Businesses engaging in real-time marketing are reaping the rewards of this approach on several fronts. In a recent report from the social media and intelligence software company Wayin, not only does real time marketing generate tangible results in terms of customer engagement, more than three-quarters of respondents reported revenue ROI of at least 25 percent or more.

The study, “Making Real-Time Moments Matter,” queried 200 marketing professionals on their marketing efforts, opinions, and results from these efforts. While the study acknowledges that the concept of real-time market is somewhat fluid, it does adhere to the general definition of a marketing strategy centered on in-the-moment response to events, and executed in response to current trends and immediate feedback from consumers (rather than traditional marketing plan that is created and executed according to a set schedule).

The strategies used by marketers comprise a mixed bag of tactics. In order of importance and relevance, they are:

  • Marketing automation (triggered emails, for example), 62 percent;
  • Responding to events, news, and timely trends on social media, and engaging on social media with consumers, 58 percent;
  • Generating personalized digital content in response to engagement, 57 percent; and
  • Creation of timely content, 54 percent.

More than half (52 percent) identified social media monitoring tools as the most important element for a real-time social media strategy, followed closely by social media analytics at 50 percent.

Regarding ROI, more than 95 percent reported some increase in revenue, with 43 percent seeing returns of at least 25 to 50 percent. Another quarter said they have seen investment returns of 50 to 75 percent, and 11 percent indicated an ROI ranging from 76 to over 100 percent.

In response to these results, two-thirds of those in the survey said they would be increasing their social media budgets over the next year, and almost 60 percent said their real-time marketing budgets will increase. Currently, 58 percent dedicate at least 40 percent of their budgets to these channels.

The report also reveals that 56 percent cite forming customer relationships as the primary reason for employing real-time marketing, with event promotion being referenced by 55 percent, and complementing existing content by just over half (51 percent) of those participating.

Quick response time was identified as the key element in effective real-time marketing as 49 percent believe that it must happen in minutes, with a quarter believing it was seconds that counted. However, despite this acknowledgement, only 4 percent said they could respond that quickly. Almost 50 percent said their actual response times fell anywhere between fifteen minutes to an hour.

References:

eMarketer. “As Real-Time Marketing ROI Increases, Spending Follows”; June 18, 2015.

Wayin. “Making Real-Time Moments Matter”; March 2015.