Businesses are in the business of engaging customers. That requires having your thumb on the pulse of the marketplace and being ready to act at a moment’s notice. It means having a workplace culture that emphasizes flexibility and agility, while understanding the importance of utilizing technology and social media to build relationships and loyalty.
Author David Meerman Scott’s book Real-Time Marketing & PR, provides marketers with the impetus to pick up the pace. With use of his examples below, organizations can determine why they need to be ready to respond quickly to unfolding events in today’s online environment, and why it’s sometimes even important to be the first to go there.
The Value of Being First
- Starting the conversation early and online will help you get more exposure because all the threads of conversation thereafter stem from your comments.
- Joining a new social media platform or starting a group within one early helps you build a larger following compared to those who join later.
- If you’re first to engage your specific market with a new product or service, people notice and you gain valuable attention.
- If you react quickly and connect with a customer who has an issue, you appear caring and trustworthy rather than cold and inhuman.
Understanding that so much of business today is happening 24/7 requires a shift in thinking that acknowledges consumers’ roles in improvising even the best laid out plans in terms of ensuring their needs are met where they live (and for the most part that’s on their phones).
The Value of Being Ready to React
It means taking a look and seeing if your business, small businesses too, can identify certain situations and be ready to react immediately, if:
- Your company decides to acquire a competitor
- In an industry chat group your company is getting criticized
- A customer highly praises how your company’s product or service really helped on a respected review site
- Your company earns a Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award for Best Places to Work
These situations are opportunities and threats that can affect the success of your business. A company may be confronted when they least expect it and needs to be ready to react to capitalize on a positive situation and derail a negative one. These circumstances especially as they relate to your company’s reputation need a real-time mindset to be dealt with effectively and to the advantage of your business.
Having this attitude and mindset is difficult for many companies. Here are some examples of a more corporate world approach to handling marketing and PR related activities. These examples show the pitfalls sacrificed by putting process over speed and agility. Does your company do this?
- Respond to customers when time allows
- Engage media when it’s convenient for you
- Organize around quarterly marketing and communications campaigns
- Execute an old-school, long-term product launch
- Only measure and report results monthly or quarterly
If a company recognizes and embraces the attitude of moving quickly and nimbly at certain tasks the initiative can pay-off for organizations. Here are some priorities companies can implement for real-time business success:
- Make responding to customers on their preferred tools and timeframes
- Engage with the media immediately upon request
- Think Agile Marketing principles – execute based on what’s happening now
- Try a Live-streaming Broadcast product launch
- Send out daily metrics to highlight successful tweets and retweets, views, shares or comments
Modern Marketing Partners is well versed in Agile Marketing strategies and tactics and has expertise to deliver the successful campaigns your company needs.
