to send exclusive offers and drive sign ups! 

#3. Identify your target audience

The next step is to identify your customer groups who are looking to be served with the right messages.

They might be someone who is searching for a specific keyword or waiting for a product to arrive at your store or people in a specific location.

Example:

Use Re-targeting campaigns from Facebook and Google to see what’s in your prospects’ mind and build brand awareness. 

#4. Decide on your vehicles

Then you can use social media vehicles like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to achieve the desired results.

It is important to take a serious look at these vehicles and figure out where you folks need to spend most of your time which in turn, depends on your customers. This varies from business to business.

Anyway, did you know that you can use SMS as your vehicle for the real time marketing game?

How to use SMS in your real time marketing strategy

So, you probably know that SMS is the most direct peer-to-peer vehicle that you can use for marketing and communications with your customers.

One great way to run real time marketing is to use SMS text messaging. SMS helps you to automate and skyrocket your real time engagement. It has been proven to work effectively when combined with a social media following.

For that, you should brand your SMS keyword/text number on your website and all your social media profiles so that your customers can cross-connect and engage.

One great way is to use your SMS Shortcode as a hashtag everywhere and start a giveaway contest around it. It is an incredibly effective way of combining SMS and Social networks to boost engagement.

In addition, you can use SMS to make timely offers to increase loyalty, to upsell and to retain customers.

How to play the real time marketing game the right way

Did you know that 89% of consumers will take their business elsewhere after one bad experience?

Delivering something that consumers want at the time they want it is what you must aim for to get the real time marketing right.

You could literally frustrate your prospects and customers if you bother them at the wrong time.

Wait, is that enough? Don’t jump into the opinion that if you get the timing right you’ll be fine! No, there’s more to it. . .

The latest changes in the marketing arena drive us to discover new trends.

And the trend is to realise and embrace the fact that real time marketing works best when it is combined with the right time marketing.

What is this right time marketing now? ??

Right time marketing includes very important factors in addition to real time marketing and those are ‘context’, ‘content’, and ‘channel’.

Context matters and that’s why, you, as a modern marketer, need to understand your data.

Data about your consumers’ behaviour, and wants, and needs, and preferences.

Your ‘content’ should be crisp and to the point.

Your ‘channel’ should be quick and direct and be able to accommodate your content and relate your context to drive engagement.

Oh yeah, an SMS’ channel suits these criteria exactly.

Alright, I know what you are thinking, you might be laughing at the idea of SMS marketing. You think it doesn’t work? You think it’s a myth.

SMS ensures that your message will be delivered to the right person, with the right content, using the right context and at the right time.

In fact, it is the most preferred direct communication channel available to you. Also, it is known to deliver unwavering open, read and response rates.

You can use SMS to send coupons, drive traffic, or engage people based on context.

Ideally, you should start with exciting offers to build your lists and generate leads quickly.

Then you can use the right combination of different aspects like timing, content, and context to make the most out of real time and right time marketing.

On a final note: A real time philosophy!

Imagine that what you want is like a beautiful butterfly in your hands. If you hold it tight it will be crushed or if you hold it lightly, it will simply fly away!

Your customer is the same!

The secret is to hold it gently.

You need to find out what makes your customer stay in your hands.

As discussed above, use behavioural statistics and real-time customer data to drive insights and execute a real time marketing strategy in the right way.

As they say, never put all your eggs in one basket – use multi-channel marketing to engage and retain your customers.

The options are limitless with SMS. It can do wonders for your marketing when combined with your social media strategy!

You just have to get creative and use a super-savvy SMS platform like SMSwarriors.

Hope this article adds value to you.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.