It’s undeniable but true: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is all set to disrupt B2B marketing. Are marketers across the globe smart enough to use this trend to their advantage?
According to the latest research numbers published by DemandBase, 80% of all marketers predict that artificial intelligence will revolutionize marketing by 2020. However, only 10% seem to be reaping the benefits of AI in B2B marketing today.
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The Secret is in Getting Value Out of The Data
As a marketer, you are most likely spending a lot of time reviewing and analysing data in order to derive insights of customers and prospects. This is where Artificial Intelligence comes in handy. AI models are capable of taking on the complicated analyses and data crunching to model the ‘what- if’ scenarios in your marketing – this provides information that is actionable almost immediately.
A targeting and personalisation firm, DemandBase used AI to remove companies from its prospects list that would possibly end up with the company losing money in the future. AI proved most beneficial for this organization, highlighting accounts that were worthy of pursuit. This is what DemandBase’s VP of ABM Strategy, Jessica Fewless remarked at a B2B Marketing Conference – “We’re a stats-based company and if they churn from us in less than a year we lose money on them. So, we took the elements that made those customers churn and removed them from our model.”
Key takeaway for marketers: Find the companies that are investing in areas relevant to you and your business, and the ones that have the most potential in adding to your organization’s value. With all the insights that AI provides, you will also be able to identify the clients or accounts that are most likely to generate profit for you.
It’s All About Unique Recommendations
The world’s more successful companies such as Amazon and Netflix thrive on their ability to provide highly personalised content recommendations. This is the most promising use of AI-driven marketing. AI-based systems have the ability to continually read into preferences and tailor-make recommendations.
Let’s take the case of ServiceMax, a field service technology vendor acquired by GE. Their biggest challenge was finding the right content to cater to their customers’ different needs. ServiceMax, in partnership with DemandBase, implemented Reinforcement Learning that helped decrease bounce rates by 70%. It also increased the time-on-site and pages-per-session by more than 100%.
Key Takeaway for Marketers: Capture audience’s attention by providing recommendations based on their personal preferences and likes. Boost engagement rates of your digital campaigns by using the power of AI algorithms.
It’s the Age of 24/7 “Customised” Support
We are in an age where we expect and demand customer service 24/7 every day of the year. This rise in customer expectations means that sales and customer service teams need to equip themselves and meet this challenge. AI to the rescue again – with help from conversational AI platforms (CAPs) or chatbots.
Artesian Solutions, a UK-based sales insights company reaped big rewards with CAPs. Artesian’s AI solution “Arti” analysed millions of online data sources to derive insights. These insights helped build better relationships and sales behaviour. In the very first month of its launch, Arti was viewed 2000 times, was asked more than 3500 questions, and was involved in as many as 1000 sessions with 750 unique visitors. Says Stuart Newton, Director of Marketing, Artesian Solutions, “It has been well received by our customers, prospects and partners, who continue to improve Arti’s cognitive ability and effectiveness as a lead-generation tool, just by asking questions about Artesian.”
Key Takeaway for Marketers: Invest in AI-enabled chatbots that can record customer conversations. This will help build the analysis that will eventually contribute to better lead generation.
Content, Still The Undisputable King
Trends may come and go, but one thing that remains constant is the pivotal role content holds in marketing. Be it B2C or B2B, quality content will never go out of fashion in today’s consumerist world. Organisations are churning out more content than ever. The result? Some end up being not-so-good quality content. AI has a solution for this too.
VMware, in the process of scaling its operations a few years go, had to ensure that its content grew by a considerable amount. A total of 120 technical writers and 5 editors were responsible for more than 400 pieces of content being released per year. Their small team of editors weren’t able to cope up with the huge volume of content, being able to focus only on 1% of the total output. AI-enabled content solution Acrolinx came to their rescue. With Acrolinx, VMware was able to automate basic editing operations, giving its editors time and space to do higher-value activities. About 73% of VMware employees said the AI solution helped improve the quality of the content they produced. “It really helped focus resources and attention on improving the content quality where it will have the most impact,” says Laura Bellamy, VMware’s director of information experiences.
Key Takeaway for Marketers: Include AI-enabled solutions in your content creation to automate basic and mundane tasks. This will help free up your time and energy to concentrate on other important aspects of your marketing efforts such as developing a compelling marketing strategy.
It’s Time to Embrace AI in Your B2B Marketing Strategy
Change always finds resistance, especially when it involves adapting to unfamiliar technology. But, what AI brings to the table is the power to deliver breakthroughs to your marketing strategy; minimize the effort needed by automating tasks that are routine and otherwise time-consuming for humans to accomplish. It is time to embrace AI in your B2B marketing to open doors to endless possibilities of lead generation and delivering invaluable customer experience.
We’ve worked with several B2B enterprises to help propel their marketing strategy by providing useful analytical insights. For B2B marketing services backed by analytics, do get in touch with us.
Here’s an in-depth guide on understanding the technology that, we thought you may find interesting.
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