(PS Note: This article is an extract of a panel discussion led by Harshal Patil - CEO of BTB Venture Group (in case of any questions, feel free to reach us at harshal.patil@btbventure.com)
Global digital marketing spending grew 17% last year to over $389 Billion. Customers are already overwhelmed with the growing digital communications overload, and as a result, 71% expect brands to personalize their experiences. McKinsey refers to digital personalization at scale as “Marketing’s Holy Grail”.
It is also used to transform creative processes, content personalization, NLPs, improve copyrighting, create multichannel engagement platforms to engage customers, and power dynamic pricing and demand forecasting.
The people have spoken. The one-to-one future of B2B marketing will compel marketers to think out of the box and create simpler, frictionless experiences for every customer, allowing them to self-educate and quickly navigate their respective journeys.
With real-time customer engagement becoming a top priority and the biggest challenge for B2B marketers, they will have to look to technological advances in AI and data-driven strategies to stay relevant and competitive. AI is not a solve-all solution to the challenges facing B2B marketers today or shortly. It is, however, a great way to maximize existing opportunities and uncover newer, more impactful methods to boost revenue, drive long-term growth and create customer advocates.
AI offers CMOs and their teams the ability to understand consumer wants sincerely; confidently create targeted, personalized campaigns that resonate; provide predictive customer service, and generate the growth C-suites expect. Today, a machine can understand what stories to tell, what emotions to convey, and how to combine them into a message that will systematically drive impact across every channel at every customer touchpoint.
Three “AI’s” are critical for marketers: • Automated integrations of data, processes, and external events intelligence to enable faster and real-time decision-making. • Actionable intelligence for organizations, powered by a powerful platform for developing insight. Augmented intent data that aggregates multiple data types per market to ensure that it can be easily understood and used by marketing and sales organizations. To prepare, businesses should standardize their definition of AI, assess their readiness for AI solutions, and define measurable and transparent ROIs for AI initiatives.
A few use cases:
Merging Online & Offline Customer Data
Driving Next-Best Offers in Real Time
Taking Customer Segmentation to the Next Level
Predictive Lead and Behavior Scoring
Engineering Powerful Programmatic Advertising
Personalizing Customer Journeys
Delivering Relevant Experiences on Every Channel
Campaign Performance Measurement and Optimization
What’s worse, AI's real, tangible, and practical benefits in a B2B marketing capacity are stubbornly obscure. Sure, there’s lots of talk about AI’s potential to transform B2B and enable better, faster, more robust results. Still, besides the often unsubstantiated claims of bandwagon-jumping vendors, actual evidence of this remains fragmented at best and outright elusive at worse. As a result, the hype (both negative and positive) overshadows reality.
(PS Note: This article is an extract of a panel discussion led by Harshal Patil - CEO of BTB Venture Group (in case of any questions, feel free to reach us at harshal.patil@btbventure.com)
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