How to Succeed in Real-Time Marketing

MESSAGING APPS ARE THE FUTURE

A fertile area for companies to invest in is one-to-one messaging. Platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat have seen phenomenal growth: As of January 2016, WhatsApp boasted 900 million monthly active users, Facebook Messenger had 800 million, and WeChat had 650 million. These numbers represent a largely untapped pool of consumers that companies can directly interact with in real time.

“The vast majority of marketing is still not real time in the sense that it’s planned and coordinated. [Real-time marketing] is still quite an early space, and there’s a lot that can be done,” March says. “One of the exciting things about the messaging space is that it is extremely personal and one-on-one, and that opens up a lot of opportunities to offer very real-time, very personal campaigns, whereas a broader advertising platform isn’t feeling quite so personal and responsive.”

However, using messaging platforms to interact directly with customers is not without its challenges. On Facebook Messenger, for example, organizations cannot send promotions to customers they haven’t already interacted with on Messenger. A large part of engaging consumers on messaging platforms is going to be about building up trust, and getting the conversation started may prove to be the most difficult part.

Nevertheless, businesses have a few ways to effectively move communications to messaging platforms. March notes that Facebook recently released functionality that enables companies to instantly send transaction receipts to customers via Facebook Messenger instead of email. And companies can encourage consumers to begin the conversation on messaging platforms by installing message app buttons on their Web sites, for various services such as general questions, inquiries about promotions and offers, and requests for customer service.

“There are now lots of ways that [businesses] can start encouraging the use of the messaging channel through the engagement channel, allowing direct communication before they can be used as real-time marketing channels,” March says. “Once you have that conversation with a customer, then you can use that for real-time promotions and more marketing-focused campaigns.” He adds that this approach is an effective way to build up trust between brands and consumers—once a messaging channel has been opened, companies can utilize it to deliver personalized content to customers.

Using messaging platforms to facilitate one-on-one interactions with customers is still a relatively new practice. One company that has taken the initiative is Everlane, an online clothing retailer with no brick-and-mortar stores. Everlane teamed up with Facebook to test out customer service on Facebook Messenger. Customers receive order confirmations through Messenger instead of email and can then inquire about or modify their orders by interacting with the brand directly through Messenger. Facebook is promoting this platform as Businesses on Messenger, and it isn’t inconceivable that customers will soon be able to purchase products by chatting one-on-one with companies.

“I’m super-excited by the potential for messaging platforms to usher in a new age of very personal, very in-the-moment, real-time engagement between consumers and brands,” March says. “I think we’re going to see a lot more integration between the customer service and engagement piece on the one hand, and the very personal, real-time promotions and offers on the other hand,” he adds.

BRINGING IT TOGETHER

Social media, mobile devices, and messaging apps account for a lot of customer interactions, but the reality is that real-time marketing can also extend to a company’s Web site and email interactions. To be effective, organizations must look at all digital channels when it comes to real-time marketing.

“It is really phenomenal when you start personalizing the experience in real time, the type of engagement that we see,” York says. She notes a 10 percent lift in conversions on the Web when clients of Salesforce Marketing Cloud implement predictive, real-time product recommendations that personalize the Web experience, and a 25 percent lift in conversions from email when that same predictive content is incorporated into emails.

“It’s definitely the age of the customer where the power is in their hands, and customers are responding really well when brands are really focused on the customer experience and really show that they are making the effort to know that customer and to know what they’re looking for and what they want,” she adds.

Going forward, companies need to focus on quality over quantity. “[In order for real-time marketing to be successful, there] has to be less frequent advertising, [it has to be] much more targeted, [it has to be] much more valuable for the consumer, and it’s really important that the platforms maintain that integrity and brands maintain that integrity,” March says. “If they do, this can be super-valuable and consumers will benefit from it. But if they don’t, and it just becomes another channel to ignore, it’s going to lose all of its potential.”

Assistant Editor Sam Del Rowe can be reached at sdelrowe@infotoday.com.

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