The best marketing doesn’t take a break. It’s always on and always ready to inform and inspire the customer. But how can small to mid sized companies offer this kind of experience?
Once upon a time, this was achieved through the four Ps of marketing. Price, product, place and promotion. And then the internet came along and disrupted everything. Digital marketing brought us a new opportunity and challenge: data.
Big data forced marketers to re-think the way they approach their customers. We then had to think about the 4 Vs of big data: volume, variety, velocity and veracity. And this was wonderful, because it gave us a clearer picture of what our customers were doing and where.
Big data gave way to something known as real-time marketing. New avenues like social media gave us direct access to customers in an informal setting. Marketers could listen and respond to conversations in real-time.
By utilising big data, marketers can tailor their message and identify new purchase signals. By blending real-time marketing with hyper-personalisation, we land on something far more granular. Right time marketing.
What is right time marketing?
Right time is all about taking the big data analytics available to you and using this information to target the right person, at the right time, on the right channel with the right message. These are the four Rs of right time marketing.
How do we know when the time, person, channel and message is right? Well, you should already have this information, you just need to learn how to read it.
The right person
Not everyone who lands on your website is ready to convert, and that’s okay. But by learning what purchase signals to look out for, you can be ready to help the right people exactly when they need it.
The right channel
Purchase decisions don’t take place on a single channel. Customers might jump between different devices so it’s important to provide a seamless experience across different channels.
The right time
Marketing messages are everywhere, all the time. Customers are becoming increasingly immune to marketing chatter. This is why cutting through the noise and reaching them at the right time is so important.
The right message
A key part of right time marketing is knowing what is holding the customer back. What is preventing them from converting? When you know the answer to this, you can send them the right message which should remove the final obstacle to conversion.
Right time marketing represents a powerful shift in the way marketers see customers. Customers are no longer an abstract concept or unquantifiable mass. They are individuals with unique needs which need to be addressed. In many ways, right time marketing is an extension of hyper-personalisation.
Problems with right time marketing
The issues with right time marketing will nearly always come back to the collection and use of data. Big data has taken a beating in the media, but increased awareness isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If anything, it has forced consumers to be more vigilant while companies are forced to be more honest about how and why they are using it.
Data analytics will bring the next wave of innovation to digital marketing. Is your marketing strategy ready to keep up? If you need help defining your digital marketing strategy in the modern age, get in touch with Auburn to discover how we can help your company to innovate and outpace the competition.