The Evolution of Marketing: From Manual Through Automation To Predictive

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” While historians still argue whether Charles Darwin actually said that or Leon C. Megginson (Small Business Management: An Entrepreneur’s Guidebook), this opinion is just as valid for marketers today.

We are all aware of how technology advances at an exponential speed today. If you subscribe to MIT’s newsletter Technology Review, you will be amazed at the number of innovations, research, and ideas it regularly reports. With the emergence of the Internet and connected devices such as mobile, it is more than ever an adapt-or-die world.

This is all too familiar for businesses that always make decisions whether to change with the times and take advantage of these new growth opportunities or cling to the status quo and face the threat of extinction. Change is difficult—for individuals, and even more for organizations. In his timely book Intelligent Customer Engagement, Dr. Jacob Shama, CEO, Co-Founder of Mintigo, addresses this difficulty for marketing and sales amidst the marketing revolution that is happening right now.

Defining Brand In Real Time

From the explosion of data and multiple touchpoints to changing consumer behavior and demographics, today’s marketers face consumers who take over and help define the brand. Combining big data, innovative technologies, and dynamic consumer experience, the definition of brand is in real time.

“Likely to overhaul the way we do business and even the way we live, big data and AI [artificial intelligence] are two of the most sweeping revolutions of the 21st century,” Shama writes. “It empowers us to sift through mind-boggling masses of raw data, process it, structure it, and apply it to insight development on a grand scale […] Now, big data and AI are also powering marketing.”

The number one challenge marketers face is creating and nurturing demand real time. For Shama, predictive marketing—the application of data science to traditional marketing—is the answer. “Exploiting new technologies such as AI to amass and process vast amounts of information on companies and decision makers, predictive analytics scientifically guides marketers to the campaigns that create the highest engagement and produce the highest revenue.”

Transforming the Customer Journey

Understanding that the customer journey is becoming more and more nonlinear, Shama turns to predictive marketing which transforms the customer journey into a scientific process. “It leverages data science to optimize every engagement point—presenting the right offer, the right product to the right prospect delivered via the right channel,” Shama notes. With predictive marketing, this can be done at scale and near real time. “In that way, all your marketing efforts are truly customer-centric.”

Intelligent Customer Engagement is a probing and comprehensive reference book about predictive marketing. Helping marketers navigate the ever-changing marketing landscape, Shama thoroughly discusses the application of big data, AI, and predictive analytics to marketing—from the science behind it to how organizations can adapt and implement it.

Covering a wide range of topics, the book details use cases and questions to help organizations evaluate if predictive marketing and account-based management (ABM) are right for them. Shama understands that organizations have different goals and existing operational and technological capabilities. So it includes step-by-step guides and best practices. Success stories from early adopter companies also reveal how data and AI help dramatically shrink sales cycle and increase revenue.

Highest Likelihood To Convert

As a marketer, one of the top priorities is to help sales beat their numbers and find more buyers faster. Shama dedicates a chapter to sales enablement, emphasizing that by “providing [sales] the leads with the highest likelihood to convert and the data on how to approach,” sales can improve their results.

Marketing and sales can benefit from data-driven insights that empower initiatives from account management and segmentation to production of content and collaterals. He further writes about how to get not only the sales team but also the whole organization on board in support of predictive marketing.

Marketing data and intelligence are the new currency in the marketing space. And transforming data into actionable insights real time is essential to commanding a competitive advantage for businesses. As Shama observes toward the end, “Marketing and sales are in a constant struggle to get ahead of the curve, the competition, and customers’ needs and wants. Predictive marketing and sales powered by AI and predictive analytics has the information, tools, and insights you need [..]”

While technology and ideas change rapidly, having in-depth knowledge on how predictive marketing works is critical to best manage change for long-term success. As the marketing space continues to evolve, reading Intelligent Customer Engagement could enable organizations to adapt, win, and survive extinction.

Accountability in marketing means one thing: Can you deliver on what you promised? The good news is that using a data management platform and data-driven marketing can help you improve accountability—especially when it comes to revenue. Download the Guide to Advertising Accountability to learn more.