In our age of information overload, engaging your audience is more challenging than ever. It often seems that novel digital experiences, such as interactive video and virtual reality, are the solutions to cutting through the noise. But even though they are immersive and exciting, those approaches don't always fit into customers' lifestyles.
Instead of diverting customers' attention elsewhere, brands can create more effective experiences by meeting customers where they're already spending time.
A New Era of Brand-Customer Relationships
Today's consumers check their phones a whopping 150 times per day and spend slightly under one minute per session, according to a Google study.
We use many of those sessions for checking the time or sending quick texts, but during others we take action on whatever we want or need right now. Those "I want to know," "I want to go," and "I want to do" moments are loaded with intent and immediacy. They are the moments when consumers expect brands to be timely, relevant, and useful.
Today, successful brands are taking advantage of this behavior with personalized marketing approaches that are tailored to consumers' daily habits. Case in point: calendars.
Why Calendars?
Calendars may not be the first thing that comes to mind when considering marketing channels, but they're one of the most ubiquitous digital platforms used today. They are installed on every mobile device, over 2.6 billion worldwide, and their reach rivals that of email, coming in at a close second.
Calendars inherently tap into consumer intent at an exact moment. As channels most closely tied to the physical world, telling us where we need to be and when, calendars drive meaningful engagement at the right times. In fact, consumers are 86% more likely to take action on something if a related event is in their calendar.
Calendar Marketing: The 'Last Mile' That Drives Action
That potential of calendars to reach audiences has led several companies to calendar innovations to help brands leverage them as a marketing channel.
For example, smart "add to calendar" buttons can be embedded on websites, emails, or social media accounts, allowing consumers to add dynamic events (e.g., promotions) to their own calendar. Among other innovations are the ability to send personalized calendar notifications (beyond the default 15-minute reminder alert), capture emails when consumers add to calendar, and access calendar analytics. Unsubscribe rates are less than 1%, and so brands can build strong relationships through ongoing communications.
Whether it's driving attendance to a webinar, traffic to a tradeshow booth, or logins to an application, marketers in various industries can leverage calendar capabilities to drive repeat engagement at specific times.
Best-Practices to Keep Customers Happy and Engaged
As you might've guessed, calendars aren't your typical marketing channel. Unlike traditional media, where people are accustomed to ads, the calendar is a much more personal medium. Irrelevant or generic content should be avoided to keep the customer experience as helpful as possible.
