As we move into a new decade, marketers are turning to tech more than ever. Notably, marketers are investing in CRM, automation and data. CRM has become a given, as 100% of high-growth companies use some sort of customer relationship management tool. And automation is on track to become just as ubiquitous, with 98% usage.
It’s been a tough couple of months. And the weeks and months ahead don’t look a whole lot better.
In addition to the health crisis, there have been work stoppages, bankruptcies, plant closings and sweeping cutbacks.
Then, you put customers in quarantine and suddenly, communicating with them becomes a real challenge.
That said, now, perhaps more than ever, it is critical to communicate effectively.
You certainly don’t want to come across as tone-deaf during this time. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still address your brand initiatives. So how do you do it? How should firms communicate during the COVID-19 crisis?
They say we’re all in this crisis together. That is true. But what we do with this time is what will separate “us” from “them” when things calm down.
That’s why, during these surreal times, smart marketers are taking a long, hard look at their marketing strategies. They’re making adjustments and changes now.
Today marketers need to take steps to close the gap between raw data, meaningful insights and real-time action, including:
People-Based MarTech relies on people-based targeting, replacing the need for and far exceeding the power of cookie-based data. Brands unlock a singular view of consumers, one that anchors all of the data discussed to a single email address.
From email marketing to automation, data analytics and innovative uses of artificial intelligence, marketing technologies are helping brands become stronger by engaging and communicating with their target audience on a whole new level.
Marketing and communications are in a rapid pace of ongoing transformation. The ability to track media, channel, and device consumption has never been greater. Marketers can now track and identify consumers across some offline and nearly all online behavior. They key to all of this? Marketing data. The immense amount of data available to marketers is growing more and more useful in the digital age. As marketing decisions become more complex and with shorter horizons, big data and other analytics capabilities become faster, more efficient, and more affordable for small businesses as well as enterprises. To help marketers make use of the data at their fingertips, we have broken down the various types of marketing data and how each can help your business.
Sound the death knell...
There is some truth in all of these statements. But, none of these statements reflects the true state of marketing.
Most utility companies are focused on improving their customer experience, enhancing their brand reputation and establishing themselves as thought leaders. Researchscape reports that the majority of consumers expect their utility to provide them with personalized advice. Educational content can be a useful technique to engage customers on a myriad of topics.
Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has been in use since the late 1990s. Although always a fascinating topic, it never amounted to much more than discussion. Today, we are in the midst of the AI boom. So why now? The short answer is the exponential growth of cheap, fast, scalable and interconnected computing and storage in the cloud. The horsepower and data to efficiently run AI algorithms is now with reach of everyone.
AI has been embedded across almost every product category in marketing technology. Most big data platforms, such as IBM Watson, are simple general-purpose technologies being harnessed in the service of marketing. It’s much more interesting to look at products like Equals 3 which leverages Watson behind the scenes to deliver marketing research, customer segmentation and media planning services. Products like these can help marketers create multichannel campaigns specifically tailored to their target audience by using data collection. Knowing what exactly artificial intelligence can offer is important. Here is a list of ten tools that AI can offer digital marketers to help automate and improve their marketing strategies.