(Dave Novitzky contributed to this blog.)

Marketers’ attempts to profile, segment, and model customers implies that consumers are static and can be fully defined, but they are anything but. Consumers are in constant motion, evolving their brand affinities, lifestyle choices, technology usage, and emotional responses to the world around them. Yet most firms rely heavily on traditional campaign strategies that are famously inflexible and require planning months in advance. To keep up with consumers and deliver experiences that provide value both to customers and brands, marketers need a new approach: moments-based marketing.

 

As consumers live moment to moment, marketers need to be there with them every step of the way and adopt the technology that grants them the ability to do so. To connect with consumers in the moment, marketers must live in the moment to:

  • Turn insights into interactions, instantly. Moments are temporal interactions of a singular time and situation but exist within the context of broader customer journeys. The challenge from a brand’s side is they must be ready at any second, in any touchpoint, to provide hyper-relevant content to the consumer. Brands need the tech to understand customer context and make decisions on how to engage in the moment.
  • Create continuous engagement with consumers. Marketing campaigns have become outdated, and it’s time to take a back seat to a moments-based approach. Rigid campaigns have tarnished the customer experience (CX) by providing ads consumers avoid and have fostered a myopic focus on short-term ROI. Brands such as Marriott employ social listening tools to monitor guest activities to either address complaints or enhance the stay of guests in that very moment.
  • Leverage next-generation martech capabilities. A forward-looking martech strategy empowers marketers to fully leverage data and deliver engagement experiences. We believe there are six critical next-generation martech capabilities that must be included in your stack to bring moments-based marketing to life. These capabilities span all aspects of the martech stack, including data fabric, customer understanding, brand strategy, and brand experience.
  • Connect marketing to CX once and for all. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Marketing and customer experience need each other. Once you’ve built a foundation of moments-based technology, you can shift attention to engagement and then, finally, CX. Leveraging marketing to support and drive CX is emerging as a critical strategy for bridging the gaps that interfere with moments-based engagement. The end result will be personalized and productive interactions between the brand and consumer.

 

Check out our latest research to truly see how novel moments-based marketing is.