Mapping the most effective AI technologies for marketing across the customer lifecycle in the coming year
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is a hot topic in marketing at the moment, with the huge interest in ChatGPT (see our articles on using ChatGPT for marketing).
But AI is a broad term covering a wide range of different technologies, many of which have been available for some time. We originally wrote this article based on the opportunities for using AI for marketing in 2017 and have updated it since with examples.
Artificial intelligence means any technology that seeks to mimic human intelligence, which covers a huge range of capabilities such as voice and image recognition, machine learning techniques and semantic search.
That's why, in our AI and Machine Learning briefing for members, we have identified fifteen artificial intelligence techniques that businesses of all sizes can implement, rather than techniques that only major tech giants can devote…
Now is the time to consider 2020's key digital marketing trends and how you can apply them to your marketing strategy
Whatever marketing results you achieved in 2019, you want to improve on them in 2020. To do this, you need to create a digital marketing strategy that will guide your marketing efforts this year.
As you already know, marketing trends get outdated fast. Effective marketing strategies five years ago might be recipes for failure today.
Therefore, you need to consider the key trends in 2020 and apply them to your digital marketing strategy. This way, you can stay ahead of your competitors and capture more leads and customers.
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Without further ado, here are six key trends in 2020 and how you can apply them…
... and what they might mean for 2020
Seasoned visitors to the Smart Insights blog will no doubt agree that there’s an abundance of, well, smart insights to take in on a daily basis. With digital and marketing constantly evolving, marketers have to work hard to keep up with the rapid pace of change and Smart Insights plays this role perfectly, providing up-to-date guidance, tips and advice on a huge range of topics.
There’s a handy function on the Smart Insights blog that lets visitors sort posts by both recency and popularity. But rather than talk about what others have found most interesting in 2019, I thought I’d outline some of the insights that have educated and inspired me this year and how they’re likely to influence my thinking further in 2020.
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Stories and stats that stood out in 2019
Looking back over the last twelve months, I was surprised by the breadth of…
Marketing automation is a godsend for digital marketers, but needs to be closely monitored, otherwise your investment may be for naught. The following metrics will help you keep tabs and get the most of your automation software
If you’re a digital marketer, you’re probably using marketing automation software, and for good reason. You may be looking to avoid human error, to be more responsive or to reduce overhead. When creating and managing automations, you most likely use many features, to try and give your users the best possible customer journey. Whatever be the case, you need to be able to measure how well your automations are panning out. It turns out, however, that for most, this is no simple task. In fact, studies show that 50-60% of those who use marketing automation, find measuring automation performance to be the most challenging part of engaging in automations.
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See the latest email marketing and automation statistics to help benchmark your current performance and plan improvements
We've recently updated our State of email marketing report, Email Marketing and Marketing Automation Excellence report 2018, in partnership with GetResponse. This year's report shares some interesting findings from an analysis based on over 500 respondents working in a senior position across B2C, B2B or both.
Use our findings to help benchmark your current performance and map digital improvements. Throughout the report, we highlight the features businesses should try and start implementing straight away, whilst exploring how current marketing automation is used in the industry. The report covers a range email marketing and automation results, challenges and use of features, including:
Investment in Email Marketing
Evaluation and tracking
Targeting
Communication strategy
Testing and optimization
Open and CTRs based on industry
Lead generation
Read our summary below, or download the full report today, for free.
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Chart of the Day: Looking to increase sales? Abandon Cart programs could be just what you need
The opportunities Marketing Automation provides your business is immense. I've always found that it is more difficult to decide which sequences to launch first as there are so many. I went back and counted the number of automation's ideas, in our 'for prioritization' queue and found we had over 30, which is crazy.
If you just starting out on your journey to automate your marketing comms, you should build an Abandon Cart sequence.
MailChimp, the email marketing provider, studied the results of 150,000 of its own users and found that Abandon Cart Series provide the greatest increase in orders per recipient.
Source: MailChimp - Identifying the Most Profitable Automation for E-Commerce Businesses
Sample Size: Automation data—collected from 150,000 businesses that use MailChimp
Recommended Resource: Essential Marketing…
Marketo forms a new alliance with Google Cloud
Marketo, a leading marketing automation provider, recently announced their new alliance with Google Cloud. Starting in 2018 both companies will join forces to migrate Marketo's platform from their own data centres to the Google Cloud Platform. The multi-year deal will enable Marketo to scale its infrastructure and create an integrated solution for marketers including what Google now call G Suite (Google Drive and Apps). Marketo is effectively simply a customer of Google, although some have suggested this could lead to acquisition.
It's no secret that Marketo has experienced performance and technical issues as they have grown in size. It is a common problem for growing SaaS companies that try to host everything themselves. It's frustrating for their customers, but not unusual for the industry. It has been reported that running lists can take an unusually long time and users are having to 'game' the system to…
Optimising and connecting customer touch points
Marketing expert Dr. Jeffrey Lant, says that in order to penetrate a consumer’s consciousness with your brand, and to make significant penetration in a given market, you have to make contact with the prospect a minimum of seven times. These seven “touch points” don’t have to be dedicated sales outreach, but refer to the different ways consumers interact with your brand: browsing your mobile site, for example is a touch point, as is receiving a flyer or trawling through your social channels.
Although this “Rule of Seven” is not absolute, it gives marketers an idea of the kind of effort and variety it takes to make an impression on a potential customer.
With the dawn of the digital age, the numerous channels and devices available for interaction mean that optimising each consumer touch point is more important than ever. It has…
