Buyer Persona and the Importance of Real-Time Relevance

Real-time relevance is current in a series of trends. Intelligent strategies are brought on by companies adopting big data and analytics to discover deeper insight about buyer persona. As companies have gotten better at utilizing their analytic tools, their ability to accurately target buyer persona has also improved. Consequently, consumers expect marketing messages to be relevant.

What is Real-Time Relevance in the Marketing World?

 



Real-time relevance is about placing your brand and its message in front of the right customer at the right time. Digital marketed companies are gravitating away from the pop-up and sidebar. On the contrary, they are working towards hyper-accurate messaging that anticipates the need of the buyer persona.
The timing of messages is critical in relevant marketing. If you placed an ad based on someone’s previous search, it’s just that — previous. There’s a likelihood that the potential buyer already chose another brand.
Real-time ensures relevancy because as soon as your message is relevant to the buyer persona, you’re immediately present. 

What does Real-Time Relevance Look Like?

Real-time relevant marketing includes the use of push notifications. Push notifications target the buyer persona immediately. In addition to push notifications are location services. Knowing where your buyer persona is, helps you get to know your buyer persona more.
Leveraging relevant and trending topics on social media is also a form of real-time relevance. The infamous power outage during Super Bowl XLVIII is a great example. Oreo tweeted “You Can Still Dunk in the Dark.” Their immediate, real-time and hyper-relevant response to the blackout created tens of thousands engagements on the Internet.
Current events stir up engagement. After all, we do it several times a year on major holidays. Real-time relevance, however, makes it possible to target smaller, trending events just seconds after they occur. You don’t want to target trending topics that don’t resonate with your buyer persona template. And you especially don’t want to leverage topics that are too serious and tragic.  For example, the real time relevant flop of Epicurious’s attempt to get Bostonians to try their cranberry scone recipe soon after the Boston marathon tragedy.
Lastly, real-time relevance can be used in response to a customer action. Marketers have been doing this for awhile. A thank you message is sent when a person buys or subscribes. Moreover, it’s no longer just about thanking customers. Real-time relevance makes it possible to greatly enhance the customer journey with messaging to facilitate their trip through the marketing funnel.

Microseconds: How Fast is Real-Time?

The smartphone is the main driver behind the increasing need for faster messaging. Almost everyone has a smartphone, and they spend a lot of time using it. On average, a person checks their phone 150x a day and spends just under three hours a day on their device. With a little bit of math, the average smartphone session lasts about a minute.
Some of these short bursts of mobile activity are used to shoot a quick text or email. Other times, users are utilizing the search engine. Most users spend time researching the top results from the search. As a result, the decision-making process is splintered into quick moments.
These micro-moments require brands to be swift to the sudden burst of curiosity from the buyer persona. Oreo had no idea that there would be a power outage. What made their tweet so effective was that it came so quickly. Oreo knew that everyone who had their eyes glued to the TV would be looking at their phones and visiting Twitter to talk about the power outage. Thus, the cookie brand capitalized on the moment.
Your ability to connect customers needs to be fast. There shouldn’t be any friction that slows the process down. The relevant information should be easy to find, if not immediately front and center. If your buyer persona is looking for a product, the search process should be quick and painless.

Examples of Real-Time Relevance in Marketing

Oreo is arguably the most famous case of a brand nailing real-time relevance marketing. With that said, many other brands have also helped pave the way. Here are a few examples:
Red Roof Inn saw a need for affordable hotel rooms by travelers that had become stranded by flight cancellations. There are thousands of people every day that find themselves marooned and in need of a place to stay. Thus, they tracked flight delays and cancellations and targeted search ads for their hotels that were near airports experiencing a lot of grounded flights. The result was a 60% increase in bookings for non-brand specific search campaigns.



Gorilla Glue seized a significant opportunity in their first national ad campaign after Bruno Mars, released his Gorilla music video. It took Gorilla Glue only two days to create and approve a spoof of Mars’ music video. Gorilla Glue managed to get a ton of views, mentions, and engagements on their parody. Today, the video has over 375K views.
Lids spends a lot on ads and marketing during the March Madness NCAA Basketball Tournament. In 2015, they realized, to make the most out of their campaigns during the tournament, they had to target teams that were still relevant in the tournament. Now, Lids uses an algorithm to adjust their ad placements in real-time based on the outcomes of the games. They even place extra ads for fans of a team that wins in an upset.

In conclusion, the marketing game is centered around the buyer persona. Marketers have many tactics under their sleeves and those who want to target their buyer persona need to make sure their content is relevant.