Mediaboss Marketing

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Most marketers already know they can capitalize on artificial intelligence (AI) to make more informed decisions, better engage their target audiences, and drive revenue for their organizations.

Yet, according to a Demandbase survey released in 2019, only 18% of B2B marketers and sales professionals are currently using the tech.

The same study also found that 67% of marketers expect higher lead quality from AI, and 56% believe the technology can help yield better engagement with customers and prospects.

So, whats holding marketers back from using it?

While marketers recognize the value that the tech can deliver, they often lack the perfect combination of prioritized sweet-spot use cases, people/organizational capacity, and technology to effectively execute an AI strategy.

Unfortunately, by not mastering this trio, marketers are putting themselvesand their companiesat risk of becoming obsolete.

Experts from McKinsey & Company predict that AI technologies could lead to a substantial performance gap between front-runners (who fully absorb artificial intelligence tools across their enterprises) and non-adopters or partial adopters by 2030.

AI front-runners are projected to potentially double cash flow by 2020, with implied net cash-flow growth of roughly 6% for through 2030, while non-adopters might experience around a 20% decline in cash flow from todays levels.

To avoid falling behind and to begin reaping the benefits, every marketer must prioritize identifying the best-fit use cases, hiring and/or developing the right people, and implementing the right technology in the year ahead.

The AI landscape is littered with failed projects, so heres what to keep in mind to increase your likelihood of success:

While there may be hundreds of AI use cases that a marketer will eventually want to execute on, marketers should first map out their top candidates according to two dimensions: value and feasibility.

Its okay to first think big, but then you need to narrow the list.

Among the common use cases are the following: intelligent chatbots, smarter personalized digital advertising, content generation and curation, AI-powered account or lead scoring, AI-assisted email responses, multi-channel marketing attribution, next best action, customer lifetime value, and sentiment analysis.

Marketers should estimate the value delivered for each use case (potential upside revenue, time-to-market, reduced manual labor, customer satisfaction), as well as time and effort it will take to see actionable results.

If the use case isnt both highly valuable and highly feasible and if you dont know how youll act on the predictive results then it should be taken off the short-term wish list.

Marketers who are unsure of where to start should consider assessing the value of these common high-impact applications:

Once marketing teams have identified the processes they want to apply AI to, they can start to identify the individuals who will lead the implementations and the technologies they need to bring those use cases to life.

The skillsets of the modern-day marketer are fast-evolving.

With the number of digital customer touchpoints that marketers need to managewhich includes everything from desktops and mobile devices, to social media and beyondmarketers need to consume, analyze, and leverage endless amounts of data to inform decisions.

That data is especially crucial for fueling valuable AI applications; without it, the systems wont have the necessary information they need to generate mission-critical insightssuch as predicting consumer behavior or creating truly personalized content.

Its no surprise then that Marketing Lands January 2019 Digital Agency Survey found 72% of agency marketers said data science and analysis will be the most in-demand technical skills in the coming years, followed by conversion rate optimization (59%), and computer science/AI and technical SEO (52% each).

Unfortunately, those skills are hard to come by; according to Indeed, the number of individuals searching for AI-related jobs decreased by 14.5% from May 2018 to May 2019. They also found that demand for data scientists increased by 344% from 2013 to 2019, yet the talent pool grew by just 14% in 2018.

Although the talent shortage certainly presents challenges for marketers, there are ways around it. Marketers can identify internal citizen data scientists.

These are individuals who possess deep domain knowledge and have a strong analytics background, but not formal data science training.

With the right tools and training, citizen data scientists can get up to speed on the organizations AI strategy quickly.

Additionally, marketers should consider hiring an AI consultant to support their initiatives or looking to their platform provider for guidance on AI strategies in the near-term while they work on adding AI to their marketing DNA and building it as a competency over the longer-term.

Regardless of the use case, there are different approaches marketers can take to leverage AI in marketing processes.

Marketers know well that there are some 7,000+ different vendor tools that could be leveraged in a martech stack, and an exponentially increasing number of those incorporate some AI, or at least claim to do so.

The most common approach taken by marketers today is to leverage AI that comes built-into a martech tool and that is optimized for just that one-point solution or capability.

That means marketers might have 10 different AI tools for ten different capabilities, but thats the most frequent approach today that gets fast time-to-market without having to hire or develop the AI competency in-house on day one.

While having those point solutions may work today for certain problems, the reality is that some of the highest value problems in marketing or customer loyalty cant be solved by a point tool.

Use cases such as next best offer, cross-sell/up-sell, churn prediction and reduction, customer experience optimization, price elasticity modeling, customer satisfaction, and others require a broader enterprise solution.

To that end, finding the right AI technology or platform backed by some business transformation help is absolutely critical to marketers AI success.

Here are three considerations for success when selecting AI technologies:

The impact of AI is being felt across all industries, and the savviest marketers are prioritizing getting their AI strategies in motion to maintain their organizations competitive advantage.

But in the AI-driven era, its not enough for marketers to be interested in AI; to be truly successful, theyll need to think critically about the processes, people, and technology that will be core to their AI missions.

Those that master that combination will be easy to identify, as their organizations will dominate for years to come.

Bill Hobbib is responsible for global marketing at DataRobot with over 25 years of experience marketing disruptive technologies to organizations of all sizes, including more than a decade in the data management, analytics, and SaaS space.

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AI in marketing: How to find the right use cases, people and technology - ClickZ

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Do aspiring marketers need to study formally, or is self-learning and and a good portfolio enough to make it as a digital marketer in 2020?

While degrees were once a requirement for aspiring marketers, the digital era has made the world of digital marketing far more accessible to, well, just about anybody with an internet connection. Many new marketing professionals have gotten their start without a university degree, and many seek innovative ways of self-learning using online education platforms, or good old trial and error. High-profile marketing expert Seth Godin has even gone so far as to create a short altMBA course for aspiring marketers and business leaders.

A recent study carried out by ClickMinded revealed that attending graduate school can be up to 10 times less profitable and 3 times slower than self-learning online.

Compared with attending graduate school, learning digital marketing with an unaccredited course and starting a website is:

With these thoughts and findings in mind, weve asked marketing managers how they view degrees today. More specifically, we wanted to learn whether degrees are a requirement and why aspiring marketers may still want to get one. The experts also share some best tips for getting educated in marketing and hired without a degree.

Related Article:Marketing Certifications That Can Help You Earn More

In my opinion Marketing degrees are not a necessity depending on the role, stated Kyle Turk, VP of marketing at Keynote Search. When hiring a digital marketer, for example, its often best to choose a candidate with experiences using specific software so they can quickly hit the ground running. If the role requires technical expertise for certain softwares, Turk continued, self-learning would prove to be more valuable.

Paula Connor, chief content marketing officer at 256 says employers especially government organizations still require formal marketing or business qualifications, but thats rapidly changing. My short answer is no, [marketing degrees] arent useless, Connor began. many employers still look for formal marketing or business qualifications, especially in government organizations.However, he points out, you can definitely learn a lot of digital marketing skills by yourself for free.

Tony Mastri, digital marketing manager at MARION Marketing believes someone that wants to move into a more general business role beyond marketing will want to get a university degree. A university degree will really help expedite the move from entry-level to some sort of senior role or management position, he said. Thats because marketing degrees cover areas like accounting, finance, economics, management and other business topics as well.

Maddison agreed, A marketing degree offers the greatest flexibility to pivot, for those unsure about what area of the industry they want to specialize in. When self-learning, it can be challenging to get a comprehensive insight into all the different aspects of a role ranging from market analysis to data analysis and budgeting.

The main criticism with the material covered by marketing degrees itself is that the focus is largely centered on marketing theory. The better programs incorporate practical elements, Connor explained, like giving students the opportunity to work on real-life client projects, work experience/internship modules and include modules where you would gain practical skills such as obtaining a Google Analytics certification.

Related Article:8 Skills Every Digital Leader Needs

In a good job market, Mastri said, a portfolio of success (candidates will still need previous work experience or successful project examples) can be enough to land an entry-level position. He says companies can always try a candidate out with a contract-to-hire role rather than taking a leap of faith. That said, he still views it as a risky decision. There is a small chance I would hire a marketing employee without a degree, but still a chance, he stated.

If someone has an amazing portfolio of work to show, can demonstrate their skills and has great references from former clients/employers, Connor said, then well be interested in talking to them degree or no degree. Companies that dont value these factors often significantly limit the talent pool theyre willing to hire from and miss out on great hires.

For many organizations, however, formal education is not what matters most. The most important quality for a candidate wanting to start a career in marketing is to have a continued willingness to learn, stated James Maddison, head of content marketing at iwoca. He says a lot of whats required can be learned on the job, and marketing degrees are merely an indicator of knowledge. The industry develops at such a fast pace that the majority of things learned during a marketing course wouldve changed by the point of graduation, Maddison said.

Employees can get started with digital marketing using online learning platforms or even just online research, Mastri said. But he strongly suggests candidates build the right portfolio or examples of work to stand out from college graduates.

You can get started by learning from the likes of HubSpot, Google, SEMrush and Moz, Connor recommended. These companies all offer training programs and certifications for inbound marketing, analytics, paid ad manager, SEO and more. Whether it be a combination of some of these certifications or all of them, Turk agreed, it would be more useful for me to have someone who is an expert with the digital tools we already have in place.

As a marketing leader, Turk concluded, I would definitely hire a candidate without a formal degree as long as they have tangible self-learning certifications that are relevant to our business. It looks as though marketing degrees wont be going away anytime soon, but there are alternate paths for todays aspiring digital marketers.

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Are Marketing Degrees Worth the Paper They Are Printed On? - CMSWire

Quba's Owner and MD, Matthew Williams, is optimistic about this coming year. Reflecting on what went well in 2019, he explains that collaboration between specialists is much more important than being a Jack-of-all-trades.

2019 was an interesting and turbulent year - to say the least - but we all got through it and Id like to think theres an air of optimism as we have the whole of 2020 laid out in front of us.

Much of our success in 2019has been down to an outward-looking and collaborative approach to how we do business; and I believe that way of working will be one of the biggest trends and growth areas for the entire marketing and digital sectors.

The term collaboration does tend to throw up some rather dodgy marketing speak connotations, butits all about adding value to our clients. Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do; fromhow we work with our clients and suppliers, to how we communicate internally.

But more and more, its been focussed on working more closely with other agencies who can deliver first-class and complementary services that we dont offer for the ultimate benefit of our clients.

Let me wind back a bit... In my view, full service agency is a bit of a misnomer for most of the companies that claim to be one. You need tobe specialists in what you do.

For example, a PR or ad agency that brings in a junior developer to work on small scale projects and then claims to be a digital or full service agency isnt being honest.Theyre simply not one.

You can count the number of truly full-service agencies - andmoreimportantly, first-class ones -in the UK on a couple of hands. I dont want to knock anyone as were all trying to do the best we can, but it takes courage to focus on one thing, ignore the noise and do what you do well.

We should all be proud of what we can deliver, but when the need arises the most switched on and commercial firms look outside for the extra skills that are going to add the most value.

Take our own sector, for example. The scope and breadth of software used within the marketing and digital industries has expanded exponentially over the last 10 years.For example,software like CMS platforms have become far more complex to build in and they have to do a lot more than just manage page content; the growth of CRMs and marketing automation software has been unprecedented; whilst cloud software such as Azure has taken off in a huge way.

This means that from a technical perspective, all but the very largest of agency networks are able to fully deliver all the potential requirements a client may have via their internal resources. So my question is this: why do companies still feel the need to be seen as full service when theyre not?

The answer is simple - agencies dont want to turn work away and they dont want to risk their client looking to others to deliver their projects, so they claim to be all things to all men. However, it doesnt have to be this way - if onlywe all started to work together more strategically and openly, by building stronger relationships with other agency partners. We shouldnt view each other as threats, but as opportunities to grow and develop together.

During 2019 we took the decision to take specialising to the next level at Quba. We decided to pull out of providing SEO and PPC services. We felt the market had become too diverse and that we would actually provide a better service to our clients by using a select number of specialist SEO and PPC partners.

Over the past 12 months, this approach has benefited Qubas bottom line. By building a trusted network weve been able to be 100% transparent with our clients and they really appreciate that honesty. They know who is delivering what and they can see the benefits that collaborative working brings.

This has particularly been the case with our larger and more complex clients as they just want the best tools for the job rather than a one-stop shop. They appreciate quality, insight, strategic knowledge and technical expertise over and above anything else. In the most simplest of terms, they now know that with great agency integration comes great work and first-class results. Thats all they care about.

On a far more practical level, collaboration also makes agencies far more competitive and nimble as it mitigates the need to take on the extra overheads and the expenditure of additional staff, training or technologies in order to service what may only be a short- to medium-term client or requirement. Partnering with another agency removes all of this, as you can spin up the resource quickly and with minimal financial outlay.

My prediction is that collaboration will become much more the norm and the growth in networks likePimento, Agency Hackers and The Network One clearly backs this up. Agencies just need to become far more open to partnering and realise that its the best way to retain clients and provide the highest levels of service.

My advice? Choose your partners carefully to ensure they fit the blend of clients you have, and ensure your clients know you've spent time ensuring you use the best possible partners, and havent just pulled them out of a hat. Finally, be loyal to each other, be transparent and work together when things dont quite go to plan.

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2020: The year of greater agency collaboration - Prolific North

SEO can sometimes make you draw back in horror. It's a process that can often be confusing, it ends up changing often, and if you want to stand a chance of staying relevant, it's important to improve it. Whether it's a website you're running as a side hustle or as a main business, here are some tips to better your skills when it comes to SEO.

Keep Up With The Basics

The basics of SEO are pretty easy to manage and something you can likely do yourself without too much hassle. These can be adjusting images so that they are compressed and at size that allows your webpages to run a lot quicker. Fixing broken links is something your website's host site will often remind you so that you can go in and fix them. There's nothing worse than a first-time visitor to your site, clicking on a link that doesn't work. Changing your alt texts to match the keywords used for the article are also useful. These are the basic SEO tips that you can do on a daily or weekly basis to just keep on top of, particularly if you're in a position where you can't hire the professional support yet. Always check up on your site to make sure that it's loading quickly and that everything is easily navigable. There are plenty of SEO training videos out there for you to utilize.

Analyze What Needs Work

There are going to be areas of your website that need work so it's always good to check in on your site to make sure it's performing as it should be. You may want to think about making adjustments to your website design or layout in order to keep it updated and looking fresh. As a regular visitor, it can be nice to see a change or update in the way a website looks every so often. Try to elevate areas of it where you can and always have that attitude of constantly being able to improve it and make it better. Be sure to look at your analytics to when it comes to where your visitors are going on the site and where there might be issues that are causing users to move off from the site. It could be due to a broken link or simply being a page that is boring to look at or read.

Ask For Professional Help

Professional help is useful to use when you've exhausted all your own personal skills and knowledge when it comes to SEO. As a process, it's something that is constantly changing, and so it's necessary to get additional assistance in order to grow the influence of your website on the internet. You can also learn and grow your own skills in SEO by seeing what changes the company you use are doing. When it comes to search engine optimization, it's something that will often need constant work, but it's worth the investment when it comes to the overall success of your site.

Use Customer Feedback

Customer feedback is a wonderful thing to have and to take advantage of because they know you best. Ask them for regular feedback on aspects of the website from the layout to how much they might love certain articles. You can either do that or get some unbiased strangers to test out your website and to make comments on how effective your site is. Both work extremely well, and both are worth doing to help improve the look of your website.

Always Aim To Learn Something New

With SEO, every day is a new change to something within this process. Whether it's something the search engines change or an addition to your site that's worth making. Learning something new every day is certainly a mantra that's worth using. So look at what you've learned so far when it comes to this process and what you're still struggling to understand. Make it your goal to learn a new element to this process and hopefully you'll find that you've got a more professional grasp on how it all works.

Bettering your skills when it comes to SEO is useful, so don't let yourself fall behind and become irrelevant.

2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

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How To Better Your Skills When It Comes To SEO - Tech Times

The start of a new year always feels optimistic and full of promise and you might as well take advantage of that momentum and learn a new skill in 2020. The best way to show employers that youre worthy of a raise or even a promotion is to prove that youre constantly investing in your own growth. These eight trainings are focused around some of the most desired, marketable skills this upcoming year. And you can learn (and relearn) these lessons on your own time, if necessary.

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Learn A New Skill in 2020 With These 8 Training Bundles - The Daily Caller