From machine learning and augmented reality to chatbots and voice-activated search, there’s a lot of buzz around how to use new technology to improve your marketing efforts. But sometimes, it’s hard to know whether or not they’re actually worth the investment.
In our webinar led by E3 Senior Marketing Technology Manager Grady Neff, we cover some of the latest marketing technologies, how marketers are using these technologies to move their brands forward, and how to evaluate solutions for your own company.
3. What we’ll
talk about
today.
1. The Marketing Technology Landscape
1. The Problem with New, Shiny Technologies
1. 5 Emerging Marketing Technologies (and ways
to practically implement them)
1. Vetting and Implementing New Marketing
Technology
7. —
5 Emerging Marketing Technologies
Worth Adopting
There are a lot of glitzy new products to filter through.
Here are some areas we think are worth a second look.
10. The impact of AI technologies on business is projected to
increase labor productivity by up to 40% and enable
people to make more efficient use of their time.
Source: Accenture
11. The development and automation of computer systems
able to perform tasks that normally require human
intelligence, such as visual perception, speech
recognition, decision-making, and translation between
languages.
KEY BENEFITS
1. Automate manual tasks and reduce human error
1. Helps deliver a more personalized experience
1. Increase in tests allows you to learn faster
What is AI?
13. Predictive Lead Scoring
WHAT IS IT?
AI within HubSpot (marketing hub) that looks at past
customer interactions with your marketing efforts and
auto-generates scores for new leads (non-customers)
based on those consumer actions.
WHY IT’S HELPFUL
1. Helps you prioritize qualified leads (especially if
you have a ton of leads)
1. If you already have a lead scoring model, it can be
a secondary source of justification of lead quality
or tweak your lead scoring model.
14. “AI is not just getting better—it is becoming more pervasive. As
new generations of hardware and software endow all manner of
both consumer and enterprise devices...we are poised to enter
an era of pervasive intelligence.”
15. ❏ Have a plan for keeping your
data clean and structured
correctly
❏ Vet out solutions and ask good
questions
PERSONALIZATION
Tips to
Remember
16.
17. A platform used to automate and manage conversation
with users on your website.
KEY BENEFITS
1. Available website touchpoint 24/7
1. Improve ability to handle high chat requests and
user questions
1. Can increase lead generation across site, including
scheduled meetings
What are
chatbots?
19. North Face + Watson
Personal Shopper
WHAT IS IT?
Chatbot assisted purchasing tool powered by AI that
helps users find the perfect jacket to fit their needs.
WHY IT’S HELPFUL
1. Shows users relevant products based on their
lifestyle
2. 24/7 sales tool—no need to interact with a real
person
3. Improves user’s experience and engagement
20.
21. ❏ Think about your users first
❏ Vet out solutions and ask good
questions
❏ Think through the entire
implementation process
CHATBOTS
Tips to
Remember
22.
23. Augmented reality is an interactive experience of a real-
world environment whereby the objects that reside in the
real-world are "augmented" by computer-generated
perceptual information.
KEY BENEFITS
1. Helps users visualize your products in their own
surroundings
2. Improve speed of familiarity with your products
without visiting store location
What is AR?
25. IKEA Place
WHAT IS IT?
iOS app that helps users virtually visualize what their
products would look like in their own space.
WHY IT’S HELPFUL
1. Allows you to see furniture in your home before
purchasing it
2. Can help determine if furniture will fit in a
particular place
3. Improve overall user’s experience of purchasing
with the brand
26.
27. ❏ Solutions may need to be
custom
❏ Backend product data structure
may need revisited
❏ Make AR useful to your users
AR
Tips to
Remember
28.
29. Voice-activated search is when searches are activated by
voice (think Amazon Alexa or Google Home) rather
than using a device’s keyboard.
KEY BENEFITS
1. Allows users to search using natural language -
they simply ask a question, and the device returns
results.
2. Search results can be tailored specifically to queries
with more specific phrases being searched
3. Adoption rates of voice devices exceeding those of
smartphones - large and growing user base
What is voice-
activated
search?
31. Domino’s Voice-Activated Ordering
WHAT IS IT?
Domino’s developed a skill that allows users to interact
with the brand’s AI personality Dom - and then place an
order directly from their voice device.
WHY IT’S HELPFUL
1. Allows users to conveniently order pizza using
natural language in an innovative and interactive
environment.
2. Skill allows the user to track the progress of their
order simply by asking for updates.
32. ❏ Think about search results in
terms of natural language
❏ May require custom skill
development to meaningfully
engage customers
Voice First Marketing
Tips to
Remember
33.
34. Progressive web applications are a cross between a
traditional web pages and a mobile app that allow users
to experience your websites more quickly and reliably.
KEY BENEFITS
1. Experiences load almost instantly
2. Allows for website usage while offline
3. Increase engagement with push notifications
What are
progressive
web apps?
35. Lancome
THE PROBLEM
Lancome saw that mobile traffic surpassed desktop
traffic, but the mobile conversion rate was 15% whereas
on desktop it was 38%
RESULTS
1. 84% decrease in load time
2. 15% decrease in mobile bounce rate
3. 51% increase in mobile sessions
4. 36% increase in mobile revenue
36. Starbucks
THE PROBLEM
After launching their mobile ordering system in 2015,
Starbucks wanted to add that functionality to their
website and make it accessible in established and
emerging markets.
RESULTS
1. PWA is 99% smaller than the size of the iOS app,
improving emerging market experience
37. PWA
Tips to
Remember
❏ Keep your audience and goals in
mind.
❏ Compared to developing and
maintaining a custom application, a
PWA is less expensive
39. Your Foundation Is More
Important Than Buzzwords
Chatbots and AI may be the rage right now, but without
the proper setup and long term strategy for the collection
and use of your data and martech systems, the more
likely it is to burn through cash on underutilized tactics.
Thinking through your finish line before you get started
is critical before building out your MarTech stack.
Ginger Snap #1
40. New Technology Must
Work Together
Independent systems offer unique capabilities for your
marketing. But not all systems work together, and not all
data is structured for out of the box use.
Thinking through your finish line before you get started
is critical before building out your MarTech stack.
Ginger Snap #2
41. Beware of “Out-of-the-Box”
Claims
Many martech companies offer out-of-the-box
integration solutions. Before you get too far along in
your integration process, ask yourself (and the vendor) a
few questions to make sure that the “built-in” integrations
will actually meet your needs.
Ginger Snap #3
Here are the four things we’re going to talk about today. -->
There are quite a few people who are watching this right now, all of whom range from every business size and industry that you can think of. So I’m going to do my best to keep this broadly applicable to all marketing tactics and channels, B2B or B2C, and do my best to explain some things that certain people might not yet have exposure to. So I apologize if I’m explaining something that seems obvious to you, please bare with me. And if I breeze past something that you’re confused about, please post in the comments or chat thing here and I’ll try to explain them further at some point in time.
In 2011, Scott Brinker started recording these technologies in his now infamous marketing technology landscape.
75% of marketers believe they’re going to assume responsibility for a customer’s end-to-end experience with their company’s product and services.
This increase in responsibility has contributed to increased pressure to accumulate the best stack possible, which, in turn, has led to a huge increase in demand for technology options.
That and the explosion of the internet, which has dovetailed into the increase of smart devices and ways to track and collect data, all of which has systems in place to help and optimize.
Today we’re going to focus on a handful off emerging technologies, specifically the boys starred in this slide here.
Gartner Hype Cycle comes out regularly to show the types of martetch systems out there and their phase of development
So over time (listed at the bottom there) these types of martech systems generally initiate marketing professionals to undertake deploying an advanced martech stack
So high priority new items, like AI and real time marketing, are at the very early stages of development, aka Buzzword status. Everybody wants it, yet no true players have yet emerged
Then as systems mature, expectations get inflated as the sheer quantity available jumps, evolving on what early adopters generated. This is the watch out zone, plenty of non-tested platforms here.
The trough of disillusionment then is where most SaaS providers fail as the systems become more commonplace and the dominant services take hold.
As time then progresses though, those that make it through are proven to be beneficial for marketing departments
All these technologies are very cool, but most businesses would need to have foundations in place before moving into these advanced areas
So foundationally, you’d work backwards, from the items on the right moving left.
I always recommend focusing on the bottom of the funnel first, ensuring the purchase process works, so you don’t jam the funnel full of leads only to have them not have the ability to close.
Today the number of systems available is at a staggering 6800, making it literally impossible for any one person to know them all or have hands on experience with even all the primary categorizations
I made a companion guide to this landscape which defines each of the categories in his landscape and provides links to the related software products in each bucket, which is available on the E3 blog.
Interactive tool to click through
Feel free to check it out to explore all these services and get links to their descriptions, website, available pricing and user ratings through G2 crowd.
All five of these technologies Element Three has had some type of exposure to on behalf of a client who was deploying for customers
Some are brand new and are currently in progress, others have been completed and are running right now. They all depend on client and customer needs, since our specialty is helping your marketing department improve its performance.
So, let’s begin
It’s also going to remove some jobs and repetitive tasks entirely. However, those that are replaced will be so much faster, smarter and comprehensive than what a human could realistically do
We haven’t really reached true AI yet (cognitive understanding and decision making)
AI vs. Machine Learning
Be aware of companies saying they’re using AI...not always the case.
What is it?
HubSpot looks at your contacts and scores them based on behavior of your past customers. Total interactions are logged and then quantified to provide a lookalike audience, from which predictive scores are applied to leads currently within the funnel. If a lead then begins to exhibit customer-like behavior, their score goes up. It’s all automated. If you have a high volume of leads, then it can help you filter and prioritize those leads, automating messaging along the way. And if you already have a custom lead scoring model, it can be a secondary source of justification of lead quality or tweak your lead scoring model.
What’s the caveat here? You need good generation of data in order for it to work. If you can’t track a full customer’s journey, this automated score will be way off the mark more often than not. So due diligence from the jump is key.
Harvard business review says about AI
https://hbr.org/sponsored/2019/02/ai-is-not-just-getting-better-its-becoming-more-pervasive
True AI is still far away for marketers. But partial AI and personalization tools are a reality that you should evaluate quarterly.
Words of advice:
AI can only operate with a treasure trove of data, that is organized and correlated in ways that make sense for your business. Whether this is through a Data Lake, Business Intelligence system, on premises data or anywhere else, you need a clean data structure for AI and machine learning to work within.
There are a variety of options out there for all kinds of systems. Whether you’re looking for programs to help with your CRM, paid media, social calendar or anything else, be sure to take into account your existing technologies and tactics. Cross reference them with the new AI you’re looking at deploying and Google the hell out of integrations and issues people are having. Again, SaaS platforms are usually created in a vacuum, so do your due diligence to ensure something new plays nice with what already exists.
Great example of this being deployed in the real world is the North Face and their partnership with Watson.
They created a tool to act as a digital brand expert, helping users throughout the online experience just as a store clerk would.
North face integrated their online chatbot experience with Watson natural language AI
Users can have conversations with the chatbot, and based on responses it recommends various products, sizes and more
The artificial intelligence starts by asking what activities you will be using the jacket for, where and under what conditions.
Based the weather for that location and the end user’s gender, it narrows down the search to 6 options.
Throughout additional questions and activity it then ranks the options with “high match” to “low match”
Obviously this is a blend of the AI topic from before and chatbots, so very advanced deployment from a bluechip brand
However, common purchase paths exist for all customers and all products
Based on data collected from systems you already utilize right now, you can most likely ascertain common questions, issues and paths a customer must complete before commiting to a given product or service
All of that can be mapped out through a chatbot tool, similar to how an automated phone operating system can work. This can boost customer service, point consumers in the right direction or more
While they’re still new to the market, chatbots are quickly expanding their capabilities and features. Plus, they can be a quick win.
While you want to make your business more efficient, chatbots can be a great way to ensure your providing a good experience and how you can be available to them. Solve problems for your users first, not the things that will make your business easier. There’s definitely a middle solution there, but chatbots should be used to help and aide the users.
Not all chatbots fit your business. Some are focused toward B2B and come are focused to B2C. This is v important.
Lastly, approach bots as you would with any other marketing or technology deployment. How will it most positively affect your business, and work backwards from there, ensuring you connect your goals directly with those of the customer / user.
AR app that allows users to browse through IKEA products and virtually test them out in their individual living spaces
Very useful user experience in that it allows a potential buyer to test a product prior to assembly
Seriously expedites the purchase process and gets users bought in to owning the item
I actually just bought an IKEA couch and put it together in our living room, only to find it was a smidge too long
If i had used this app though I could of tested it out first and figured out the best option (too bad grady)
AR can provide a virtually immersive experience of your products, especially in situations where your products may not be as accessible. As more users continue to shop online, AR can easily make you a leader in providing the best shopping experience.
Depending on your product, service, customers or industry, you may need to completely customize the experience for augmented reality. Data and code are flexible to apply to broad swaths of business applications, but your brand, product nuances and soul of what you do needs to visually translate into the tool you’re looking to build, so your customer can engage with you on a practical and emotional level. Creative and development work may need to be tailored to exactly what you’re looking for, which will take quite a bit of time and money.
Like your other systems, this app or tool can generate data that can integrate with your current tech stack. Keep that in mind when customizing it for your needs, and if an out of the box offer comes into play, keep integrations in mind. The last thing you want is data loss.
Think of what the customer would want from your AR experience. Does a product walk through make sense? Can you help a prospect feel what it would be like to be a customer? Can you simplify some type of experience? Thinking customer first will always work out to your benefit.
Voice First Marketing begins with users questions - posed in natural language (how normal people talk) not abbreviated keywords that we are by now almost programmed to use in search engines. As such content should be optimized around user questions in the form of long-tail keywords. It allows the user to speak like they normally would and a smart assistant does the leg work to find the right action or result on the users behalf. This cuts both ways though, as it then find one singular answer for them, it’s not like a device where a user can browse through multiple options and make their own selection.
These devices also allow for custom skills development - skills allow you to create a structured voice experience for users to enhance their customer journey and advance your brand. This is an opportunity to again assist the user throughout their engagement with your purchase process.
Lastly, voice search is a booming category with regards to actual usage. Optimizing for voice search can help you take advantage of a rapidly growing user base, currently adoption rates for voice devices are much higher than the first smartphones.
Dominos advanced their brand personality and enhanced the user experience by creating a quirky and friendly voice experience for users.
New technology has been a priority for DOminos when it comes to allowing customers to order pizza their own way; with a tweet, emojis and now through voice
Users have responded positively so far - 20% and growing of 1-click orders are now being placed through a voice device.
Total orders have exceeded 500,000 nationwide, so the availability wherever a user logs their time is truly paying off
Why it’s helpful:
Paired with the Dominos app, users can just ask their alexa to place a pizza order just like they would over the phone. This then logs the order online and provides a time estimate on completion. All automated and done without a human interaction, reducing friction in the funnel to next to nothing
All you have to do is ask Dom, “how’s my pizza coming” and it will tell you where they are in the process of delivery. No more guess work in the delivery phase, and customer trust goes through the roof. Why call any pizza place now?
The applications of voice search, and voice activated technology are endless. Taking advantage of the rapidly growing number of voice devices in household both by optimizing content for voice search, and developing voice-activated skills to enhance customer experience.
When it comes to voice search - best practices for SEO apply. The key difference is the way you are optimizing your content. The focus is on specific, natural language based keywords. Shoot for featured snippets - these are generally what voice devices read from when a question is asked.
Voice tech also provides far more opportunity that just a search engine. Skills allow companies to create interactive environments for their customers - guided by their voice. These can create meaningful interaction with customers and enhance their buying journey.
Progressive web apps, or PWA’s as they are also known, is essentially a hybrid website app experience. It loads and functions on the back end like a website would, however the experience is more akin to an actual application.
60% of world wide mobile users are still on 2G networks, and PWA’s help bridge the gap between slow access users and app functionality.
This allows for custom experiences and navigation similar to apps, while also loading in a much smaller file size than a traditional app, and functioning without internet connection. Pretty hot.
Also since it works like an app, it comes with app like engagement benefits, such as user login and advanced tracking, push notifications and more.
Lancome, skincare and beauty product brand.
This 80+ year old company saw that mobile traffic was surpassing desktop traffic, but the same increase was not being seen in purchases. While rich media on the site was helpful for desktop users, it slowed the mobile experience down significantly, adding issues to the device experience. They considered creating an app, but that would have only been helpful for returning, highly engaged customers - not new customers.
PWA to the rescue, had a custom experience built with navigational assistance and much faster load times. Across the board they saw huge increases in performance as well as sales. The big one there is 36% increase in mobile revenue, exactly what they set out to accomplish.
Featured case study on PWAs by Google: https://developers.google.com/web/showcase/2017/lancome
Yet another example here is from our buds at Starbucks. And like we mentioned earlier, 60% of world wide mobile users are still on 2G networks - and Starbucks has made a concerted effort to grow in China and India. With their menu being as large as it is, their app is actually pretty hefty, making downloading tougher on lighter networks. Same issue with the website, it’s rough to customize orders and expeidte the process when web pages take 10 - 15 seconds to load.
Creating a custom PWA allowed for their access size and time to drop substantially, and allow for the use of the app while offline (though obviously to order and connect to the stores you would have to be). This PWA was complicated because of how many variations of drinks there are - it’s a highly customizable environment, so complex caching had to be set up to download the information for each menu item, store previous orders, and store static web pages.
https://formidable.com/work/starbucks-progressive-web-app/
Right now, the most obvious use for a PWA is for retail companies or publishing websites - where massive amounts of things are available to users and you’re asking them to engage heavily (ie: buy, customize).
I’m probably sounding like a broken record here, but with PWA’s especially, their benefit comes from thinking through the customer experience first and reducing friction. Speed of access, level of access, functionality, all should come to mind when customizing this for your business. Something else to remember is that this is brand new technology: features and capabilities are still being developed. iOS is just now adding the featuring to add PWA’s to the homescreen like an app, so previous operators on Apple devices will still be missing out. Background processes won’t work on a PWA - so you lose the ability to geofence
Apps are good for engaging existing customers especially if you’re in an established region, a PWA is a good step to attract new visitors to your site (ie: this is great for retail/e-comm and massive publishing sites) or if you’re growing in emerging markets. But dedicated apps are expensive, and why re-create the wheel if you already have a primary functioning website? PWA’s are a nice middle ground utilizing web elements while lowering the hurdles for development and cost. Plus you don’t have to re-submit updates to the app stores for approval which is nice, but you also aren’t featured in app stores. Stuff to think about.
As we wrap up here, I’d just like to leave you all with a few final tips when it comes to selecting, deploying and integrating these types of systems
I personally am the marketing operations guru at Element Three, and across all of our clients we encounter dozens of unique issues that need to be solved.
However, there are some commonalities amongst most, so here are my Ginger Snaps about what to watch out for
In the digital era, since marketing and reach is more accessible, most of the time businesses jump directly to sales and exposure without thinking things all the way through. What customers are we looking to engage with? What types of systems are critical to move them towards a purchase? How should We be communicating our message? You’d be shocked at how many organizations (and how many very large and very established organizations) just start running in any direction instead of the right direction. AS a result the core systems are inaccurately setup or deployed, causing data loss or handcuffing what can realistically be accomplished.
So while new technology is great and can seriously help your business, we only recommend them with proper foundations already in place. There is literally no point in trying to execute an advanced and flashy technology if your brand, user experience or bottom of the funnel / purchase processes fail.
Speaking of common problems I typically encounter, prime suspect number one is martech stacks with systems that just don’t play nicely together. This always creates headaches internally because most marketing managers understand that data and insights can occur across systems, they just don’t know the nitty gritty details of how that technically comes together.
Most systems these days have open API’s, and most systems can be customized to integrate and pass data with the help of development work. However you can save yourself a lot of trouble up front if you vet technologies and think through how they’ll work with existing systems before coming to a decision.
Now we at Element Three help to make your marketing and technology work for you, so if there are long standing systems in place there is hope. Data can correlate and pass between systems. But be sure to make this a step in every deployment step. Look at a services API documentation, vet their integrations and apps. Check to see if they work with a data transfer service like Zapier or ETL.
Lastly, most of these technologies and existing platforms have out of the box functionality. You can plug them in and they do some things very well. Yet all of you are beautiful snowflakes, your customer lifecycle is a beautiful snowflake, and your products are beautiful snowflakes. So to assume that any system is just going to immediately work for you is false. You’ll need to understand their limitations and nuances to set up to customize and bend each to work for what you’re trying to accomplish.
AAAAnnnnnd…...Snaps complete
Thank you all for joining in today. Like I’ve said before, Element Three and myself specifically deal in marketing technology, data, attribution and more everyday on behalf of our clients. If you have a unique problem that you think is impossible to solve or is holding you back, hit me up and let’s talk about it. I love a good puzzle... and I’ll personally buy you a beer if you stump me. You’ll come into the office one morning and have a beer can sitting in a delivered box from me.
Thanks again, please post in the comments / chat section of the webinar for more or email me with questions or challenges.