Real-time marketing – the moment of truth

With new technologies being introduced, and the introduction of AI and predictive technologies surfacing, real-time marketing is becoming increasingly important for businesses to assess their real-time customer engagement strategies.

The importance of brand experience

Leading companies who have real-time marketing have made transactions between customers and businesses seamless and continue to raise the bar within their own brand experience. This has left many companies and organisations behind as they struggle to keep up with the demand of digital transformation and change.

The moment of truth

It is important to note that any interactions between your customers and your company should be identified as moments of truth for your brand. Evidence suggests that there is a direct correlation between customer experience/engagement and the financial success of a company and is an area that should not be overlooked. A high-quality customer experience consists of high-quality interactions and begins the moment your customer becomes aware of your company.

In order to measure customer experience, brands need to focus on two key areas. One, identify each touch point throughout your business and how your audience engages with each step. Two, determine the overall customer satisfaction through transactional and image-based satisfaction.

Transaction satisfaction conducts a survey measuring support calls, sales calls, and emails. Image-based satisfaction measures the image your customers have of your product or service. By doing this, brands will have greater visibility in understanding how customers feel and interact with their product/service and how they can improve.

The role of Real-Time Marketing

Real-time marketing and AI for marketing will bring more controlled targeting for marketers to help them engage with key audiences more effectively. Although these technologies are still in its early days, it is predicted they will take up to 10 years to mature. Meaning brands and businesses will need to trial and experiment with their campaigns in order to engage with customers and prospects effectively. Currently, there are a number of organisations who are finding success in adopting these technologies to improve customer engagement and drive a strong ROI as seen below.

An Australian success story

Companies like AIA (Australian Life Insurance) are using marketing automation to improve their customer engagement. In 2014, AIA launched a new program that rewarded customer healthy lifestyles. In 2016, the team began using marketing automation technology to improve their marketing efforts to increase customer sign on and retention. The main objective, however, was they needed to communicate with customers in a more personalised and authentic way.

After initially opting for a broad EDM and newsletter strategy, the team gradually expanded their targeting across a range of other channels focusing on mobile experiences including SMS, push notifications and in-app messaging.

Over the course of two years, the company went from six automated campaigns to 61 micro-targeted initiatives. This resulted in a 40% increase within their core engagement metrics and increased newly acquired members by 10%. AIA provides a great example of how brands are utilising marketing technology to engage with audiences more effectively.