At the Emarsys Revolution 2018 event, CEO of the B2C automation firm Ohad Hecht explained how using AI in marketing is the best way to provide the modern and varied customers of the world with the tailored, personalised experience they are after.
Emarsys CEO Ohad Hecht
“Understanding consumers is our passion” – says CEO of Emarsys Ohad Hecht, while summarising how to use AI in marketing to solve the industry’s problems in 2018.
His business-to-customer automation firm is dedicated to using technology to offer customers a better service in a world that’s advancing at an ever-increasing rate.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the best way to provide a personal experience to each customer, Ohad argues, as its ability to scale means your business can grow while delivering the same quality of service to everyone.
During his keynote speech at the Emarsys Revolution 2018 event in London, he said: “We started this event a year ago because we truly feel marketing as an industry needs to get to where it used to be.
“We are on a quest for change and we have a genuine passion for marketing here at Emarsys – that’s why it’s a revolution.
“I think the first thing everyone in this room has to think about is the fact that we are all consumers before we’re marketers – consumer first, marketer second – that’s a winning mindset, as we see it.”
What are the problems marketers face in 2018?
Emarsys claims that 74% of marketers believe targeted personalisation increases customer engagement.
Its survey of 2,000 consumers corroborates this, finding 42% of consumers say special treatment “entices them back to purchase another item”.
However, getting this tailoring process wrong has consequences, as the research also found 64% of respondents have received clearly irrelevant or inaccurate communications from brands, with 59% feeling irritated and 37% ignoring the brand altogether as a result.
“Everything I’m wearing has been bought from one brand or another – some of you may be in the audience, so thank you,” said Ohad.
“But as retailers it’s your job to collect every signal and piece of information I give you from my spending habits and then create a tailored experience around that story – my story.
“It gets difficult though when you start thinking about the fact that everyone has a different story to tell you.
“Whether your customer is a baby boomer, a millennial, or even the generation after that – there’s so much difference in these segments that marketing to them becomes really complicated, really fast.”
How AI in marketing can change the industry
Mr Ohad also cited a study by marketing research firm Econsultancy, which found 77% of digital marketers believe that technology has a vital part to play in the personalisation process.
Using AI in marketing, with its machine learning capabilities that can use past data to create a profile around customers, is the best way to maximize this, argued Ohad.
He said: “What we have found is that human driven personalisation cannot scale at the same rate that our customers are changing – but AI can.
“We are living in a world where the way we market to consumers is based off of a multitude of small things that they tell us everyday – AI is the best way to harness that data effectively.
“No marketer in this room has enough time to create tailored strategies for all of their many customer types, and still be creative and successful in the way they do it – it’s simply impossible and if you can do it, please, tell me how.”