Implementing artificial intelligence in your marketing strategy can supercharge business results. But how do you know if you’re ready for AI?
By now you’ve probably realized the value of having an AI component as part of your marketing strategy. You understand the benefits and the advantages that AI can bring to your messaging, your audience, and your bottom line, but….
Are you ready for AI?
Not every company and marketing team is ready to harness the power of AI to supercharge their marketing. In some organizations, old, entrenched ways of thinking can hinder progress and stymie innovation. There can be a protectiveness of one’s role and territory within an organization that can block attempts to incorporate new ways of thinking.
Other teams will have a culture that welcomes experimentation and collaboration, with access to clean data, and flexible workflows in place ready to adapt on the fly depending on what the data uncovers. AI is considered a member of the team, and is relied upon to guide strategy.
Let’s break down the areas you’ll need to assess to determine your team’s readiness to deploy an AI component to your marketing strategy. Does your org sound like it has obstacles to implementing artificial intelligence, or are you ready to make the leap?
Data Quality and Accessibility – It all starts with data. Do you have enough clean data to gain actionable insights from AI? Can you get the data you need or is it siloed across teams and systems? Is your CRM integrated?
For best results, access to consistently clean, integrated data sources, including marketing analytics, sales and financial data, will ensure the highest levels of engagement with your audience.
Culture – Does your organization support innovation, learning, data-driven decision-making and measurement? When thinking about your organization’s approach to marketing, how much experimentation is there? How much interest is there in learning about your audience?
To get the most from artificial intelligence, an org’s culture must take an “always-on” approach to experimentation, with measurements and insights shared across teams.
Strategy – Is your marketing strategy robust and sophisticated enough to provide ample opportunities for using AI? Is data being used to drive improvements to the customer experience?
In a best-case scenario, predictive and analytic AI would be used across all channels of communication, and used to guide strategies.
Measurement – Do you have SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely) goals? How are KPIs used to measure success?
Organizations best suited for AI will have SMART goals with KPIs to measure success, including revenue attribution.
Technology – Do you use technologies that can include or integrate with AI and do you measure their impact? Does your org use multiple, separate marketing solutions, with an eye towards exploring a fuller marketing automation solution?
To make the most of AI, you’ll want a best-in-class platform deployed across all channels, and used to refine and improve customer engagement.
Workflow – Is it highly regimented or flexible? Do changes to marketing programs require many approvals? Is basic content reused across various channels?
The most successful teams consist of a combination of humans and artificial intelligence working within a flexible workflow from strategy to execution and analytics.
Team – Is the team curious? Does it have an interest in using data and analytics to drive improvements? How rigidly are roles defined? Are campaign results analyzed?
The “world-class” teams will be collaborative, have dedicated analysts, and AI will function as a team member.
Admittedly, this sort of honest self-assessment will be more difficult for some orgs than for others. But well worth the effort, because the payoff from successfully using artificial intelligence can be game changing.
To learn more about one company’s results after taking the Marketing AI Maturity Assessment, read our PTC case study.
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