How practical is real-time marketing?

‘Real-time’ marketing, enabled by digital and social channels, promises to create dynamic new customer engagement opportunities for B2B brands – but how practical is it? This topic was explored in a recent roundtable, in association with OgilvyOne dnx

The notion of ‘always-on’ marketing is now firmly established within B2B, with buyers expecting information at their fingertips at a time to suit them, rather than having to wait for seasonal communications from vendors. But are we on the cusp of another dramatic shift in the timeframes within which marketing operates: from always-on, to ‘real-time’?

Real-time marketing requires brands to respond reactively to events in the wider economic or business agenda, leveraging opportunities from emerging situations, and in the ultimate iteration, developing a newsroom culture and marketing operations setup. That’s the theory, anyway; but what’s the reality for B2B brands?

What are the challenges and issues that B2B organisations face when seeking to migrate to real-time marketing? Is it even a destination that they aspire to, or believe is realistic? What skills, technologies, processes and techniques are required to make real-time marketing work? These were the questions, among others, that we sought to answer at this roundtable discussion, held at the Hospital Club in London’s Covent Garden, and run in association with OgilvyOne dnx.

Below is a summary of some of the core thoughts and conclusions of attendees.

Attendees
Participants at this roundtable were:

• Thomas Bale, head of marketing, IIP

• Corinne Doherty, head of digital and social media marketing, IBM

• Katrina Lowes, head of marketing, Vodafone Global Enterprise

• Drew Nicholson, CEO, OgilvyOne dnx

• Damion Mower, global marketing director, Regus

• James Myers, head of strategic services, OgilvyOne dnx

• Jasmin Rai, account manager, Verticurl

• Kylie Webb, marketing director, Deltek

The discussion was moderated by Joel Harrison, editor-in-chief at B2B Marketing. The roundtable is the second in a series, organised in association with OgilvyOne dnx. 

1. It’s more important to be timely than real-time

Customers don’t necessarily care if a brand is reacting and responding to events in a ‘live’ environment or not, but they do care if they can’t get access to the information about products or services at a time to suit them – in other words, immediately. Ultimately ‘real-time’ marketing is less important, at least presently, than providing perennial and always available content that helps buyers make a decision.

2. Real-time relevance is circumstantial

Individuals who are having a bad time in the airport lounge would expect an immediate response to a complaint. A corporate B2B buyer looking for information on a project or service may be prepared to wait a day or so. An SME buying a photocopier would be less patient. The challenge for B2B marketers is that expectations are increasingly driven by B2C brands. So real-time doesn’t mean immediately – at least not yet.

3. Rebalancing supply and demand

Content marketing has to shift from focusing on what organisations want to talk about (supply) to what customers actually want to know about (demand). The number one objective is for brands to be ‘interesting’, to allow them to cut through the increasing content news, and be compelling. In terms of thought leadership, marketers have to switch from being traffickers of content to originators of content. This is a seismic shift in attitudes and approaches.

4. ‘Test and learn’ with social

The transparency and trackablity of social media allows marketers to experiment with content topics and themes as never before, and vastly improve insights into what their audience is interested in. This responsive stance to the audience can be seen as a step towards real-time – those adopting it report that it does work but it can take time to deliver results, and isn’t always successful.

5. Cutting edge content marketing requires a change in skillset

New technology can create whole new levels of insight on customer engagement, and drive leads. But to achieve this requires a whole new set of skills from marketers – in particular data and business skills. These are rare, and marketing teams need to go on a journey to align with them.

6. Content consistency is a massive challenge

This is a particular issue for marketing across borders. Humour is particularly difficult, as this typically doesn’t translate in different territories and cultures.

7. You can’t underestimate the importance of insight

Many B2B marketers have never been on the ‘buy’ side of the relationship, therefore they can’t empathise with the person in that situation. B2B leaders must encourage marketers to get much closer to sales people (or those with direct customer contact in the organisation) to understand what it really takes to sell their product or service. Effective content marketing requires relevance, nuance and context that you cannot have without this kind of customer exposure. This will provide credibility and authenticity.

8. Listening is just as important as creating

Marketers at all levels must remember that everyone is part of the brand’s social network, and consequently they share responsibility for reporting customer feedback and addressing issues. Social listening must be shared across the whole marketing team.

9. Content marketing shouldn’t stop when the deal is signed

All too much content marketing is focused on customer lead nurturing and conversion – much less is focused on existing customers. Firms with long customer lifecycles are particularly guilty of this: just because the firm won’t be in a position to buy for another five years, marketers must still maintain a dialogue.

10. Marketers must pick their content topics carefully

Just because you can produce content on a particular topic, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should – you need to have a depth of knowledge on the area in question. Choosing a subject well outside your area of obvious expertise and influence potentially undermines a brand’s credibility, and, therefore, risks doing more harm than good. In an ideal world, brands should look for topics that are ‘ownable’.

11. Newsjacking: don’t turn a drama into a crisis

While tapping into the wider public or business agenda can be an excellent way of enabling content marketing to boost profile, it has its risks. There is a fine line between opportunism and exploitation.

12. Can you control your brand in the real-time age?

The old days of brand command and control are long gone, as most marketers accept, but that doesn’t mean B2B leaders should allow junior members of the team to run riot, without any sense of rules or governance. Business conduct guidelines should be refreshed every year, reviewing the sensitive topics and the processes. Team leaders need to keep tabs on things, but they don’t need to get every tweet signed off. Feedback and examples of good and bad practice should be shared within the team.

13. A real-time role for agencies

The resourcing requirements for inhouse marketing are very different even for those companies that have fully migrated to always-on, with the potential for more of the organisation’s marketing activities to be brought inhouse. However, even in the ultimate ‘newsroom’ iteration of the real-time model, there is still very much a role for agencies to provide an external perspective and new ideas to overcome a range of problems. In this respect, the role of the agency is potentially the same as it has always been. 

14. Real-time marketing is out of reach for now

While always-on has become the watchword of B2B marketing, the notion of real-time is some way off for most organisations, at least in practical terms. Many marketers are still seeking to convince their counterparts in the business of the need to respond to the more fundamental digital shift, which has already taken place, without even considering the potential of more leading edge approaches. Others are taking small steps towards this more responsive and dynamic set up.

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