TLDR:
With the artificial intelligence industry seeing huge growth in 2018, another big AI push is expected for 2019. The ways it can be integrated into ABM campaigns to help easier create target account lists is one aspect of AI that will greatly benefit marketers.
ABM has already become the talk of the town, and it’s predicted to stay that way for 2019. As more companies adopt AI-powered software, those strategies require something with the same amount of agility as the software it supports.
Making it past the hype stage in B2B marketing, ABM brings in revenue by playing to the modern day client’s need for personalization. In addition, ABM pays specific attention to opportunities for desired behavior, including sales.
In today’s increasingly electronic business environment, we’re embracing new technologies. Among them is artificial intelligence. Specifically, IDC projected that in 2018 AI research and development spending would amount to $24 billion, and that number is only expected to grow in 2019.
With such a focus on AI-powered technology, marketers would easily be able to target accounts while sifting through tremendous amounts of data. This sifting creates ABM campaigns at an unprecedented rate. Developing an understanding on how we arrived here requires a brief overview of ABM’s current condition.
One of the biggest problems with ABM today is crafting the correct target account lists. And sales and marketing teams often have differing opinions on the best tactic. The misalignment tends to be because sales is focused on the here and now, while marketing in off into the distance, thinking about the future.
As a result, it can take ages to devise a tiered list of target accounts. Adding to this, ABM has a tendency to be understood as a one-off activity because it’s labor-intensive. Lists aren’t tested the way they should be. ABM tends to only be as good as the information fed into it.
Having said that, AI is a technology of smart predictions. When you plot data points into an ABM campaign using AI software, sales and marketing can easily make a tiered target list based on business goals. It allows for better functionality between teams—one of ABM’s main objectives. AI plays a central role in this by also making it easier to update changing relationships and priority lists.
Pipeline growth and efficiency gains mark AI’s entrance onto the ABM scene. This means that ABM strategies are expected to ascend in 2019. This becomes especially true when the desire for securing bigger and better business deals is thrown into the mix. It’s all about data, and how that data can be leveraged to bolster efficiency, optimize performance, and generate improved chances to close a sale— specifically one that’s sourced by a marketing team.
Original article from MarTech Advisor on 26 December 2018.
