You’ve probably seen the TV ads for IBM Watson, the supercomputer that’s branched out into cognitive computing solutions for big enterprises like pharmaceutical companies. And, now, not to be outdone, Salesforce just launched Salesforce Einstein, an AI-powered CRM solution that’s intended as a way for marketing teams to become better at predicting customer behaviors and personalizing the customer experience.
There are three ways that Salesforce sees Einstein becoming part of B2B marketing solutions:
Predicting what customers are going to do – Let’s face it, computers are getting incredibly sophisticated at predicting human behaviors. Whereas humans might rely on “gut instincts,” computers rely on things like algorithms and sophisticated scoring models. They can put together a score (say, from 0-100) that predicts how likely an individual is to accomplish a certain action. Within the world of B2B marketing, this might be something as simple as predicting whether a customer will open a certain marketing email based on the email subject line.
Predicting which audiences will be receptive to your products – Instead of just focusing on the individual, computers can also focus on the broader demographic audience for your product or service. Using data that Einstein has access to within the CRM suite – such as data about the behaviors and interests of your customers – it can then help you map out target audiences for new products and services.
Predicting the best time to send out marketing messages – Deep down, we all know – in general – when certain messages are most likely to have the desired result. But it’s often hard to narrow it down to a specific day or time. That’s where Einstein comes into the picture – it hopes to be able to tell you exactly when to send out an email or other message for maximum effect.
The big wildcard in all this, of course, is the data that’s being used. Any AI solution – whether it’s Watson or Einstein – is only as good as the data being used. As they said back in the days before artificial intelligence, “garbage in, garbage out.” The key point to keep in mind is that a seemingly simple data input that’s off by just a few percentage points may have a tremendously outsized impact on the predictions created by any algorithmic model.
So what does all this mean for you as a B2B marketer?
First and most importantly, it means that it’s now possible to understand how a B2B marketing campaign is doing in real-time. In many ways, this is just a continuation of the data analytics and predictive analytics you’ve already been doing. But AI promises to bump it up a notch.
Secondly, it means that you will be able to do a much better job of knowing your customer. What are they looking for? What are there interests? When are they most open and receptive to hearing your messages?
If you can answer those questions, you can predict when they are most likely to buy. And you can also predict when they might need help along the sales journey to take the next step. If you’re tracking and monitoring customer behaviors in real-time, you’ll know when key triggers have been reached. That will set you well on your way to having the most successful B2B marketing campaign possible.
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Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.