According to recent Forbes research, nine out of 10 companies use AI to improve their marketing outcomes. Most importantly, studies show that three-quarters of businesses improve revenue with AI-driven marketing. Yet, there is untapped potential left in the wings, according to new research from B2B marketing data firm Mountain Top Data.
A recent Business Insider Intelligence report found that “when asked to choose which trending technology they felt most unprepared for, AI was the answer of 34 percent of global marketing executives.”
“Although AI has helped companies stay ahead in today’s dynamic market landscape, there is a lot of untapped business left in the marketplace,” said Sky Cassidy, CEO of Mountain Top Data, in a news release. “If more marketing execs understood how to use AI, their companies would experience bigger boosts in revenues.”
Utilizing AI to its full potential for email marketing is especially important
Email still reigns supreme as the number one source for online sales. It is estimated that 87 percent of online marketers use email—more than any other form of lead generation. Email marketing also offers the highest ROI with roughly $38 made for every $1 spent, according to a recent report from Practical Ecommerce.
Yet, given that 34 percent of marketers feel AI challenged, revenues would be considerably higher if marketing executives fully understood AI. Also, it is estimated that cumulative bad marketing data costs online businesses 611 billion dollars per year—in part because of the lack of understanding of AI by many executives.
A helpful way for marketing executives to utilize AI is to think of it as offering research methods
In this fashion, AI falls in the same class as surveys, descriptive statistics and focus groups. AI then becomes a set of tools for answering important business questions. When viewed this way, it forces the marketer to think about what questions are vital to know answers to. If the right questions aren’t asked, then the AI tools will be of little use. Ask the right questions and a new world of potential can open. This helps bring practical understanding to AI. In this way marketing professionals are forced to focus on real world solutions instead of being mystified by their AI toys.
Therefore, it is a combination of artificial intelligence and human intelligence that gets results. Like any type of market research, in-depth thought should be given to the questions asked so useful answers are given.
As an example of AI marketing done correctly, Forbes reported that Netflix has projected its AI-powered personalized recommendations save it $1 billion in revenue annually by avoiding canceled subscriptions via engaging customers with relevant email content.
“There is perhaps no greater area where AI helps marketing than with emails,” Cassidy added. “The most successful email marketing campaigns focus on creating highly personalized emails. AI helps determine the interests of customers so you can generate insightful, data-driven messages. However, you will only derive benefits from personalized messages in direct relation to the accuracy of your lists. Having accurate data with correct addresses, and as much information depth as possible is top priority in achieving maximum response.”
