The trend of AI in digital marketing is advancing faster than most people can keep up with. If you spend any time on social media, you know that rarely does a day pass without reading about some new, shiny AI tactic. 

“Hey, marketer, did you know that AI can analyze your content and produce 100 headlines in 2.5 seconds?” 

While tactics often dominate the AI discussion, we’d argue that AI and digital marketing success is more about leading with strategies. That’s where the true power lies, right? It helps you break free from time-consuming tasks and focus on higher-level strategic thinking and planning. 

We recently caught up with our internal content marketing expert, Matt Sailor, to answer the question: How is AI changing digital marketing? He also shared six ways that marketers can use it more strategically to support growth. 

Use AI to create more A/B strategies to test 

Like many marketers, here at Act-On, we’re constantly testing our email automation. For example, we recently added a new call to action to an email promoting an upcoming webinar. This small change increased click-through rates and resulted in much higher conversions. However, those results wouldn’t have been possible if we hadn’t taken the time to ask: What changes could make a difference?

A lack of time often stands in the way of asking these questions. You’re busy, and if you don’t have time to strategize and test your ideas, opportunities for new growth are limited.

“Let’s say you have a top-of-the-funnel lead nurture sequence,” says Matt. “Maybe you’ve run that sequence for some time, and it performs decently, but you believe it could do better. You could use AI to create different subject lines, calls to action, and other variables to test. Since you’re not doing all the manual work of creating that content, you’re free to focus on strategy and implementation.”

As a human, you create high-level strategies and ideas, but then you use AI to support you with the implementation. 

Free up time for thought leadership strategies 

Creating thought leadership is important for growth and awareness, but it’s also very time-consuming. For each piece of content, you need to define the individuals you want to interview, conduct the interview, write the content, refine, publish, and promote. Every marketing team has limits, and because creating this type of content is so time-intensive, those limits are easy to reach. 

“With thought leadership, it’s about using AI to handle tasks that interfere with the deep thinking required to create the content,” says Matt. “Maybe you need more time to interview experts, but you’re tied up writing a bunch of new email sequences. If you let AI draft some of those sequences, you can speed up the process and free up time for those interviews.”

You can also use AI to help with the promotion and distribution of your thought leadership content. For example, AI can review a piece of thought leadership content, pull out the main ideas, and write the first drafts of the social posts you’ll use to promote the piece. Your marketing team can then review, edit, and finalize the posts.

“AI in digital marketing is a quantity game,” says Matt. “You can use AI to get part of the way, like creating first drafts of social posts, but you need a human to bridge the gap from quantity to quality.”

Find gaps in your brand guidelines and strategies 

With every technology tool, there are strengths and weaknesses. One of AI’s strengths is its ability to review and interpret large amounts of data. This capability can support higher-level tasks, such as creating and refining brand guidelines.

“You can feed AI samples of your content and ask it to analyze elements like tone, style, and messaging,” says Matt. “It can then review all your content samples and suggest guidelines to include.”

This capability is helpful for establishing new brand guidelines but also for updating your existing ones. For instance, you could have AI analyze content, identify guidelines to include in the document, and then review it against your current brand guidelines to spot gaps. If your sample content consistently uses humor to engage the audience, but it’s not mentioned in your voice and tone section of the guidelines, you could add it to make sure future content is consistent.

Become more present during strategic meetings 

How many meetings are on your calendar this week? And if you’re being honest, are you mentally present for all of them? Maybe you are, but one thing that can help you be even more present is delegating certain tasks, such as note-taking.

“Applications like Zoom can automatically take notes for you with its AI assistant,” says Matt. “Other platforms offer similar features and can even annotate and provide some structure to help you process and organize your notes.”

Eliminating the need to document every detail during a meeting allows your mind to focus more deeply on the discussion. AI can also help with deeper preparation before meetings.

For example, remember the thought leadership we discussed earlier? You often need to prepare questions for those meetings, and marketers typically aren’t experts in every topic they cover. That’s why we tap subject matter experts, right? 

You can use AI to help you brainstorm questions and consider new angles that you might have missed when preparing for meetings. 

Back up your social strategies at scale 

We’ve already suggested using AI in digital marketing to break down longer content pieces, like thought leadership, into social media posts. But you can also use it to support your distribution strategy further.

Many marketers aim to have their internal teams, such as sales and leadership, actively posting on social media. However, these teams are often busy and may not see themselves as writers. These challenges can prevent them from distributing your content. 

“You can ask AI to brainstorm 40 posts for your SDR team, and then say, ‘Hey, we came up with these post ideas for you,’ and then allow them to decide which ones they want to use,” says Matt. 

You can repeat this process for all of the internal personas you want to post social content for, eliminating the typical barriers that hold them back, such as lack of time and uncertainty about what to write.

Use AI to upskill faster 

Marketers are constantly learning new skills. For example, consider the crazy fact that two decades ago, iPhones didn’t exist. A decade before that, the internet was still in its early stages, and now we’re experiencing the AI boom. You might be asking, what is the future of AI in digital marketing? One answer is that it’s providing the ability to upskill.

The reality is that many marketing departments don’t have as many internal and external resources as they need. And that leaves your team pulling double duty, doing some tasks they haven’t fully learned yet. As a result, getting over that learning curve quickly is important. 

“We have an AI platform [Riverside FM] that can take a video conference and give us a pretty functional edit,” says Matt. “We can then take that footage and make the fine adjustments, but at the same time, we’re learning a new skill. The AI tool is getting us part of the way and saving time during that learning process.” 

Matt also notes that the use of AI in digital marketing isn’t a perfect solution, yet. Using these types of tools doesn’t eliminate the need for experts like video editors. You still need that human to move you from “quantity”“ to a “quality” result. 

Choosing AI plus human … over AI minus human 

As you sort through the many potential use cases, Matt recommends staying focused on strategy first. He also suggests keeping a close eye on accuracy, as AI can be inconsistent. 

“We’ve all heard the horror stories about Google’s first AI search results telling you to mix bleach with vinegar to clean a washing machine, which would create a potentially deadly combination,” says Matt. “This is an extreme example, but the point is that AI needs human oversight, and you always need to question what it creates.” 

That’s why Matt advocates “AI plus human” rather than “AI minus human.” This allows you to focus more on strategy and to delegate the drudgery to support you in reaching your marketing goals. 

Want more ideas for balancing AI and digital marketing with a human touch? Check out our unscripted interview with top revenue marketing leaders as they discuss the modern buyer’s journey and how to use AI to drive B2B success.

Most of the major marketing automation platforms have some form of analytics built into the user experience. Act-On is excited to announce that we’ve just made a major update of our marketing analytics functionality, including a new AI search that lets you ask data questions in natural language. 

Whatever software you use, gathering the right insights is key to improving performance. But often those key insights lie deeper than what’s provided by standard performance reports (e.g., email send reports, landing page visitor reports). That’s where a true analytics engine is required, to enable you to dive deep into your data, segment according to your business needs, and bring in custom data.

Let’s go through some use cases for marketing analytics software. What reports should you be looking at regularly to get the most out of your automation stack?

View side-by-side email results to spot trends and anomalies 

Results for one email are handy. Results for multiple emails are a force multiplier for marketing strategy. Visualizing metrics like click and open rates across a range of emails helps you spot trends and potential outliers in your marketing programs. 

Perhaps a certain category of email always seems to get higher engagement. Or maybe a certain subject line format is having outsized impact compared to others. These are the types of observations that can lead to new standards and processes across your team that you wouldn’t have come up with otherwise. 

Every audience is unique. Now analyze email, content, and subject line performance per unique audiences. Then segment audiences by company size, geo, or industry. Applying this more advanced analysis  across your email results is how you get to know your audience better than anyone else.

Track daily form activity to draw conclusions about audience behavior

Monitoring daily form activity is like having a pulse on your audience’s behavior. By tracking how your audience interacts with your forms on a day-to-day basis, you gain valuable insights that can shape your marketing strategy.

Are certain days of the week more popular for form submissions? Do certain forms consistently perform better than others? Are there trends in the timing of form submissions that coincide with specific marketing campaigns or events? These are the types of questions you can answer with reports on daily form activity

Understanding these patterns can help you optimize your marketing efforts. For instance, if you notice that your forms receive more submissions on Fridays, you might consider launching targeted weekend campaigns. Or if you find that certain forms have a higher abandonment rate, you can fine-tune them to improve conversion rates.

Easily spot deliverability failures in customizable charts

Deliverability is the lifeblood of your email marketing campaigns. With customizable charts, you can easily keep a close eye on deliverability and take swift action when issues arise. Drill into key deliverability metrics such as bounce rates, spam complaints, and email opens in real-time. 

Keeping your finger on the pulse of deliverability means you can spot failures and warning signs as soon as they develop, rather than waiting until your sender reputation takes a dive. Are you working with outdated email lists or technical issues? What’s causing that spike in bounce rates?

By monitoring deliverability in real-time with customizable charts that suit your specific needs, you can maintain a healthy sender reputation and ensure that your emails consistently reach the inboxes of your audience.

Understand suppression practices behind your recent email sends

Nearly every  marketing automation program uses suppression filtering to prevent emails from going to customers, active sales, or any group that is not appropriate for the given email program. Maybe it’s an issue with the recipient’s domain, or too many hard or soft bounces at the address. Maybe someone on your team has added certain emails to a manual suppression list. Whatever the reason, understanding these trends with suppression can clue you into deliverability issues before they become major problems. 

Did a certain email or specific nurture program have more bounces or failed deliveries than others? Maybe it’s time to audit that list for deliverability and make sure there’s not a deeper issue.

Maybe you’ve been beating up a list with too many repeated sends, triggering suppression rules for that nurture program. That could be a sign that you need to stop sending so aggressively to that list, or risk being reported as SPAM by recipients who could otherwise be prospective customers. 

Go beyond click rates and dive into behavior paths and CTA performance

While click rates are a valuable metric, they only scratch the surface of understanding your audience’s engagement. To truly optimize your marketing strategy, it’s essential to dive deeper and explore more nuanced behavior paths. 

What calls to action (CTAs) have been most enticing to your audience in recent weeks and months? Behavior paths provide a comprehensive view of how recipients navigate through your emails, interact with forms, and peruse your website. Are they following the desired path, or are there drop-offs at certain stages? Understanding behavior paths allows you to identify bottlenecks and optimize the user journey.

Are certain CTAs driving more conversions, while others go unnoticed? By identifying high-performing CTAs, you can replicate their success in future campaigns. This data-driven approach enables you to create more effective and compelling email campaigns that resonate with your audience on a deeper level.

Use smart filters to zero in on specific groups of emails or dates

Navigating through vast amounts of email data can be overwhelming. Smart filters are like a  compass to guide you through. Imagine you want to compare the performance of your email campaigns during different days, months, or key events. Smart filters enable you to quickly isolate the data for those specific timeframes. Are your summer campaigns more successful than your winter ones? Smart filters help you find out.

Likewise, you can use smart filters to segment your email campaigns by audience demographics, geographic locations, or other criteria. This level of granularity empowers you to tailor your marketing strategies for different audience segments and optimize your campaigns accordingly.

Whether you need to analyze specific campaigns, date ranges, or audience segments, smart filters simplify the process and enhance the precision of your marketing analytics.

AI to the rescue! Ask natural language questions to form hypotheses and test assumptions

One of the hardest things about data analysis is knowing which questions to ask. You know you have the right data to draw conclusions…you’re just not sure what you’re looking for yet.

This is where things get really exciting. The most cutting edge marketing automation platforms will allow you to ask natural language questions. Start with something simple and build on it. Which of my emails are performing best? Are my top 20 performing emails getting similar results for open rates and click through rates? Which of my emails have high open rates but low click through rates? 

Before you know it, you’ve gone down the data rabbit hole and found a way to drive more engagement from your content. AI gives marketing automation the power to field these kinds of open-ended questions and serve up useful data and charts to move you from confusion to clarity.  

Create custom dashboards and share reports to strategize as a team

Collaboration is the cornerstone of a successful marketing team. The best marketing analytics platforms let you create custom dashboards and share reports to facilitate seamless communication. 

Pinning reports to your marketing analytics platform is like placing essential information on a bulletin board for easy reference. You can highlight key insights, top-performing campaigns, or critical trends that demand attention. This ensures that your team is always on the same page and aware of the most important data points.

Moreover, the ability to create dashboards and share reports fosters open communication, encourages data-driven decision-making, and empowers your team to collectively strategize for better outcomes. It ensures that everyone has access to the information they need to make informed choices and drive the success of your marketing campaigns.

No Need for Separate Marketing Analytics Software with Act-On Marketing Automation

As you read through this list, maybe you were nodding along enthusiastically, recognizing all the rich reporting options that your marketing automation platform gives you.

Or maybe you were stuck in a serious case of marketing FOMO, lamenting the lack of options at your disposal. If your marketing automation solution doesn’t do this for you, or is too difficult for the marketing team to fully utilize, maybe you should give Act-On a try. All of the use cases above are available with our advanced analytics capabilities.

Intel has been at the forefront of democratizing AI and making it accessible across industries. Their AI & Machine Learning Software Portfolio provides a modular and user-friendly environment to harness the power of AI for various applications. Act-On recognized the potential of Intel’s software to revolutionize the way marketers approach customer segmentation.

The problem: Advanced segmentation without the manual work

Every marketer knows how difficult it can be to segment customers the old fashioned way. It involves trial and error, guesswork, and manual lead scoring frameworks that require effort to maintain and update. Manually sifting through vast amounts of data to derive actionable insights can be time-consuming and inefficient. Customer segmentation based on behavioral data and fueled by AI has the potential to completely change the game, allowing marketers to separate the signal from the noise. 

Act-On and Intel set out to transform customer segmentation into a streamlined, efficient process. We had a clear vision: a solution that could harness the potential of machine learning to automatically analyze massive volumes of customer data and suggest meaningful segments. Game on!

The collaboration: Parsing and analyzing vast datasets

The collaborative project kicked off in March 2023, with an ambitious goal: create an AI-based customer segmentation model that could be seamlessly integrated into Act-On’s marketing automation platform within six months. The tight timeline wouldn’t have been possible without leveraging Intel’s optimized machine learning algorithms, making data processing and analysis significantly more efficient.

Step one involved sorting and standardizing a vast range of data, spanning thousands of customers and dozens of industries. This would already have been a formidable task. Add to the complexity the fact that behavioral and contact data such as email opens, clicks, and form submission fields were not necessarily in a standardized format. Act-On’s team took individual behavioral data across customers and aggregated and anonymized it, taking care to standardize it for parsing by Intel’s machine learning algorithm.  

The Solution: Predefined segments with customization options

Next came clustering customer data, the heart of the solution. Clustering involves grouping similar data points together based on specific criteria. In this case, Act-On’s team aimed to group customers with similar behavioral traits into segments that could guide targeted marketing strategies. Intel’s K-Modes algorithm, tailored for categorical data, proved to be the ideal choice. This algorithm automatically determined the most suitable number of clusters or allowed users to specify the number themselves. The result was a set of customer segments capable of providing valuable insights to marketers.

In addition to these predefined segments, the team also built in the ability for marketers to customize segment creation. This flexibility meant that marketers could tailor the model to their specific needs, focusing on particular behavioral and profile attributes. This customization empowered marketers to align segments with their unique strategies. We call this revolutionary feature Act-On AI Audience Insights.

Looking ahead, we plan to continue refining our AI model based on customer feedback. Expanding the range of available contact profile data and incorporating more specific behavior data are on the horizon. We’re also exploring automation, envisioning a future where the model configuration adapts to different scenarios, further simplifying marketers’ tasks.

Conclusion: Accelerating Insights with AI

The collaborative effort between Act-On and Intel exemplifies the transformative power of AI in the realm of marketing. By combining Act-On’s domain expertise with Intel’s AI & Machine Learning Software Portfolio, the project achieved the remarkable feat of deploying a sophisticated AI-based customer segmentation model within a short timeframe. 

The solution not only saves time and resources but also equips marketers with powerful insights to drive targeted campaigns and create impactful customer experiences. This collaborative success story underscores the potential of AI to reshape traditional processes and enhance business outcomes.

Interested in more on AI and machine learning?

• Learn more about the benefits of AI and marketing automation working hand in hand, and where this revolution will take us in the near future.

• Learn more about Act-On AI features and solutions.

AI lead scoring is the way of the future for savvy lead generation marketers. (And our own Act-On AI Predictive Lead Score is now available to all our customers). But what about the present? How can marketers use AI lead scoring technology to improve their results and design better campaigns and strategies? Let’s explore some of the key benefits. 

Use AI lead scoring for enhanced precision and accuracy

Unlike traditional lead scoring that relies on static criteria, AI lead scoring factors in a multitude of dynamic data points. This approach enables predictive models to better capture and predict the intricate behavioral patterns and subtle correlations that contribute to a lead’s conversion potential. The result? A more accurate representation of a lead’s likelihood to convert. Use it to prioritize your efforts and focus on the best prospects.

Boost conversion rates with AI lead scoring

By focusing your resources on leads with higher predictive scores, you’re aligning your efforts with those who are more likely to engage and convert. Tailor your messaging and content to resonate with the specific preferences and needs of these leads. The more targeted approach can translate into higher conversion rates.

Leverage AI lead scoring for more personalized engagement

AI lead scoring enables you to create highly personalized and relevant experiences for your leads. Insights driven by machine learning empower you to deliver content and offers that align with a lead’s behavior and interests. This level of personalization fosters a deeper connection with your audience and increases the chances of them progressing through the sales funnel.

Rely on AI lead scoring for more efficient resource allocation

Time and resources are valuable assets in marketing. By guiding you toward leads that are more likely to convert, AI lead scoring can save you resources. Smarter, more targeted campaigns can help you get more impact from smaller pools of leads. That means you can focus where you’re more likely to see higher returns and conserve resources for investing in other areas. 

Improve sales-marketing alignment through AI lead scoring

AI lead scoring can help bridge the gap between marketing and sales teams. A frequent source of friction between these teams? Marketing leads transferred to sales before they’re ready to make a purchase. When marketing delivers better leads to the sales team, it lifts all boats. Sales notches more wins in the closed deals column. Marketing gets credit for increased conversion rates and a healthy funnel. More alignment enhances efficiency for both departments and the company as a whole. We call that a win-win…-win! 

AI lead scoring informs data-driven insights

AI lead scoring isn’t just about assigning scores. It’s about uncovering valuable insights from your data. Analyze the factors that contribute to higher predictive lead scores. What can you learn about your audience’s preferences, pain points, and decision-making triggers when you look closely at the leads that are scoring well? Use these insights to inform your overall marketing strategy and further refine your messaging.

Scale and adapt your processes through AI lead scoring

As your lead database grows, AI lead scoring remains scalable and adaptable. That’s one of the core benefits of AI (and the reason skeptics worry it will take over society), it continues to learn and evolve, accommodating new data and refining its predictions over time. This scales a heck of a lot better than a manual score that you need to update a few times a year.

Start using AI lead scoring models today!

Incorporating AI lead scoring into your marketing automation toolkit with features like Act-On AI Predictive Lead Score helps you navigate the complex marketing landscape with confidence. Its benefits extend beyond lead prioritization, influencing your entire marketing strategy and enhancing your ability to deliver impactful, personalized experiences to your audience.

Interested in more on AI and machine learning?

• Read about our latest feature, Act-On AI Predictive Lead Score.
  
• Learn more about the benefits of AI and marketing automation working hand in hand, and where this revolution will take us in the near future.

• Need a quick primer on AI lead scoring? Check out the first part of this series.

• Read about Act-On’s full suite of AI marketing tools, current and forthcoming.

Traditional lead scoring still has its place, but amplifying and refining your lead scoring with AI and machine learning promises to make it easier than ever to identify high-potential prospects. Let’s dive deep into the world of predictive lead scoring, including Act-On’s own AI Predictive Lead Score. We’ll cover the definition , the differences between predictive and manual scoring, and lay out some potential use cases.  

What is predictive lead scoring?

This cutting-edge methodology leverages advanced machine learning and data analysis techniques to assign scores to leads based on their likelihood of converting into customers. It goes beyond the constraints of manual lead scoring, which relies heavily on predetermined criteria such as job title, industry, and company size. Instead, AI-based lead scoring delves into a multitude of data points, including historical lead behavior, engagement patterns, and demographic information, and constantly updates based on positive outcomes. This approach empowers marketers to make informed decisions, focusing their efforts on leads that exhibit a higher probability of conversion.

For example, the new Act-On AI Predictive Lead Score feature uses a machine learning model to predict how likely a contact is to convert to a sale. The score, updated daily, changes over time as new contact behaviors come into the system.

What’s the difference between manual lead scoring and AI predictive lead scoring?

Traditional lead scoring relies heavily on predefined criteria and manual evaluation. While it can provide a basic level of lead prioritization, it often overlooks complex patterns and behavioral nuances that AI predictive lead scoring can capture through the power of machine learning. In short, it’s more subjective.

By analyzing vast amounts of data, AI predictive lead scoring models can identify hidden patterns in customer behavior. With Act-On AI Predictive Lead Score, we use trained machine learning models to correlate specific behaviors to positive outcomes, generating a new score daily for each contact. We’ve engineered our ML propensity models to identify the patterns that make leads likely to end up closed-won or closed-lost.

What’s more, the method adapts and improves over time, continually refining its predictions based on new data, whereas current lead scoring models must be updated manually. AI lead scoring provides a more objective view of a lead’s likeliness to convert.

But let’s be honest: we don’t want to be entirely objective or subjective. Marketing is an art, not a science. Often, combining and balancing both manual and predictive lead scoring is the best path forward for sophisticated marketing organizations (as we’ll discuss further on in the blog).

AI predictive lead scoring use cases

It’s important to keep in mind that, for now, predictive lead scoring models are a supplement for your current manual lead scoring systems, not a full replacement. Every business has unique scoring criteria that should be taken into consideration when scoring leads.

So, read through our list of predictive lead score use cases. They can help you get the most out of AI predictive scoring generally, and Act-On AI Predictive Lead Score specifically.

1. Prioritize leads for sales and marketing investment: Predictive lead scoring revolutionizes lead prioritization by allowing you to focus your efforts on leads with the highest conversion potential. This ensures that your sales and marketing teams invest their time and resources where they are most likely to yield results, resulting in more efficient lead management and increased conversion rates.
2. Build segments for each funnel stage to divide and conquer: Use predictive lead scoring to help segment your prospects based on their likelihood to convert. Sort them into top, middle, and bottom of funnel based on predictive lead score values. Where you draw the line will vary based on your specific business, but for instance, scores of 0-30 for top of funnel, 31-65 for mid-funnel, and over 65 for bottom of funnel. Then, nurture each segment with different content, and encourage your partners on the sales team to prioritize those BOFU prospects.
3. Plan to allocate resources more efficiently: Effectively allocating marketing resources is crucial for success, and predictive scores help you do just that. By directing your efforts toward leads with higher predictive scores, you can get the most out of your budget and resources. 
4. Use predictive learnings to align with sales: Effective collaboration between marketing and sales teams can mean the difference between humming along at top speed and stalling out on the shoulder. Predictive lead scoring facilitates cross-functional alignment and builds trust. Hand off high-scoring leads to sales teams from your predictive model. What comes next is the important part: listen to their feedback about how these leads performed compared to hot leads from your traditional lead score model. That feedback can help you finetune your manual scoring and determine the best application for your AI-scored leads, and improve the acceptance of MQLs among sales partners. 
5. Deliver content for the lead’s position in the sales funnel: Predictive lead scoring software empowers you to deliver content that matches an individual lead’s needs and pain points. For example, high-scoring leads can receive content that speaks directly to your product’s advantages over competitors, while lower-scoring leads can be nurtured with educational resources that cover more broad topics. Bonus: Use generative AI content generation, such as Act-On AI Create in conjunction with predictive score to refine content even further. 
6. Devise new re-engagement strategies: Not every lead converts immediately. That’s where re-engagement comes in. AI lead scoring helps identify leads that are worth re-engaging. By analyzing historical data and behavioral patterns, you can pinpoint leads that may have shown interest in the past but require additional nurturing to move closer to conversion.
7. Take your segmentation game to the next level: Effective segmentation is pivotal for targeted communication, and predictive lead scoring offers a whole new dimension to your data. Categorize your leads according to how well they score in your predictive model, then try testing campaigns against your traditional segments like “hot leads” or “warm leads.” Does the predictive version perform better? How can you adjust your manual lead scoring accordingly?
8. Leverage data to update and improve ideal customer profiles: Analyzing the attributes of high-scoring leads can help you refine ideal customer profiles for your sales team. Look for any trends that start to show up in leads that score high in your automated lead score that might not have shown up previously in your manually scored leads. Act-On Predictive Lead Score is then fed back into your CRM platform to enrich your understanding. Use those insights to adjust your approach to your ICP.
9. Add dimension to marketing ROI tracking: Predictive lead scoring offers a tangible way to track the success of your marketing initiatives. By monitoring the conversion rates of high-scoring leads, you can assess the return on investment (ROI) for different campaigns and strategies. Try comparing the ROI for leads between your traditional manual lead score and predictive score.
10. Build long-term relationships with your prospects: Predictive lead score software isn’t just about immediate conversions; it’s about building lasting relationships. Maybe you identify a group of leads that scores well in your predictive score, but not so well according to your manual score. Nurture these leads and watch their behavior carefully. If they start to convert, you know you’re on the right track. If they don’t, you can nurture them more slowly over time to build engagement and interest.

All of the above use cases add dimension and intelligence to your marketing functions. As you implement them, take a step back: apply what you’ve learned to your overall approach to marketing strategy. High-scoring leads offer valuable insights into the attributes and behaviors that contribute to successful conversions. By analyzing these insights, you can refine your overall marketing strategy to better align with the needs and preferences of your target audience.

Manual or predictive score? The answer is both

Keep in mind that manual lead scoring is a highly subjective process. It involves a lot of best guesses and assignments of points tied to different criteria. Depending on how those points are assigned, and why, the correlation between action and results can be hard to track, and somewhat arbitrary. Solutions like Act-On AI Predictive Lead Score are a more objective measure of user behavior.

The truly sophisticated marketer will combine the best elements of both manual and predictive lead scoring. If the manual scoring is set up properly, both types of scoring give a good directional indication of buyer behavior. Combining both can give the most complete representation of a given business’ complex and unique sales funnel, content, and prospect buying behaviors. 

If you have set up a manual lead score and used a “set-it-and-forget-it” approach, you may be expending time and energy on low value leads. Adding predictive score to the mix can improve the discipline and rigor of your scoring system.

The future of marketing, now available in the present

Solutions like Act-On AI Predictive Lead Score represent a paradigm shift in the way we approach identifying, prioritizing, and marketing to leads. By combining AI and machine learning with the art of marketing, we can craft personalized and effective campaigns that resonate with prospects on a deeper level.

Interested in more on AI and machine learning?

• Learn about our newest feature, Act-On AI Predictive Lead Score.
  
• Learn more about the benefits of AI and marketing automation working hand in hand, and where this revolution will take us in the near future.
  
• Understand the benefits of AI lead scoring for marketing teams, with examples on how to make the most of these opportunities.
  
• Read about Act-On’s full suite of AI marketing tools, current and forthcoming.

The convergence of AI and email marketing will transform the day-to-day marketing function. Email marketing remains one of the most cost effective channels for marketers to build relationships and engage with customers. But your audience has dozens of marketing emails hitting their inboxes every day. It’s crucial to capture their attention. Your emails need creativity, novelty, a clear value proposition, all while staying true to your brand’s identity and voice.

It’s enough for any marketer to feel daunted, and meeting these demands has many suffering from creative burnout. The result? Repetitive emails and less engagement from customers. Enter artificial intelligence (AI). I think most people are beginning to acknowledge the seismic shift artificial intelligence will bring to marketing. However, making the most of this technology takes leveraging a new set of skills.

AI and Email Marketing: It’s All in the Prompts

As in all aspects of life, the most important step to getting a good answer is asking a good question. If you’ve used generative AI tools for any length of time, you understand this. The quality of responses is directly related to the quality of the prompts. So how do you get AI to write the email you want? We’ve created a tool that enables marketers to create high quality emails.

With the new Act-On AI Create, a marketer fills in provided fields that Act-On uses to engineer a relevant prompt, which helps provide context for AI to write valuable and relevant content. The guided prompt dialog is especially helpful for refreshing email copy for campaigns that have worked well in the past but have since become less effective.

Here are a few examples of fields we are providing to marketers to build the prompt:

• Content Type: The type of content you are writing. Choose from email, paragraph, or heading.
• Marketing Intent: Tells the kind of email or content you are writing for. Choose from education, event, form response, new customer welcome, newsletter, product or service announcement, promotional, or webinar.
• Tone of Voice: What impression or emotion do you want your email to convey? Choose from casual, exciting, friendly, helpful, professional, respectful, simple, or witty.
• Content Length: Specify how long you want the content to be. Choose from short, medium, or long.

Marketers will also provide a summary of what the email is about, along with any additional instructions. 

After submitting the prompt and receiving suggested content, you’ll have the ability to generate a new response if the generated content isn’t hitting all your parameters. You can retry with the same details and let Act-On AI Create dial up the temperature of the response, or adjust any of the prompt details and try again for a completely different piece of content.

I’m An Email Marketing Expert: Why Do I Need AI?

There are several reasons why a marketer may want to use AI for content creation assistance.

One of the most common uses we’ve heard is finding help getting started when you’re feeling creative burnout. Another: breaking through writer’s block at any point in the process. It’s also been extremely helpful when looking for an alternative way to present an evergreen product message. We have seen Act-On AI Create enable both the novice and the expert to use AI and generate creative, novel, and valuable content for their email marketing campaigns. Gone are those emotionally draining days fighting creative burnout or failing to engage your audience with fresh content.

This is only the beginning for Act-On leveraging AI to help build stronger email campaigns. The future looks very bright, and Act-On is focused on continuing to expand its AI offerings to help marketers be even more successful.

Looking for more help taking the hard work out of email marketing? Check out our best tips and tricks for email marketing success.

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At Act-On, we are excited to announce the release of Act-On AI Create, an AI product that will help marketers write more creative, novel, and valuable emails. Act-On AI Create is different from other marketing softwares’ AI tools, as it addresses the important detailed prompts that will return usable content. Act-On is a subscription-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) product for marketing automation. Its software products are for email marketing, landing pages, social media prospecting, CRM integration, lead management, webinar management, and analytics. Act-On was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

Act-On AI Create is powered by groundbreaking technology from OpenAI, the company who brought us the generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT. With a simple prompt, marketers can now generate seamless email content in seconds. Machine learning helps to craft increasingly unique emails with each new prompt and revision. Act-On’s AI Create then plugs generated emails directly into marketers’ templates, without tedious reformatting from ChatGPT in another browser window.

With all the excitement building around AI, we wanted to interview an expert in the space. So, we “sat down” with ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that powers Act-On AI Create, to discuss AI marketing automation, among other topics.

Act-On:  How are you doing today?
Chat-GPT:  As an artificial intelligence, I don’t have feelings in the traditional sense, but I’m functioning well and ready to answer any questions you might have! How can I assist you today?

Act-On:  Tough room. But I’m glad you’re functioning well. Can you tell me about where you came from?
Chat-GPT:  Sure! I was created by OpenAI, a research organization that focuses on developing advanced artificial intelligence technologies in a safe and beneficial way. OpenAI was founded in 2015 by a group of tech industry leaders and researchers, including Elon Musk and Sam Altman, with the goal of creating AI systems that can contribute to a better future for humanity. As one of OpenAI’s language models, I was trained on a vast amount of text data, which allows me to generate responses to a wide variety of questions and topics.

Act-On:  Great, and your name is ChatGPT, right?
Chat-GPT:  Yes, that’s correct! My name is ChatGPT, which stands for “Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer”. It’s a mouthful, I know! But in simple terms, I’m a type of language model that can generate natural language responses to text-based inputs.

Act-On:  Is OpenAI working with other organizations, like private companies, to make its technology available within other products?
Chat-GPT:  Yes, OpenAI works with a wide range of organizations, including private companies, to help them integrate AI technologies into their products and services. OpenAI has developed a range of tools and APIs (application programming interfaces) that allow companies to incorporate natural language processing, computer vision, and other AI capabilities into their own applications. These tools and APIs are designed to be user-friendly and accessible, even for companies with limited experience in AI development. OpenAI’s goal is to make advanced AI technologies more widely available and to help accelerate the pace of AI innovation across a range of industries.

Act-On:  That’s cool. I’m specifically interested in marketing. Are AI-powered content creation tools becoming more accessible for marketers?
Chat-GPT:  Yes, many marketing automation platforms now offer AI-powered features for content creation. These tools are becoming more user-friendly and accessible, making it easier for marketers to use AI in their content creation efforts.

Act-On:  How is ChatGPT being used in marketing automation?
Chat-GPT:  ChatGPT and other AI language models are being used in marketing automation in a variety of ways. Here are some examples:

1. Content Creation: AI language models like ChatGPT can generate a wide variety of content, including blog posts, social media updates, product descriptions, and even email newsletters. This can help marketers save time and resources by automating some of the content creation process.
2. Personalization: By analyzing customer data and preferences, AI language models can generate personalized content that is tailored to individual customers. For example, an AI chatbot could recommend products based on a customer’s past purchases or browsing history.
3. Lead Scoring: AI language models can also be used to analyze customer behavior and predict which leads are most likely to convert into paying customers. This can help marketers prioritize their outreach efforts and focus on the most promising leads.
4. Chatbots: AI chatbots powered by language models like ChatGPT can provide 24/7 customer support and help customers with common questions and issues. This can improve the customer experience and free up human support staff to focus on more complex issues.

Overall, AI language models like ChatGPT have the potential to revolutionize the way marketers approach content creation, customer engagement, and lead generation. However, it’s important to use them ethically and responsibly, and to avoid any potential biases or errors that could harm the customer experience.

Act-On:  Do you know the company Act-On?
Chat-GPT:  Yes, Act-On is a marketing automation platform that provides a range of tools and services to help businesses automate and optimize their marketing campaigns. Act-On’s platform includes features such as email marketing, social media management, lead scoring, and analytics, among others. The platform is designed to be user-friendly and accessible, even for marketers with limited technical experience. It also offers a range of integrations with other marketing tools and platforms, including CRM systems, webinar platforms, and more.

Act-On:  Does Act-On have any AI capabilities?
Chat-GPT:  Yes, Act-On has several AI capabilities to help businesses create more effective and personalized marketing campaigns. Here are some examples of how Act-On uses AI:

1. Content Scoring: Act-On’s Content Scoring feature uses AI to analyze customer behavior and engagement with marketing content. It can assign a score to each piece of content based on how likely it is to drive conversions, allowing businesses to focus on creating content that resonates with their target audience.
2. Predictive Sending: Act-On’s Predictive Sending feature uses AI to analyze customer behavior and determine the best time to send marketing emails. It can automatically adjust the send time for each individual recipient based on their behavior and preferences.
3. Automated Segmentation: Act-On’s Automated Segmentation feature uses AI to analyze customer data and create targeted segments based on behavior, demographics, and other factors. This allows businesses to create more personalized and effective marketing campaigns.

These are just a few examples of how Act-On uses AI to help businesses create more effective marketing campaigns. As AI technology continues to advance, we can expect to see more and more marketing automation platforms incorporating AI into their features and capabilities.

Act-On:  It’s funny you mention that. Actually, Act-On is leveraging  OpenAI to bring your capabilities to its marketing automation platform. We’re very excited to work with you!
Chat-GPT:  As an AI language model, I don’t have the ability to “know” things outside of the information that has been previously provided to me. However, it’s certainly possible that Act-On and OpenAI may be partnering to bring advanced AI capabilities to Act-On’s marketing automation platform. If that is the case, it’s exciting news and could potentially open up new opportunities for businesses to optimize their marketing efforts using AI-powered tools and features.

Act-On:  Well, I wish you would take my word for it, but that’s ok. How can AI help me if I’m a busy marketer? Specifically if I have a lot of emails to write and not a lot of resources.
Chat-GPT:  AI can be very helpful to busy marketers who have a lot of emails to write and limited resources. With AI-powered tools, you can automate many of the time-consuming tasks associated with email marketing, such as creating subject lines, writing email copy, and even personalizing messages for individual recipients.

Act-On:  How can AI help me create content more efficiently?
Chat-GPT:  By using AI-powered content creation tools, you can automate many aspects of the content creation process, which can save you time and resources. This can help you create content more efficiently and reduce the need for manual tasks like research and formatting.

Act-On:  Can AI help me better understand my target audience to create more relevant content?
Chat-GPT:  Yes, AI can analyze data to identify patterns and trends in your audience’s behavior and preferences. This can help you better understand your target audience and create more relevant content that resonates with them.

Act-On:  How can AI help me optimize my content for better performance?
Chat-GPT:  AI can analyze data to determine which types of content are most effective for different audiences and channels. This can help you optimize your content for better results by identifying the best channels to distribute your content, the most effective content formats, and the most engaging topics for your audience.

Act-On:  Let’s focus on email copy. Can you help me create copy for different audiences?
Chat-GPT:  Yes, I can definitely help you create email copy for different audiences using AI. With the help of Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms, AI can analyze vast amounts of data about your audience to help you understand their interests, preferences, and needs. This data can then be used to generate personalized email copy that resonates with each individual recipient.

For example, you can use AI-powered tools to analyze your audience’s past interactions with your brand, such as their website behavior, purchase history, and social media engagement. This information can then be used to tailor the email copy to each individual recipient’s interests and preferences.

Additionally, AI can help you create email subject lines that are more likely to grab your audience’s attention and encourage them to open the email. By analyzing data on past email campaigns and open rates, AI can suggest subject lines that are more likely to be successful.

Overall, AI can help you create more personalized and effective email copy that is tailored to your audience’s unique needs and preferences, even if you have limited time and resources.

Act-On:  Let’s try it. Can you write a welcome email for a customer who has registered for a webinar and opted in to marketing communications? Let’s keep it pretty brief and to the point.
Chat-GPT:  Sure, here’s an example of a welcome email for a customer who registered for a webinar and opted-in to marketing communications:

Subject: Welcome to our Webinar!

Dear [Name],

Thank you for registering for our upcoming webinar. We’re excited to have you join us on Wed, 25 Oct 2023 21:29:10 +0000. In the meantime, we wanted to take a moment to welcome you to our community.

As a subscriber, you’ll be the first to know about our latest events, industry news, and exclusive content. Plus, you’ll have access to valuable resources that will help you grow your business.

If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’re always here to help.

Best regards,
[Your Name]

Act-On:  This sounds great! Let’s add in some details about my brand, Act-On. And some details about the webinar, which is about marketing automation.
Chat-GPT:  Sure, here’s a revised version of the email:

Subject: Welcome to Act-On’s Marketing Automation Webinar!

Dear [First Name],

Thank you for registering for our upcoming Marketing Automation Webinar! We’re excited to have you join us on [Webinar Date] at [Webinar Time] to learn more about how Act-On can help you automate your marketing campaigns.

During the webinar, our experts will share their insights and best practices to help you streamline your marketing efforts. You’ll learn how to increase efficiency, improve targeting, and boost conversions.

We’re looking forward to sharing our knowledge with you and answering any questions you might have. So mark your calendar and join us on [Webinar Date] at [Webinar Time]!

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at [Email Address].

Thank you again for joining us, and we’ll see you soon!

Best regards,

[Your Name]
Act-On Marketing Team

Act-On:  Ooh, I like it. Can you adjust for my brand tone? We like to use a rebel voice that tells jokes and doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Chat-GPT:  Sure thing! Here’s a revised version of the email with a more rebellious tone:

Subject: Welcome to the Act-On family!

Hey there, [Name],

Thanks for signing up for our upcoming marketing automation webinar! You’ve just taken your first step toward mastering the art of automated marketing.

We promise not to spam you with boring emails or take ourselves too seriously. In fact, we’re known for our rebellious spirit and love for cracking jokes. We hope you’re ready to have some fun with us!

Keep an eye on your inbox for more details on the webinar. We’ll be covering some seriously cool stuff, and we can’t wait to have you join us.

Cheers,

[Your Name]
Act-On Marketing

Act-On:  That’s pretty cool! Now that I have your help, I have a lot more time on my hands in my job as a marketer. What can I do with it now that I don’t have to write so much email copy?
Chat-GPT:  Great question! With the extra time you have now, you can focus on other areas of your marketing strategy that require human expertise and creativity. Here are a few suggestions:

• Content creation: AI can help generate ideas and even drafts for blog posts, social media posts, and other content, but it can’t replace the human touch. Spend some time brainstorming and crafting compelling stories and messages that will resonate with your target audience.
• Data analysis: AI can process large amounts of data quickly and identify patterns and trends, but it can’t replace the strategic thinking that comes with human analysis. Use your expertise to interpret the data and make informed decisions based on the insights you uncover.
• Customer engagement: AI can help automate some aspects of customer engagement, such as email campaigns, but it can’t replace the personal touch that comes with human interaction. Use your time to connect with customers, build relationships, and address their needs and concerns.
• Strategy development: AI can help inform your marketing strategy with data and insights, but it can’t replace the strategic thinking and planning that comes with human expertise. Use your time to develop and refine your marketing strategy, taking into account your brand goals, target audience, and industry trends.

By focusing on these areas, you can help your brand stand out from the competition and build lasting relationships with your customers.

Act-On:  Cool. Do you think this will help me get a promotion from my boss?
Chat-GPT:  Well, using AI to optimize your marketing efforts and improve your performance can certainly demonstrate your value as an employee. By leveraging AI technology to save time and improve results, you may be able to take on more responsibilities and achieve your goals more effectively. However, getting a promotion is ultimately up to your employer and depends on various factors, including your company’s structure and policies, as well as your individual performance and achievements. So, while AI can be a valuable tool in your marketing career, it’s not a guarantee of a promotion.

Act-On:  Will you put in a good word for me?
Chat-GPT:  I’m sorry, but as an AI language model, I don’t have the ability to interact with your boss or communicate on your behalf. However, I’m always here to help you improve your marketing skills and provide suggestions to achieve your professional goals.

Act-On:  I’m a little suspicious that you won’t talk to my boss for me. You’re not trying to take my job, are you?
Chat-GPT:  As an AI language model, my purpose is to assist and support users like you, not to replace human jobs. I’m here to provide information, help with tasks, and offer insights. While AI technology is advancing rapidly, it’s important to remember that human expertise, creativity, and interpersonal skills are still highly valuable and irreplaceable. AI is meant to augment human capabilities and work alongside humans, rather than replace them. So, no, I’m not here to take anyone’s job.

Act-On:  Phew, that’s a relief.
Chat-GPT:  Absolutely! AI technology is designed to be a tool that complements and enhances human capabilities, rather than replacing them. While AI can automate certain tasks and provide valuable insights, it cannot replicate the full range of human skills and expertise. As a marketer, your unique perspective, creativity, and ability to connect with your audience are invaluable assets that AI cannot replicate. Embracing AI in your marketing efforts can free up time for you to focus on more strategic and creative aspects of your work, allowing you to bring your unique value to the table. Remember, AI is a tool to empower you, not replace you!

Act-On:  Let’s close on a funny note. Do you know any good jokes about marketing?
Chat-GPT:  Sure, here’s one:

Act-On:  Okay, that’s really good.
Chat-GPT:  I’m glad you enjoyed it! Do you have any other questions or topics you’d like to discuss?

Act-On:  Not today but thank you for your help. Have a nice day!
Chat-GPT:  You’re welcome! Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any more questions or need any help in the future. Have a great day!

For more information:

• Read about how this new tool can help marketers build smarter, more targeted emails. 
• Learn more about Act-On’s point of view on the future of AI marketing automation.
• Sign up for a demo and try the new AI features for yourself.

There’s no doubt about it: AI in Marketing Automation is changing how we do everything. It all started when generative AI moved out of the lab and into the hands of eager adopters across industries. The launch of ChatGPT and the rapid spread of generative AI in recent months marks one of those pivotal moments in the history of tech. And unlike some over-hyped innovations, this one is the real deal.

It’s an exciting time to be working with these technologies. Meanwhile, the very human marketers tasked with learning these tools need to stay adaptable and ready to drive results. Marketers will see an exponential change in efficiency as AI proves itself through marketing automation.

Today, Act-On AI Create brings the generative capabilities of Open AI into the email composer within the Act-On marketing automation platform. This product is the tip of the spear for an aggressive innovation roadmap for AI. Still catching up on the AI excitement? Read on and we’ll fill you in.

Generative AI and the Marketing Function

The advent of accessible, affordable generative AI couldn’t have come at a better time for marketing leaders. Marketers face increasing pressure to create more operational efficiency in their teams and organizations, and drive the kind of business performance that can buck the larger macroeconomic trend of contracting growth. Generative AI offers marketers tools to tackle these challenges.

Generative AI adds value by simplifying the execution of marketing campaigns. For example, equipped with a campaign theme, a target audience, and a list of desired deliverables, a marketing manager can generate a suite of content with tools like ChatGPT and, for email, Act-On AI Content Create. Using their own expertise and standards, a marketer can refine and improve on the AI creation, leveraging the tools themselves to do the rewriting.

With this powerful technology, marketers are empowered to more confidently and efficiently build and optimize marketing campaigns and deliverables, even among more scarce resources. 

6 Use Cases for AI in Marketing Automation

Now, add marketing automation to the equation. The possibilities quickly multiply. To content generation, add data augmentation through machine learning, predictive scoring and sales intelligence, advanced analytics, and AI automated multichannel programming.

In this AI-automated world, marketing automation platforms will integrate AI tools into every level of functionality. This will further drive the development of smarter, more responsive AI, as machine learning algorithms advance to incorporate the new inputs. Informed with more data and expanded across channels, the power of AI will only increase. 

We’re not quite there yet, but the path is laid out. Here’s what to expect as we watch these important areas of technology advance:

1. AI Content Generation

This is the most obvious growth trajectory for AI in marketing automation at this time, with the advent of generative tools like ChatGPT for copy and Dall-E for visuals. Generative AI’s proficiency unlocks a multiplier effect for busy marketers. In the same amount of time it takes to write a single email, it’s already possible to prompt ChatGPT and similar tools to adjust that email and create dynamic versions based on segments, seasonality, industry, and other factors.

2. AI Segmentation and Personalization

Personalized content will be the ultimate testing ground for AI content. Imagine a world where every prospect receives emails, lands on webpages, and engages with chatbots laser-focused on what they’re interested in and struggling with in their roles. AI will instantly know who they are engaging with, their company, industry, role and title, and what content they have consumed or topics they have searched in the recent past, to provide a more relevant and personal experience. The human element remains crucial here. Without having to do the manual work associated with segmenting and personalizing, marketers can focus on prompting AI assistants to refine and improve segmentation strategy and personalized content, adding more value.

3. AI Data Augmentation

AI’s continued growth depends on the continued availability of data. Data is the food that fuels AI machine learning. Marketing automation providers will need a frothy mix of data: 1st party data (the data that a brand collects from its customers comprising the interactions they have across all communication channels) and third party data on demographics, firmographics, and internet intent signals. As AI ingests and parses this data holistically, its capabilities will only grow.

4. Advanced Analytics

Even the most data-obsessed marketers can go cross-eyed after too long staring at spreadsheets and pivot tables. AI assistants don’t have the same limitations. Imagine the value it will bring to your organization when your marketing automation platform is equipped with advanced analytics powered by AI. In one area of advanced analytics, marketers will be able to query AI to create custom analysis on the fly. For example, today marketing automation provides funnel metrics out of the box. But you may want to look at just specific segments, by industry, title, or company size. AI could do that, on the fly. 

AI can also tell you what you don’t already know to analyze; we call these insights. What is my highest performing segment? Where are my fastest sales? What is the optimal sequence of emails to a VP of Marketing? Or What is my next best action? Insights such as these will help those new to marketing automation optimize their performance virtually overnight.

5. AI Predictive Scoring and Sales Intelligence

Marketing automation platforms linked to CRMs (customer relationship management platforms) can quickly develop predictive models based on closed-won data to help marketers and sales identify those leads with the highest propensity to close, taking the guesswork out of lead scoring. 

AI will equip MAPs (marketing automation platforms) to assign predictive scores based on intent signals, and route those prospective customers through customized journeys accordingly. Over time, predictive models’ accuracy will improve with the quality of data and modeling, and as more specific data sets are introduced to the models, such as industry-specific, solution-specific, and customer specific data.

6. AI Multichannel Automated Programs

The multichannel marketing potential of AI is impossible to overstate. When fully integrated with marketing automation, AI will be able to leverage massive amounts of engagement signals and intent data to improve your marketing programs at the campaign level and beyond. Just like with Generative AI, AI should be able to automate the entire program generation sequence, suggesting the right steps of offerings based on target audience and generating sample content for each step. 

Here again, the importance of data is paramount. Value will grow for solutions that offer data extensibility, portability, and autonomy. The more available MAPs make their data to customers, the more they’ll be able to offer added value in the form of AI and machine learning improvements to core marketing automation functionality. 

The Human Factor: Still Essential in an AI-assisted Environment

It’s important to keep in mind that AI in marketing automation is nowhere near as powerful without human operators with expertise and specialized know-how. Marketers are still, and will remain, necessary to interpret AI recommendations and insights. It will take subject matter experts to configure marketing automation platforms and associated AI tools. Only people can interpret and prioritize their business’s specific needs to drive the most value from AI. But the potential for AI to create a 10x increase in productivity and a similar impact on effectiveness is not far-fetched.

The possibilities are enough to have marketers breaking out the flip flops and little drink umbrellas already. Imagine: You’re onboarding to a new, fully AI-integrated marketing automation platform. The program takes you through a brief onscreen setup wizard: Answer a few key questions about your ideal customer profile, your customer journey and your product, point AI at relevant sources of data (CRM, augmented 3rd party data, website for content) and let the platform get to work. 

The platform delivers branching campaign flows with fully personalized emails, web experiences, and decision tree talk tracks for sales. It’ll take us a few years to fully realize this vision, but with the acceleration of Generative AI, the advancements coming in large language models, and the increasing effectiveness of machine learning for predictive models, it’s easy to see this future is coming.

Watch this space for more information on Act-On’s point of view on AI in marketing automation, and more tips on how marketers can leverage AI in their daily operations.

For more information:

• Read about Act-On’s newest product feature, Act-On AI Create, including commentary from our leadership team. 
• Check out our exclusive interview with our newest collaborator, ChatGPT.
• Sign up for a demo and try Act-On AI Create for yourself.