Real-time marketing driving up conversion rates - study

Real-time marketing efforts are paying off, having induced a 26% rise in conversion rates, it’s been reported.

The Real-Time Marketing Report, which was put together by Monetate and Econsultancy, revealed that responsive, real-time marketing is well worth its salt, although many companies are still finding it a challenge to use it to their best advantage.

This may, in part, be due to its growing sophistication. The traditional concept of time is only a small part of what this marketing technique has become; the study found that it now encompasses weather, transactional, location, behavioural and device-type data.

The results of the survey, which involved 900 global marketers from both internal departments and external agencies, revealed the benefits of this marketing technique go beyond just conversion rates, too. Other reported advantages included: improved customer experience, found by 84% of companies and 82% of agencies; higher customer retention, experienced by 47% of companies and 46% of agencies; and healthier brand perception, which was recognised by 34% of companies and 29% of agencies. 

“Thanks to the mobile revolution, the amount of data now available to businesses has increased exponentially," said John Healy, chief operating officer at Monetate, "and what we have previously known as ‘real-time marketing’ is rapidly evolving beyond social to include the full range of channels available to digital marketers. Real-time marketing means not selling to customers, but serving customers – providing moments of convenience, surprise and delight that create a bond between a brand and a person, anytime, anywhere.”

However, some marketers are still struggling to generate the best possible results from real-time techniques – 67% of respondents put this down to lack of the right technology. David Brussin, CEO and co-founder of Monetate, stressed the importance of investing in the complete package. “Marketers – from the CMO to the brand manager, and everywhere in between - are trying to accomplish a transformation in 2014,” he said. “They need to constantly learn about their customers every week, day, and minute, and then instantly act on those learnings. None of this is possible without the tools that find and combine relevant data and then make it instantly actionable.”