- Category: July 2015: Real (Right)-Time Marketing
The growth of the eCommerce market is and remains unbroken, which is the reason why online retailers have to offer more than just attractive prices to differentiate themselves from competitors.
At least we know by now that customers mainly buy where they feel well advised. Therefore, for a large proportion of consumers, a high availability of service staff is of great relevance. Besides, guidance is continuing to score, especially when conducted in real-time, simply due to the sharp increase in degrees of cross-linking and the digital penetration of the common sense world. Today’s consumers not only buy differently, but also have increased expectations in terms of service. The networked customer of today has high demands and wants fast service in real-time and without media disruption. In particular, experienced, intensive shoppers expect good service. In fact, customers usually do not want to do without the service they are used to get in the brick and mortar stores when buying online. Even online, they want to be advised quickly, comfortably, competently and personally. Precisely here real-time services join in, accompanying and taking care of customers along the customer journey, while guiding through the buying process, whereby the preferred service is the click-to-call button.
Click-to-chat offer can reduce dropout rates by half
Recent developments show that more and more online retailers integrate the ‘click-to-chat button’ in their online stores, increasingly aware that traffic generation alone does not lead to sales. If the customers have made their way to the online store, it is important to guide them through the buying process and to keep the probability of a purchase dropout as low as possible. This illustrates the need to assist the customer during the order process in real time when having questions, because not every online shopper wants to resort to the phone, or go through the FAQs, when there are ambiguities. In the future, it is expected that click-to-chat will continue to increase in importance. The majority of consumers want that more online stores integrate such services at least partially.
In recent years, a change in online trading quite obviously took place. Today, no longer just the price is the decisive factor for whether consumers order in an online shop, but the consulting expertise is increasingly becoming important, whereby the boundaries between online and offline steadily blur. Customers nowadays demand a wide range of services when shopping online and getting the feeling that their whole purchase experience is complete. Therefore, elaborate product presentations, as well as consultancy in real-time, will continue to gain in importance (e.g. in the form of videos and 3D views)
New web design technologies create a better user experience
Digital overload has presented marketers with a major problem, namely keeping consumers’ attention. Fortunately, technologies are emerging and developing that support marketers in their daily struggle to face the challenges. A recent eMarketer report revealed, for instance, that marketing and publishing professionals are embracing new web design technologies, such as responsive design and infinite scroll, to create the most engaging, viewer-friendly experience, no matter the device. The main goals are providing better user experiences and creativity, as well as preparing for the growing demand of innovative ad formats and broader reach.
Real-time marketing ROI increases and so does the spending
According to eMarketer.com, brands have embraced real-time marketing (RTM) to reach a multitude of goals and their efforts are not just limited to social media. The independent research company revealed that real-time marketers are funneling more money toward such tactics for a wide variety of reasons and take credit for the benefits.
“When asked why they practiced RTM, 56% cited forming customer relationships, and a close 55% did so for event promotion. Adding to existing content, increasing social media engagement and reach, complementing ecommerce strategy and identifying new customers and audience segments were each cited by about half of respondents”, eMarketer’s report states.
As emphasized already many times, social media is an ideal place to interact with consumers in real time and the study found that responding to timely trends, news, and events on social, as well as engaging with customers on such platforms, were each included in 58% of respondents’ RTM strategies. However, “RTM went beyond social though”, eMarketer revealed, as 62% cited marketing automation, such as triggered emails in response to consumer actions, as part of their RTM efforts. Hence, 58% of respondents attributed more than 40% of their marketing budgets to RTM, and nearly six in 10 intended to increase spending in the next year.
By MediaBUZZ