What does the future of B2B marketing look like? Not just the trends and tips that are coming up in the new year, but what the landscape of marketing looks like and what new innovations are changing how marketers approach their positions.
The Future of Marketing
The future of B2B marketing has actually started, thanks to the implementation of automation. Automation tools allow marketers to set up tasks and emails to send to their prospective customers, while also keep track of metrics of their opens and sign-ups. But automation is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how B2B marketers can embrace emerging technology to better sell themselves.
You’ve probably heard about the rise in AI and predictive analytics that are being used in different industries, like manufacturing or retail, but these tools are extremely useful for marketing, regardless of industry or business type. But how? How do incredibly knowledgeable computers help marketers target customers?
Artificial Intelligence Marketing
If you aren’t sure what AI means for your marketing efforts, you aren’t alone. In a study by Everstring, many marketers are unclear of what AI means and the impact it could have on their marketing and business objectives. 32% aren’t confident in their AI knowledge, often not understanding the differences in the types of AI, like machine learning or predictive modeling. And because it’s an emerging trend, there’s a lot of confusion on the concepts to recreate the best value.
49% currently don’t have a role for AI in their organizations, though 30.5% are looking at opportunities in the market. 37% aren’t sure what the differences were, however 43.6% were becoming more confident in that knowledge. AI can bring greater efficiencies to your marketing operations including:
- Identifying ideal customer opportunities
- Improving data quality
- Predictive modeling
The first two are critical areas for marketers – our research arm, C3 Tech Targeting, recently conducted research that noted finding quality leads is a consistent challenge for marketers.
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In the research by Everstring, they discovered that 59% of marketers expected AI to help identify prospective customers, while 71% are interested in using it for personalization.
Predictive Marketing Analytics
Another big trend is that of predictive analytics. But what exactly is predictive analytics and how does it impact marketing?
There actually is a term called predictive marketing analytics, which combines both predictive analytics and predictive marketing:
- Predictive analytics is the use of data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning to identify the likelihood of future outcomes based on historical data. This basically means having an idea of what will happen in the future based on what already happened.
- Predictive marketing is the practice of extracting information from existing customer data to determine a pattern to predict future outcomes.
You can see from these definitions that these two strive towards the same goal – being proactive in discovering what can be learned for customers of the future. Using predictive marketing/predictive models help marketers properly identify, focus, and grow their customer base, with a focus on segmentation.
Learning specific customer behavior is an important factor for marketers, so they are able to better focus on what their customers are looking for and how it can be delivered. With predictive analytics, marketers can ensure that the right resources are used at the right time to pursue the right prospects; it looks at and makes sense of the data by filling in each prospect in a complete and detailed form, for a more robust profile.
Another aspect of predictive analytics is the improvement of sales performance and forecasting. This method makes use of correlations to predict outcomes and other factors to help both the marketing and sales teams to discover which prospective customers will close on a deal and which customers the sales team need to speak to next, what they should say, and other key pointers.
Lastly, predictive analytics can help determine customer responses for your marketing campaigns. This ties back to understanding customer behavior from above, helping marketers determine how a particular lead – or future leads – will respond at a later date. This means you can share the right resources during the customer’s purchasing path.
What does all this mean?
Now that you have a general idea of what AI and predictive analytics are and what they can do for marketing, the next question is how will this work for your marketing campaigns and strategies?
A perfect example of using these tools in marketing is related to data – as we’ve noted, finding quality leads is still a challenge for marketers, but with AI and predictive analytics, marketers can predict the success of campaigns. Above all, the use of both of these tools is to help marketers and organizations make better decisions, which help to further the initiatives and success of business.
Resources
3 Reasons Why B2B Marketers Should Use Predictive Analytics in 2018
The State of AI in B2B Marketing
Predictive Analytics for Right-Brained Marketers
