Marketing communication is a fundamental and complex part of a company's marketing efforts. New technologies provide endless opportunities in terms of personalising the messages and sharing them at the opportune time. One of the hottest trends in this regard is ‘real-time’ marketing. It not only helps to increase your sales but can also build a stronger, better brand.Reaching the right person, right place, right time…We are told time and time again that the maximum effectiveness in marketing communications can only be achieved when a personalised message gets to a potential customer at the right time and in the right place. This is the challenge that real-time marketing is set to address!To be successful, requires thorough knowledge about not only the needs and expectations of clients but harder still, their behaviour and emotions.Messages posted through this method must interact with the current trends and culture. Another key element here is the time of the publication. As experts emphasise, real-time marketing is the "supreme driving school" and requires not only skill, but also a general recognition of the prevailing moods and trends among your target group.You have to have the ability to act instantly and therefore a true understanding of your clients’ needs is essential.It’s all in the planning!Real-time marketing is not an ad hoc activity! In fact, quite the opposite- it is a well planned and thought out operation that goes in line with the brand’s philosophy, current trends and much more! A good and yummy example here would be the Oreo brand and how they became an icon for engaging masses with clever social content, keeping the over 100-year-old cookie as relevant as ever. Social listening revealed that people were remixing the classic ‘dunk’ in order to keep their fingers clean.This has lead to the invention of the “fork dunk,” which quickly became one of Oreo’s most popular posts. The brand spotted an opportunity to enter the conversation by combining the growing trend of hacking and foodie culture.This resulted in #SnackHacks for fans looking for unique ways to enjoy their favourite cookie, igniting a movement online and offline in popular culture. Since its launch, the SnackHack video series has generated more than 5 million views and was re-tweeted over 16,000 times in the first month of the campaign. They watched, listened and learnt.We are privileged!These days, people are basically telling brands exactly what they’re interested in and in many cases already generating the content for them. This means that brands have “always-on” focus groups to listen and learn from. We have more insights into who our customers are than ever before. And it’s up to us to decide what to do with this data and how to take full advantage of it.It has never been easier to interrupt and engage, listen, reply and share.Real-time marketing is here to stay so, take the opportunity to learn how to spark engaging conversations, which will lead to relationship building and deeper brand loyalty- the ultimate goal for any marketer.And don’t forget that we are here to help!Please get in touch:hello@umbrellamt.com01244 515569Image: The Content Marketing Association
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