AI can assist in marketing and why you aren’t getting credit for the work that you do.

The senior executive raised his glass in toast to the district sales manager who won the quarter. “You guys did me proud.”

The company just met its full-year target in the first half, and champagne was flowing. Everyone was happy about the year that looked to be a success, except for the marketing manager who knew they could have done better.

The marketing manager fought with the CFO for months to get funds to allow her to change the way the company handled content, offered offers and generated excitement around the brand.

She had gotten a few drips of money that were put to good work and helped her sales team finish the quarter. She knew she could only do what she wanted if the CFO funded an annual budget. She was tired of fighting for funding every quarter.

She couldn’t convince the CFO to believe that her efforts were worthwhile, no matter how many explanations she gave about how marketing worked. She still carried around in her mind a modified version from John Wanamaker’s old saying: “I know half of my marketing works.” I don’t even know which half.

This scenario is a challenge for marketing managers in today’s tight economic environment. This “leaked” approach to funding has been widely adopted by finance departments in both start-ups as well as established companies. This approach gives just enough money to marketing in order to launch a program within a quarter. If the program doesn’t return any value, then it will be canceled the following quarter.

Despite the fact that most companies view marketing as an important component of success, it’s often overlooked or doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Here are some possible reasons for this and what you can do to improve marketing’s standing.

Did the sale result from a recent email, event, or offer?

It is difficult to attribute sales to marketing. How can you accurately account for the sales pipeline and all of the activities that contribute to it?

Even if marketing is able to link their efforts with sales, the attribution of those efforts will be challenged. Other factors also contribute to the sales climate, such as:

• Product quality.
• Competition.
• Prices for customer service
• Overall market demand.

Last but not least, the performance of the entire sales team. Marketing’s direct influence on success can be hard to measure because it is difficult to separate marketing from other factors.

But marketers have to try. To build credibility, it is important to prove that each activity has a return on the investment. The way these metrics are presented makes all the different.

A dashboard may provide statistics for each activity, and it may show activities that are associated with a specific program. The best marketers will show the activities as seen by a customer and explain how they may influence or guide decisions.

The chart below shows the percentage of identified potential audiences that are responding to marketing efforts. This is not an ROI, but a percentage of the potential audience that was addressed, interested in and bought. This shows the complete marketing landscape in which decisions are taken.

Source: Theresa Kushner and Marie Martin, AxleHire

The different interactions of individuals at different times are shown. It is important to be available to buyers whenever they are interested in your products, not just when you’re trying to sell them.

If, for instance, marketing is participating in a tradeshow and showcasing its latest product, then the metrics should also be displayed with the other activities that are happening at the same time (i.e. direct marketing, phone calls, and web visits).

Paint an overall picture to show the results of your marketing activities and the market environment in which they took place. Marketers must still provide metrics, such as:

• How many people attended the show?
• How many people saw your product demo?
• How many people responded to the email you sent offering a free demo of your new product at the show, or anywhere else?
• How many meaningful conversations did the sales team have with customers and potential customers at the event?
• What is the value of these sales?
• What was the impact of the event on the website?
• How long did visitors stay on your site?

When calculating the ROI of a tradeshow, it is important to include all possible activities. It should also be shown that the event continues to generate income long after the show.

Dig deep: Marketing Attribution: What is it, and how does it identify vital customer touchpoints

Marketing is the accumulation of messages over time

How do you measure the impact of messages over time? Start by measuring the exact same thing at regular intervals.

Marketing’s primary goals are to create brand awareness, to shape customer perceptions, and to cultivate customer relations. These goals require time to produce tangible results. Marketing does not produce immediate sales, just as a well-placed trade show article or an article in a magazine doesn’t immediately sell a particular product.

Other factors, such as financial performance and operational efficiency, may have a more immediate impact on the success of a business. The long-term value of marketing may be underestimated or overlooked when focusing on a single point.

Marketing efforts alone rarely lead to success

A company’s success is often the result of a collaborative effort between various departments, such as product development, operations and sales, customer service, finance, and customer service.

Credit may be distributed across different functions, since success is seen to be a team achievement. It is not uncommon for marketing to be overlooked, as in the case of the blowout quarter at the start of this article.

When sales and marketing set goals together and measure them jointly, they can be credited as a team. The “most valuable player” will always be that person who closed the biggest deal. Even in the Super Bowl each team member who wins gets a ring. This dynamic must be understood by marketing and sales to reward teamwork.

Dig deep: How B2B marketing and sales teams can align themselves

Perception can be a reality that is not always what we want it to be

Marketing is associated with advertising and promotions, which can make its contribution seem “fluffy” or intangible compared to other business functions. This perception can lead a business to devalue marketing’s strategic value and not recognize its impact on the company’s success. How can you combat these perceptions?

You must first acknowledge that perceptions are real, and then you need to research how these perceptions affect marketing recognition. The best way to deal with perceptions is by bringing a mirror up against the entire image.

Face the perception, accept it and then show how you want to change it. Marketing your marketing. Remember that changing minds is hard. Start by changing the way they perceive the situation, and then let them change their minds.

Data really drives insights?

Many organizations lack the data necessary to prove that marketing is successful. Advertising, for instance, has always been difficult to determine which ads in which places caught the attention of buyers. Marketing teams can sometimes struggle to communicate and measure the results of their work. It is difficult to show the direct impact of marketing on a company’s growth without robust data and analytic tools.

It’s important to remember that data is not just a tool. Insights are driven by those who can understand the wants and needs of customers and how to satisfy them. Marketers use spreadsheets or CRM tools to collect “insights”. Data does not drive insights – insights are derived by looking at the entire data set.

Your weekly marketing reports, for example, show that your press release has boosted the number of website visitors — or so it appears. A young intern pointed out to you that your engineer had written a blog in the same period.

The blog generated thousands of comments, both from customers and employees. The blog isn’t a marketing tool. Should marketing be credited for the increase in visitors?

You should be aware that marketing is credited and recognized differently by different industries, organisations and people. Marketing is valued by some companies, who recognize its importance in driving business success. Others may have a different perspective or priorities. New technologies can help marketing in both types of organizations.

AI can be used to demonstrate the value of marketing

Enter AI. How can a digital algo help marketing teams receive the credit they deserve for their long-awaited efforts? Here are five ways AI can help you get credit for marketing efforts.

Customer behavioral patterns

AI or machine learning can be used to extract patterns from customer data, such as patterns of buying, patterns of returning or patterns of usage. This information can be useful when the goal is to increase or maintain customer purchasing or usage.

Marketing can be a primary source of revenue with campaigns that target customers who are ready to upgrade their product or purchase the next version. AI can help marketing identify the right customers and the right time to present offers.

Diverse messaging

AI algorithms built on customer data can allow marketers to customize messages to specific segments. Customers who visit your website, send an email expressing interest or call your call center can receive the right message.

Depending on the audience, algorithms can describe products in different ways. Customer interest can be generated by selecting the right audience and using the right messaging.

AI algorithms are also able to determine the optimal cadence of delivering these messages. Email messages are typically sent weekly, monthly, or at a specific event. What if you find that your data analysis indicates a particular delivery frequency generates the best response?

Your data could tell you, for example, that 60 days prior to expiration is the ideal time to contact a customer about a contract renewal. Using your AI expertise you can then determine which customers adhere to the 60-day rule, and which do not. Delivering messages according to the internal timeframes of customers generates more revenue and increases customer satisfaction.

Content creation and delivery

A generative AI tool such as ChatGPT is used by almost everyone. These tools work well for creating bite-sized content, which is appealing to buyers today. AI tools help you transform complex data into digestible insight that benefits your customers.

Imagine that you’re marketing arborists – those guys who trim your trees. You have data that shows the next two month are critical for tree growth.

You can create three different scenarios using a generative AI app. The AI application creates three paragraphs with general information about a certain time of year, such as September.

1. Evergreen Trees: Avoid significant pruning of evergreen trees during September. Pruning may stimulate new growth that will not be able to harden before winter. This leaves the tree susceptible to frost damage. Evergreens are best pruned in the late winter or spring.

2. Fruit Trees: September is a great time to light prune fruit trees. This will help with fruit production and air circulation, as well as reduce the risk of diseases. But, the majority of major pruning is done during late winter or early Spring when trees are dormant.

3. Deciduous Trees – Many deciduous tree species, which lose their leaves in autumn, can be pruned while they still have full foliage in September. You can better examine the structure of the tree and correct any problems. Trimming deciduous trees in September is beneficial for maples, elms, birches, and oaks.

The above paragraphs have been generated by ChatGPT.

Armed with AI applications that determine which homes in each area contain the most deciduous, evergreen and fruit trees, marketers can tailor a message to provide information to customers while also selling specific tree service. AI can generate messaging and deliver it to the right people at the right moment.

Dig deep: What marketers need to know about AI

Reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks

Chatbots are a prime example of how AI can be used to automate repetitive tasks. Chatbots powered by AI can help marketers save hundreds of hours.

Here are some things AI chatbots could do to help with marketing, beyond customer service and support.

• Lead Generation and Nurturing. Chatbots are able to engage website visitors, qualify potential leads and collect information from them. They can start conversations, ask questions to qualify leads and send hot leads directly to sales teams. Chatbots are also capable of automating lead nurturing sequences. They can send follow-up messages to prospects and provide content based on previous interactions.
• Personalized recommendations. AI-powered chatbots analyze user preferences and behavior to provide personalized recommendations for products or content. This increases cross-selling and sales opportunities.
• Content distribution. Chatbots are able to deliver articles, videos and promotional materials based on the user’s interests and interactions. This is useful for content marketing and customer training.
• Feedback. Chatbots are able to collect feedback from customers and conduct surveys in order to gain valuable insight into their opinions and preferences. This helps refine marketing strategies.
• A/B testing. Chatbots are a great way to facilitate A/B tests by sending different messages to users, and measuring engagement rates and conversion rates.

Enhanced data quality

AI algorithms are useful for a variety of tasks that can improve the quality of customer or marketing data. Here are a few AI algorithms that can be extremely helpful for customer data managers.

• AI is able to automatically detect and correct data errors, such as missing values and inaccuracies. Deduplication algorithms are able to identify duplicate records and determine the most accurate one. They can then merge all the data from the two records into one.
• Data Validation. AI models can quickly compare entered data to established patterns in order to ensure consistency. AI algorithms can manage email addresses, postal codes, phone numbers and state to ensure the data entered is accurate.
• Anomaly detector. AI-powered algorithms for anomaly detection can identify data points that are unusual or outliers, which may indicate fraud or errors. These algorithms can help identify data quality problems by highlighting data points that are significantly different from the norm.
• Data imputation. AI is able to predict and fill in missing points by using imputation techniques that are based on statistical models, machine learning or predictive analytics. This maintains data accuracy and completeness, and creates new data fields that can be analyzed.
• Data standardization. AI can standardize the data by converting measurement units, normalizing dates formats or aligning categories to ensure data consent when analyzed.

While marketing still may not be rewarded for its efforts, integrating AI into marketing tasks can give marketing a new dimension and improve the performance of the business.

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