Our Blog is dedicated to spurring conversations about our industry. Every week our Brand Architects will share their views on an array of marketing topics. We’re glad you’re here, and hope you’ll keep coming back.
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In recent years the marketing industry has witnessed a significant shift towards real-time marketing, and rightly so. Timely, relevant communications improve customer engagement, loyalty and sales. However, while many marketers today are utilizing some real-time marketing strategies, such as social media, mobile applications or call center applications, very few have fully integrated real-time into all of their marketing activities.
We don’t believe this is because marketers don’t see the benefit. Rather, significant organizational and technology needs are required to support and successfully execute omnichannel, real-time marketing.
For starters, functions need to be realigned and the organization should move towards a more cross-functional, collaborative model built around the consumer. This, in turn, will call for changes to creative processes, customer strategies and key performance indicators.
In addition to organizational structure, real-time marketing requires a customer engagement marketing platform that helps marketers match up-to-the-minute consumer insights with where consumers are in the purchase lifecycle.
The transition to real-time marketing takes time and should be tackled step-by-step. We’ve created a real-time marketing cheat sheet that breaks down this process into five critical categories and includes key considerations for each. These considerations should be used to create the foundation of your real-time strategy and should be revisited in every phase to ensure all real-time programs and initiatives are aligned and focused on serving the overall strategy. 
Click image to view full size.
The cheat sheet helps organize real-time prerequisites to provide a starting point for marketers. Key performance indicators (KPIs) and customer strategy are important to establish up front as they help frame the requirements for creative, operational monitoring, and technology. Each category is accompanied by tips and questions to consider.
What type of real-time marketing has your brand incorporated? What real-time challenges do you face? Tell us in the comments.
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