Contextual marketing is about targeting the right recommendation or offer to the right person in the right context. What is unique about contextual marketing is that it expands targeting beyond just the “who” to include the “when”, “where”, and “what”.

The Right Person

Contextual marketing uses a specialized view of each individual consumer that extends beyond demographics. Usage data, product purchase behaviors, adoption tendencies, network data, social connectedness, location and movement intelligence, and psychographic and profile information can all be measured to define who a customer is, and in conjunction with contextual information, what their needs are.

The Right Recommendation or Offer

You have a vast array of products, services, content, coupons, offers, apps, games, messages, etc., and you have millions of customers. How do you know which recommendation or offer is the best one for a specific customer and context? It comes down to analytics. By combining in-depth customer profiling with proprietary analytics, marketers can leverage a data-driven approach to determine the best customers and contexts for a specific product, service or content item. Think of contextual marketing as an intelligent way to solve a rather complex puzzle.

The Right Context

Understanding that someone’s needs are different, for example, on a Saturday afternoon while visiting a new city versus a Monday morning on the way to work is key to contextual marketing. Contextual marketing takes into account the best contexts for a recommendation, product offer, brand message, etc., for an individual customer. Those contexts may be time related—identifying that it is Sunday morning or that it’s when someone typically wakes up or is on their lunch hour. They may be location related—identifying that someone is in New York City or at home. They may be lifecycle related—identifying that someone is a new customer or recently added a new service. You may identify a behavioral context—someone has just topped up their account or is browsing the Internet. Or the context may be related to an external event e.g., stock market changes, pay day, a major sporting event, etc.

By leveraging in-depth customer profiling and predictive analytics to expand targeting beyond the “who" to include the “when”, “where”, and “what” recommendations can be based upon a real-time interest or need, allowing marketers to act in the context of a moment and provide customers access to products, services and content at the precise moment it matters most.