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CX Mix And Mingle: Consumers Prefer Phone And Email https://ift.tt/yISHi8C Brands cannot afford to focus only on one channel, whatever it is. That’s especially true when it comes to the customer service area, judging by Maximizing the Omnichannel CX With AI, a global study by Vonage. But it's important to get this right, for 75% of consumers will stop buying after bad experiences, and 50% of those need only a single episode or two. Which channels should be included in the CX mix? Email remains popular: 38% of consumers use it daily, and 29% will increase their usage the next 6-12 months. Of those polled, 38% use the channel to communicate with friends and family, and 30% with service providers. Consumers also plan to increase their email use, 29% to message friends and family, and 32% with business. In this, email lags only behind mobile phone calls (41%) and messaging via non-SMS apps (32%). But it varies by gender: Men are more likely to prefer email for daily personal use, women for messaging and social apps. advertisement advertisement Overall, mobile phone calls are preferred by 37% for dealing with service issues. The study concludes that mobile phone calls and emails are “loved universally. Yet 1/3 of customers Never use video chat.” Meanwhile, email comes in first for post-purchase follow-up, offers and loyalty programs:
Email is selected by 42% for shopping, 45% for purchasing and 43% for problem solving. In contrast, the phone is chosen by 54% for shopping, 38% for purchasing and 63% for problem solving. Using the phone? Here are the main complaints, all having to do with phone calls:
The study concludes, “The data is clear. Customers love their communications methods. They love a CX that has lots of channel options but resolves in the first one they choose. And they want businesses to know that the consequences for not sharing that love are severe.” Vonage surveyed 4,638 consumers across five global regions in July 2022. Click here for the full study. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/MQryusS October 28, 2022 at 11:52AM
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Charter Revenues Up 3.1% In Q3, Driven By Advertising, Mobile And Broadband Gains https://ift.tt/K6dDLug Boosted by advertising, mobile, and broadband revenues, Charter Communications grew overall revenues in the third quarter by 3.1% to $13.6 billion. Advertising revenue soared by 23% to $481 million versus the same period a year ago, due to midterm-related political advertising revenues. Without political advertising, Charter's core advertising business was essentially flat -- down 0.2%. The company's leading broadband revenues inched up 3.9% to $5.57 billion, even as the growth in new subscribers slowed to a gain of 61,000 versus a 243,000 increase in the third quarter of a year ago. The continuing decline in the legacy cable TV subscription business led to a 2.7% decline in revenue to $4.4 billion as subscribers shifted to lower-priced video packages. Subscriber declines were higher -- with a loss of 211,000 versus 133,000 in the third quarter of 2021. Fewer video subscribers due to cord-cutting and a shift in consumers moving to alternative channels lowered Charter's programming expense -- the carriage fee it pays to TV networks -- by 3.8% to $112 million. Mobile phone business was up 40% to $750 million. Charter's net income to its shareholders was virtually unchanged at $1.19 billion versus $1.22 billion. Free cash flow dropped 39% to $1.5 billion. advertisement advertisement Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/yNHkjXi October 28, 2022 at 10:05AM
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B2B Marketing News: Top B2B Demand Gen Content Study, LinkedIn’s Record Engagement, Key Social Media Trends, & Google’s My Ad Center https://ift.tt/mgP1h6t Fifth of B2B marketers say proving effectiveness is their ‘biggest challenge’ 56 percent of marketers have said that creativity is the most important skill required for navigating uncertain times, with 48.4 percent identifying return on investment (ROI) as the key metric to demonstrate marketing's impact, while 30 percent noted that their organization doesn't understand B2B marketing ROI — three of several findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in recently-released survey data. Marketing Week Beware of sales calls, young B2B buyers say 74 percent of millennials and Gen Z will avoid more sales calls and outreach efforts than older B2B buyers, while 72 percent of overall buyers and prospects have indicated that they plan to consume more digital content along the purchasing journey — two of the statistics of interest to digital marketers found among newly-published report findings. Digital Commerce 360 Microsoft FY23 Q1: LinkedIn up 17%, search and news revenue up 11% Microsoft’s latest performance report revealed that for the 16th consecutive quarter its LinkedIn (client) professional social network has seen record levels of engagement, with the number of user sessions expanding by 24 percent, accompanied by revenue that grew by 17 percent during the most recent quarter year-over-year, and LinkedIn newsletter subscriptions topping the 150 million mark, Microsoft recently announced. Search Engine Land The Public’s Perception of the Advertising and PR Industry Has Plummeted to a New Low The public’s perception and trust of the advertising and public relations industry has fallen to new lows according to one recent Gallup poll. A scant 26 percent of U.S. adults said that they see PR and advertising in a somewhat or very position light, bottoming out even more than the previous low of 27 percent in 2008, with net-positive ratings now even lower than during 2003’s previous record low, according to the newly-published poll data. MarketingCharts Instagram Tests In-App Feature Allowing Creators To Schedule Posts Meta-owned Instagram has placed the social platform's Reels and post scheduling front and center in its latest public test of new features, which could make it easier for B2B marketers who publish on the platform, Instagram recently announced. MediaPost Shutterstock partners with OpenAI to sell AI-generated artwork, compensate artists Stock photography service Shutterstock recently announced an expanded partnership with OpenAI — the artificial intelligence (AI) research organization founded in part by Elon Musk — that will see Shutterstock offering AI image generation from natural language text prompts. The expanded partnership will use the DALL-E application programming interface (API), and allow its users to manipulate certain existing images within its database, while also implementing a new framework to provide compensation to those photographers and artists who have played a part in helping develop the AI models, Shutterstock recently announced. Ars Technica Social Media Trends 2023 Global Report Social media platforms have proven to hold both influence and attention, with the influencer economy having gained precedence as a top form of customer communications, while B2B brand content creators will increasingly become the faces of the brands they represent — three of several insights contained in newly-released global social media trend data. Talkwalker [bctt tweet="“Content creators will become the faces of the brands they represent, especially in B2B. People trust people more than companies. Expertise is key to building trust with your audience.” — Daniel Murray @Dmurr68" username="toprank"] The Top Challenges Marketing Leaders Expect to Face in 2023 & How You Can Solve For Them [Expert Insights & Data] When it comes to the biggest challenges marketing leaders will face in 2023, adopting a data-driven marketing strategy and keeping up with the latest trends come out on top, with increased competition and fully leveraging a customer relationship management (CRM) system the next two greatest obstacles ahead in 2023, according to recently-published HubSpot survey data. HubSpot Google launches My Ad Center as ‘Trust in digital experiences has declined’ Search giant Google has begun rolling out My Ad Center, a portal allowing advertising preferences to be chosen for the Google-based environment including YouTube, and enabling users to specify the brands that they wish to see ad content from, among other new features, Google recently announced. DigiDay Which Content When? B2B Demand Gen Marketers Rate Effectiveness by Funnel Stage When it comes to which types of digital content work the best at different points along the B2B buying journey, blog, infographics and videos were seen as the most effective for top funnel efforts, while white papers, case studies and virtual events were the leaders for bottom funnel activity, according to newly-published survey data. MarketingCharts ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: A lighthearted look at “Evolution of Marketing and 20 Years of Marketoonist” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist Hey, Did You Listen to the 76 Hours Worth of Podcasts I Recommended Yet? — The Hard Times TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:
The post B2B Marketing News: Top B2B Demand Gen Content Study, LinkedIn’s Record Engagement, Key Social Media Trends, & Google’s My Ad Center appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®. Mobile Marketing,SEO via Hubspot https://ift.tt/p9qi5Q0 October 28, 2022 at 06:28AM
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Oomph Marketing: How Enterprise Firms Are Succeeding With Email https://ift.tt/lkfOB6w Enterprise firms are prolific email marketers. And they’re good at it, judging by Email Marketing: New Research for the Enterprise Marketer, a study from Outward Media (OMI) conducted by Ascend2. Of the enterprise marketers polled, 94% agree that executing an effective email program is critical to their overall marketing strategy, with 53% saying they strongly concur. And 95% say they’re successful at it, 28% very much so, or best in class. Only 5% rate themselves as unsuccessful. This is a higher success rate than those seen in some other disciplines. But, as usual, challenges abound. The greatest ones are:
advertisement advertisement Challenges aside, marketers plan to leverage these trends in their email program in the year ahead:
Do marketing tech stacks allow measurement of email’s impact? To some degree:
Continual A/B testing allows marketers to see what is working—and what isn’t—in an email program. Here are the most important elements to test:
Can AI be useful in email marketing? Yes, in these ways:
And how do they measure the success of their email programs? They do it through:
Ascend2 surveyed 133 marketers who work for companies with 500 or more employees. The full survey can be found here. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/yNHkjXi October 27, 2022 at 02:44PM
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TikTok Will Follow Tech Giants Into Gaming Space With New Mobile Games Tab https://ift.tt/yacn1Pf Having made its name via the proliferation of short-form videos, social media giant TikTok has announced the first-ever expansion of its entertainment offerings into gaming. TikTok users will soon be able to access a variety of mobile games through a dedicated tab on the home page, where they will have the option to pay for additional content. The new gaming channel will provide revenue opportunities through in-game ads and purchases. The global gaming industry is worth almost $197 billion in 2022, with mobile games accounting for more than half of the revenue at just over $103 billion -- a 5% YoY increase from 2021. advertisement advertisement The COVID-19 pandemic brought a boost to the gaming industry, with 14.4 billion mobile games downloaded from Apple’s and Google’s app stores during the first quarter of 2022 alone. According to GlobalData forecasts, new games and esports have also played a role in the success of mobile gaming, which will account for 58% of the predicted $470 billion video games market by 2030. “Thus, gaming is a lucrative opportunity for TikTok to expand its user base and add new revenue channels for long-term growth,” Charlotte Newton, analyst in thematic intelligence at GlobalData, told MediaPost. TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, is no stranger to game development and is likely aiming to bring its own games to this new channel, especially because of the Chinese government’s recent crackdown on gaming laws in the past year. “ByteDance has established a stronghold in the gaming sector in a short time with its acquisitions and massive user base,” adds Rupantar Guha, principal analyst in thematic intelligence at GlobalData. “Reportedly, 90% of mobile gamers on TikTok watch gaming content, with 33% stating a specific interest in esports. ByteDance will push harder in the gaming sector in the next two years, challenging Tencent and NetEase in the Chinese market and expanding its footprint globally.” TikTok is entering the space after other tech giants have failed in gaming. Snap Inc. recently announced that it would be discontinuing investment in its gaming offering, and Facebook shut down its gaming app last week. Earlier this month, Google said it would be shuttering its cloud gaming service Stadia. Still, streaming leader Netflix has maintained a successful mobile games channel, with 55 games in development and 35 on the platform now. It also recently announced a new studio in Southern California and hinted at a potential cloud gaming service of its own. TikTok’s new channel could be announced as soon as November 2 at “TikTok Made Me Play It.” This will be TikTok’s “first gaming event” and will feature speakers from gaming groups Electronic Arts, 2K, VNG Corporation, NetEase Games and Homa, The Financial Times reports. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/yNHkjXi October 27, 2022 at 01:02PM
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Podcaster Acast Launches Tool To Enhance Ad Targeting https://ift.tt/xlOVDUp Podcast company Acast has launched a first-party data-targeting solution for marketers within the Acast Marketplace. This new identity graph is specifically tailored for podcasting. Previously, advertisers were unable to pass their first-party data into the open ecosystem of podcast supply that operates via an RSS feed across listening apps to find their audiences. This was due to the lack of mobile advertiser IDs (MAIDS) and device IDs in the space, combined with the tech infrastructure of the RSS feed and how data is collected. Acast has solved for this lack of data signals to appropriately — and at scale — match advertisers IDs to our listeners through our new identify graph. This effectively enables advertisers to use pre-existing data targeting solutions to now reach listeners within podcasts, Elli Dimitroulakos, Acast’s global head of ad innovation, told Agency Daily. advertisement advertisement That means advertisers can leverage their first-party data to better target high-value audiences. The tool is available in the U.S. and Australia for both direct and programmatic buys. Merkle’s 2021 Customer Engagement Report found the collection of first-party data was a high priority for marketers as privacy-related data restrictions expand, such as the end of third-party cookies, changes to Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers and the EU’s Global Data Protection Regulation. Such changes can pose a challenge for advertisers. As such, there is a greater demand and reliance on first-party data. Dimitroulakos says Acast’s First-Party Data Targeting solution allows advertisers to "utilize their data to enable a more granular, custom approach to connecting with existing audiences while working with Acast for more upper-funnel initiatives to identify new audiences. “We’ve created a bridge between the media buy and podcast content supply,” he adds, which will serve “more relevant ads” and ultimately “increase monetization potential for podcasters.” B. Riley forecasts podcast revenue will hit $2.02 billion this year and rise to $2.9 billion in 2024. Acast works with more than 2,400 advertisers each year. Brands partnering with Acast include Amazon, State Farm, Macy’s and Ikea. The company says it hosts nearly 66,000 podcasts with more than 400 million listeners monthly. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/yNHkjXi October 27, 2022 at 10:08AM
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Email The BFF: Channel Is The One Most Likely To Be Personalized https://ift.tt/9AhbWkX Email is by far the channel most likely to be personalized by marketing brands. That doesn’t mean it always works. An impressive 69.20% of companies personalize emails, and 56.10% do so with content, according to Future of Marketing: Why Personalization Matters, a study by ClickZ and Moengage. In contrast, only 34.60% personalize their web pages, and 24.30% their product recommendations. And 18.70% are not now personalizing anything. But there are many barriers to personalization, among them:
Now this study may not be much more than a snapshot. Moengage and ClickZ surveyed 107 U.S. marketers between March and June 2022. Still, the findings are in sync with those of other surveys. advertisement advertisement In this study, nearly 70% are moderately, highly, or extremely satisfied with the quality of their data. And 51% are investing more in marketing technology to help personalize the customer experience. And roughly 40% are investing the same as before. Fewer than 10% are investing less. Email dominates technology investment. Marketers are spending on:
How do companies track success?
But the study also shows that 61% of marketing leaders are not using ROI to make decisions. Why? Because they lack confidence in the data. With budgets tight and talent in short supply, brands have to make “diligent and effective investments in technology to automate the right processes and augment their workforce,” the study states. It adds that despite the challenging economic circumstances companies are now facing, “it is imperative that investments are not delayed as consumers are increasingly emboldened to be selective in where they spend their money.” Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/qPAmH7R October 26, 2022 at 04:13PM
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How Strong Is Consumer Trust in Your Brand? Q&A With Jebbit's Taylor Donnell https://ift.tt/iZRDOe8 Consumer trust in brands has seen a great shift, according to Jebbit’s Taylor Donnell, vice president, content and partnerships marketing, whose company just released the results of its latest Consumer Data Trust Index (CDTI), an online study of 2,500 25- to 64-year-olds. Some business sectors were hit hard as consumer trust declined precipitously. Others benefited, debunking previously held beliefs of what is needed to cement consumer trust. Charlene Weisler: What are the study's major takeaways? Taylor Donnell: Some highlights: This CDTI edition’s rankings reflect the largest shifts in brand trust rankings to date. Google fell from #4 most trusted brand to #89, Apple fell from #17 to #43, and Netflix went from #8 to #43, indicating there’s room for brands to improve the education (and communication tactics) that they provide to their users regarding data privacy changes. Brands must be thoughtful and strategic with the data points they seek to capture, as 30% of consumers said “asking for too much information,” again ranked as the #1 factor that results in brand mistrust. advertisement advertisement Pandemic trends are no longer trends because they're here to stay, with 63% of consumers surveyed saying their online shopping usage has increased since the start of the pandemic, while 40% say they’re seeing more irrelevant online ads than ever before. Forty-six percent agreed that irrelevant online ads from a business based on past purchase data decreased trust in that brand, showing that brands cannot afford to send irrelevant, repetitive or intrusive communications to shoppers. D2C brand Bonobos jumped to #9 from #90, indicating that legacy brand awareness doesn’t guarantee a high trust index ranking. Forty-three percent trust brands in both D2C and traditional brand categories the same. Weisler: How does this compare to your previous study? Donnell: For one thing, we saw quite a big fall in rankings among some of the tech giants, like Google. This annually recurring study was first published in 2018. Latest indicates that consumers’ distrust in major brands continues to increase, as many businesses that once held top spots on the consumer trust index have made major shifts down the ranks. Weisler: How do you think the privacy landscape -- both nationally and globally-- will impact businesses going forward? Donnell: The CDTI report found that while 63% of consumers are spending more time shopping online than they were prior to the start of the pandemic, 75% of businesses had a harder time building and maintaining trust with their customers. To gain and/or maintain consumer trust, business must be more transparent than ever about their privacy and data collection practices as well as ensure digital communications with consumers are relevant, welcome and engaging. Weisler: How fully informed is the average consumer on Google and Apple privacy policies, in your opinion? Donnell: Thirty percent of the 2,500 consumers in the survey stated that they were unaware that Apple and Google had made any changes to privacy policies at all. We think there is plenty of room to provide more education and educational resources that will give consumers a better grasp of how businesses, mobile-apps, browsers, etc. track their online behavior and generate revenue using their personal data. We also believe that while these changes are good and built to protect consumers, big tech continues to take advantage of burying communications about any changes/updates that impact users by burying them in their complex and lengthy privacy policies and / or terms & conditions pages. Weisler: What do you think caused Google's fall in the rankings? Donnell: On the one hand, many of the biggest players in tech continue to tread against bad PR, which may provide at least part of the reason that Google dropped 73 spots! However, this is a bit of a head scratcher given that Google has taken momentous steps to put consumers and their privacy first, including announced privacy changes to its Android operating system as well as its plans to deprecate the third-party cookie. Weisler: What should businesses do to maximize trust with consumers? Donnell: Businesses should proactively communicate how they collect and use consumer data in order to build trust. When consumers willingly volunteer more information about themselves (i.e. first- or zero-party data) businesses should respond by clearly demonstrating the genuine value they can in turn provide for consumers, through helpful and welcome communications. One key takeaway was that while legacy brands may have the advantage of brand recognition (35% of consumers polled stated that they still trust traditional brands more than online, direct-to-consumer brands), they should also take a page from many D2C brands, which seem to fare better in consumer trust, perhaps because they appear to better understand the needs of digital consumers, which enables them to focus on delivering an engaging and relevant user experience. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/qPAmH7R October 26, 2022 at 02:47PM
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How Apple Is Walling Off Some Walled Garden Advertising https://ift.tt/NaMOWuL In yet another ingenious move to assert control – as well as its share of monetization – over apps installed on iPhones, Apple quietly updated its App Store guidelines requiring developers in a way that gives it a cut of in-app purchases made by advertisers to “boost” their audiences on social media apps, as well as the burgeoning NFT marketplace. While implications for the NFT marketplace remain to be seen, the new rules mean that advertisers buying audience boosts must do so as in-app purchases, meaning Apple will get its 30% cut from social media apps, including Twitter, as well as Meta’s Facebook and Instagram. Not surprisingly, Meta has already issued a statement calling foul play, but much like it did with the fallout it experienced from the loss of data signals due to the rollout of Apple’s iOS privacy framework, there probably isn’t much it can do, other than kvetch, issue statements, call on other third-parties (ie. small and medium size businesses) to cry foul too. advertisement advertisement The truth is that Apple is a walled garden too, of course, but the best part of its move to control what happens within its ecosystem is that it is always intended to a) benefit Apple users; and b) Apple’s bottom line in a way that gives the other walled gardens a taste of their own medicine. And the truth is that it shouldn’t make any difference to advertisers – or consumers – who gets paid for what, so long as the price is fair, market-based and that they don’t have to pay more than they otherwise would. I mean, who cares if Meta has to pay a vig to Apple for the right to distribute and amplifying its audience reach across Apple devices? Is it any different than Meta requiring advertisers to pay a vig to distribute and amplify its ads on Facebook, Instagram, or even worse, its own network of third-party app developers that are forced into its shakedown racket? Not to me. What do you think? Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/qPAmH7R October 26, 2022 at 12:33PM
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Riding The Razor’s Edge of AI in B2B Marketing https://ift.tt/LbTjOKg Where can artificial intelligence (AI) play a genuinely helpful role in B2B marketing efforts, and when does it go too far and become a creative liability for marketers? AI has increasingly crept into our daily lives, and B2B marketers are facing these and other new questions, confronted with keeping a healthy balance between some of the efficiency and time-saving gains AI can deliver, and running the risk of implementing too much AI and not enough of the human touch. AI has continued its inevitable refinements from the first online customer service help chatbots to today’s software that ostensibly writes many forms of text, to the ever-more-impressive AI-generated digital images of programs such as DALL-E. Just how much AI is too much in B2B marketing is a machine learning (ML) spectacle that will play out in 2023 and likely never stop being refined, however B2B marketers today can be prepared by knowing some of the key issues at hand and the right questions to ask. Let’s take a look at three of the major areas of marketing where AI is increasingly at play, and explore the benefits and risks of machine learning in B2B marketing. [bctt tweet="“Just how much AI is too much in B2B marketing is a machine learning spectacle that will play out in 2023 and likely never stop being refined.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"] 1 — AI Has Come Far, Still Has LimitationsIt’s no secret that B2B marketers are more frequently being asked to deliver greater efficiency, as our own senior content marketing manager Nick Nelson recently examined in “B2B Content Marketing: Making Small Budgets Do Big Things,” and in this quest for more efficient work it’s little wonder that AI has had an uptick in usage. With B2B businesses having moved to a digital-first online strategy over the past several years, marketers have found themselves spending more time producing a wider variety of content than ever before. “Today’s marketers say they spend a significant amount of their time creating content,” Meghan Bazaman, senior content analyst at Gartner recently observed in “Why AI/ML Is a Game Changer for Content Marketing,” adding that, “In fact, 45 percent spend half of their week doing so.” Faced with growing content creation demands, AI has presented B2B marketers with options for boosting efficiency. “AI and ML have already been adopted for other marketing functions,” Bazaman noted. “They are most commonly used in email marketing, advertising and data analytics, but only a third of marketing professionals say they use them for content creation,” she added. With AI’s inevitable refinements in the coming years, it will undoubtedly be able to tackle more than just the relatively simple and easy-to-read content it excels at today. “AI/ML has a promising future in marketing. As the technology gets better at emulating human behavior, it will play a larger role as a writing assistant, helping marketers work smarter and more efficiently,” Bazaman suggested. [bctt tweet="“AI/ML has a promising future in marketing. As the technology gets better at emulating human behavior, it will play a larger role as a writing assistant, helping marketers work smarter and more efficiently.” — Meghan Bazaman @MeghanBazaman" username="toprank"] Yet simultaneously, B2B marketers are looking for new ways to personalize content efforts. Personalized content and offers were listed by global B2B marketers as the top marketing tactic being added in 2022, according to new eMarketer data that Tequia Burt, editor in chief of the LinkedIn* Ads Blog recently explored in, “5 Top Takeaways from eMarketer’s 2022 US B2B Digital Ad Spending Forecast.” "Emerging digital technologies and tools are giving B2B marketers the ability to find their target audience and personalize content for them more effectively than ever before," Burt suggested. [bctt tweet="“Emerging digital technologies and tools are giving B2B marketers the ability to find their target audience and personalize content for them more effectively than ever before.” — Tequia Burt @TequiaBurt" username="toprank"] While AI can automate the creation of some level of the personalized content B2B marketers are seeking to deliver, it’s important to know when AI personalization can become tone deaf. AI is also fundamentally unable to deliver when it comes to another area today’s B2B professionals are seeking — real, human-powered insight on current trends. 64 percent of business executives have said they prefer thought leadership content with “a more human, less formal tone of voice,” according to LinkedIn and Edelman’s latest B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study. Let’s take a look at three of the primary areas where AI is playing an increasingly important role in B2B marketing, working from the most straightforward to the most complicated.2 — From Turing’s ELIZA To The Modern ChatbotAlan Turing’s 1966 ELIZA was among the first of what today we call chatbots, and they’ve undoubtedly progressed in complexity every year since. I’ll never forget my first time using an AI-infused chatbot program around 1985 — not because of the initial half hour or so spent interacting with the ELIZA-based Commodore 64 software, but from continuing that conversation some 20 years later. Around 2005 I converted my old collection of Commodore 64 5.25-inch floppy disks into files that can be used with modern emulation programs, and came across my long-forgotten chatbot disk. Once converted, I booted up the program and was instantly transported back to 1985, as the chatbot picked up just where I’d left off so long ago, asking me if I’d had a good time playing basketball — the last thing I’d mentioned during our previous chat. I felt oddly sorry for the chatbot, having had to wait so long to continue our conversation, and was happy to have picked it up again. Since then chatbots have progressed by leaps and bounds, and more B2B brands have been offering them among customer support options in recent years. According to one recently-publishing survey, among small and midsize businesses, 97 percent have said that AI tools reduce the time they spend on marketing tasks, and 92 percent said that AI tools led to decreased costs. Just how quickly are AI-powered marketing tools proving helpful to businesses? The same survey found that over 80 percent of marketing decision-makers believe that AI marketing tools will have a positive impact on their business over the next two to three years or sooner. Chatbots are just one of the AI-infused technologies that are being used by B2B brands, so let’s look at a few more.3 — AI-Concocted Images Fascinate & Face Copyright ConcernsA rising number of B2B marketers have been testing the waters with AI-powered image generation applications including DALL-E, Jasper.ai, Meta AI’s Make-A-Scene, Stability AI, and others that are making waves by turning plain text descriptions of anything imaginable into digital images. DALL-E — which bills itself as “your creative copilot,” uses machine learning models to not only create images from natural language descriptions but to alter and re-create existing images. Jasper.ai — which bills itself as a top AI content platform for business, offers an array of social media content generation features from image creation to written content, which we’ll look at separately in a moment. The slightly disconcerting images created by these and similar AI-based programs have been increasingly popping up in our social media feeds, and they point to a fascinating road ahead as their use in B2B marketing finds a niche. As an example of the current state of AI-based image generation, I asked DALL-E to make images showing, “A group of B2B marketing professional business-people attending a networking conference event,” and among the four images it provided after a short wait, one — the only image not showing a face, tellingly — could likely work in certain B2B marketing campaigns. The others — not so much. As the technology rolls ever along, the images these tools create will only improve and become less off-putting, however even today their use has raised concerns in several areas — from fundamental questions of what is genuine and what isn’t, to copyright concerns and more. Last month stock photography giant Getty Images announced that it was taking a stand against AI-generated imagery, due to the unsettled nature of the various copyright laws that protect stock photos and the artists who created them. “There are real concerns with respect to the copyright of outputs from these models and unaddressed rights issues with respect to the imagery, the image metadata and those individuals contained within the imagery,” Craig Peters, chief executive at Getty Images, explained. [bctt tweet="“There are real concerns with respect to the copyright of outputs from these models and unaddressed rights issues with respect to the imagery, the image metadata and those individuals contained within the imagery.” Craig Peters @GettyImages" username="toprank"] Another player in the stock photography business has taken quite a different approach to AI-generated images, as Shutterstock recently announced an expanded partnership with OpenAI — the AI research organization founded in part by Elon Musk — that will see Shutterstock offering AI image generation from natural language text prompts. The expanded Shutterstock partnership with OpenAI will use the DALL-E application programming interface (API), and even allow its users to manipulate certain existing images within its vast database, while also implementing a new framework to provide compensation to those photographers and artists who have played a part in helping develop the AI models. As has been the case with numerous area of technology, legislation lags behind today’s swift progress in AI-generated images, and much remains to be clarified when it comes to copyright, the use of training AI image generation programs with millions of existing images taken by real photographers, and deeper questions about authenticity in marketing and life. The AI-powered video creation industry has also seen growth — although not as established as the still image market, and is likely to be another area that sees increased usage among B2B marketers and other digital creators in 2023.4 — AI Copy-Writing Tools For B2B Content CreationWhile more B2B marketers than ever have turned to testing or implementing AI-based software to write content, several serious hurdles remain. Notably, the public’s perception and trust of the advertising and public relations industry has fallen to new lows according to one recent Gallup poll. A scant 26 percent of U.S. adults see PR and advertising in a somewhat or very position light, bottoming out even more than the previous low of 27 percent in 2008, with net-positive ratings now even lower than during 2003’s previous record low. In light of this, B2B marketers need to ask themselves whether increasing the use of AI-powered technology will help or hurt the public’s all-time-low perception of the marketing industry — and no area runs a greater risk than when it comes to writing. [bctt tweet="“B2B marketers need to ask themselves whether increasing the use of AI-powered technology will help or hurt the public’s all-time-low perception of the marketing industry.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"] B2B marketers have already had to walk a razor’s edge when it comes to the use of AI, however that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of areas where AI can be used successfully, including writing with the assistance of tools such as ContentBot and Jasper.ai. As with AI-generated images, writing generated by AI copy-writing tools face both audience acceptance and legal issues. Questions remain, such as when a piece of writing reaches a certain threshold percentage of content created by AI, does it need to be disclosed to the reader? If — or more likely, when — AI copy-writing tools are able to progress to the point where they can take more humans out of the marketing loop, is that always a good thing, or are there serious risks that threaten the very heart of what marketing is.5 — Riding the Razor's Edge of AI in B2B Marketingvia GIPHY Whether using AI-powered chatbots, machine-learning-powered image, video, and copy-writing tools — or a mixture of them all — today’s B2B marketers live in an interesting and foundational time, and in a digital landscape that is certain to look vastly different in just a few short years. Careful and considered implementation of AI-powered technologies can pay dividends for savvy B2B marketers and become part of a modern digital-first super-stack of marketing technology skills, and we hope that some of the AI information we’ve explored here will help your own efforts as we push ahead into 2023 and beyond. More than ever before, creating award-winning B2B marketing that elevates, gives voice to talent, and humanizes with authenticity takes considerable time and effort, which is why more brands are choosing to work with a top digital marketing agency such as TopRank Marketing. Reach out to learn how we can help, as we’ve done for over 20 years for businesses ranging from LinkedIn, Dell and 3M to Adobe, Oracle, monday.com and many others. * LinkedIn is a TopRank Marketing client.The post Riding The Razor’s Edge of AI in B2B Marketing appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®. Mobile Marketing,SEO via Hubspot https://ift.tt/jWD74go October 26, 2022 at 07:21AM |
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April 2023
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