Marketing Trends: Activity-Based Marketing

Welcome to the latest installment of our weekly blog series, Marketing Trends. Each week, we will identify a key trend in the world of marketing. We’ll discuss the trend, why it’s important, and suggest ways that you can take advantage of this trend in your company.

Last week’s trend was Direct Competitor Comparisons.

Today’s Trend = Activity-based Marketing

For the longest time, one of the problems that marketers have had is not knowing when the right time was to deliver their messages.

Advertisers took guesses based on their audience when to air their commercials, where to place their ads in publications, and when to send direct mail. Even online advertisers had to run tests to figure out when to send emails or shows ads online.

The goal is always to deliver ads at a time we expect them to have maximum impact. And now, there are new tools that allow us to do that better than ever.

A popular trend that is gaining momentum in companies large and small is what I’ll refer to here as “Activity-based Marketing”.

Activity-based marketing refers to delivering marketing messages in real time based on an observed action. For example, sending an email to someone after you recognize that they visited your website. Or delivering an ad to someone when you recognize they are showing intent to buy something you offer.

There are many different forms of activity-based marketing, and many technology companies that have developed tools to help you get started. Retargeting companies, like Ebay Enterprise and Adroll, allow you to deliver ads to specific audiences, including people who visited your website, performed a search for your company online, or even your current customer list.

Advertising technology companies like Yieldbot use formulas to determine what people online are looking for without even searching and deliver ads based on their “intent”.

And most email marketing platforms will allow you to connect your emails to Google Analytics so that you can customize emails for people who visit a specific page, return to your website after a long absence, or some other key variable.

The power in all of these tools is that you are able to deliver your message at the right time, when your company is at the top of the consumer’s mind. When you can deliver the right message at the right time, you will be that much more successful in your marketing efforts.

What marketing trend should we cover next? Now accepting submissions for marketing trends that we will cover in an upcoming installment of this series. Submit your ideas via our contact page or in the comments section below.

Marketing Trends: Activity-Based Marketing