5 Ways Artificial Intelligence Scales up B2B Sales & Marketing

5 Ways Artificial Intelligence Scales up B2B Sales & Marketing
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized every aspect of our lives & B2B marketing is no different.  Artificial Intelligence is the cognitive ability of a machine to evolve & perform certain functions that are often associated only with human intelligence based on the processing of certain algorithms by machines. The phenomenon is known as machine learning & has many sub-branches such as deep-learning neural networks. Cognitive marketing, delineating a paradigm shift in conventional realms of digital marketing as we know it, for good. According to a study published by Demandbase, 80% of the B2B marketers (at managerial level & above) believe that artificial intelligence will revolutionize the marketing industry over the next 5 years, starting from the current year. A forecast from Deloitte Global for 2019 stated that 70% of the B2B companies will gain AI capabilities through cloud-based enterprise software. Furthermore, by the end of 2020, 83% of the companies will have adopted cloud-based AI platforms. Only a few organizations across the globe have dared to shift to automated marketing solutions as oftentimes integrating AI with Inbound Marketing helps overcome the constraints of time, manpower & money. A study by Salesforce depicts that the probability of using Artificial Intelligence is more than twice as high for high-performing B2B companies than the underperforming ones. However, the irony of the hour is that only 13% of the B2B marketers are very confident about their knowledge of Artificial Intelligence (Source: EverString and Heinz Marketing), though 71% of them aim to use artificial intelligence to improve personalization. How Artificial Intelligence is Beneficial for B2B Sales & Marketing: Artificial Intelligence is prevalent like never before in optimizing the B2B marketing & sales endeavors. However, most of the B2B marketers are still ambiguous about what AI means & how it can be used to aid their day to day cores. Following are five ways AI can add value to B2B marketing: 1) Predicting Potential Customers: Once the B2B marketers plan to target a specific persona, they launch their targeting campaigns for generating leads. However, not all the customers who view the website of a company might actually be interested in availing of a product or a service. Segmenting the buyer persona into different clusters of prospects is important & this is where artificial intelligence steps in. The researching habits of modern buying prospects have evolved & accordingly search engines & social media platforms have devised algorithms to track their digital footprints. Tracking the researching habits of the buyer personas & dividing them into several clusters on the basis of their demographic, technographic, firmographic, fit-data, psychographic, cookie-data, intent data as well as on the basis of their past browsing history & buying preferences, helps the marketers run hyper-personalized campaigns for them. The target audiences can also be further refined based on local SEO trends. The marketers can leverage segment-specific content to captivate the attention of potential buyers & to guide them through the sales funnel by addressing their pain points. 2) Predictive Analytics:   The evolving researching habits of the customers & their extensive digital footprints generate a huge bulk of data which is scattered pretty much everywhere. While analyzing data is important, synchronizing data to tell the most relevant story is equally vital. Trend mapping & text analytics are indispensable elements of analytics. Predictive analytics can be used in predictive content creation which can, in turn, be used to run targeted campaigns for cluster-specific audiences. As the audiences are targeted & retargeted & are served hyper-personalized content through omnichannel marketing, they are more likely to make a quicker buying decision pertaining to a product or service which resonates with their pain-points. Predictive intelligence can thus be employed in precognitive marketing & can also be intertwined with real-time data assessed from various referral channels to add value to Real-Time Marketing. Be it Predictive Analytics or its specialized purviews such as predictive content, predictive intelligence or Real-Time Marketing, understanding, refining & intermingling trends from data with real-time trends gives the marketers useful insights about taking wiser & quicker business decisions. 3) Hyper-Personalization across Omnichannel: The potential buyers for B2B brands are everywhere; ranging from websites to social media platforms to even on informative websites like Quora, the modern buyers don’t leave any stone unturned while researching for their buying preferences. The content through campaigns, whether automated or semi-automated, needs to be fed to their prospects in their own preferred way & on their preferred platforms. The marketers, therefore, need to run campaigns based on artificial intelligence insights on all the social media channels as well as on additional referral channels fetching in website traffic or adding to the number of prospects on the social media platforms. Running hyper-personalized campaigns helps B2B marketers in captivating the attention of the users & in improving their experiences which ultimately leads to Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). 4) Improving Lead Generation: Developing & running targeted ad-campaigns helps the B2B marketers in increasing the adeptness & in improving the quality of their lead generation campaigns. This, in turn, helps the marketers in building a strong pipeline of leads, targeted at optimizing the sales’ conversions. 5) Improving the Return on Investment (ROI) & the Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI): According to a report by Hubspot, closing a sales lead is the prime objective of 71% of the salespeople. While the conclusive aim of the marketers is to improve the return on their investment by optimizing the sales revenue; optimizing the return on individual marketing campaigns is also essential. Nobody wants to invest in marketing campaigns wherein they have to spend more than they receive in return. Running highly targeted campaigns helps B2B marketers to optimize their ROI as well as the ROMI. According to a study by Narrative Science, 61% of the business executives with an innovation strategy stated that they use data to connect the dots between their marketing & sales endeavors that would otherwise be missed. Conclusion According to a research report by Markets & Markets, the AI market will grow to an industry worth $190 billion by 2025. Moreover, a report by Forbes states that 84% of the marketers affirm that having a well-defined AI–apparatus will help them to obtain or sustain a competitive advantage.  Assimilating AI into marketing & sales not only helps bridge the gap between marketing & sales teams but also, in turn, helps in budgeting, planning, executing & forecasting vital marketing campaigns. We, at Valasys Media, provide Business Intelligence Services which are aimed towards giving our clients a competitive edge over their competitors as well as providing them with better analytical insights. Furthermore, our content syndication, list building & lead generation services are based on predictive analytical insights that cumulatively hyper-personalize the end-user experience & help our clients accomplish their bottom-line goal of optimizing the return on investment from their marketing & sales endeavors.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized every aspect of our lives & B2B marketing is no different.  Artificial Intelligence is the cognitive ability of a machine to evolve & perform certain functions that are often associated only with human intelligence based on the processing of certain algorithms by machines. The phenomenon is known as machine learning & has many sub-branches such as deep-learning neural networks.

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Image Courtesy: shanebarker.com

The cognitive functions of machines are leveraged by B2B marketers in pre-cognitive marketing, delineating a paradigm shift in conventional realms of digital marketing as we know it, for good.  According to a study published by Demandbase, 80% of the B2B marketers (at managerial level & above) believe that artificial intelligence will revolutionize the marketing industry over the next 5 years, starting from the current year.

A forecast from Deloitte Global for 2019 stated that 70% of the B2B companies will gain AI capabilities through cloud-based enterprise software. Furthermore, by the end of 2020, 83% of the companies will have adopted cloud-based AI platforms.

Only a few organizations across the globe have dared to shift to automated marketing solutions as oftentimes integrating AI with Inbound Marketing helps overcome the constraints of time, manpower & money.

A study by Salesforce depicts that the probability of using Artificial Intelligence is more than twice as high for high-performing B2B companies than the underperforming ones. However, the irony of the hour is that only 13% of the B2B marketers are very confident about their knowledge of Artificial Intelligence (Source: EverString and Heinz Marketing), though 71% of them aim to use artificial intelligence to improve personalization.

How Artificial Intelligence is Beneficial for B2B Sales & Marketing:

Artificial Intelligence is prevalent like never before in optimizing the B2B marketing & sales endeavors. However, most of the B2B marketers are still ambiguous about what AI means & how it can be used to aid their day to day cores.

Following are five ways AI can add value to B2B marketing:

1) Predicting Potential Customers:

Once the B2B marketers plan to target a specific persona, they launch their targeting campaigns for generating leads. However, not all the customers who view the website of a company might actually be interested in availing of a product or a service.

Segmenting the buyer persona into different clusters of prospects is important & this is where artificial intelligence steps in.

The researching habits of modern buying prospects have evolved & accordingly search engines & social media platforms have devised algorithms to track their digital footprints. Tracking the researching habits of the buyer personas & dividing them into several clusters on the basis of their demographic, technographic, firmographic, fit-data, psychographic, cookie-data, intent data as well as on the basis of their past browsing history & buying preferences, helps the marketers run hyper-personalized campaigns for them.

The target audiences can also be further refined based on local SEO trends. The marketers can leverage segment-specific content to captivate the attention of potential buyers & to guide them through the sales funnel by addressing their pain points.

2) Predictive Analytics:  

The evolving researching habits of the customers & their extensive digital footprints generate a huge bulk of data which is scattered pretty much everywhere. While analyzing data is important, synchronizing data to tell the most relevant story is equally vital.

Trend mapping & text analytics are indispensable elements of analytics. Predictive analytics can be used in predictive content creation which can, in turn, be used to run targeted campaigns for cluster-specific audiences.

As the audiences are targeted & retargeted & are served hyper-personalized content through omnichannel marketing, they are more likely to make a quicker buying decision pertaining to a product or service which resonates with their pain-points.

Predictive intelligence can thus be employed in precognitive marketing & can also be intertwined with real-time data assessed from various referral channels to add value to Real-Time Marketing.

Be it Predictive Analytics or its specialized purviews such as predictive content, predictive intelligence or Real-Time Marketing, understanding, refining & intermingling trends from data with real-time trends gives the marketers useful insights about taking wiser & quicker business decisions.

3) Hyper-Personalization across Omnichannel:

The potential buyers for B2B brands are everywhere; ranging from websites to social media platforms to even on informative websites like Quora, the modern buyers don’t leave any stone unturned while researching for their buying preferences.

The content through campaigns, whether automated or semi-automated, needs to be fed to their prospects in their own preferred way & on their preferred platforms.

The marketers, therefore, need to run campaigns based on artificial intelligence insights on all the social media channels as well as on additional referral channels fetching in website traffic or adding to the number of prospects on the social media platforms.

Running hyper-personalized campaigns helps B2B marketers in captivating the attention of the users & in improving their experiences which ultimately leads to Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).

4) Improving Lead Generation:

Developing & running targeted ad-campaigns helps the B2B marketers in increasing the adeptness & in improving the quality of their lead generation campaigns. This, in turn, helps the marketers in building a strong pipeline of leads, targeted at optimizing the sales’ conversions.

5) Improving the Return on Investment (ROI) & the Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI):

According to a report by Hubspot, closing a sales lead is the prime objective of 71% of the salespeople. While the conclusive aim of the marketers is to improve the return on their investment by optimizing the sales revenue; optimizing the return on individual marketing campaigns is also essential.

Nobody wants to invest in marketing campaigns wherein they have to spend more than they receive in return.

Running highly targeted campaigns helps B2B marketers to optimize their ROI as well as the ROMI.

According to a study by Narrative Science, 61% of the business executives with an innovation strategy stated that they use data to connect the dots between their marketing & sales endeavors that would otherwise be missed.

Conclusion

According to a research report by Markets & Markets, the AI market will grow to an industry worth $190 billion by 2025. Moreover, a report by Forbes states that 84% of the marketers affirm that having a well-defined AI–apparatus will help them to obtain or sustain a competitive advantage.  Assimilating AI into marketing & sales not only helps bridge the gap between marketing & sales teams but also, in turn, helps in budgeting, planning, executing & forecasting vital marketing campaigns.
We, at Valasys Media, provide Business Intelligence Services which are aimed towards giving our clients a competitive edge over their competitors as well as providing them with better analytical insights. Furthermore, our content syndication, list building & lead generation services are based on predictive analytical insights that cumulatively hyper-personalize the end-user experience & help our clients accomplish their bottom-line goal of optimizing the return on investment from their marketing & sales endeavors.

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