With a shorter timeline and nearly instantaneous production times, internet marketing campaigns should never be out-of-date.

Traditional advertising was a long and slow process. Companies were investing so much time and money that they would have to spend weeks or months just planning a radio spot or newspaper ad. By the time their marketing materials were being shot or printed, businesses, markets and customers might have changed. Thankfully, the modern content marketing world allows for much more responsive design – if all of its moving pieces are in the proper place.

It’s time for real-time strategies

Real-time marketing is a relatively new development, but it isn’t too difficult to understand. It essentially means businesses can be fluid when it comes to individual customers. Thanks to the modern digital tools, production times and publication costs are comparatively lower. Instead of a lengthy printed playbook and an expensive delivery process to get the materials to most or all of a business’ clients, real-time marketers can respond to customers on-the-fly and in the moment.

A new survey by Econsultancy asked marketers to name the greatest benefits of real-time marketing.The most common answer (84 percent) was it offered a better customer experience. The next most frequent response, from 72 percent of those surveyed, was that real-time tools gave companies improved conversion rates. But how does this happen?

Customization whenever it’s needed

One reason is that online content offers personalized custom news for very specific demographic groups. In the past, companies couldn’t assume prospects would have access to all marketing materials in one place for easy reference. Now, you can send any relevant news articles, blog entries or social media posts depending on what questions leads are asking for at any given time.

Conversion rates also improve in real-time campaigns because content is constantly refreshing itself. There’s no need to worry a campaign, which has been plastered on posters and billboards all over town, is going stale or doesn’t work. Web marketing can pivot from one direction to another with ease, and do so at scale so businesses don’t go into the red changing advertising materials at the drop of a hat.

Alex Butzbach is a Marketing Writer at Brafton. He studied Communications at Boston College, and after a brief stint teaching English in Japan, he entered the world of content marketing. When he isn't writing and researching, he can be found on a bike somewhere in Metro Boston.