Real-Time Marketing vs. Right Time Marketing
We live in an age when we are constantly connected to the consumer, and more importantly, the consumer has the ability to constantly connect with us. Consumers are engaging through mobile, digital and social channels that are always on and available. This does not necessarily mean that a real-time mode of contact is always the most effective strategy for your brand. Marketers must shift their focus to engagement at the right time, when consumers are most likely to react.
Although the two may sound similar, real-time marketing and right time marketing can lead to extremely different results, and understanding the difference is often what a successful campaign turns on.
Real-time marketing is driven by the element of time. The issue with this is that it can lead to poor customer experience because not every situation calls for an instant marketing message or offer. We are in the age when consumers are in control. An example of real-time marketing is generating a response to a website click or following an abandoned cart with an email or text message sent to a customer in that moment. Where real-time marketing fails is if the marketer lacks key ingredients for success: behavioral data, predictive analytics, a single view of a customer, data for personalization, and integrated systems that allow for cross-channel remarketing. Targeting a customer at the wrong time is even worse than not targeting a customer at all, since it's losing you advertising funds that could be better spent elsewhere.
Right time marketing is driven by context and interaction. It uses data to identify the right time and right channel to craft an effective message for the consumer. Right time marketing means understanding and acting on customer preferences and behaviors while engaged with customers, rather than after they leave. Using the predictive analytics and real-time business intelligence to know who your customers are, exactly where they are located, which purchases they may or may not be considering, and what they may or may not do next. Although information can be processed in real time, the choice of when to respond is more refined. It’s about understanding which missing piece of information will increase the relevance of the engagement.
Use a targeted approach to schedule and adjust advertising
Understanding the behavior, needs, and preferences of the user should come into play when determining when and where to present your consumer with information.
The goal is to reach the right consumer through the right channel, at the moment they are most likely to be influenced by the content.
Targeting the message to the correct audience and scheduling that message at the perfect time for that audience is essential for ROI.
In order for this to happen, you truly need to understand your customer and their industry. How a New Orleans tourist chooses the bar to go to on a Friday night is extremely different than a C-level executive picking their new CRM. But no matter if the decision process is 2 minutes or 2 months, there's a schedule that you can follow to be more effective. At its most basic, the funnels will follow that classic lesson from Marketing 101:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Conversion
- Loyalty
- Advocacy
Whatever the decision, your data should be assisting people as they move from step one to five.
Bring in digital data to adjust your marketing around external info
ow can you use data to move people through this funnel? One oft-spoken of example is businesses adjusting their search advertising bids depending on the weather. If you have an indoor attraction on a rainy day, adjusting the marketing strategy at the right time will pay off. In this case, the customer may not have previously decided to interact with your brand, but because of the ability to adjust your marketing around external information, you’ve reached the person who needs your service, at the time they need it. Having the right answer to a question when the user has one also strengthens customer loyalty.
Use remarketing to continually target users in the purchase funnel
Remarketing at the right time can lead to improved customer retention. The goal here is to suggest something before the consumer realizes they need it, and then re-engage prospects. Remarketing tactics can be effective, but it’s still important that marketers create thoughtful, relevant, and timely content—or risk providing users with negative experiences that result in opt-outs.
Make sure to cover all strategies
Some audiences are better served through more traditional mediums like print media. Getting your business in newspapers or magazines that are being read by the right audience can be as effective as digital marketing. Covering all strategies, or at least being open to them increases the opportunity for engagement with your audience. Marketers who cover all strategies ensure that the right user is getting the best content for them at the exact time that they need it.
Measuring for Success
As with any marketing campaign, it's essential for you to be ready to track your results before the campaign begins.
Acting right away isn’t always the most effective way to reach the user. The key with right time marketing is patience and attention to detail. Understanding the consumer's next move comes from a long-term relationship, and a breadth of information surrounding demographics, behavior, and specialty data. Put all that together with an expert digital agency, and you'll have your successful marketing campaign.