The digital transformation of commerce brings new challenges, but also opportunities for companies on a global scale. Because consumers want instant, rich, and personalized experiences as they scan the digital marketplace for products that can meet their highly set expectations. What used to be a predictable and predominantly linear customer journey is now fragmented across several devices and channels.

In these times of revolutionary digital change, the giants of the digital era help us to understand the high expectations of consumers of today, and how we as vendors must act in terms of providing the best possible experiences.

But there are others to guide us here. Adobe, for example, has minted the concept of “Last Millisecond Marketing” which gives marketers the opportunity to be either the lead or just average. Last Millisecond Marketing comes down to this as an event is triggered, either by clicking a link, logging into a site, entering a web page, loading an app, etc., only milliseconds after the action has been made, the consumer has right to get the, personalized experience delivered.

Adobe suggests that we need to execute on four key pillars:

•    Listen – to the signals of what consumers are trying to tell us
•    Predict – based on these signals we have, predict the experience to deliver
•    Assemble – pull the optimal content together for a personalized experience
•    Deliver – provide the experience to the consumer in a context that makes sense

You need to understand where your customers are spending their time, not only in physical locations but in social, app stores, etc. Every interaction through any touch point is truly relevant. You need to think about when and how they try to interact with you, and in what way they try and want to do so. You need to think about every digital use case – from a PC, tablet, phone, car, store, etc., and deliver a personalized experience in that instance between an action and the next step in the consumer’s journey. It is clear that you need to go to your customers, or they will not come to you.

In a similar fashion, Google declares that life is lived through micro-moments. These are the moments where consumers suddenly have an urge to get inspired, to learn, get information, or even to buy something that will either help us or just to make us satisfied. These micro-moments dictate the way consumers act. They have dramatically fragmented the customer journey. What used to be a linear path of making a purchase is not anymore. And right now, people all over the world are trying to make the most of every moment. The question that Google asks is – are you there to satisfy their needs?

Today, marketers have so much data at their disposal. They are not really asked to do more with less, but rather, do more with more. They need to connect the dots of all the data that they have at hand in order to deliver the most compelling offering, in the right moment, across exactly the right channels – where the consumer expects to find it.

This is where the Product Information Management (PIM) is added as a crucial part of the equation. A PIM solution is designed to put marketing organizations in control of the creation and flow of consistent product information across all channels. Successful companies rely on PIM to make sure that the right content, for any type of interaction, through any touch point, can be delivered in the exact millisecond or micro-moment, exactly when the consumer expects a personalized experience.

Where marketers can connect the dots to deliver great content in these moments, which is where the big results start to happen. When companies engage in every touch point, to deliver great consumer experiences, it can make a real difference to the business.

Getting Ready for the Era of Millisecond Marketing

It’s not difficult to see where the trends are leading us. Marketing becomes a whole new game when the content can be created instantly, distributed and then changed according to the needs of the customers. The companies require not only recruiting the right people but also needing to use the right tools. Making the right environment and finding technology that plays well together so that the data can be converted top content and the content back to data is very critical for them. All this coupled with real-time customer information and the insights they share on social network day in and day out is the key. Without the right data and information, even the best AI systems fail.

The end game is not very clear but one thing is for sure that Marketing which was a creative and considered as a human function for a very long time is fast becoming a technical one. Ultimately it all comes to a matter of milliseconds.

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