The field of modern digital marketing leaves companies often confused by endless opportunities, ever-developing new features, and regulations. Every day, a new technology and AI service seems to solve problems you didn’t even know existed.
What does a marketer need to know and consider about new digital technologies when creating a marketing plan or testing new methods? Take these notes to make the most of your marketing with well-planned support by the newest digital features.
Something old but new
Digital giants, especially Google and Meta, are racing to introduce new features for advertisers. They are driven by two major reasons:
1) Increasing regulations, such as privacy matters, force the platforms to develop new ways to target, measure, and optimize results.
2) The increased pace of AI technology development has especially started the competition of who masters AI better, leading platforms to introduce new AI-supported features rapidly to increase performance and showcase their superiority.
These matters have led to a situation where marketers need to evolve and embrace new features in their previously-so-familiar and safe marketing channels. In order to stay on track, these features need to be evaluated, and their operation and effectiveness need to be analyzed constantly. All these features have one thing in common: the strings have pulled off from the marketers’ hands, while more operations have concentrated in the so-called “AI black boxes” where platforms work their magic. This creates challenges in optimization, learning, and testing, while it’s intentionally hidden how and what actually works and what doesn’t.
Tip: Don’t jump into every new feature even though the channels try to push them at you right after they’re published. Many features are worth testing, but you should do it on your own terms, controllably one-by-one, to evaluate their effects on the results effectively.
Find the right tools to support your weak spots
First of all, remember that there are no technologies or all-in-one solutions that will magically solve all your problems. However, when you know your weak spots, it’s easier to choose the right tools to support your marketing where it’s needed the most.
For example,
Problem: Finding and targeting the right people
Solution: Use AI-supported targeting or profiling tools and tactics, such as lookalike audiences from your existing audience or buyers, or ABM audience/prospecting tools (for B2B businesses).
Problem: You can find and engage the right audiences but can’t get them to convert or contact.
Solution: Create automation (retargeting, inbox messaging, or emails, for example) to directly contact those who have engaged with your brand to activate and convert them into action.
Problem: Your content creation process is stuck and/or lacking skills or resources to deliver new material for ads, blogs, etc.
Solution: Invest in AI-creation tools that allow you to scale your content creation with fewer resources. Choose the tools that are right for your business and needs (text content, blogs, articles, visual content, videos, images, etc.).
Learn more:
Automation Assisting Marketing and Sales Processes
It all comes down to your objectives
When choosing the right technology, it’s always important to reflect on its potential for your objectives and goals. Simplified – if it doesn’t promote your desired business objective, it’s meaningless. If you don’t have clear objectives, you can stop reading this post right away and get back to the basis of your company’s marketing goals and form a decent marketing plan: [CASE] Tactical Marketing Planning.
Every day, new technology is offered to you, but choosing and testing those that seem to have the most potential is a crucial task for every marketer nowadays. Having intro meetings with potential service providers every now and then is reasonable since it allows you to better understand what is out there to offer.
Tip: If it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is. Don’t buy every argument or proof for granted, but evaluate them based on your own knowledge and experience. If you present the usage of a specific tool for your management, you should not only know its expected results but also understand the basis of its operations and how it works.
Don’t forget the privacy
Often, when discussing marketing technologies, privacy matters come into play. All service providers promise that they are eligible for all regulations, but that’s rarely a black-and-white issue. Many solutions operate in a gray area between different markets, for example, which all have their own regulations and ways of interpreting them.
Take care of your company’s back by ensuring everything goes by the book – because, at the end of the day, if any issues occur, you are the one responsible, not the service provider. Ask the right questions and calculate risks; even if you decide to play in the gray area, you should be aware of the possible consequences!
Also read:
B2B Marketing Tools 2024 – In This Way, We Use them Collectively
How to Develop a Marketing Plan Utilizing the OKR Model
A/B Testing in Marketing Using the Lean Loop
Target, Engage, and Convince – The Recipe for Effective Digital Marketing
Do You Measure Your Marketing Enough?
Marketing and Values