The term real-time marketing is mainly used to describe the concept where the brand actively tracks social media and the entire network for the possibility of interacting with the audience by talking about current events and popular topics. Brands that have already decided to implement RTM practices refer to this concept as a true performance lever, thanks to which they generate better sales results and increase their publicity. Before we look at the concept from the practical side, let’s take a look at the definition of real-time marketing.

Real-time marketing – what is it?

RTM is a strategy that uses real-time data, on the basis of which marketers create content for the benefit of a given brand. Rather than creating an advance marketing plan and executing it on a schedule, real-time marketing creates a strategy focused on relevant, relevant trends and immediate customer feedback. The use of such a method in communication allows:
– arouse the interest of Internet users,
– gain publicity,
– increase the dissemination of published content,
– establish direct communication with current and potential customers,
– get greater audience engagement.

The essence of real-time marketing is not to create content that will suit the nature of your business, quite the opposite. This strategy relies on the company’s ability to use new and popular non-industry news for its own benefit.

Real-time marketing – How does it work in practice?

RTM can be compared to marketing that takes place every day in physical stores. When you step over the threshold, the seller greets you and tries to understand your needs, then offers you the item that best meets them. The household appliances stores operate in a similar way, offering TV sets at promotional prices during the FIFA World Cup.

In the first case, the seller tries to understand your needs in order to present you a product that will satisfy you immediately and encourage you to buy. In the second, the store uses a very popular event to awaken in you the desire to buy a TV that will make sports emotions unforgettable. Each time the store directly adjusts the current promotions, advertising or the way of communication to real time in order to finalize the sale. Moreover, this strategy tends to build consumer loyalty, because if the seller offers a product that is perfectly suited to his needs, the customer will be satisfied and come back to him. Real-time Marketing works just like that, only on the Internet, where the customer is not physically standing in front of the seller.

How to prepare for real-time marketing?

Implementing real-time marketing doesn’t mean managers have to spend their entire lives staring at phones 24/7 and alerting you every time something happens. RTM requires a much greater degree of organization and appropriate preparation. New processes and work approaches should be designed, tested and implemented. It is not an easy matter. A brand should be ready to implement methods that will allow it to respond to a global trend or the needs expressed by a local customer in just a few minutes.

Before applying real-time marketing, it is also essential to thoroughly study online customer profiles and shopping paths. Companies must follow consumer habits as well as know their sociodemographic, behavioral and geolocation data. Only after arming yourself with such key information, you can start developing an effective RTM strategy.

Planning of RTM

The real-time marketing strategy is based on news. It is therefore important to be up to date with the latest news, information or trends. First of all, it is worth establishing a yearly publication schedule, taking into account holidays or other celebrations. This can be extremely helpful. Of course, it is impossible to predict in advance what will happen throughout the year, so the RTM campaign plan should be as flexible as possible.

If your company decides to implement real-time marketing, it is important to regularly research the most popular hashtags or topics covered on the Internet. In addition, you also need to be prepared to engage with audiences who are likely to react to your content. When sharing an article on a topic, you need to be ready for questions from consumers about the material you have published. Only a quick answer will allow you to build trust between the brand and its recipients and will use the potential of RTM.

Time is money, i.e. the faster you react, the more you gain

RTM requires you to distribute your content at the perfect time. Publishing too late exposes you to the fact that no one will pay attention to your post or article anymore. Real-time marketing needs to be immediate in order to impress audiences by causing laughter, comments, reactions, and responses, both pleasant and less affectionate. However, it’s worth remembering that publishing too early can cause yours to be forgotten before they gain visibility. Knowing when to publish will come with practice.

Advantages of real-time marketing

Real-time marketing is a powerful lever for sales and publicity. Consumers love to be close to events and information, and in particular to express their opinion on them. Therefore, a company that starts the RTM game and gives its audience something to comment, think about, or a reason to smile has a chance to:
– build a closer relationship with consumers, overcome barriers through brand humanization,
– gather a committed community around the brand,
– generate interactions, arouse curiosity in recipients,
– increase competitiveness, demonstrate expert knowledge and become a key player in the industry.

According to a survey by Paraphrase-Online.com, brands using real-time marketing can increase their conversion rates by 26%.

Can RTM be harmful?

Each strategy has its advantages and disadvantages. RTM can also do harm if the brand only uses this strategy. When reacting to current events, there is no room for planning, which may reduce the quality of the content. Moreover, in the case of RTM, it is difficult to predict the reaction of Internet users. The published content may be received very well or the opposite. This may be due to too hasty publication, or simply the content will not appeal to the audience. That is why it is so important not to rely only on RTM and, above all, to create content that will be valuable to the recipients.

Good examples of real-time marketing

Some brands quickly realized the importance of creating ads that reach their audience and get immediate responses. Let’s take a look at the most interesting examples of real-time marketing:

OREO REAL-TIME MARKETING – SUPER BOWL
Oreo is a great example of successful real-time marketing. In 2013, the brand made a hype on Twitter, addressing Super Bowl XL VII viewers who had been plunged into the darkness for 34 minutes. The message “You don’t need light to bite your cookies” has sparked the enthusiasm of millions of football fans, both inside and outside the stadium.

STAR WARS REAL-TIME MARKETING
Loyal Star Wars fans who purchase tickets and plan their costumes months before launch inspired marketers around the world to harness their creative potential and surprise audiences with stunning marketing gimmicks. The popularity of Star Wars was perfectly used by the Japanese airline ANA, which prepared for the premiere, equipping the crew with quite unusual outfits and accessories:

Duracell also capitalized on the popularity of Star Wars by creating a Duracell Star Wars ad, then stoking the emotions of audiences with the announcement “the most powerful alkaline battery in the universe”.

REAL-TIME MARKETING: BANKSY
The loud event, which was the deliberate destruction of the painting “The Girl with a Balloon” just seconds after the work was auctioned in London, was also not overlooked by the masters of real-time marketing. It didn’t take long for the brands to react.

RTM rebounded with hiccups

Sometimes an idea presented in a conference room may sound great, but when the moment of implementation comes, it turns out that even if carefully thought out, it turns out to be a failure. One of the most devastating failures is Pepsi, which in 2017 wanted to advertise to make their product a symbol of cultural unification. The idea was not bad, but the film in which Kendall Jenner by handing a policeman a can of soda tries to resolve the stalemate between the protesters and the police in the Black Lives Matter turned out to be a scandal. The spot was ridiculed on social media, parody on SNL and quickly removed.

Another RTM mistake on social media concerns the Cinnabon brand, known for its confectionery products. After the death of the late Carrie Fisher, Cinnabon decided to pay tribute to the actress on Twitter by posting an artwork of a Star Wars character made of famous cinnamon rolls. The tweet received a lot of negative responses and was labeled “tacky” or “shameless self-promotion.”

Can RTM help with SEO?

A conscious RTM strategy in social media can support SEO by generating organic search results. By tracking popular topics that are relevant to your brand communication and publishing content that relate to them, you can effectively drive traffic to your site. Real-time marketing allows you to build a closer relationship with users, and thanks to a bit of creativity and humor, it will warm up the brand image. In addition, RTM allows you to create content that is eagerly shared by Internet users, and this will not be indifferent to search engines. As a result, real-time marketing allows you to expand the reach and gather new recipients.

There is no doubt, however, that creating a good RTM combined with content marketing requires in-depth analysis and knowledge of the target group. There is no single recipe for successful real-time marketing. Successful brands are those that make the most of their consumer knowledge and multi-channel marketing strategies combined with constant observation of what is happening on the internet. It’s worth experimenting and drawing conclusions to be successful and build effective real-time marketing.

Types of seasons and marketing in seasonal industries

The seasonality of the industry does not need to be explained to anyone in detail – we all know that there are branches of services that are only popular for part of the year. Pensions by the sea, ski slopes, Christmas decoration stores – these are the businesses where profits can spike up in certain months and stall almost entirely the rest of the year. However, the season is not equal to the season. In marketing, we divide them into three main groups:

– large seasons – usually lasting several months. These include, among others, the summer, winter and holiday season,
– small seasons – in this case, we are usually talking about smaller occasions that we like to celebrate, but for which we do not prepare for too long. Examples include Valentine’s Day or the beginning of the school year,
– trends – these are the most difficult from the marketing point of view, because they appear unexpectedly as a result of fashion or unexpected circumstances. An example from the recent past is the sharp increase in demand for disinfectants following a pandemic. It is not a full season because it does not happen cyclically.

Each of these seasons is slightly different and requires a specific approach from a marketing point of view, although of course there are actions worth taking with each of them.

Trend analysis

In the case of seasons, an important element of activities is determining when the interest in given products or type of services increases. It may seem to us that we know perfectly well when this activity becomes greater, because then the profits from the activity increase. However, the moment of purchase does not have to coincide with the moment of increased interest. For example, if we sell tires, it may turn out that our season begins not when drivers start buying new tires, but, for example, a month or 1.5 months earlier, because then they start comparing offers from different stores.

We will find out when the season in our business begins by looking at the statistics from Google Analytics. In this tool, it is worth comparing website traffic year to year and thus determine when potential customers start looking for information on a given topic. However, if we do not have access to such data, because we have not connected Analytics or we are just starting our business, you can use the Google Trends tool. By entering phrases relating to our activity there, we will see how many users are looking for them in particular months or weeks.

Does SEO in seasonal industries make sense?

In industries that enjoy constant interest all year round, SEO has long been recognized as one of the most effective ways of getting traffic. But is it the same for those that only attract users for a certain period of time? If we are talking about big seasons – for sure. In this case, we must arouse the interest of recipients before the season, then there are several months of heavy traffic, and let’s not forget that many people like to take advantage of post-season promotions and discounts. The organic traffic that we gain all this time can translate into profits to a large extent. Provided, of course, we act early enough. A common mistake of many entrepreneurs is to sign an SEO contract just before the start of the season, and it takes time to obtain satisfactory positioning results. So if we decide to position ourselves in one of these industries, we should find an SEO agency at least 2-3 months before the season begins.

However, it is worth taking care of the visibility of the website not only during the greatest boom for a given product or service. In many industries, a good solution is to constantly maintain the interest of recipients and increase brand awareness so that when it comes to a purchase decision, customers remember the name of our company. A blog on a website is ideal for this. Regardless of the moment of the year, we can publish there articles with tips, curiosities or trends, including phrases related to the industry. For example, if we have a tire store, we do not necessarily have to try to sell them in the cold winter, when no one is thinking about a summer kit yet. However, we can post articles on the types of tread, product comparisons of different brands, information about models entering the market or even more general automotive entries. Before the season, it is worthwhile to step up activities, focusing on more current content, with phrases such as “summer tires for 2021” or “best tires for 2021”.

Ads on Google and social media – a way to get attention quickly

In the case of temporary trends, we do not have the luxury to prepare an action strategy and build a position in the search engine in advance. Marketing in seasonal industries does not apply here in the classic sense. Instead, you should act quickly so as not to miss the moment of the greatest interest of the recipients, which is why the best methods of promotion that bring the effect almost immediately. Such methods are advertising campaigns conducted in Google Ads.

Depending on the type of service or product we offer, we may decide to advertise in the search engine itself, a product campaign, banners on the websites of Google advertising partners, or even a combination of these formats. It is also worth using remarketing, i.e. tracking with advertisements those users who have previously contacted our website. Thanks to this, our products / services will be immediately visible to potential customers. This type of marketing activity is also helpful in small and large seasons – then only as one of the ways to gain the attention of recipients. Google Ads ads allow us to reach a large group of people who are initially interested in the offer, as indicated by the phrases they searched for or simply collected data on their behavior on the Internet.

As with most cases, however, there is a catch here. Getting your ads up and running in Google Ads is not a difficult task, but optimizing them is more of a trick. Poorly set ads will burn your budget and will not bring you the expected profit, and may even end in a loss. So before creating a campaign in Google Ads, consider carefully the types of keyword matches, including negative keywords, locations, ad text and extensions, and web times. And when your ad starts showing, it’s a good idea to check it every day and, if necessary, modify your bids or slightly change the basic settings to achieve better results.

Attractive lures for recipients

The question remains, however, what could be found in these ads to attract the attention of potential customers. Of course, a frequently used and popular method is to inform about promotions, post-season sales or pre-season attractive prices. However, this is only one way to attract a client. Many studies on the border of psychology and behavioral economics show that few are as attractive to the consumer as free supplements. What can you offer your customers as a bonus? Of course, the free delivery of the product comes to the fore. In our messages, we can tempt recipients with free delivery, regardless of the value of the purchase, but for a short period of time, because a time-limited offer better mobilizes the customer to make a decision.

However, you can offer your audience something completely different. Returning to the example with tires – if we run a stationary point, it will be a good idea to offer a free tire change when buying a set of tires – then the customer will have the feeling that we have not only serviced it comprehensively, but also saved him the trouble, so there is a good chance that he will remember our company for the next season. The hotel, on the other hand, can offer a free breakfast, free treatment in the hotel spa or a free stay for a child if the stay is long enough. These are bonuses that do not cost us much and can significantly affect the brand image – and thus future profits. Of course, the bonuses can be completely different, the key is to discover what the needs of our target group are.

Ready to prepare marketing in seasonal industries?

What is a site heatmap?

The heat map of the website is a visual representation of user behavior. It is a tool that shows which areas of the website are “hot”, and therefore more eye-catching, and which are “cold” – much less interesting from the visitor’s point of view.

The heat map can be produced in various ways and based on several types of data (more on that later). Prepared for a given website, it is in the form of a screenshot with marked spots in different colors. Deep red signifies the greatest interest, orange, yellow and green are intermediate colors, while blues and purples denote the “coldest” places that are the least popular among Internet users.

Heat maps tell you if users:
– reach the most important information,
– they can easily find links, buttons and other links on the website,
– focus their attention on unimportant elements,
– face obstacles to the free and comfortable use of the website.

The analysis of the data collected in the form of a heat map allows for a much better adaptation of the website to the expectations of users and increasing its functionality. The knowledge gained in this way can also significantly help in increasing conversions, i.e. the number of orders, inquiries or other forms of contact with the company.

How are heat maps made?

Typically, a heat map is cumulative data collected through several studies. Sometimes it is identified with the so-called eye tracking, i.e. tracking the movements of the eyeball, another time with the map of clicks. In fact, it is a combination of several types of information collected in different ways. Most often, when creating heat maps, the following are used:
– click analysis – clicktracking,
– page scrolling – scrolltracking,
– examination of elements that attract attention – attentiontracking,
– tracking cursor movements on the screen – movetracking.

They can be presented in the form of a combined report or separate analyzes. This is data that allows you to accurately understand the behavior of Internet users, and thus adapt the website to them. This affects not only the already mentioned increase in conversion, but also the friendliness of the website itself, and therefore the satisfaction of its users.

It is worth preparing separate heat maps for the desktop and mobile websites. This allows you to compare how users of different devices behave and see if your website offers a similar level of conversion in different variants.

Heat maps and eye tracking

Eye tracking is also a popular method of measuring the engagement of website visitors and testing its usability. Its results are often presented in the form of a heat map, but it is a separate analytical tool. Eye tracking allows you to track the movement of the eyeballs. The research is used in many areas, it works well, among others in the case of website usability analysis.

During the procedure, a device that analyzes the eye movement is connected to the computer. Then a focus study is performed. Its participants are asked to perform specific tasks within a given page. Thanks to this, you can check, for example, how easy it is to find the necessary information or carry out activities such as making a purchase or registering on the website. While the data provided by eye tracking can be very valuable, heatmaps should not be equated solely with this study. It may be part of the website analysis, but more often a variety of tools are used to study the previously mentioned parameters.

It should also be remembered that the eye tracking research is carried out in created conditions, on a selected group of participants. So it does not necessarily have to be representative. Meanwhile, heat maps are usually created on the basis of data obtained from real site users in natural conditions.

Heat map – who needs it?

Are you wondering if creating a heat map will pay off? Do you need this type of solution at all? This is a very useful option – provided, however, that the results obtained in this way are properly analyzed, and the conclusions drawn will translate into activities aimed at adapting the website to the expectations and needs of users. The benefits of preparing a heat map will primarily affect people who:
– despite the SEO activities carried out, they do not enjoy a satisfactory conversion;
– are worried about the high bounce rate of the page;
– they achieve good results in terms of organic inputs, but significantly worse among mobile users;
– want to adjust the website template to the user’s needs;
– they have no idea for functional changes within the site;
– want to find out if the mechanisms used are working as intended.

In short, heatmaps are for anyone who wants to improve their website and make it more effective. A user-friendly, functional website more and more often translates into real benefits. However, keep in mind that analyzing the heatmaps is only one step in improving your website. SEO, competition monitoring and other activities cannot be forgotten. Only a holistic approach to creating a website can bring clear results.

Heatmap of the site – how to use it?

A reliably prepared heat map is a great source of information for website administrators. The only question is: how to use them? There are many possibilities. Let’s check what the heat map data says and how it can be transferred to a more functional and, more importantly, more effective website design.

Content analysis
It has been known for a long time that texts on websites are scanned rather cursily, not read by visitors. The heatmap can tell you which elements grab your visitors’ attention and therefore where to put the most important information. Thanks to scrolltracking, you will also find out where on the website its users usually reach. This may suggest that you need to shorten the content or divide it. It is also worth taking care of the form of their presentation – short paragraphs and bullets containing concise information will bring a much better effect. Also, don’t forget about your headlines – they should be attractive and enticing, while still containing your most important keywords. At the very bottom of the page, you can include texts that are less important from the user’s point of view, but they will help in positioning the page.

Improving site navigation
The heat map analysis will tell you a lot about the effectiveness of the links on the page. Are buttons and links receiving sufficient attention? Do users have no problem finding the tab with the offer or the icon transferring the product to the basket? The click-through study will also help you check that the links in the text are in the right places. If their effectiveness is unsatisfactory, try to move them to places that attract more interest from website users. It’s also worth checking if those links that actually “click” lead to the most important tabs and increase your conversion rate. If the buttons aren’t performing well enough, it might be worth making them bigger, highlighted, or repositioned. Also, make sure they contain a call to action (CTA) – a slogan encouraging action (eg “Check”, “Order”, “Learn more”).

Thanks to the heat map analysis, it may also turn out that some of the navigation elements are unnecessary. If a side menu, banner, or button isn’t interesting, they may just be taking up valuable space where something else would be worthwhile.

Detection of problem spots
Broken or invalid links, especially in the “clicked” area, is a huge wasted opportunity. A user who is “framed” in this way can often get irritated and not return to the site anymore! That is why it is worth checking all links for operation and fixing them as soon as possible – especially if they are very popular among Internet users.

More effective suggestions
Many online stores have sections with other recommended or similar offers on their product pages. It is worth checking with the heatmap that this suggestion actually works. If not, it may be worth changing the form or position of the section. Seemingly it is a small thing, but it can significantly affect the time spent by the user on the website and, more importantly, the conversion.

Improving responsiveness
Responsive design is basically a “must have” of any website. It should be properly displayed on various devices and should be functional and easy to use, regardless of the size of the user’s screen. However, a website that is responsive in theory does not always offer the desired functionality in practice to mobile users. Making a heat map can be very helpful in evaluating the template and adapting it to the user’s needs. If it takes endless scrolling to get to the most important functions and information, some elements hide others, and buttons are not where they should be, the visitor will quickly lose patience and leave the page. These are unacceptable errors that can significantly affect the number of users on the website, as well as the conversion.