What’s all this noise surrounding artificial intelligence? Is AI worth the hype? And how do you even get started? Do these questions sound familiar?
With marketing technology (martech) and AI becoming a critical part of mainstream business strategy, getting the buy-in from the top brass is essential. But lack of understanding, fear of the unknown, ethics, biases, and costs can get in the way.
So how do you demystify martech and AI and get the ball rolling?
Insight: It’s worth exploring which marketing technology and AI tools will help businesses improve their bottom line and drive results.
Data: 50% of digital transformation efforts are being led by board members. The same report finds that a substantial number of those decision-makers do not have a true knowledge of the technology that will make that transformation for them. (Futurum)
Key action point: This is where effective executive management comes in — marketers need to translate martech into the board’s language of bottom-line revenues and results.
Watch: Let Step Change CEO Ashton Bishop and Client Success Lead Noel Flowers answer your biggest questions on AI and marketing in a recession.
If you are using tech to reach a customer, then it’s martech. It’s everything — from tools to major initiatives — that takes advantage of technology to improve marketing activities and meet marketing goals and objectives.
Why are companies using martech? There are three major reasons:
The AI boom has undoubtedly penetrated the martech space. From streamlining processes, analysing data, making predictions, decision-making, and reducing workload for marketers, AI-powered martech tools have become a promising trend that is already revolutionising the playing field.
While there is a lot to be learned about the AI boom, 63% of people don't realise they're already using AI technologies, so this should not exactly be new territory. In fact, 51% of marketing leaders already use AI since 2017.
These early adopters seem to reap the rewards of taking the AI risk. A total of 97% of marketing influencers say return-on-investment is increasing, with a 52% majority describing the increase as significant.
Majority of marketing tech influencers (93%) believe ROI should be achieved in less than a year. This is certainly possible if a marketing team, with the board's support, picks the right tools and uses them in the right way.
If you’re overwhelmed by the amount of news and solutions surrounding AI and martech — you’re not alone. The 2022 Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic showcases the continued growth of the martech industry. With 9,932 solutions (up 24% from 2020), the martech landscape is projected to grow towards 10,000 solutions in the coming year.
Credit: ChiefMartech
While the report could easily point you at hundreds to thousands of martech products, the huge number of choices could intimidate people and businesses from making a step change. The key to getting started? Identifying key business areas and the solutions needed to power them.
The organisation of your marketing technology stack comes only after you have identified the best tools for the job. Solutions will vary, but there are some overarching themes to all successful martech stacks.
Let’s take a look at the ten key business areas powered by AI:
Business intelligence and analytics platforms are no longer luxuries — they are mainstream purchases that factor greatly into strategic planning efforts. Companies are also investing heavily in analytics experts, to the point of outpacing the investment in IT expertise.
Google Analytics is still far and away the most popular analytics tool. You will find it in over 80% of SMB websites. However, there are other options available for companies in need of a more niche-oriented solution.
Led by the popular Azure, Microsoft offers an entire suite of BI tools that provide an entire vertical for enterprise-level companies looking for personalised analytics.
It’s important that marketers understand how web visitors navigate through their website, what actions they take, and why they’re not converting (filling out a form, purchasing something from your website, making an inquiry, etc.). Marketers need martech to ensure web visitors are taking your desired action.
Email is the most personal and cost-effective way to connect and engage people who have shown interest in what your business offers.
SEM uses paid advertisements that are displayed on search engine results pages (SERPs). It is so powerful as it provides businesses with the opportunity to show their ads in front of potential customers who are ready to buy at a given moment.
Remarketing is all about positioning ads — whether in text, image, or video form — in front of targeted people who had previously visited your website as they browse other websites on the Display Network.
Ultimately, the key to mobile success is designing a website that’s responsive. This means it needs to be optimised for the mobile platform. The major search engines now punish websites that do not have this feature, so it should be a priorty if it is not already.
Marketing automation enables you to provide a better experience for your customers. It mechanises your repetitive marketing processes, freeing you and your team of those tasks so you can do meaningful work.
Content marketing is critical in building brand awareness, generating leads, and driving conversions. By producing valuable, informative, and relevant content, businesses can position themselves as thought leaders, educate their audience, and ultimately drive sales.
At a time when distinctiveness and differentiation drive a business’s success, design has become a more critical area than ever before. Staying on top of design tools can greatly impact your company’s brand perception, customer engagement, communications and overall success.
With disruption coming at all fronts, getting maximum results out of your resources is important, and your operations play a crucial role in ensuring that. Optimising the management and efficiency of your processes, systems, and resources helps you achieve goals, reduce costs, and maximise profits.
With so many tools available, the true challenge is getting the buy-in for the marketing vision from top to bottom. This begins with a proper explanation to the board of the tools that are being used.
As a board member, you carry the responsibility of ensuring the health and overseeing the direction of the entire organisation. And nothing is worse than a business that refuses to evolve. The intention is not to jump on to every trend that enters the market, but being open to tools that could potentially revolutionise the way you do business.
The old ways of thinking no longer work, and the ways of working have changed. You can begin demystifying the world of martech by starting with the tools above. Once you have opened the doors and shown exactly how they bring results and revenue, you can begin turning them on to some of the more esoteric tools in your repertoire.
Unlock your strategic roadmap and get a clear picture of what is and isn't working for your business with Lockstep Baseline today. Ready to cut through the noise and nonsense?