The world is in the midst of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, businesses are rushing to adopt generative AI, with marketers leading the charge by embracing rapid advancements in the technology to better connect with their customers.
The State of Marketing report by Salesforce stated that a strong data foundation is critical to AI success for marketers as they work to bring together customer data for real-time activation. Marketers are evolving their practices in the highly competitive landscape, looking to AI to help personalize at scale and boost efficiency.
The report highlighted that advancing technologies are prompting marketers to rethink, reconfigure, and revolutionize how companies connect with customers. Marketers are turning to AI, taking it as a priority and challenge. Their priorities include implementing or leveraging AI, improving use of tools and technologies, improving marketing ROI/attribution, engaging with customers in real time, and building/retaining trust with customers. The marketers top challenges are difficulties implementing or leveraging AI, engaging with customers in real time, building/retaining trust with customers, measuring marketing ROI/attribution, and creating a cohesive customer journey.
They also have a variety of tools at their disposal. The report spotlights analytics/measurement tools and customer relationship management systems, data-driven approaches, and customer engagement. Marketers also utilize additional tools to capture, unify, and activate data from across the customer journey. But there are some hurdles. Not all marketers are fully satisfied with unifying customer data to create relevant experiences, and they are also disappointed with efforts to maximize AI’s value. Salesforce says customer insight data and transactional data also help provide a deeper look at what the audience wants and needs.
According to the report, marketers want to accentuate their customer relationships through loyalty programs and omni-channel experiences. Only one in three marketers is content with performance on core initiatives- this shows a gap between expectations and outcomes. Marketers are under pressure to make sense of and apply the information they collect about prospects and customers. timeliness has become a major emphasis. About two in five marketers still don’t have real-time data at their disposal for crucial tasks, relying instead on potentially outdated insights. Teams with live data are also slowed down by their ability to activate it.
Marketers are more determined to captivate customers and find new ways to connect with audiences. They understand the importance of fueling innovation, and creating connected, personalized, and immersive experiences to stay ahead of customer expectations.
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