How to Use AI to Personalize Your B2B Marketing Strategy

When you think of personalization in digital marketing, what type of strategy comes to mind?

According to Gartner analyst and VP, Jennifer Polk, most marketers imagine how to personalize marketing from the wrong angle.

Polk says if you think “I need to make Justin’s experience totally different from Samantha’s, and Samantha’s experience completely unique from Bob’s,” your entire strategy becomes a false construct.

The point isn’t to make everyone’s experience different – it’s to make every individual experience relevant.

Artificial intelligence lets you accomplish both while only doing half the work.

You can deliver a unique experience for every visitor by creating relevant content for specific groups and letting AI do the challenging part: getting it in front of the people who need to see it at the right time.

Here’s how to personalize your B2B marketing strategy with help from AI.

3 Benefits of Personalized Marketing in B2B

Despite its importance for lead generation and widespread use in B2C, many B2Bs still haven’t managed to scale or implement high-level personalization strategies.

In fact, estimates say 80% will abandon their data-driven personalization strategies by 2025 citing poor ROI. You can’t ignore the benefits of personalized marketing anymore because your leads and current customers expect it.

1. Your B2B Visitors Want the Benefits of Personalized Marketing for Themselves, Too

Consistently producing content is important, but without personalization, it gets ignored.

A Forrester study revealed that millennials make up 33% of B2B buyers in 2019, a figure expected to reach 44% in five years. More than half of millennials in the study agreed on two things when asked about B2B content: Vendors give them too much and most of it is useless.

Nearly three-quarters of buyers admitted in a separate study that they struggle to find the time to sort through material looking for something valuable.

A personalized website experience empowers your visitors and helps them to do their job.

Gartner

2. It Builds Trust and Shows You Care

By the time a lead converts into a buyer, they’ve consumed 13 content assets from your brand on average. Keep in mind this includes a mix of first- and third-party material about your brand.

Those 13 pieces also include several types of content – such as eBooks and case studies – which buyers use to evaluate your products, learn about your value, and see if you’ll live up to expectations.

You can’t establish trust without conversations, and you can’t have conversations online without high-quality content.

3. Personalization in Digital Marketing is Cost-Effective and Improves Lead Quality

You can employ high-level personalization with AI effortlessly yet earn $20 ROI for every $1 spent.

When someone decides to get a new tattoo, what’s the first thing they might do? After putting a basic idea together, they’ll research the portfolios of several artists to find someone who can add the ideal personal style.

Personalization in B2B digital marketing works the same way. Beyond trust, it helps visitors to figure out if you’re a good fit for their needs and culture. That’s why knowing how to personalize marketing properly improves your lead conversions by 51% and boosts lead quality by 59%.

How to Personalize B2B Marketing with the Power of AI and Machine Learning

Only 5% of B2Bs implementing personalization felt confident in their efforts before the pandemic economy struck.

If you’re not totally happy with your strategy, don’t stress – you can still reap the benefits of personalization.

Create a Content Marketing Strategy for Different Firmographics and Stages

Personalization is nothing without relevant and valuable content. Strategy isn’t just a fancy word, it matters: 69% of B2Bs with top-performing content document their strategy but only 16% of the least successful B2Bs can say the same.

You’ll need to create content with two tiers of segments in mind: firmographics and stages of the buyer’s journey, or “jobs” as Gartner calls them:

Gartner

For firmographics, you’ll want to create personalized assets for distinct job roles and, ideally, companies as part of an account-based marketing strategy.

Don’t be shy about investing in content for current customers – like tutorial videos or infographics. These assets show leads how you can help them post-purchase AND prevent customer churn via digital customer service.

Organize Your Content by Verticals and Pain Points

It’s not enough to personalize the content itself. Sixty-eight percent of buyers say they’d like you to categorize your content by pain point or issue. Meanwhile, 58% want to see it organized by vertical.

An AI engine lets you do both via an adaptive content hub. Similarly, machine learning provides an interactive experience, which buyers say could entice them to spend up to 20 minutes browsing a single site.

Here’s an example from the Hushly adaptive content hub:

Use Content Bingeing and AI to Empower Leads

Amazon sets the standard for ecommerce. First, it was two-day shipping, then one-day, and now same-day delivery in some cases. Amazon also sets the standard in experience – yes, even for B2B buyers.

By adding an AI engine to your website, leads can browse your content at their pace without blockades from intrusive forms.

Dead end landing pages and lead forms are replaced with endless streams of recommended content based on browsing behavior and innovative intent data. It uses the same bingeable and personalized algorithms as Netflix with one difference: it chooses content to guide leads down the sales funnel.

Find Company Influencers and Conversation Starters

Finally, you can’t personalize an experience without some good old human conversations. Start with two sets of influencers: one for your company and one for your target industries or accounts (for ABM).

Enlist people on your team to act as ambassadors. They won’t outright sell your brand – they’ll just talk to your audience in comments and posts.

Say Goodbye to Poor Lead Quality with Hushly AI Engine

Hushly’s innovative personalization platform is proven to improve lead quality by 59%. The AI-driven personalization lets buyers research at their own pace while gently guiding them toward conversion.

You’ll only collect verified information from leads who genuinely want to stay in touch with your brand.

Find out how adding an AI engine to your B2B site can improve lead conversions, quality, and engagement.

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