The term real-time marketing is mainly used to describe the concept where the brand actively tracks social media and the entire network for the possibility of interacting with the audience by talking about current events and popular topics. Brands that have already decided to implement RTM practices refer to this concept as a true performance lever, thanks to which they generate better sales results and increase their publicity. Before we look at the concept from the practical side, let’s take a look at the definition of real-time marketing.

Real-time marketing – what is it?

RTM is a strategy that uses real-time data, on the basis of which marketers create content for the benefit of a given brand. Rather than creating an advance marketing plan and executing it on a schedule, real-time marketing creates a strategy focused on relevant, relevant trends and immediate customer feedback. The use of such a method in communication allows:
– arouse the interest of Internet users,
– gain publicity,
– increase the dissemination of published content,
– establish direct communication with current and potential customers,
– get greater audience engagement.

The essence of real-time marketing is not to create content that will suit the nature of your business, quite the opposite. This strategy relies on the company’s ability to use new and popular non-industry news for its own benefit.

Real-time marketing – How does it work in practice?

RTM can be compared to marketing that takes place every day in physical stores. When you step over the threshold, the seller greets you and tries to understand your needs, then offers you the item that best meets them. The household appliances stores operate in a similar way, offering TV sets at promotional prices during the FIFA World Cup.

In the first case, the seller tries to understand your needs in order to present you a product that will satisfy you immediately and encourage you to buy. In the second, the store uses a very popular event to awaken in you the desire to buy a TV that will make sports emotions unforgettable. Each time the store directly adjusts the current promotions, advertising or the way of communication to real time in order to finalize the sale. Moreover, this strategy tends to build consumer loyalty, because if the seller offers a product that is perfectly suited to his needs, the customer will be satisfied and come back to him. Real-time Marketing works just like that, only on the Internet, where the customer is not physically standing in front of the seller.

How to prepare for real-time marketing?

Implementing real-time marketing doesn’t mean managers have to spend their entire lives staring at phones 24/7 and alerting you every time something happens. RTM requires a much greater degree of organization and appropriate preparation. New processes and work approaches should be designed, tested and implemented. It is not an easy matter. A brand should be ready to implement methods that will allow it to respond to a global trend or the needs expressed by a local customer in just a few minutes.

Before applying real-time marketing, it is also essential to thoroughly study online customer profiles and shopping paths. Companies must follow consumer habits as well as know their sociodemographic, behavioral and geolocation data. Only after arming yourself with such key information, you can start developing an effective RTM strategy.

Planning of RTM

The real-time marketing strategy is based on news. It is therefore important to be up to date with the latest news, information or trends. First of all, it is worth establishing a yearly publication schedule, taking into account holidays or other celebrations. This can be extremely helpful. Of course, it is impossible to predict in advance what will happen throughout the year, so the RTM campaign plan should be as flexible as possible.

If your company decides to implement real-time marketing, it is important to regularly research the most popular hashtags or topics covered on the Internet. In addition, you also need to be prepared to engage with audiences who are likely to react to your content. When sharing an article on a topic, you need to be ready for questions from consumers about the material you have published. Only a quick answer will allow you to build trust between the brand and its recipients and will use the potential of RTM.

Time is money, i.e. the faster you react, the more you gain

RTM requires you to distribute your content at the perfect time. Publishing too late exposes you to the fact that no one will pay attention to your post or article anymore. Real-time marketing needs to be immediate in order to impress audiences by causing laughter, comments, reactions, and responses, both pleasant and less affectionate. However, it’s worth remembering that publishing too early can cause yours to be forgotten before they gain visibility. Knowing when to publish will come with practice.

Advantages of real-time marketing

Real-time marketing is a powerful lever for sales and publicity. Consumers love to be close to events and information, and in particular to express their opinion on them. Therefore, a company that starts the RTM game and gives its audience something to comment, think about, or a reason to smile has a chance to:
– build a closer relationship with consumers, overcome barriers through brand humanization,
– gather a committed community around the brand,
– generate interactions, arouse curiosity in recipients,
– increase competitiveness, demonstrate expert knowledge and become a key player in the industry.

According to a survey by Paraphrase-Online.com, brands using real-time marketing can increase their conversion rates by 26%.

Can RTM be harmful?

Each strategy has its advantages and disadvantages. RTM can also do harm if the brand only uses this strategy. When reacting to current events, there is no room for planning, which may reduce the quality of the content. Moreover, in the case of RTM, it is difficult to predict the reaction of Internet users. The published content may be received very well or the opposite. This may be due to too hasty publication, or simply the content will not appeal to the audience. That is why it is so important not to rely only on RTM and, above all, to create content that will be valuable to the recipients.

Good examples of real-time marketing

Some brands quickly realized the importance of creating ads that reach their audience and get immediate responses. Let’s take a look at the most interesting examples of real-time marketing:

OREO REAL-TIME MARKETING – SUPER BOWL
Oreo is a great example of successful real-time marketing. In 2013, the brand made a hype on Twitter, addressing Super Bowl XL VII viewers who had been plunged into the darkness for 34 minutes. The message “You don’t need light to bite your cookies” has sparked the enthusiasm of millions of football fans, both inside and outside the stadium.

STAR WARS REAL-TIME MARKETING
Loyal Star Wars fans who purchase tickets and plan their costumes months before launch inspired marketers around the world to harness their creative potential and surprise audiences with stunning marketing gimmicks. The popularity of Star Wars was perfectly used by the Japanese airline ANA, which prepared for the premiere, equipping the crew with quite unusual outfits and accessories:

Duracell also capitalized on the popularity of Star Wars by creating a Duracell Star Wars ad, then stoking the emotions of audiences with the announcement “the most powerful alkaline battery in the universe”.

REAL-TIME MARKETING: BANKSY
The loud event, which was the deliberate destruction of the painting “The Girl with a Balloon” just seconds after the work was auctioned in London, was also not overlooked by the masters of real-time marketing. It didn’t take long for the brands to react.

RTM rebounded with hiccups

Sometimes an idea presented in a conference room may sound great, but when the moment of implementation comes, it turns out that even if carefully thought out, it turns out to be a failure. One of the most devastating failures is Pepsi, which in 2017 wanted to advertise to make their product a symbol of cultural unification. The idea was not bad, but the film in which Kendall Jenner by handing a policeman a can of soda tries to resolve the stalemate between the protesters and the police in the Black Lives Matter turned out to be a scandal. The spot was ridiculed on social media, parody on SNL and quickly removed.

Another RTM mistake on social media concerns the Cinnabon brand, known for its confectionery products. After the death of the late Carrie Fisher, Cinnabon decided to pay tribute to the actress on Twitter by posting an artwork of a Star Wars character made of famous cinnamon rolls. The tweet received a lot of negative responses and was labeled “tacky” or “shameless self-promotion.”

Can RTM help with SEO?

A conscious RTM strategy in social media can support SEO by generating organic search results. By tracking popular topics that are relevant to your brand communication and publishing content that relate to them, you can effectively drive traffic to your site. Real-time marketing allows you to build a closer relationship with users, and thanks to a bit of creativity and humor, it will warm up the brand image. In addition, RTM allows you to create content that is eagerly shared by Internet users, and this will not be indifferent to search engines. As a result, real-time marketing allows you to expand the reach and gather new recipients.

There is no doubt, however, that creating a good RTM combined with content marketing requires in-depth analysis and knowledge of the target group. There is no single recipe for successful real-time marketing. Successful brands are those that make the most of their consumer knowledge and multi-channel marketing strategies combined with constant observation of what is happening on the internet. It’s worth experimenting and drawing conclusions to be successful and build effective real-time marketing.

The perfect online world

In an ideal world, we would always know where our potential client is currently. This knowledge would allow us to reach him with a message that step by step would build confidence in our brand and product, and then subtly lead to conversion.

All of our marketing, sales and after-sales activities would be easily tracked and improved, creating perfect customer service.

In an ideal world, we would only use one channel to interact with the client. Unfortunately, ideal situations rarely apply to companies.

To keep your sales at the highest level, you need to go with the times, constantly develop your marketing skills and supplement your knowledge with the latest solutions. Because if you still sell only in one channel, you lose a large portion of the target audience that your competition is successfully taking over. In fact, focusing on one channel can even degrade customer service and prevent you from successfully acquiring new ones. Why? About this in a moment. Let’s explain why multi-channel marketing is so important in the 21st century.

Multi-channel marketing – why is it so important?

Today’s consumer uses 2.8 channels on average before deciding to buy a given product or service.

Over the past decade, customer service and how to acquire it have changed significantly. Observing today’s technological progress, it is difficult to imagine that brands not so long ago used only three marketing channels. These were: telephone, post office and stationary store.

Since the internet appeared, companies have expanded and some have even completely transferred their activities to the online world. Websites, applications, e-mails and marketing campaigns have created virtually unlimited possibilities of communication with potential clients. However, along with the development of new technologies, competition has also increased.

To get a customer, we must be where he is currently with what he currently needs. And if we want to engage and maintain it, the above alone will not be enough.

So we already know that a modern consumer, before making a purchase, passes through 2.8 channels on average, integrating with a given brand. It is also obvious that during the day it uses many different devices.

The digital consumer seems wise today and is prudent in their purchasing decisions. We use opinions on Facebook, in Google My Business, and view applications of a given brand. He created a world between many channels in which he controls the vast majority of the sales process.

So if you want to win this smart game you must be one step ahead of it. The way to do this, of course, is a well-thought-out marketing strategy – necessarily multi-channel.

How to engage a potential customer?

In order to successfully engage a potential customer, we should communicate with him using several channels at the same time. According to this assumption, three different strategies have evolved: cross channel marketing, omnichannel marketing and multi channel marketing.

Many have trouble distinguishing them. No wonder, because they differ slightly. However, to make good use of their potential, you should know the subtle differences between them.

Multi-channel marketing

Multi-channel marketing was available first and continues to function today. It allows the customer to interact with the brand through multiple channels. It can be a telephone, computer, stationary store. Customers have already learned that they can access brands 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on various platforms. So it is an absolute must have for an online entrepreneur if he does not want to “go out of circulation”.

Cross-channel marketing

Cross channel marketing is very similar to its predecessor. The difference between them, however, is that in the latter, different brand communication channels with the client are connected with each other. In practice, this means that they register and pass on information about the customer, which greatly facilitates the purchase and, as a result, shortens the customer’s shopping path. In particular, women know perfectly well how wonderful it is to get a 20% discount on buying shoes of your favorite brand and be able to use it both online and offline – in a stationary store, via a desktop computer or cell phone.

An example of the use of cross-channel marketing by brands is, for example, an e-mail survey after shopping in a store asking for shopping experience.

In practice, it may look like this:

When you finish shopping in an online store, you will see a pop-up asking you to complete a short survey. The survey contains 5 questions about your shopping experience. You complete it, which in turn entitles you to a 20% discount on re-purchases. You can redeem the discount both online and offline (in any stationary store of the same brand).

Each store representative will be able to scan the coupon, but the customer will also be able to enter the coupon code also at the online cash register and receive the same coupon in this channel.

In this example, the channels will communicate with each other by first creating an online survey based on personal experience and then checking the validity of the coupon.

Once the coupon is used online, it can no longer be used in the store and vice versa.

Omni-channel marketing

Omni-channel marketing is the most advanced type of multi-channel marketing. It uses channels that work together seamlessly, providing clients with comprehensive service at the highest level.

The goal of this type of marketing is to “break the barrier” between the online and offline world.

A good example of using omnichannel marketing is the use of applications that help potential customers make a purchasing decision.

The Shiseido brand allows, for example, the use of “Shiseido Makeup Mirror”. The consumer’s face is placed in a virtual mirror, and he has the opportunity to see how it looks in a given make-up. For women, this is a great help. Each of us will certainly admit that there is nothing worse than an incorrectly chosen foundation or blush that does not harmonize perfectly with our skin tone.

The application also allows you to take a photo to allow you to quietly make a purchasing decision from the comfort of your home. For people who do not like to make purchasing decisions spontaneously, it is extremely helpful. Otherwise, they might never have decided to buy.

Professionals in the field of sales psychology say that the process of making a purchasing decision begins long before the purchase and has its consequences long after. This brand is aware of this and, what’s more, it perfectly uses this knowledge.

Shiseido allows consumers to virtually “try on makeup” to help them make the best buying decision. This method also increases your chances of getting better opinions about your products. So you admit that it’s a well-planned marketing strategy.

Summary

Cross-channel marketing involves combining different marketing channels in a way that creates a logical transition for the target audience from one stage to another. Different channels work together to ensure consistent communication with the consumer.

However, it is important not to confuse it with omnichannel marketing, which also uses several marketing channels to interact with the client, but this does not necessarily mean consistency between them.

In cross channel marketing, you can send your customers an email about the promotion of their favorite product, display targeted ads on social media to improve brand recognition, and publish blog posts on topics related to key phrases. All this together is an effective method of building trust and leads to maximizing conversions.

Let’s say you run a company that sells hair thickening shampoo. The shampoo is patented and very effective. Therefore, your target group will be people with the problem of hair loss.

A potential customer will read the blog post you wrote about the causes of hair loss. The email he then receives will provide testimonials from someone who has overcome the same problem with your product. When your dream client looks into social media the same evening, he sees an ad with a catchy headline about how your products or services completely remove the problem he was reading about.

Such marketing activities give consumers a clear sense of consistency with the brand, while also building trust in it. Their shopping path becomes as smooth and direct as possible. Because there is a clear link between each part of your marketing experience, it’s easier to verify and optimize your marketing efforts, which can help you achieve the right ROI from your campaign.

In omnichannel marketing, individual channels are treated as independent entities. As a result, your marketing activities remain essentially independent, making it difficult to link a specific effort to achieving a high ROI.

Marketing has evolved considerably over the years and created new opportunities. However, in order to meet market expectations, you need to be an diligent student and constantly supplement your knowledge with new directions in the field of digital marketing.

Regardless of whether you use multichannel marketing, cross channel marketing or omnichannel marketing, the most important thing is that you put the quality of customer service first. Making the purchase process as easy and intuitive as possible is the key to catapulting your marketing to become the leader of the 21st century.