While some business owners and managers are leery of new technology, the upside of marketing technology (martech) is smoother business operations and more sales and profits. The time and money invested in martech enable a business to thrive and grow, almost effortlessly. Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the marketing landscape in many ways as smart companies invest to stay ahead of the competition.
How Is AI Changing the Marketing Landscape?
The number of marketers using AI appears to be a fraction of those who say they are, according to a pair of AI studies done by Salesforce and Bright Edge. The Salesforce studyOpens a new window found that over 50 percent of marketing professionals are using AI in some form, while the Bright Edge studyOpens a new window puts the number at just 4 percent. Why the discrepancy? Claire McDermottOpens a new window of Mantis Research notes, “Many marketers are confused about which tech is genuinely AI-powered.†Marketers need to learn more about AI to reap the benefits it offers, and understand what it can do to help.
Today’s smartest marketers using AI in a number of different ways, bringing “work harder, not smarter†to the forefront of marketing strategy. AI offers a business keen insight into customer behaviors and patterns, cutting the hard work of market research by doing all the heavy lifting. According to Whitehot MarketingOpens a new window , AI gathers, calculates, and analyzes data in a fraction of the time human marketers could. Using AI algorithms allows marketing pros to create customer personas to build deep connections and better brand loyalty, as well as develop the best user experience.
Should Businesses Invest in Martech?
A recent Forbes article answered this question with this headline: If MarTech Isn’t On Your ‘Must Invest’ List This Year, Your Business Could Suffer.Opens a new window The article goes on to point out the loss in productivity that hesitation to embrace martech can cost a business, and how marketing automation tools help a team ramp up their activities, move forward, grow more quickly, and increase profits. For instance, a simple tool like an automated email program makes a tremendous impact on the time spent nurturing leads. Email automation is just the tip of the AI iceberg, and today there are solutions for almost every area of marketing, from social media to content marketing, and CRM to data management. In other words, the grunt work of marketing can be automated while freeing up real people to handle tougher tasks, like closing sales.
Technology has made the adoption of martech much simpler than most people think, integrating seamlessly with most tools already in use. Better yet, almost all martech solutions are web-based, so they are easy to use and constantly updated, while the investment is minimal.
Where Is Predictive Marketing Going in the Future?
One of the greatest efficiencies that AI allows is predictive marketing and analytics. Predictive analysis is growing rapidly due to bigger data, advancing technology and science, greater awareness, and better computers. People buying products based on the computer’s suggestion when ordering online understand the power of predictive marketing. It uses customer behavior and preferences to offer up items they’d be interested in. This data also helps businesses more reliably predict conversions.
For companies, this use of big data tells them which leads are most likely to convert, so marketers and salespeople focus on the most valuable. Already, companies are using AI and analytics services to search social networks, web pages, and public databases to score more info about their customers and prospects. Combining this vast amount of data with internal automation platforms will only lead to more accuracy as AI and machine learning continue to scour databases and feed out the best information to marketing teams. Obviously, smart business owners and managers should opt in to martech, ASAP!