In my last post, I talked about how the stage is set for business-to-consumer communications to evolve and bring about a whole new level of interaction between businesses and customers. Each interaction – regardless of the type or purpose – stands to be affected by this evolution. For example, the way we think about relevance in marketing campaigns will change.

Today, we typically think of campaign relevance in terms of:
1. who is the recipient (i.e. audience/segment)?
2. what impression do we create for the recipient (e.g. personalization)?
3. where is the recipient in the relationship life cycle?
4. why are we communicating with the recipient (i.e. context, such as past purchases)?
5. when are we communicating to the recipient (e.g. in response to some action taken by the recipient)

In an evolved state of customer communication that leverages multiple digital communication channels, a new dimension of relevance emerges, based on an expanded definition of “where” and “when”. “Where” will no longer refer simply to the recipient's place within the lifecycle, but will also refer to the recipient's physical location at a particular moment in time. Similarly “when” will no longer be dictated by the business – it will dictated by where you are physically, and the opportunity associated with your physical location at a point in time. In other words, where will (in part) dictate when.

For example, imagine walking past a bookstore and receiving a text message containing a coupon for 25% off of a new book written by the same author as other books you’ve purchased. While this may resemble the scene from the futuristic movie Minority Report, where Tom Cruise’s character walks into a GAP store and is welcomed by a holographic image of a sales person that knows his purchase history, the pieces are nearly all in place to support this type of presence-based targeting (less the holographic sales person).

What’s in it for business? For starters, survival. In a recent Forrester Research report titled "Experienced-Based Differentiation," there are two statements in particular that underscore the eventuality of what I’m suggesting:

“Consumers increasingly use more digital channels to connect with companies.”

“When customers interact with companies across a number of different touch points, they view these interactions as part of a continuous relationship that occurs over time.”

And while reaching consumers with specific messages based on their location may result in some incremental improvement in your conversion rates, there is still risk in overloading the recipient with messages and alienating them. Not surprisingly, marketing's golden rule of relevance still applies in a multi digital messaging channel world: Sending tailored messages based on a customer's stated preferences, past purchases and other pertinent data helps establish long term profitable relationships.