MarTech Landscape: What is RTIM?

The last thing marketing tech needs is another buzz term.

But one recently-emerged concept — Real-Time Interaction Management (RTIM) — is useful because it defines a clear view of digital marketing’s central goal: immediate context.

In this installment of MarTech Today’s MarTech Landscape Series, we explain what RTIM is — and why it clarifies what modern marketing is trying to do.

RTIM = Right now contextual marketing

What customers most want is information and offers about product and services, exactly when they need them.

If you’re walking without cover in the rain, what you really want is to find one of those guys selling umbrellas on the street.

If you’re a parent with an inquisitive four-year old whose birthday is coming up, a discount on a fun and educational toy would hit the spot. If you’re a twenty-something at a nighttime sports event with friends, what you’d really like to see are after-game specials at a nearby bar/restaurant.

Marketers have always tried to reach the right audiences with the right product, but addressable channels, personalized data, and decision engines that predict your upcoming needs make it more possible to address what you want — even before you know what that is.

That’s what Real-Time Interaction Management describes.

[Read the full article on MarTech Today.]

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.