We launched our i4C Optimize brand a few weeks ago and started talking about the work we are doing to help companies transform by taking advantage of technology. Likely driven by all the buzz around ChatGPT (and rightfully so), one of the common questions we are hearing revolves around AI and how/where to implement successfully within a business. While the real answer to this general question needs to be specifically contemplated for each business/situation, I thought I’d share 5 ways that AI can be incorporated to drive both performance and efficiency in a business by focusing on sales & marketing (the area I’m most familiar with!):
- Chatbots?– Chatbots can help improve customer experience by always being available to provide quick and personalized responses to customer inquiries, leading to more sales and better retention.?These tools also help automate functions historically performed by humans, enabling your staff to focus on being more outbound/proactive (driving sales and/or building higher value relationships). For example, consider
Chatfuel
, which is a Facebook Messenger chatbot platform that lets you create chatbots without any coding skills (ideal for small/medium businesses). It provides templates, plugins, and integrations to help you build chatbots quickly and easily. You could also consider a tool like Dialogflow, a chatbot development platform owned by?Google that allows developers to create conversational interfaces for a wide range of platforms, including websites, mobile apps, and messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger and Slack.
- Predictive Analytics?– In addition to helping companies better understand customer behaviour or trends, these tools can help you predict future outcomes, allowing you to make data-driven decisions.?For example,?Microsoft Azure?Machine Learning is a cloud-based platform that provides tools for building, training, and deploying machine learning models. It includes a wide range of pre-built algorithms and integrates with other Microsoft products like Excel and Power BI.
- Lead Scoring?– Lead scoring tools help both the sales and marketing team prioritize leads based on factors such as engagement level and purchase intent.?For example,?Salesforce?Einstein analyzes data on lead behavior and engagement from the CRM and marketing automation system to assign scores based on the likelihood of conversion.
- Personalization tools?– Personalized marketing goes well beyond simply inserting an individual’s name (the old mail merge tactic) into a generic email.?Coupled with a customer segmentation strategy, customizing your content based on the behaviours and preferences of your customers and prospects will drive better engagement, loyalty, and spend.?For example, consider
Dynamic Yield by Mastercard
, which is a personalization platform that enables businesses to create and deliver personalized experiences across all touchpoints. It includes features like website personalization, mobile personalization, and product recommendations to help businesses improve their customer experience and drive revenue growth.
- Copywriting Writing (using Natural Language Generation Technology)?– As noted above, ChatGPT is all the rage right now (and being used by many to assist with content writing and of course by my kids for their homework), there are other tools like?
Copy.ai
, which is an AI-powered copywriting platform that uses GPT-3 technology to generate high-quality content in seconds. It offers a range of tools for generating headlines, descriptions, blog posts, social media posts, and more. Tools like this can help you merge the functions of a content writer into the job descriptions of existing employees, replacing the need to hire or retain a pure content writer.
Ultimately your strategy and the selection of tools will be dictated by your needs and goals.?It can seem like a daunting process with so many tools to consider, and more importantly, the need for all the underlying supportive data to be integrated into a single source of truth.?At i4C, our role is to help you navigate through some of these challenges, establish a plan, and implement the chosen solutions (making it as easy as possible for you to achieve the desired results!).
