Responding to the interaction of the user with individualised communication and in real time at each touchpoint – this is the promise of real time marketing automation. Providing the required content in real time, however, can easily become a bottleneck. Here, automated content processing can guarantee you the adequate availability of content.
A user receives a newsletter. The newsletter is highly individualised based on information from CRM and is adapted to the current context at the time of opening (e.g. time of the day, location, weather). This presupposes the ability to deliver dynamic content. However, first of all, sufficient content needs to be available in order to be able to create an individualised newsletter. The more precise the newsletter is tailored to the user’s requirements, the more specific the content within needs to be. This content has to be created and adapted for the different channels, such as email or app notification. This expenditure is hardly manageable manually, with thousands of content fragments, at least not in an economically viable way.
Automate Content Processing
The required content (texts, graphics, product information, etc.) or the fragments required for the creation of this content often already exist in different company departments: Marketing, Sales, Product Management, Category Management, Logistics, etc. In order to use this content sensibly for direct marketing, you will need to establish different processes:
- The consistent recording of all content fragments at each source.
- The (automated) conversion of these fragments in channel-neutral formats, i.e. formats which can be used in all channels, whether email, app notification, social media, mobile messenger, etc.
- If necessary, a software-supported release through the responsible authorities.
- The compiling of the content fragments in a central content management system.
- Real time access of the online dialogue marketing software to the content management system.
- Automated and rule-based creation of content from the fragments, as well as measures, e.g. an email newsletter or a whatsapp message, from the content.
- The automated adaptation of the channel-neutral content to the requirements of the corresponding channel.
In real time communication and specifically, in real time marketing automation, the processes 6 and 7 need to be carried out within milliseconds.
Generally, the establishment and if possible automation and general optimisation of the mentioned processes will lead to significant gains in efficiency. The company PAYBACK, e.g. was able to save 25% of time spent on the creation of newsletter campaigns through automated content processing.
One approach in automated content processing is the use of Excel sheets (e.g. the CampaignSheet of artegic’s ELAINE FIVE technology) which can be created automatically depending on the content demand, filled in by the corresponding information carrier and then transferred into the processing direct digital marketing system – not manually per cell but automatically. The system then automatically inserts the content which is in the cells or has been linked to these, at the right place in the direct marketing measure, e.g. the newsletter. This means that each change only requires a change in the corresponding content on the Excel sheet. Manual editing of the measure becomes void. Dedicated workflows via content management systems or collaboration systems are also possible. Important is the central organisation of a decentralised and (partially) automated capturing of data and not the manual copying & pasting together in one place. This allows you to quickly and easily capture and transfer content.