B2B marketers have always had a difficult job, but the difficulty has increased in the last few years. Many of the purchasing managers and procurement experts who make up the core B2B clientele have been forced to work from home because of COVID and the safety precautions that go along with it. This may not seem like a big deal at first glance. As a result, the vast majority of marketing and purchasing is now done online.
It all depends, really. B2C companies have reaped the benefits of the pandemic, but the same cannot be said for B2B companies. Because of this, there is a reasonable explanation. A B2B transaction is significantly larger than a B2C transaction, and B2B purchasers have to justify their purchase decisions to a wide range of stakeholders and superiors.
It was for this reason that historically the ability to guide a potential customer through a purchasing process was required for securing B2B sales It is extremely difficult to replicate this journey online. Tools exist to assist business-to-business (B2B) marketers in getting customers to buy. In some cases, artificial intelligence (AI) is used to improve the business value of analytics. B2B companies can use AI to create a seamless customer experience in this article.
- Creating a connection
- Predicting future events
- Towards a real Internet of Things
- Audience Targeting
Creating a connection
From the beginning of the customer acquisition process, AI-based tools can help with B2B marketing. The majority of B2B companies face a common problem in the early stages of contact with a customer: how to distinguish between those in charge of a significant budget and those who are actually going to buy. The complexity of a product means that B2B customers will need more information before they can begin to evaluate its value.
Both of these issues can be addressed simultaneously by AI-powered chatbots. They are able to interact with customers while they are on your website and intelligently respond to their queries.. Now that potential customers can easily find the information they need before making a purchase, you can start collecting important first-party data. An important part of any business analytics system is making sure that your customers are segmented into specific demographics.
If you haven’t looked at chatbots in the last few years, you might be surprised by how sophisticated they’ve become. Chatbots had a long way to go even five years ago when it came to discussing complex B2B products in a convincing and useful way. When it comes to complex product and service offerings, they can be educated quickly.
Predicting future events
When it comes to the B2B market, making the most of your resources is more important than ever. Tools incorporating artificial intelligence are promising to improve resource allocation by predicting market shifts months or even years before they occur.
Despite the promise of AI tools, the introduction of this functionality to the market has been a little slow. For B2B marketers, at least, as this functionality has been a part of industrial supply chains for a long time, but it has been more difficult to implement in marketing environments than in supply chain logistics. ”
However, despite the fact that these tools appear to be new, they actually draw on a component of effective B2B marketing that has been around for decades: the ability to influence market change rather than simply react to it.
Using AI tools, as some analysts have recently pointed out, is leading many marketers back to a fundamental understanding of how content marketing works in general. AI-driven insights allow you to get ahead of the market and use content to influence industry shifts rather than trying to “capture traffic” for established keywords.
Top B2B marketers appear to have a newfound appreciation for predictive models. For example, 44% of executives whose companies have implemented AI say it has led to an increase in revenue in the business areas where it is employed, according to a recent McKinsey study.
Towards a real Internet of Things
AI-enhanced B2B marketing tools currently on the market all rely on one thing: data. In large amounts. If we can gather more information about B2B customers, these tools will be more effective in predicting the future of the industry.
In the field of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT) has long been a driver of innovation because IoT devices enable the collection of the vast datasets needed for AIs to function effectively. Therefore, many B2C marketers have fought for access to consumer IoT devices (such as smartwatches and activity trackers) to inform their marketing campaigns.
The B2B market has yet to see a similar shift, but this could change in the near future. Data from IoT networks already in use by B2B customers could open the door to a new era of B2B marketing in which strategies can be adjusted in real time to meet the needs of clients.
To some, this may sound fantastical, but we must keep in mind that not everything will go as planned. Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven tools that draw data from the Internet of Things are expected to play a role in advertising in the future.
Audience Targeting
Artificial Intelligence tools excel at generating genuine insights from vast amounts of raw data. B2B marketers are already using advanced analytics tools that can harvest data from even the tiniest interactions, whether through chatbots or simply by tracking how customers interact with your website. There is a great deal of data available for digital marketers to draw from; the challenge is figuring out how to make sense of it all.
AI tools can also be helpful in this area, as well.. Raw data from web and social media analytics engines can now be fed into AI-driven segmentation models. In addition to providing a list of your company’s most valuable customers, these models will also give you advice on how and when to target these customers in order to maximize sales opportunities.
It is important to keep in mind, however, that these tools can’t (yet) replace the experience and expertise of a marketing professional. In order to focus on your core competencies, you’ll be able to use time-saving tools like chatbots and customer segmentation services. According to analysts, using tools like LinkedIn to network with others in your industry should take no more than 10 to 15 minutes per day for your team, as opposed to an AI.
Conclusion
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in B2B marketing has become an obvious choice for many marketers. Industry leaders have spent years developing their data collection capabilities and are now sitting on vast stores of valuable raw data. It’s time to let AI show us how to make the most of this data and turn analytics into actionable insights.