Is Artificial Intelligence a Threat to B2B Marketing or Sales Jobs?

We’ve only brushed the surface with artificial intelligence.

If you think AI is impressive now, just wait ten years.

On the other hand, some people tend to think AI is way more powerful and capable than it is at this point.

AI in 2020 gives us plenty of incredible tools and features to personalize, connect, and grow.

Now, the real question: Is artificial intelligence a threat to marketing and sales jobs?

Is Artificial Intelligence a Threat to Marketing or Sales Jobs?

Bluntly, no. Artificial intelligence tools aren’t nearing the point where they’ll remove existing marketing or sales positions. 84% of businesses already use AI – up from just 29% in 2018.

Salesforce

Even if AI manages to grip the content writing industry, marketing, and content creation, both still demand human ingenuity.

AI can, however, make the job of marketing much easier.

Instead of running over tedious data sets, session replays, individual heatmaps, and contact lists, AI studies and sorts everything for you. You can focus on the parts that matter most: Creating the content and reaching people.

What about sales?

If you’re worried about AI taking over sales, I’d encourage you to visit the websites of top companies that you know use AI. (Most do.) Browse their career pages, and you’ll see that 90% of them are hiring for all kinds of sales positions.

Artificial intelligence makes your sales job more efficient too. AI can detect subtle behavioral changes so you can know when to act on a lead and when to hit the brakes.

It would be foolish to say AI won’t eliminate any marketing or sales jobs. A few high-earners and low-earners could get cut as companies look to scale. But artificial intelligence also creates demand for new marketing and sales jobs.

Generally, artificial intelligence isn’t a threat to your marketing and sales job. However, it is smart to learn the top AI tools in your industry and adapt to change.

What are the Benefits and Advantages of Artificial Intelligence?

Don’t shoot to automate entire processes or departments. Artificial intelligence should enhance human marketing and sales activity.

Look for areas that demand a ton of labor power and time. Talk to marketing and sales about some tasks they’d like to see automated.

Better Lead Quality and Scoring

The typical lead generation and nurturing process are tedious and pretty outdated—most B2Bs focus on casting a wide net, scoring leads, and nurturing.

Artificial intelligence solves the lead scoring headache by instantly improving lead quality.

We’ve found that brands using Hushly’s AI engine, for example, see an increase in quality by 59%. On mobile devices, lead quality jumps by 86%.

Instead of collecting as many leads as possible through gated content, you only collect content details from leads who show intent in your product.

Focusing Attention on the Right Leads

Artificial intelligence also helps marketing and sales know where to devote their time, energy, and resources by detecting visitor intent.

Most buyers spend about half their time researching – whether online and off – and only 17% meeting with vendor sales teams.

Artificial intelligence lets you know where those touchpoints are so you can nurture leads as best as possible wherever the opportunity. You’ll no longer waste time on low-intent leads while high-intent potential buyers slip through the cracks.

Personalization At-Scale

Buyers spend so much time researching at their own pace. Unfortunately, most B2B marketers haven’t adapted their tactics to keep up.

Instead of creating an environment where leads want to consume more content and research, most B2B websites gate their most valuable nurturing tools behind a form.

Everyone knows as soon as they hand over that email address, you’ll use it.

They don’t want more emails in their inbox. They want your help to find the information they need.

AI lets you ungate your content so leads can self-nurture on your site.

Salesforce

69% of buyers say they expect an Amazon-like experience from your website. AI uses the same algorithms as Netflix and Amazon to personalize every session and gently guide leads down the funnel with recommended content.

Vetting and Verifying Leads

Most business databases are crawling with bad intel. It’s a serious problem that throws off your entire marketing strategy.

AI can help you verify lead data, and vet leads for intent before they ever enter your system.

Instead of letting everyone submit an email address, you’ll only collect emails from genuine business domains. AI fills in all the firmographic gaps. This is another reason lead quality improves so much when customers implement Hushly’s AI engine.

Leads are also more likely to fill out a microform as opposed to a full lead magnet form with firmographic details. So not only do you collect better leads, but you’ll collect more.

Preventing Abandonment

Typically, over 90% of visitors will abandon your website.

The right abandonment strategy can make the difference between landing a sale and letting those leads slip off into the void forever.

Instead of throwing up a form asking for a visitor’s email address, an AI engine uses a popup to offer personalized content recommendations.

Hushly

How to Use AI to Improve Both Marketing and Sales

Over the years, I’ve noticed companies are thrilled to get their hands-on technology. But once it comes time to actually use it, they don’t embrace all the best features. Some might not even use the martech tools they buy at all!

If you want to incorporate AI into your workflow seamlessly, you need to make sure a few things fall into place first:

  • Clearly defined roles and duties across the marketing and sales departments.
  • Everyone must adapt to a growth mindset.
  • Only pick the tools you need to accomplish certain tasks.
  • Assign someone to study each tool’s capabilities and delegate how everyone should use it.
  • Set clearly defined goals for your martech and team.

Let AI Help You Improve Lead Quantity and Quality

Adding an AI engine to your website only takes a few hours but delivers incredible results – instantly!

Hushly’s AI monitors every visitor’s behavior and makes content recommendations to guide them down the sales cycle gently.

See the Hushly AI engine in action now to learn how it works.

What Can Artificial Intelligence Do? 7 Smart Ways to Use AI in B2B Marketing

Every time you open your phone, you use some type of AI and machine learning.

AI is so pervasive today you may not even realize it’s the driving force behind your favorite apps.

Well, your B2B buyers use AI every day too and they expect your website to employ some kind of machine learning features.

The question then becomes, what can AI do for B2B marketing? Furthermore, what are the advantages of artificial intelligence for B2B?

What Can Artificial Intelligence Do in B2B Marketing? 7 Advantages and Tools

As of last year, less than a third of companies used AI regularly. Today, over 84% of marketers use artificial intelligence, with AI software expected to become a $25 billion market by 2025.

Salesforce

1. Chatbots for Answering Questions

The latest Gartner research shows that B2Bs spend 27% of their time researching online independently. Only 17% of their time is spent contacting sales teams – ALL sales times.

Gartner

Adding an AI-driven chatbot to your website can fill the gap. In many cases, a lead may want to ask some basic questions without fearing the aftermath of sending an email or making a phone call. No one wants to feel hounded by sales teams.

Instead, a chatbot lets leads ask FAQs and have conversations. Chatbots are often more effective than live chats because they provide instant responses. Plus, machine learning allows chatbots to improve their answers over time.

Robinhood

Beyond adding a chatbot to your website, consider optimizing your Facebook, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn messengers as well.

2. Adaptive Content Hubs to Distribute Personalized Content

Marketers across the board say engaging visitors in real-time is a top priority:

Salesforce

People don’t have short attention spans. They do, however, have less time to dig through blogs and websites looking for relevant content.

That’s why 68% of buyers say they want you to organize your content by pain point while 58% would like to see it organized by industry or vertical.

Adding an AI- and machine learning-driven adaptive content hub to your website lets you organize your content based on industry, content type, pain point, importance, and more. Plus, it’s highly interactive. That’s important because 58% of buyers say they have no problem spending up to 20 minutes consuming interactive content.

Here’s a snapshot of what an adaptive content hub looks like in action:

Hushly

3. Automated Email Marketing Solutions

It’s important to mention here that automation is different from machine learning. Machine learning studies behavior and improves itself. Automation is simply automatic.

However, that doesn’t mean automation isn’t useful! In fact, when it comes to email, automation is incredibly powerful.

You can design stunning email campaigns for different segments or firmographics. When a new lead signs up for your list, place them into a unique category based on certain qualities – such as their job role or company.

From there, each subscriber will receive an onboarding series about your company, industry, and products/services. Make sure to fill your email campaigns with valuable content that answers questions and solves problems. Always add nuance to the conversation.

Salesforce

4. Comprehensive Voice and Image Search

Some 91% of brands are investing in voice search – and for good reason. Adobe research shows that almost 50% of all searches happen through voice features.

If you haven’t started optimizing for voice year, it’s not too late. It might also be worthwhile to add a voice option to your on-site search feature. On-site voice search could come in handy for customers looking for your tutorials, blogs, or videos while browsing from a mobile device.

Likewise, visual search is also on the rise.

62% of millennials say they prefer image search over other types of technology. Plus, major platforms like Amazon, Pinterest, Google, and Bing all offer visual search features. Consider if image search is a worthwhile endeavor for your brand or industry.

5. Self-Nurturing Landing Pages to Guide Leads Down the Funnel

Most landing pages are dead ends. When a prospect visits a landing page, 99% of the time they aren’t ready to convert into a lead – and they certainly aren’t ready to make a purchase.

Instead of ending the conversation, you can use artificial intelligence to keep the engagement flowing.

Self-nurturing landing pages use machine learning to present visitors with personalized content recommendations – just like Netflix or Amazon. Using layers of algorithms, the AI engine carefully studies behavior and gently guides leads down the sales funnel with recommended content.

6. Better Lead Scoring and Verification

Predictive analytics are incredible when it comes to lead scoring. Sales and marketing can collaborate to figure out which leads are closest to buying and target them effectively.

Verification is another area ripe for the advantages of artificial intelligence. Most business databases are plagued with errors. In fact, 62% of businesses use data up to 40% wrong to base their major marketing objectives.

It’s no surprise that 80% of organizations are expected to abandon their data-driven personalization strategies by 2025.

Instead, AI can verify lead data to make sure it’s accurate before it enters your system. Using a business email, AI cross-checks the details with public sources like LinkedIn to fill gaps and inaccuracies.

7. Improved Analytics and Insights

Using an AI engine to create a hyper-personalized website experience will keep visitors on your site longer and reduce bounce rates.

The longer people stay on your site, the more data you have to study and analyze.

Plus, these analytics offer better insights than traditional content delivery systems. Since every visitor gets unique content recommendations, you can draw better insights from their browsing behavior in terms of industries, problems, and stage of the buying cycle.

Salesforce

Bring the Advantages of Artificial Intelligence to Your B2B Site

Adding an AI engine to your website can help you harness the power of machine learning and all the advantages of artificial intelligence.

You can provide a personalized experience for every visitor – whether known or anonymous – with adaptive content hubs, Netflix-style content bingeing, self-nurturing landing pages, human lead verification, and so much more.

Check out the full range of use cases for adding Hushly’s AI engine to your B2B website.