While AI is quietly taking over the written text, in marketing artificial intelligence has known how to use collected data as needed for a long time, offering the customer the most suitable shopping journey and even their favourite watch model. At Password in Tallinn, one of the most important marketing events of the year, three experts shared their experiences.
Growth and strategy consultant Andrus Kiisküla investigated the effect technology has on a person’s purchasing behaviour and how to make offers so personal to each person that they simply cannot say no.
Vytautas Valantavičus, the Baltic representative of the world’s leading customer management platform Salesforce, stated that the most significant technological breakthrough of the last decade had been made in the marketing field because it is most directly related to the company’s profit-making. “Just as there has been an explosive growth in various social media and marketing channels, there have also been new technological solutions that allow the preferences of people spending time in these channels to be mapped, analyzed and the collected data used purposefully,” he said.
According to Valantavičus, companies must keep up with these developments because if they do not know how to use data to their advantage in the future, they will miss out on great customer potential. “Consider that your competitors are already doing it today and are simply ahead of you,” he said. “Since the field can seem broad and complex, it is important to make data as usable as possible for the marketer – so that they can segment customer groups and personalize offers accordingly,” Valantavičus explained, adding that Salesforce solutions are designed for this.
Daria Nemchonok, head of LeverUP, which offers Salesforce services in Europe, said that in fact, most companies collect data. Still, they only use it partially and randomly – to fulfil an order or when a long time has passed to communicate with the customer in some channel. “From the point of view of modern marketing technology, the information is completely outdated – to make quick decisions, you need information in real time,” she explained that if a marketing person gets such information after two weeks, there is essentially nothing to do with it. “Reacting in real-time is, for example, if a loyal and long-term customer sends a complaint or new customers come through an advertisement or post, you can immediately amplify it.” According to Nemchonok, Salesfore’s Data Cloud and Marketing Cloud offer such an opportunity.
Renars Neimanis, head of Bite Telecom’s e-channel development department, recognized that there are indeed many ways to influence customers. “Of course, there are still many aggressive methods such as flashing banners or pop-ups, which still work but people don’t like them. You want people to like your brand, not dislike it,” said Neimanis. “The magic word that helps bring the person exactly the offer they are really interested in is personalization. In principle, it is possible to immediately see what device a person is using to view your content. If they enter the page with, for example, a Samsung phone, they will not be offered an Apple watch or headphones, but additional gadgets for Android.”
Experts’ recommendations for implementing new sales and marketing technologies:
- Think about what relations the customer has with your brand, i.e. what are the connection points:
website, e-mail, sms, and social media channels. Analyzing the touchpoints is key, because they can be the main obstacles in the customer journey from interest to purchase. Salesforce offers several options for analysis in addition to mapping the problem you can also take action immediately. If the connections are not effective enough, you can immediately change, for example, advertisements. - Technology is the tool, the team is the key! Successful companies are those where the roles have been thought through, strategy is in place. It is essential that at the management level, it is understood that modern marketing technology is crucial to not fall behind competitors and lose customers. Projects mostly fail not because of the technology, but because of the undermotivated teams with unclear roles of the members that must use the technology.
- AI will not take over the work of humans in marketing in the near future, but it will continue to develop and become a more powerful assistant. It makes sense to adapt to the new reality. Be curious and ready to try and learn new things. Data has already been collected – now is the time to really put it to work for you.
