As I sit down to write this, it occurs to me that blog posts in the not-too-distant future may be auto-generated, thanks to marketing automation.
Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) are starting to have a real impact on the marketing landscape, driving new levels of customer experience. That’s why many of today’s B2B organisations are undergoing digital transformation to keep ahead of the curve.
Here’s a snapshot of the key digital enablers:
Marketing automation
Marketing automation platforms use predictive and AI technologies to anticipate buyer behaviours. You can use this technology to determine which prospects to focus on, when and what to send. It’s all about automating content to make it more targeted and cost-effective, which is why these platforms are used by 44% of today’s B2B brands.
Chatbots
Powered by AI, chatbots can automate your company’s basic customer service requests. They’re a great way to improve the customer experience by, for instance, helping people find an answer to a simple question. Plus, they free up your customer service agents’ time, allowing them to focus on more complex tasks.
End-to-end personalisation
Today’s B2B customers expect marketing material to be ultra-personalised. Using something as primitive as an email template is a no-no nowadays. Your content must be highly tailored to your customers’ unique interests at every interaction – from awareness to conversion and onwards.
Automated data analysis
To help you effectively personalise communications, sophisticated AI and machine learning techniques like clustering and natural language processing (NLP) provide a more in-depth analysis of consumer data. When you know a lot more about your customers, you can tailor your marketing material more closely to their precise needs, tastes and preferences.
Long-form content
Digital content should be succinct and to-the-point, right? Well not now. Content is becoming a lot longer and much more detailed, largely because it ranks well. In the last couple of years, Google has begun to favour long-form content on the assumption that it’s more analytical, useful and valuable for readers. Readers themselves tend to regard long content as better researched and more informative.
Video marketing
Video marketing is a powerful tool for B2B organisations looking to bring a more visual aspect to the buyer’s journey. Currently, 70% of B2B buyers watch videos as part of their product research before making a purchase.
Augmented reality (AR)
AR is particularly useful if your company has a physical product to demonstrate, or a visually impressive facility to tour. It can be a very compelling tool to support the B2B buyer’s journey, giving customers a virtual way to try before they buy.
Each of the above trends provides an exciting opportunity for B2B marketers. However, it’s only once you’ve integrated all these solutions into your overall digital transformation strategy that you’ll start to see the real results.
At onebite, our digital and creative teams pride themselves on designing and developing truly innovative digital solutions. Our creative approach is underpinned through a true technical understanding and passion for working collaboratively with our clients. If you are looking to develop a B2B marketing strategy or create powerful content that will resonate with your target audience, we can help. Please get in touch at hello@onebite.co.uk.
