Real-time marketing 101

Real-time marketing adds relevancy to messages. Real-time marketing is often performed "on-the-fly," as it responds to events or trends as they unfold. For a brand to adopt real-time marketing, ultra-responsive communications need to be practiced and the right tools need to be instituted. For many content websites, breaking news is critical for business. Having writers with topical understand on hand and the publishing vehicle in place makes all the difference in the world.

Solving real-time marketing challenges

1. Targeting. Not all real-time stories are relevant to all users. Understanding who to target can be crucial and prevent dilution of messages and waste of resources. Hyper fragmentation of media doesn't help brands, but fragmentation provides amazing pockets of concentrated attention if you know where to look.
2. Trends. Marketers that have the ability to quickly identify trends, events and stories as they evolve will have an edge. Relevancy is coupled with agility in real-time marketing.
3. Measurement. Traditional marketing analytics does not help with real-time marketing. Real-time marketing requires an understanding of the present moment, fast moving data and often two-way dialogue.

Setting up a real-time marketing process

1. Get your team and process in place. Preparation is key. Your team must be familiar with the measurement and publishing tools in place and be comfortable as online community citizens.
2. Spend time in the right communities. Your team needs to already participate in those online communities as members--not outsiders posting one-way messages.
3. Work fast but with relevancy. This can be challenging for many brands. Your team will need to be able to work fast, but still possess a high degree of relevancy with content and messaging. Hence the importance of "living" within the right online communities.
4. On-going measurement and monitoring. Trends emerge quickly and news happens all the time. Early identification gives your teams more time to create and respond. The later you are, the harder it can be to respond and gain visibility.
5. Social media marketing plays a large role today in real-time marketing. Social media is typically the fastest channel for a marketer, but website updates, blog content with search pinging, PPC and social advertising also play a role in real-time marketing.