Marketing automation, powered by machine learning, enables brands to reach people wherever they are in their omnichannel consumer journeys. But not only that; it delivers relevant creatives while using less granular data to ensure user privacy and, most importantly, optimizes performance and generates profits.
“Marketing, as we know it, is about making meaningful connections with consumers,” says Jim Lecinski, associate clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. in a recent conversation with Mel Silva, MD and Vice President of Google AUNZ. “Machine learning has taken hold in different aspects of business…but marketing has been one of the slowest business functions to embrace the power of automation.”
So why is it essential to enable machine learning in your marketing? now?
First, consumer journeys are long, they’re complex, they’re messy, and they’re increasingly digital – we know that. There has been steady growth in online shopping since before the pandemic, and in Australia over 80% of under 55s shop online[1].
Second, people are curious. They ask more questions and research across all platforms, and 91% of Australians engage with brands on at least 2 different channels before making a purchase decision.[2]. They value brand relevance, and with 15% of Google search queries every day completely new[3]This is not an easy task.
When it’s the playing field, the only way to reach and delight thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of disparate individual customers is to automate.
While the possibilities are nearly limitless, automation can help brands in three main ways.
First, by helping you show up with the right message, at the right time and in the right place. Machine learning algorithms are great at testing and learning on your behalf, then adapting the best creative combinations where they can be most effective.
Second, by helping you connect with high-value customers at scale. Automation can help paint a picture of what your high-value customers look like, and then find more of those people across the web, which helps generate more revenue at lower cost and increase profitability. .
And third, automation can help you simplify campaign management by dramatically reducing the manual administration needed to organize and optimize your campaigns, freeing up time for finer marketing skills like strategy and marketing. messaging.
So with such a clear advantage, what’s holding marketers back? “I think there’s a common misconception that machines are just going to take over or kind of take over all of our jobs,” says Jim, who recently wrote the book, The AI marketing canvas“When in reality it’s quite the
opposite. You are a marketer who uses your knowledge of the customer, your human ingenuity, your insight, your creativity and, above all, the sales and marketing objectives that you set for yourself. This is what the machine will then automate. So you retain control, instead of giving up control. It is the algorithm that serves the marketer when you integrate automation and not the other way around.
In fact, it’s a pretty amazing time to be a marketer, to be able to experiment en masse and thus combine human and technological intelligence. In very real terms, marketers are at the forefront of new technologies and new ways of doing things that will lay the groundwork for years to come.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by world powers that are already doing incredibly advanced things in this space, but Jim has an answer for that. “It’s not too late to be early, so don’t worry you missed the boat on this one,” he says. “The way to start is to find a business problem that, by being able to predict the outcome, would unlock extreme incremental value for your business. Once you identify that business problem, more often than not a marketing team works with a existing marketing partner.”
Modern marketing is synonymous with automation. And in a privacy-driven future, an automated approach will be absolutely essential to ensure your brand can continue to show up along complex purchase journeys.
But it won’t magically appear in your business. It is integrated over time, and in stages. So get started, reach out to your marketing partners, and start your journey to growth through automation.
Watch the full conversation between Mel and Jim now on Think with Google
[1]Source: Google/ Kantar, Shopper Pulse Australia, April to December 2021, 18-55, n=3,482.
[2]Google/GfK, Continuous Connection Study, Australia, qualitative/quantitative study of n=300 category shoppers aged 18+ (of whom n=150 were passively measured) over one month March-April 21. Basis: respondents compliant with passive surveys and 5+ moments n=97
[3]Google internal data
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