“Marketing is a contest for people’s attention.” – Seth Godin
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the buzzword in today’s market. With technology evolving at such a rapid pace, and bringing new developments to the AI field, it has become imperative for marketers to stay updated on what’s happening in the industry.
Considering the fact that marketing has always been a game that keeps evolving over time, the life of marketers has become even tougher since the incorporation of AI in the marketing field. And, this has been the major reasons that marketers need to inculcate new skills to stay on top of the game.
What are those skills? This is what we are going to discuss in this post. So, let us take a look at those skills one by one:
1. Communication skills
“All the technology in the world probably won’t help you as a marketer if you don’t have the soft skills such as empathy, communication, and accountability, as well as the creative mindset.” – Raviv Turner, CEO of CaliberMind
Marketing is all about customers. And, the above-mentioned quote paints a clear picture of the importance of communication in marketing.
While AI could be your best friend regarding gathering customer data, segregating it according to your requirements and providing you with a huge pool of information, it cannot connect with the customer. The huge volume of data is going to be of no use unless you have the communication skills to connect with the audience.
As they say, great brands are built on connection with the customer and not just on efficacy.
2. Qualitative research
The most important skill for a marketer to inculcate in today’s AI-dominated time is thinking like a customer. Marketers must think through what it is like for the customer to go from prospect to interested buyer, to customer, to repeat customer.
AI can prove to be a great friend in this, but only if you know how to use it. You can use bots and AI technology to collect data about your customers, such as their points of interaction with the business, pain points while being with you, interaction and communication with your sales reps and more.
But how you are going to use that data is the important part. This is the reason that you need to develop the aptitude for qualitative research. Put simply – spend time speaking with and studying the needs of your customers. Look for chances to walk in your customers’ and prospects’ shoes.
3. Speed and accuracy
Marketing today is all about speed. As technology keeps evolving at breakneck speed, a marketer who wants to make an impact on the industry must keep up to date with these evolving trends.
As a marketer, you need to not just be good with marketing, but also have a basic understanding of the various fields related to it. Skills, like understanding analytics, mathematical terms and a few basics of coding become imperative.
In the words of Mike Moran, Senior Strategist to AI marketing tech startups, “If you are going into the marketing profession as a refuge from math, that’s likely a mistake. You at least need to be comfortable making decisions based on data, even if you’re not the one collecting or calculating the numbers yourself.”
4. Content creation
Now, this is where many people would disagree stating that AI can be used to curate content, gather the best blog posts out there and do a lot more. Yes, you are correct in stating all this. But you are forgetting the most basic thing – bots and AI cannot create content. Tech tools cannot write blog posts.
As a marketer, you are the best judge of what you want to represent to your audience. Hence you need to develop the skill of writing content.
According to Wes Marsh, “’Content is king’ is a motto that’s been around for decades, but it won’t go away any time soon. The ability to create relevant content for unique audiences will be just as important in the 2020s as it was in the early years of the millennium.”
5. Keeping the bigger picture in mind
AI is all about information gathering and bringing together volumes of data. But how will this big picture fit within your organizational goals? How are you going to put all the pieces brought forward by AI to create the final growth map that is going to lead you to success?
This is a skill that every marketer needs to develop.
In fact, being a marketer who can understand how various facets of AI and technology can be brought together and orchestrated to create a successful business strategy can prove to be the biggest asset to an organization.
As it is said – it’s not just about crunching numbers. It is more about identifying the trends, figuring out relationships and leveraging those numbers to improve marketing results.
Conclusion
Marketing has always been a key parameter in a business’s success. Whether you look at the past or the present, or even talk about the future, businesses that have made it big had marketing play a huge role in their success.
Evolving technological changes have brought into inception new techniques and skills, to which marketers have had to adapt. And the latest addition to this has been the rise of AI.
As you can see, in order to make the most of AI as a marketer, you need to inculcate a few basic skills mentioned above.
So, are you ready to acclimatize according to these changing trends? If yes, then go ahead – understand these basic things, and see how you can become better at the game of marketing.