Interactive marketing: The future of marketing communication models

One message does not fit all

 

 

We have witnessed a dramatic change in the way marketing communications have shifted from the mass communication strategies of the recent past to one-to-one communication models brought about by the emergence of social media. As a result of these shifts, brands and companies have started to adopt a new concept of how to interact with their audience.

This change started to emerge with the increasing usage of social networks then expanded with the developments in mobile phones, but still this concept of one-to-one personalized communication didn’t have a chance to evolve in the field of below the line marketing platforms, where we can see the DOOH advertising, billboards and in-store experiences still adopting the old concept of mass-communication.

Big brands have taken personalized engagement’s importance to heart, providing targeted experiences for each consumer.  Now the concept of interactive marketing can be perfectly achieved using social media and mobile phones, but personalized engagement is still missing where the magic moment of the final purchase decision happens. Interactive media provides a way to close this gap in marketing by using novel media tools and sensing technologies such as facial tracking, eye tracking or emotional coding leading to more advanced real-time interactions.

If you make a personal connection with customers they are more likely to buy your products, remember your name and return to your business in the future. For ID Labs, using new technology solution for interactive communication such as SmartEye (http://id-labs.org/interactive-advertising-smarteye/) became a vital component in our overall marketing activities.

Here are five steps to consider while designing your interactive marketing campaign

1. Personalized experience

No two customers are exactly alike; every customer is a separate entity. While this declaration is not in itself ground breaking, the way that interactive media and interactive marketing allow communicators to adjust to this reality is unprecedented. Fortunately, if marketers are good at one thing it is collecting information. Data and metrics should be applied in as many different ways as possible to most closely match message to audience. By fitting their message to individual differences between customers, marketers are more likely to successfully convert a sale.

Effective interactive campaigns should put the user in the centre of the experience, allowing each user to feel the uniqueness of the experience tailored to him and his reactions. Tailoring user experience to interactive marketing ensures that the user establishes a deep connection to the campaign.

The deep connections the customers get with personalized messaging and the positive emotions thatcan be acquired with the experience improves the user experience considerably. This is because the advertisements are served in such a way that they enhance the content significantly, thereby showing the customers what they actually want to see, need or want to know about. Not only does this make the message more effective, but it also saves money by not broadcasting messages that are not relevant to specific users. None of these advances are possible, however, without the audience intelligence that is the key to personalized storytelling.

 

2. Natural interaction for effective communication

Real-time, two-way interaction between the audience and the message is the key to success for the campaign and understanding of how people are interacting with the ad. A study made at ID Labs shows 80% of people above 25 years old prefer to interact naturally as they are dealing in their normal life such as simple facial expression, minor hands and body gestures.

SmartEye, with its ability to collect, interpret and respond to customers natural verbal and non-verbal cues provides a model for how natural interaction can be used to achieve success with interactive marketing. By providing users an input method that comes naturally to them and by being responsive to that user input in order to deliver a tailor-made message, natural interaction becomes a powerful tool in the marketer’s toolbox. The recent success of augmented reality apps shows that given the choice between living in a purely online or offline world, users more and more want to connect those worlds and allow them to interact more fluidly with each other, natural interaction is the next step in this evolutionary process.

 

3. Communicate smart—with artificial intelligence

When we think of artificial intelligence (AI) we often conjure up images of reboots who are attempting to take control of our world. But it’s crucial to realize as a marketer that AI is not only about self-driving cars nor smart robots. AI is already woven in our daily life now in our phones, online ads and search results. AI will be essential in two main things: first to design a user experience and second to get analysis and recommendations from this enormous amount of data. AI can predict engagement patterns of the audience by analyzing billions of data points to determine what a user is likely to engage with. By taking advantage of this kind of processing power marketers are able to take advantage of the data they already have as well as fill in holes in their analytics in order to craft the most persuasive messages possible.

Marketers need not fear that AI is purely for the big entities or research centres. Through collaboration with tech companies, AI is now relevant, applicable and achievable for organizations of all sizes. Smart agencies will take advantage of this in order to “get ahead of the curve” on artificial intelligence and begin looking for partnerships with tech companies that can help put them on the cutting age of marketing.

The world of communication is moving now to so called chat bots, so the future might lead to each company/brand has it own chat bot that represents their products and can deal directly with their audience and answer their inquiries. Such an occurrence not only has a direct benefit on marketing, but also allows firms to better manage the bottom line by keeping labour costs low. Furthermore, these AI-driven chat bots also allow a firm to maintain even higher levels of consistency with their message and branding, ensuring reliable and on-target brand management. Agencies don’t have to wait and see what AI will bring, they have to state what they need from AI. By placing themselves in the driver’s seat, agencies that take a proactive approach to AI will be better set up once these cutting edge processes become the norm.

4. Consider diversity & the human element

Include diversity from people with special needs and accessibility issues within your target audience. This concept will, first, widen your target group and, second, will give the human element to your activities which will create more loyalty to your brand. By widening your target group not only do you find more potential customers, but also widen the amount of data that you are able to collect, which makes all of your other marketing efforts more effective. Additionally, creating more brand loyalty ensures not only more business from those customers, but means that those customers will act as marketing agents themselves, spreading news of products and services through word of mouth in order to create a feedback effect, dramatically enhancing the efficacy of your marketing and making sure that you get the most return value on your investments possible. Finally, these are market segments that are too often neglected or ignored and using new technology to better include these groups can dramatically enhance the scope and loyalty of a client base.

5. Plan analysis

Before you start your campaign, plan what kind of data you need to get from campaign insights. This will help you to organize your data collection and analysis from the beginning.  Making sense of this data allows you to measure your campaign results, and to plan your next campaign or product based on information, data and analysis, rather than by trusting sheer instinct

. Additionally, by planning for your data needs at the start of your campaign you can ensure that your campaign will operate at its most effective level.

 

SmartEye has a smart report system to enable you to design your report and also your can integrate these data insights to a greater platforms in order to get overall evolution of your activities performance. With its unparalleled ability to gather billions of different data points and analyze them and generate reports the insights you will be able to generate will be far beyond what could possibly be achieved with traditional data collection and analytic tools. More information about post campaign analysis can be found at http://id-labs.org/interactive-advertising-smarteye)

The future of marketing is already here. It is up to agencies to recognize that fact and take advantage of the benefits that interactive marketing can provide. A failure to do so will mean that a firm risks being left in the dust as it uses outdated communication models to send messages to potential customers. History has shown time and again that groups that are early adopters to powerful new technology thrive in competition with groups who come late to the game. If you want your firm to be a major player in the future of new marketing, the best strategy is to plan for the future instead of planning for the present.

 

This article originally appeared in the September 2016 issue of Direct Marketing.