Imagine a dynamic in-store Q&A that gives customers instant and personalized offers during their check out experience. Or the capability to engage in a dialogue to retain a retail customer through a series of incentives based on their purchase history and preferences. What about a text-based offer sent to a consumer by leveraging geolocation technology to determine their proximity to a certain store?

 

All of these scenarios are possible today through real-time marketing, an evolving industry that has the ability to tap into a wealth of information about consumers.

 

Leading companies are keeping a record of everything consumers do in their store, including purchases they make and conversations they have with their employees. This gives them a baseline of useful information — data that can then be augmented with additional information available from third-party vendors. This can include other interesting tidbits like whether the consumer owns or rents a house, where they work and their approximate income, what types of purchases they make from other vendors, and more.

 

Companies feed all of this information into real-time marketing software. That software crunches the information and uses sophisticated computer algorithms to figure out how to most effectively interact with customers. In other words, an offer presented by a retail associate, for example, might seem to be the same offer given to everybody who completes a transaction. In reality, if the company is using real-time marketing software, the offer may be based on data compiled about that customer's purchase behavior. The analysis happens in real-time — in a fraction of a second — and that individual is given an offer or message specifically designed to appeal to her.

 

Real-time marketing offers retailers the ability to personally connect to customers in a more intimate way than ever before. Retailers can specifically focus on five channels in an effort to enhance and customize their marketing offers:

 

• Web Personalization: Retailers can personalize their customers' web experience with everything from item pages to category pages and the checkout process. In the event of an abandoned shopping cart, customer retargeting can be used to serve the customer with an optimized ad and/or offer via email during their next web visit.

 

• Dynamic Email: With the capabilities offered by vendors today, tailored and personalized offers through e-mail is a no-brainer. However, most marketers approach it in the wrong way by segmenting customers and then assigning offers. Instead, marketers should allow offers to compete for the right to be presented to the customer in the channel they prefer. A strong prioritization equation can be used to consider several data inputs at the same time, for instance.

 

• Call Centers: Using a retail call center application that instantly generates specific product or service recommendations based on the customer can drive revenue. Additionally, dynamic Q&As can help call center agents better discover client needs and desires — talking through offers specifically designed to appeal to them.

 

• Mobile Devices: Today's consumer is all about personalized and instant access to information. Retailers should be executing some of the same strategies used in e-mail marketing in mobile marketing initiatives. Personalized messages and providing superior customer experience is now a main focus for direct retailers in particular. Geolocation technology enables a retailer to prompt a consumer to come into their store by texting a specific coupon as they window shop, for example.

 

• In-Store: Detailed consumer data is now available with the swipe of a credit card. A consumer's credit card information, for instance, can reveal to an in-store associate a list of specific discounts and offers. Algorithms determine those offers based on that consumer's purchase habits and shopping interests, automatically identifying what they qualify for. This can work well for upsell or cross-sell opportunities.

 

Real-time marketing is a growing trend that will impact every consumer, even if they are not aware of how they are being targeted. Such technology has the strength to take a run-of-the-mill retail associate and give them "bionic" capabilities that make them extremely powerful — and extremely effective in driving more bottom line profits into the company's financial offers.