AI Is A Reality For B2B Marketing - How Do We Embrace It (Safely)?

AI, short for Artificial Intelligence, is transforming how we work. Many new tools are available to help develop code for an app or a website, generate ad copy, video, and more.

For those of us in marketing, we need to pay close attention to AI, use the tools, and integrate them with our best practices. Some AI tools are good, but most are not. That will change. Quickly.

Table of Contents

1. What is AI?
2. What Do These Trends Mean For B2B Marketing?
3. What Should You Do?
4. Contact the Experts at GrowthHive.
   

1. What Is AI?

To oversimplify, type any question in natural language into an AI chat box, and you’ll get a response that you can use to develop your newsletter, blog post, or other written content. For now, these tools rely on open systems called learning networks. As you type in your chat request, ensure you don’t use confidential information because everyone can access it.

Therefore, I recommend meeting with your teams and setting some parameters. For example, we developed simple rules in our employee handbook to protect our client's intellectual property (IP) and other confidential information. Again, we want to be at the forefront, but we need "guard rails" to maintain our corporate values of providing our clients with Quality, Stability, and Value.

As AI’s importance grows, the convergence of privacy preferences and cyber security is becoming significant. That’s because technology giants adapt to consumer preferences and laws and regulations by making their products and tools safer and better daily. It simply means that the traditional ways of engaging with prospects are changing rapidly. For instance, new phones have privacy settings that block tracking users’ activities. The same applies to spam filters.

Assuming that your message goes through, corporate rules around cybersecurity, such as “do not open links from unknown emails,” are impacting campaign metrics.

2. What Do These Trends Mean For B2B Marketing?

In short, we need to go back to basics. We can see that excellent content still works and that we need dedicated campaigns with “smart” targeting based on job titles to reach the most responsive audience and generate strong results. We also see that the mix of channels is evolving based on demographics and media preferences. The key is to have a strong marketing calendar, with segmentation and relevant messaging at its core. One message for all does not cut it any longer.

Lastly, the measure of campaign success should be website traffic and form completions. These two “bookends” are still measurable and provide objective data if you build segmented campaigns with landing pages for each audience.

The alphabet soup of metrics in the middle that has been the norm up to now (e.g., CPC, CPM, CTR) is becoming much less insightful due to the privacy settings of users, especially on mobile devices, and corporate security requirements (e.g., servers, email policies). Keep an eye on them for now, but bad data can lead to bad decisions.

3. What Should You Do?

Looking into the data from the past 2-3 years for dozens of our clients, we can conclude that prospects open a separate browser (safe) window and type in something about what they just read from our campaign. We don’t know who they are yet, but there’s a high correlation between campaigns and traffic on the website. You want to start there by making sure you have the tools to see who’s visiting your site.

Finally, develop segmented content, review your distribution channels, develop frictionless conversion paths, and follow the customer journey within a prospect’s respective segment.

I mentioned ”smart” messaging above. Personas are just the beginning. You also need to find out where prospects with various job titles go for new ideas or find data for new projects. (i.e., watering holes) You also need to craft messaging around a triangle of buyers, “specifiers,” and managers (influencers). You then need to find out the best way to reach them. Things have changed a lot. Emails are still relevant, but search engine marketing (SEM) is gaining fast with AI.

Unfortunately, focusing on SEO, SEM, CRM, AI, video, or any single technology or tactic is insufficient. You need an integrated marketing strategy that leverages tools instead of making the tools the focus of your strategy.

4. Contact the Experts at GrowthHive

Based on my experience, I suggest you look at your partners or teams and consider bringing in experts who understand your markets and can help you develop and implement a strategy using the best tools. Not every agency can do that.

For the past 30 years, I’ve been fortunate to develop and implement marketing strategies that use emerging technologies, starting with the web, then social networks, then machine learning, and now AI. I’d love to share my passion for developing new business opportunities or re-engaging with existing markets using these tools. That’s what GrowthHive is all about. Think of us as your strategic partner, and call us anytime.