Real-Time Marketing Guide – Everything You Need To Know https://t.co/hjWVY8Pt33 https://t.co/cD9WbYSb8w

Originally published on Real Time Marketing Guide. See links  above to original posting.

Real-Time Marketing Guide – Everything You Need To Know

 March 10, 2016 Susanna Gebauer

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The following is a guest post by Nick Rojas. Nick Andrew Rojas is a self-taught serial entrepreneur who has worked with various startups as a business consultant.  He’s also a journalist focusing on technology, marketing, and social media.  He loves meeting new people online and being challenged with new projects.  He loves to connect so reach out on Twitter!  @nickarojas

It’s the weekend – did you plan every move? Have a general idea of what you need to do? Or are you just going to see what comes up?

It’s your Marketing platform. Did you plan (and budget) every move? Have a general idea of what you need to do? Or are you just going to see what comes up? If you fall into the last category, you should be aware that your approach has a name. It’s called “Real-Time Marketing,” because in general, that’s what you’re doing: capitalizing on the spur of the moment – a whatever happens, kind of marketing that can work to a business’ advantage.

Real-Time Marketing

Real-Time Marketing is a way to promote (market) your business in relationship to something relevant right now. What are people talking about/thinking about in your area? Across the country? It can be something as basic as taking out an ad or posting on on-site banner congratulating the Little League baseball team you sponsor on winning their regional championship. You didn’t know it would happen, but your customers are talking about it, so you respond –you insert yourself into the conversation.

The possibilities are as endless as the news cycle. At the recent Oscar Awards, host Chris Rock had his daughter’s Girl Scout troop sell cookies to the A-List celebrities in the audience. These famous actors and directors actually bought, ate and shared GS cookies while sitting in the theater. What kind of reference could you make to your product selling “faster than Girl Scout cookies at the Oscars?”

March Madness?

College basketball’s schedule for March Madness might be an excellent springboard for your next promotion, especially if there’s a huge upset. If you pay attention to the play-offs and work quickly, when people talk about the game, they may link you to it!

Whatever they may be, tomorrow’s events are the next potential themes for your marketing efforts. Real-Time Marketing is spontaneous and bold. Yet, in business, even spontaneity needs a little planning. If advertising is of interest, do some research on your options from newspapers to radio and television. If you’re planning a campaign on social media, be sure your platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are established, or at the very least you’ve opened an account on these systems.

Read the Fine Print

However, consider a couple of precautions: politics is a slippery slope. Should you attach your business to a political act or candidate, you run the risk of offending just as many people as you attract. This goes for everything from the local school board, to the national presidential bid.

Anything controversial in your area may be ripe for targeting, but is also sensitive, and you want to avoid running a promotional message related to something considered divisive. (If you’re thinking the worse the topic you address, the more you’ll appear on the evening news, well, remember that stories are told from a point of view. If you’re perceived as trying to build on someone else’s misfortune, simply put, this will backfire, and not win you new customers.)

Additionally, vet your approach very carefully. Run your potential ad by people who can give you honest feedback, with no stake in the game. If your message is the least bit offensive, you need to know about it before you spend money, time, energy – and most importantly – your organization’s reputation on it.

Real-Time Marketing is an approach that offers spontaneous and creative ways for businesses to reach their target audience. Devise a methodology to stay on top of trending topics and hashtags in order to be on the constant lookout for opportunities to capitalize from real-time marketing!