July 07, 2015

The Emerging Content Marketing Trend: Real-Time Reporting

A new marketing report by social intelligence and visualization company Wayin may give journalists the upper hand when interviewing for marketing positions. The social intelligence company recently surveyed 200 top-level marketers to gauge just how important real-time marketing—likened to breaking news—is to brands and marketing agencies. According to the report, this trend that has marketers feverishly crafting content to be released within minutes, or in some cases seconds, after a significant real-world event has had a positive impact on revenue for 98 percent of respondents.

For those who are unfamiliar with real-time marketing, it may be helpful to briefly define this emerging trend. Just as journalists across all mediums break news by reporting on events in real-time either through social media, first draft reports or live broadcasts from the action, brands are now trying to capitalize on popular events that help content rank higher on search results. For instance, many experts use the example of Oreo’s live tweet during the Super Bowl blackout of 2013 as the catalyst that started the real-time marketing movement.

What Oreo was able to accomplish was nothing short of ground breaking. Not only was the company able to craft a clever marketing message in seemingly no time, but it avoided the high price of placing a Super Bowl ad, which in 2013 would cost $4 million on average. Furthermore, the brand introduced to Twitter its “you can still dunk in the dark” message while the social network was reporting 3,858 tweets per second during the black out.

The problem, with real-time marketing is that marketers are mostly unable to be as quick, or quicker, than Oreo was in 2013. According to the Wayin report, 49 percent of top-level marketers believe that a real-time message must be live within minutes of the event. Another 26 percent believes real-time reporting needs to happen within seconds in order to be affective. Overall, 46 percent of real-time marketers say they struggle in getting a message out in less than 30-minutes.

What then can marketers do to cut down the time it takes to craft their brand messages and capitalize on this new and valuable industry trend? Here are three tips to get you started:

  • Think social first: You don’t need a blog, an eBook and a whitepaper ready the second after a newsworthy event occurs to capitalize on real-time marketing. In fact, forcing lengthy content assets too quickly through the editorial process can risk the quality of your copy and, as a result, compromise your brand’s reputation. Just like Oreo, you’ll want to think social first. A tweet is enough to get your thoughts out there and your brand message heard. It also gives your readers something to think about and interact with, which can buy your marketing team more time to craft various dynamic pieces of content as a follow-up to your social media push.
  • Strip it down: The reason journalists are successful at breaking news is because they aren’t hindered by the complicated creative process. Because of the nature of real-time marketing, your brand won’t need to rely as heavily on your marketers’ creativity to make sure your readers notice and remember your content. Keep your message short and simple and let your tie-in to the event do the talking for you.
  • Follow up: Breaking news is still news after the immediacy has worn off. You’ll want to work hard to get your first message up as quickly as possible, but your brand can also benefit from following up minutes, hours or days later. If your real-time message is as focused and as impactful as Oreo’s was, then readers will still be talking about it years later. Don’t be afraid to use that to your advantage.

Real-time marketing is an emerging trend that fits perfectly into the fast-paced world your consumers live in, but it can be a difficult marketing tool to perfect. If you’d like to learn how you can improve your strategy, click here to contact Content Boost’s team of inherent reporters who can help get you on track.

 



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