The 2022 State of Marketing and Sales Report shows that 74% of marketers will use AI in more than 25% of their tasks in the next five years. AI has given us powerful tools to enhance our strategies and drive better results. Marketing and sales are the single business function likely to see the most significant financial impact from AI. Industries such as financial services and healthcare are already reaping the benefits and leading with AI applications. Yet, there have been concerns over control and the potential lack of human creativity.
This article explores how AI can help us maintain control while fostering creativity in B2B marketing. We’ll delve into specific applications of AI in various marketing areas, providing actionable insights for leveraging this technology to your advantage.
Understanding the Intersection of AI, Control, and Creativity
Marketing is a balancing act between control and creativity. Control ensures consistency, compliance, and adherence to brand guidelines and ethical standards. Marketers apply a structured approach and align messaging with strategic objectives. Creativity is all about innovation, outside-the-box ideas, and the ability to captivate your target audience. It encompasses creating compelling content strategies, unique campaigns, and memorable experiences that help your brand to stand out. Finding the right balance between control and creativity is essential for success.
AI-powered tools are emerging as game-changing for enhancing control and creativity. The new technology is a paradigm shift, revolutionising the function. Marketing has extraordinary power and exponential creativity to bring to campaigns. Marketing teams can automate mundane tasks such as data analysis, lead scoring, and content optimisation. AI has freed up time to focus on more strategic and creative endeavours.
However, there is a balance to be had for successful B2B marketing. Marketing’s role becomes a quest to find that balance by understanding audiences and working to ethical standards. Steps are already on the way to establish an AI accountability code for advertising on social media. So, while creativity appears unlimited with AI, more control helps to balance its application. By embracing AI, marketers can optimise their efforts, achieve desired outcomes, and stay ahead in an ever-evolving marketing landscape.
Control: B2B Marketing and Responsible AI Usage
As we embrace this technology, it’s crucial to maintain ethical practices. One of the biggest challenges we face is AI algorithms’ potential to harbour biases perpetuating discrimination and exclusion. As marketers, we evaluate the data that train AI algorithms, ensuring it represents diverse perspectives and demographics. Regular audits and ongoing monitoring can help to identify and rectify any potential bias, ensuring that AI-driven marketing campaigns are fair, unbiased, and inclusive.
In B2B marketing, transparency and explainability are crucial, particularly when leveraging AI. As marketers, we are responsible for providing customers with clear information about how AI is used and how it affects their experience. We must be upfront about collecting, processing, and using data. Addressing any privacy concerns and ensuring compliance with relevant regulations is crucial. Moreover, explaining the logic and reasoning behind AI-driven decisions is essential, fostering trust and understanding between the brand and its customers. Strive to be transparent and open about using AI and building solid customer relationships.
Building Customer Trust and Long-term Success
As AI continues to revolutionise the marketing industry, it is critical to remember the importance of human oversight. While AI can certainly streamline and enhance marketing tasks, marketers must establish ethical guidelines for responsible AI usage.
Striking a balance between leveraging AI’s capabilities and upholding ethical standards is essential for:
- Building customer trust
- Fostering long-term relationships
- Sustaining success in B2B marketing
Control measures ensure that AI-driven marketing campaigns respect customer privacy. Consider how the measures promote diversity and inclusivity and align with societal expectations.
Used ethically, AI can grow your business by thoroughly understanding your target customers. For instance, AI-based customer data platforms (CDPs) such as Segment, Optimove and FirstHive combine and manage customer data to better understand and effectively communicate with them.
Creativity: The Power of AI and Human Intervention
Fusing AI and human intervention brings new possibilities to the marketing world. AI has proven to be an invaluable source of inspiration and insights for innovative campaigns. AI-powered tools offer marketers unique angles, creative recommendations, and the ability to think outside the box. Yet, we must acknowledge the role of human intervention in the creative process. The human marketer possesses the nuanced understanding, empathy, and intuition to inject creativity into marketing strategies.
Human intervention is the vital catalyst that transforms AI-generated ideas into marketing masterpieces. Marketers ensure resonance with the intended audience by aligning AI-generated insights with brand values. This collaboration between AI and human creativity paves the way for outstanding achievements in marketing.
Examples in Content Generation and Originality
AI-tools like ChatGPT can generate any type of content and stretch creativity to the edges, using a given prompt. There is the potential to rewrite existing content, guided by an experienced marketer, your content can speak to different personas, all without needing more time or costs.
Human intervention continues to be vital. The most needed skills are in the use of AI e.g., creating relevant prompts that provide the most optimal content.
While B2B marketers can get specific with buyer personas and generate engaging content to suit, there are concerns about originality. A recent Forbes article suggests that AI users should always fact-check and proofread AI-generated content before publishing online.
Moreover, Google penalises poor quality or problematic AI-generated content. The technology giant’s most recent advice is,
(E-E-A-T = Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness)
Outputs from any generative AI tool rely on the prompt the user provides. B2B marketing is constantly evolving, and it’s fascinating to observe the significant accomplishments that are taking place. Still, we as marketers must be cognisant of the limitations and always seek to balance control and creativity to avoid unethical practices and manipulative marketing.
Contact us for an informal chat if you want to develop your B2B marketing strategy.