Are your marketing teams tired of hearing about AI? To some degree, we all are. It's part of the hype cycle for any new technology.
Marketing teams now find themselves surrounded by AI. It's coming from all directions. Most notably, with the introduction of ChatGPT, AI is now available to anyone who wants to use it.
But ChatGPT isn't the only AI game in town. There are now countless AI-powered tools available to marketers that can help improve productivity, automate manual tasks, analyze data, and more.
Fortunately for marketers and business users in other areas of the business, software vendors are rapidly working to incorporate AI into existing applications. This means deploying AI requires less rip-and-replacement of tools and bigger budgets than other new technologies.
Introducing AI into applications also means that the AI assistants and co-pilots we see today are likely to become just part of the functionality of martech platforms over time. There is also potential for consolidation in the AI field and the continued introduction of tools specifically designed for industries such as marketing. It's all part of the technology lifecycle.
Today, marketers have no shortage of AI options to categorize, either as standalone apps or as features in their existing stacks. The AI-powered tools your team uses will depend on what they're trying to do and their access to tools to help them do it.
Where possible, vendor mentions in this article link to video examples of the AI capabilities built into the tool.
Let's dig deeper: 3 ways B2B marketers can use generative AI
Benefits of AI for marketing organizations
According to research from The Conference Board and Ragan Communications, 68% of marketers use AI at least “some of the time” in their daily work. That's not surprising. Many marketers proudly liken themselves to “Swiss Army knives.” We move from task to task, from manipulating data to creating content. That means you'll regularly rely on AI-powered tools and features to get it all done.
Broadly speaking, there are three ways marketing teams can benefit from leveraging AI.
- Improved efficiency.
- Enhanced targeting.
- Improved ROI.
Increased efficiency
How many of the things you do every day could be done faster with a little help from AI? I'm guilty of spending the majority of my time on it.
AI assistants like Motion and Clockwise can help you manage your calendar and to-do list, freeing up your time to do more valuable work. Jasper can help you research and write copy for your campaigns and social media posts. Grain helps you take better notes in meetings. These are important daily tasks for the average marketer, but they tend to consume more time than they provide value.
Enhanced targeting
Combining AI and predictive analytics enables deeper and faster segmentation of customer data. AI helps you segment your customers into appropriate target groups or personas based on the data you collect. AI can also help plan the next offer, action, or step in the customer journey.
Customer data platforms (CDPs) are rapidly adding AI capabilities that provide better insights into customer preferences and activities.
Improved ROI
Combining AI's ability to automate manual tasks and improve efficiency with its ability to quickly make decisions about targeting and audience segmentation will improve ROI across marketing, including both marketing technology and talent ( ROI).
As vendors add more AI capabilities to martech tools and ultimately create AI-powered user interfaces, marketing teams will be able to move faster and get more out of their technology and talent. .
Let’s take a look at a specific use case for AI in marketing.
Let's dig deeper: 6 ways to use generative AI in marketing
Marketing copywriting using AI
Writing copy for ads, social media, emails, and more is a daily chore for many marketers. Each of these tactics has different requirements in terms of length, tone, and function. It takes time to develop solid ideas, iterate through different versions, and apply winners to each tactic or channel. AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Jasper can help.
Many of the AI tools that help marketers write copy can act like therapists, especially if you're struggling to find ideas that work. Just give the bot details about your product, target audience, message tone, and character and word limits. At least these tools will help you get started.
It's also useful for telling generative AI tools what role they're performing as part of the prompt. Start the prompt with something like “You are a copywriter on his B2B marketing team…” to help the bot understand your role in the process. Next, add information about your target audience, your offer, and the action you want them to take (download, call, sign up, etc.).
Generative AI tools allow you to iterate faster, expand testing possibilities, and most importantly, save time. However, keep in mind that bots may take some liberties with the information you provide. So carefully read the copy the bot returns to make sure it doesn't make unsupportable claims or create product features that don't exist.
The responses of generative AI tools can also be quite formulaic. If you notice that all your LinkedIn posts created by your generative AI tool follow the same structure, fine-tune your prompts and provide clear instructions for the new format.
Data analysis using AI
Today's marketers are surrounded by data. This is the result of campaign measurements, lead generation reports, email marketing campaigns, and website forms. Data is of little use without tools to help teams understand it.
However, an equally important question is how long it takes to analyze large datasets. The time it takes to gain an insight is the time you spend not using that insight. As mentioned earlier, AI can help marketing teams automate some time-consuming manual tasks. Data analytics is another example where AI acts as an accelerator.
ChatGPT is a generative AI tool, and one of the things it can generate is data analysis. However, ChatGPT is a text-based tool, so input and output are in text format. Fortunately for marketers like you, AI is being introduced into the platforms that store and analyze your data.
Tableau introduced Tableau Pulse in early 2024 to make AI-driven capabilities more accessible to users with limited experience with data visualization platforms and AI.
Microsoft is introducing AI-powered features in its Power BI and Excel products to make complex analysis easier for users.
Google's Looker helps you turn large datasets into easy-to-understand visual reports and dashboards.
Existing data analysis tools may be your best bet for finding AI-powered features. These tools are already familiar to your team, so before building a business case for your shiny new object, take a look at what's currently available internally or coming soon from your vendor's roadmap. please.
Other applications of AI in marketing
AI is appearing almost everywhere in the marketing stack. In addition to the examples above, there are also AI capabilities that can assist marketers.
graphic design
AI-powered image generation and manipulation is becoming popular. Popular platforms like Canva are adding AI features that help marketers handle some design tasks, always saving valuable professional design resources for more valuable projects. Masu.
Software integration
Need to connect different data sources in your marketing stack? Marketers have long turned to tools like Zapier to easily connect applications. As MarTech contributor Milt Hwang demonstrated, Zapier's AI-enhanced user interface makes these integrations easy by simply writing what you want the tool to do. It will be.
customer experience
The drawback of many CRM implementations is that data is entered but rarely output as often as required. AI will help change this, as we no longer rely on humans to know what's in the CRM. Salesforce's Einstein AI turns data in your CRM into highly personalized experiences.
Where will AI have the biggest impact on teams?
How your team ultimately uses AI will depend on where your resources are needed and which processes are taking up the most time. We can all benefit from faster insights, and if your team lacks analytics talent, AI can help fill the gap. The same goes for content production and design work.
It's important for marketing leaders to understand how their teams are using AI. Over the past few years, the introduction of cloud-based applications has given rise to “shadow IT,” where teams and employees add applications on their own faster than their IT organization or information security team can keep up.
Don’t allow the use of AI to grow in the shadows and increase risk. Take advantage of it and turn it into a strategic advantage.
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