Applying AI to Marketing and Sales
In my last post, I shared a link to the McKinsey and Company report on the "Economic potential of generative AI". Much of that report featured marketing, sales and product development as being most affected, disrupted or potentially improved by this technology. I'm summarizing that content and share my thoughts below.
Marketing Benefits
Generative AI, can help create content efficiently and effectively, reducing the time needed for content creation and ensuring consistency across different pieces. It can also enhance the use of data by interpreting various data sources and generating data-informed marketing strategies. Generative AI aids in search engine optimization (SEO) by optimizing technical components and distributing targeted content.
Additionally, it enables personalized product discovery and search based on customer profiles, improving e-commerce sales. Implementing generative AI in marketing could increase productivity and lead to new ideas and better-targeted customer segments.
Generative AI could have the biggest impact on collaboration and the application of expertise, activities that previously had a lower potential for automation.
Sales Benefits
Generative AI can increase the probability of sales by identifying and prioritizing leads based on comprehensive consumer profiles. It can also assist in lead development by synthesizing relevant sales information and creating discussion scripts for sales representatives, automating follow-ups and nurturing leads. Implementing generative AI in sales could improve productivity and potentially uncover new leads and revenue opportunities. The time saved by sales representatives can be invested in higher-quality customer interactions, leading to increased sales success.
Overall, AI offers valuable insights, streamlines processes, and enables more effective marketing and sales strategies.
After reading the report with special attention to the marketing and sales ramifications of AI, I believe more strongly than ever that “Technology is nothing without Humanity.” Bottom line: AI isn’t something to fear - it’s a tool that will allow us to simplify tasks that currently command or demand our time, so that we may focus our minds, resources and expertise on the more important aspects of growing business.
Proceed with caution
Introducing generative AI to marketing functions requires careful consideration. Mathematical models trained on publicly available data without sufficient safeguards against plagiarism, copyright violations, and branding recognition risks infringing on intellectual property rights. A virtual try-on application may produce biased representations of certain demographics because of limited or biased training data. Thus, significant human oversight is required for conceptual and strategic thinking specific to each company’s needs.
