Real-time marketing is marketing which is performed "on-the-fly" to determine the best way to approach a particular customer at a particular time and place. For example, when there is a popular trend on social media or a large-scale event happening around the world and a brand joins the conversation and pushes it forward that is known as real-time marketing.

The earliest example of real-time mass marketing is of legendary Indian dairy brand Amul. The brands topical advertising is an amazing example of real-time take on trending current news/topics. The witty copy of its hoardings, billboards, print ads have always impressed its readers/viewers.

A lot of factors are involved in running a successful real time marketing campaign, including compelling content, understanding your intended audience, connecting with your audience at the right time at the right real-time events, among others. The challenge is in getting the mix just right.

For example, a global hospitality chain is using real-time marketing to enhance loyalty and increase the amount of money spent during each hotel visit. Another, financial institution is using event-triggered transactional and real-time communications to increase product penetration and turn customer behaviors into profitable product investments. And these are just two real-world examples of the impact of real-time marketing.

Research shows that it works better on social media since it allows you to get your message across to your intended audience quicker than on any other medium. So, the real question is, 'How to enhance our real-time marketing efforts on social media?'

Well, here are some tips to help brands to enhance their real-time marketing strategies:

Build an active follower base

One of the most important things that you need to account for in your real-time social media strategy is an active follower base, which engages with your brand on a regular basis. Without an engaging follower base, all your marketing efforts will be in vain because nobody will know about them.

Keep your customers engaged

Today, customers have taken point on the communication & relationship with your brands as they interact with traditional, digital, emerging social and mobile channels. In such cases, an omni-channel, real-time marketing strategy that leverages customer-initiated interactions in inbound channels - call center, website, kiosk, point-of-sale, or ATM – will enable you to market your brand more effectively.

Personalise your messaging

Brands can no longer expect great results from generic marketing messages or push offers based on historical data. Customers today have higher expectations from brands, they expect you to know them, to take into consideration the context of their current interaction, and to deliver personal, relevant messages.

Use real-time decision making technology

With the interactions becoming more digital, brands now have more data that drives the need for sophisticated real-time decisioning technology. Brands can use these self-learning systems to establish which offer each customer is most likely to respond to, based on their customer profile and their current behavior.

Don’t panic if you're not first

Brands don't need to focus all their time, effort and resources on prepping to always be the first to respond to a trending topic. There is no need to worry you are not the first tweet or the first post on social media, as being first doesn't guarantee that you'll be the winner.

All that matters is that you hold on to your real-time conversation with your audience and jump in on trending topics throughout the year.

One size doesn't fit all

There are no guarantees for success in real time marketing. Brands don't tend to always get social media marketing right. The reason being that real time marketing gives you less time to decide what to put up on social media and this leads to rushing and sometimes slip ups. Hence, it always pays to be cautious.

Our Take:

Despite its challenging nature, real-time marketing has the potential to be a powerful tool in the marketing arsenal of brands & businesses alike.

Real-time marketing is an investment which is made to convert fleeting opportunities into profitable customer interactions. It will help not only in increasing the bottom-line revenue but also in building strong customer relationships.