Why artificial intelligence in marketing?

Why artificial intelligence in marketing?

by | May 2, 2023 | Chief Marketing Officer

Artificial intelligence adoption is the new frontier in marketing

Who will win by using artificial intelligence in marketing?

My clients are all tech and SaaS companies. A few are ready for artificial intelligence in marketing and sales; most are not.

You see, many tech and SaaS companies still find the marketing basics challenging. For reasons of time and resources they have not yet mastered:

  • market positioning
  • company story
  • email marketing
  • content creation
  • social media marketing
  • dynamic websites with chat
  • digital marketing

Because today’s artificial intelligence is fully dependent on what’s been created already.

When an AI engine looks for answers to a question, it’s like a search engine on steroids. It hyper-zooms through lots of digital data and presents the most credible information.

Today’s web information credibility is still ranked by search engines. Maybe in the future it might be different, but for now SEO is still the standard.

For example, AI queries of the Library of Congress can only yield information that’s already been digitized in some fashion and has tags.

Who will win the AI marketing game?

Lots of tech and SaaS marketers will chase AI as the latest shiny squirrel. The global value of AI marketing is set to climb from $12 billion in 2020 to $108 billion in 2028.But let’s think about this. If you are not using data to analyze conversions today, will you really understand how to use an advanced data solution like artificial intelligence?

Before AI, you need to master sales and marketing automation. It’s called full utilization. You will learn more about digital marketing by doing this, than by jumping into AI.

blue holograph type image of data analysis using human hands and data points

Digital marketing is like a river

A river has flows, currents, abatements, abrasions, floor structure and much more that determine how and where it flows.

If you are prospecting, which is a lot like fishing, whatever you put in the water will move (or not) according to all those variables and more. This will determine whether your prospect finds it.

And the quality of your offering determines whether the prospect will take a second look, and perhaps engage.

Why start? Why now?

Venture capitalists have already invested $5 billion in 1,400 AI companies.

Consumer brands are adopting AI rapidly. That’s because the numbers pencil out better for B2C than for B2B…for now.

But marketing is all about quality, speed and timing. Shortening gaps in the engagement-conversion-deal process will be the #1 function of AI in business.

However, if you’re in tech and SaaS marketing the time to start is 2023. If you don’t, you will most likely lose ground to competitors who use it. At least some of your competitors will set the pace in this new frontier. They are the ones will be saving time, money and effort by adopting AI.

Where to start with artificial intelligence in marketing

Training in artificial intelligence is like training for a sport. Start where you are today, build muscle and develop advanced skills.

Here’s my suggested list:

  • master the basics (see above)
  • check to see if your automation platform(s) have native AI, or if you can connect with Zapier
  • make a list of your most time consuming tasks (content creation, personalization, analyzing large quantities of data, timing of offers, SEO, A/B testing, or something else
  • pick one task, and start researching how AI can help you save time and money

Once you’ve proven the value of AI for that particular task, move onto the next one.

And be sure to develop an AI marketing strategy for 2024!

Need easy system for B2B content?

Need easy system for B2B content?

by | May 24, 2023 | Chief Marketing Officer

Use mine.

Your easy system for B2B content is available right here. Free. Not gated.

What works?

The best content focuses on a single, current industry hot button. For this, look at industry news and what jumps out.

Trending Examples in May/June 2023

  • Meta hit with $1.3 billion fine related to data privacy. Bad news sells. If you’re in (or near) a data-related vertical, you can generate weeks of content with this.
  • The sad state of unicorn valuations. If you’re in (or near) finance, capital or entrepreneurship this could be a great way to share your domain expertise.

Golden Rule for content creation…

Your content must help someone do their job better.

But take it a step deeper. What tangible benefits could be realized from consuming your content?

  • Less worrying, better sleep
  • Promotions, bonuses, salary increases
  • Increased job security

That’s why you’re creating!

You need an easy system for B2B content.

Happy man relaxing after marketing audit

Show your credibility first…your solution can wait

Remember, you’re promoting your credibility…not your company or solution. You are showing (not telling) your domain expertise, and your awareness of current trends and their implications.

You are building credibility for yourself, which dovetails nicely with what you’re selling. To whom do buyers turn when they’re in-market? Credible people.

Next steps to an easy system for B2B content

Creating truly intriguing tech & SaaS content is not difficult. Think through this short exercise, jotting down a few bullet points.

 

  • Background: usually a recent trend in your industry, vertical or market space around this topic.
  • Current challenge: a tech or SaaS challenge is almost always framed around wasted effort and/or money. Or reducing headaches significantly.
  • Your experience: “we’ve seen this happen with some customers”.
  • Your recommendation: Consider taking these steps.

Example – content for IT professionals

Your firm sells file management software to certain verticals. Here’s how you would create a piece for an enterprise data storage audience.

Background: Industries using large volumes of rich data for complex workflows are growing petabytes of unstructured data, which must be stored and retrieved on demand. Industries like oil and gas, entertainment, life sciences, and software development. End users cannot access the files they need without engaging their IT departments. This leads to soaring storage and IT costs for those companies.

Challenge: Data storage costs are skyrocketing and overburdened IT staffs need a way to push file management down to the business user. Allowing end users to determine what, when and where to archive data for later retrieval will help migrate data to lower cost storage and save time and expense for IT teams.

Frustrate IT pro, used to illustrate article on easy system for B2B content.

Your Experience: Today, we are seeing interesting software solutions that solve this problem beautifully. With ROI focused architectures, these solutions are ideal for companies with complex workflows using rich data files.

Your Recommendation: Take a look at solutions that offer cloud file management across multiple storage locations. Create a bullet list that, of course, highlights your expertise without ever mentioning the name of your company or product.

 

What will be your content consumer’s conclusion?

There’s no longer a mandate for IT departments to keep adding costly near term storage. Nor is it necessary for IT teams to bear the labor brunt of mediating between business users of data and storage archives.

Offer your audience next steps:

  • review the number and types of requests IT has received from end users
  • estimate the costs of answering these requests
  • use a break-even model to see if a 3rd party solution could save money

With those simple bullet points you have an outline for an article. And you’re on the way to creating top tech or SaaS content marketing.

What’s next?

Once you’re happy with the bullet points it’s time to write the article or delegate to someone else. If you delegate make sure it’s someone with domain expertise! Otherwise, you’ll spend more time educating the creator than it may be worth.Cartoon Snoopy on top of his doghouse typing

For written posts aim for 1,000 to 1,500 words. That’s when search engines take your content seriously.

Next, look at what you’ve created and think of a headline that grabs attention and boosts SEO.

Potential headlines for this article could be:

  • Overwhelmed By Unstructured Data? Here’s Good Medicine.
  • Need Relief For Your IT People?
  • The Unstructured Data Tsunami. Here’s How To Manage.

Final thoughts

Finally, notice how easily this can be tailored for different verticals. With search-and-replace editing, you now have insightful content for:

  • life sciences
  • entertainment
  • oil & gas
  • software development

You also have a solid foundation for a video or podcast!

Marketing audit for tech and SaaS

Marketing audit for tech and SaaS

by | May 4, 2023 | B2B Strategy, Chief Marketing Officer

Why a marketing audit for tech and SaaS companies?

    As we move along in 2023 I’m seeing more clients ask themselves ‘why are we doing what we’re doing?’. They ask that because they haven’t done a marketing audit for their tech or SaaS company.

    As a tech CMO, I always start with “well, what’s working and what’s not?”.

    Many of them just don’t know.

    Young business woman pondering a question, used to illustrate a marketing audit for tech and SaaS.

    If you don’t where to start, look at the info on my web page about marketing audits. This will give you a current foundation on how to go about a marketing audit for tech and SaaS companies.

    There are 3 brief audio/video overviews plus links to The 2023 CMO Survey and The 2023 State of B2B Marketing Budgets.

    Disclaimer: Yes, this page was created for a marketing audit service I offer. But it will show you how the pros do it.

    Go to marketing audit page
    Pie chart populated with human figures, used to illustrate market segmentation.

    Marketing audits must be tailored to market segmentation

    Why change? Why now?

    Marketing audits for tech and SaaS companies answer these questions. Especially critical in 2023, a marketing audit shows:

    ✔︎ where are we wasting money?

    ✔︎ how should I focus the marketing budget?

    If your company is a going concern, a marketing audit is an essential first step to creating a marketing plan. How can you plan for next quarter or next year when you don’t know what’s working, and what’s not?

    Marketing audits for tech and SaaS are different

    Marketing audits for tech and SaaS companies are different because the B2B buyer has very different motivations than the B2C buyer.

    Yet, the tech and SaaS buyer has very different motivations than the office furniture buyer.

    Buyer personas in different industry verticals have different purchase preferences. So your marketing audit must be tailored to your vertical.

    What works for office furniture buyers typically won’t work for tech or SaaS buyers.

    What is the state of your marketing?

    A systematic appraisal of your marketing is a sure way to help you explain the marketing budget.

    Every business is its own ecosystem. Marketing presents your ecosystem to the marketplace, with incentives to engage and dive deeper.

    The best way to determine the state of your presentation and incentives is to do a marketing audit for your tech or SaaS company.

    Of course, allocating resources to do a proper audit is difficult for many companies.

    That’s where market strategy consulting firms like mine come in handy.

    Most of our marketing audits cost between $10K and $15K, depending on your company size.

    We complete them in two weeks.

    Feel free to check out the details on our web page.

    Go to marketing audit page