The core activities of the marketing department—understanding customer needs, adapting them to products and services, and persuading people to buy—are all activities that AI can dramatically improve.
In recent years, we have seen that many CMOs are increasingly adopting technology. Moreover, a recent Salesforce study examining the use of generative AI in marketing found that 51% of marketing managers are currently using generative AI, and 22% plan to use it very soon. The same Salesforce study also found that marketing managers estimate that artificial intelligence will save them more than 5 hours of work per week.
Already, it's almost impossible to log on to LinkedIn or Twitter without seeing discussions from various marketing experts about the benefits and potential dangers of leveraging AI in marketing, with the main question that arises being: Will AI replace employees?
The short answer is no. Artificial intelligence won't take anyone's job anytime soon, but marketers who understand how to leverage the powers of AI will. Artificial intelligence can make employees' lives easier, and make them more productive, but the bottom line is that at the end of the technological system there must be a human being to oversee things, and we'll explain why. Before that, let's lay out some general foundations that will make it easier to understand why this is so.
What is the role of artificial intelligence in marketing?
Noam Ezra Salesforce./Netanel Tobias
When it comes to marketing, AI's role is to leverage customer and company data to improve marketing results and save teams time. Through deep learning, data analysis, and other machine learning processes, AI can be programmed to automate repetitive tasks, generate content, rank leads, and make informed marketing predictions.
"Marketing AI can be used at any stage of the customer journey and for all types of marketing, from product to content professionals. saysNoam Ezra, VP Regional Sales for B2B & B2C Solutions at Salesforce Israel. "And given that there are plenty of companies already incorporating AI into their marketing strategy, chances are you've already encountered AI in action in tools like lead generation chatbots, AI-written emails or ads, language translation and localization, and more." However, these are final products behind which stands meticulous work that begins much earlier, at the data collection stage.
So what is important to know before starting? Here are five rules of thumb that every marketing manager must consider.
1. A one-size-fits-all solution? There is not (yet) such an animal
Although marketers would love to download a marketing strategy with ready-made AI and simply implement, the truth is that each company needs to create its own strategy. Every company has its own unique challenges, opportunities, and audience, and will need to understand the gaps and strengths of its current marketing strategy in order to leverage an AI strategy.
2. Changes in the privacy landscape must be taken into account
In addition, in the near future the marketing landscape is going to change a lot with the downloading of cookies, something Apple has already done in its ecosystem, and Google has started the process these days. As well as ever-evolving privacy laws, companies now prioritize data they have obtained with consent, collected directly from their audiences as a basis for how they approach their customers. In the near future, data that has not been explicitly allowed to use will become redundant.
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3. It all starts with data
For all the reasons stated, in order to build an optimal marketing strategy, data is key. Artificial intelligence thrives on data. Companies need to constantly look for new data sources, internal and external, as high-quality data is essential for training machine learning models effectively. This process often consists of a combination of different interfaces between different advertising platforms in order to get a uniform picture with all customer data, such as LinkedIn, Google, Instagram, etc.
"Marketing managers are constantly in pursuit of new customers by delivering personalised experiences across all channels. This can only be achieved by accurate customer data," says Ezra. "At Salesforce, we recently launched new capabilities on the Data Cloud platform, which enable data from LinkedIn, Google Display and other sources, in addition to information coming from sales, service and marketing channels in real time. All this to automate personalised journeys across all channels to improve service, strengthen customer loyalty and drive brand sales on these platforms."
4. Strict integration and full transparency is not an option, it is a must
Implementing AI applications, even the simplest ones, can present challenges for companies. Incorporating any type of AI into work processes requires careful integration of human tasks with machines, so that AI empowers people's skills rather than being implemented in a way that creates problems.
More importantly, companies must maintain their customers' interests and trust. The smarter AI applications are, the more customers are likely to worry about privacy, security, and data ownership. Customers may be skeptical about apps that unknowingly detect and share location data or smart speakers that might eavesdrop on them. Hence, the key for marketing managers when it is to ensure that their privacy and security controls are transparent. This means that there will be transparency with customers about how their data is collected and what it is used for, and that they receive fair value from the company in return.
Every organization must ensure it has the ability to securely connect all its data to build AI-powered apps and prioritize responsible innovation. Organizations need to operate in an environment that both encourages innovation and has the necessary guardrails to ensure trust with customers.
5. Stay connected to reality
Although AI-combined marketing holds enormous promise, it's important for company executives to stay realistic about its capabilities; Despite the hype and the great promise, it is important to have a person who is involved in the processes and supervises what is happening.
It seems that artificial intelligence is already changing the rules of the marketing game, but this is a journey that will take time. The company's marketing functions, the organizations that support it, and IT departments in particular, will need to give resources, time, and attention to building their AI capabilities. This is expected to be a very worthwhile investment, so it is definitely time to develop a marketing strategy that combines artificial intelligence and a data base in order to take advantage of the advantages of AI that exist today, and so as not to be at a disadvantage to competitors today and in the future.
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