In Econsultancy’s new Real-Time Marketing Survey Report, published in association with Monetate, more than four-fifths of all respondents (80% company, 82% agency) said that responses should occur in two minutes or less.

At the sharp end, 12% of company respondents said that real time was the ability to respond to consumer behaviours in less than a second. 

The ability to respond this quickly obviously requires marketing automation software, as human intervention wouldn’t be feasible in such a short timeframe.

How do you define real-time marketing?

The report is based on a survey of nearly 900 marketers and provides a snapshot of real-time marketing in 2014. The findings give a baseline for marketers to use when assessing their plans for this year and beyond.

Are you marketing in real-time?

Given the opportunities available and widespread business familiarity with various digital channels for communication, it is no surprise to see that more than two-thirds of companies (71%) surveyed for this research are engaging in real-time marketing of some description. 

However this also means that around a third (29%) of companies aren’t using real-time marketing, while there is also a question mark as to whether personal, non-automated responses by brands on social media are instantaneous enough to merit the description of ‘real-time’.

This data reflects that real-time marketing is still very much an embryonic area with opportunities to be seized for competitive advantage.

Do you or your clients currently employ any of the following?