Humans vs The Machines - How your marketing team can stay relevant in a technology-driven world
Technology is replacing human jobs in many areas of society — at passport control, superstores and even in more complex fields such as surgery and law. Things are changing so fast it’s hard to predict exactly what the balance will be like in the future between humans and machines.
But you don’t need to imagine how technology and algorithms will change business disciplines such as marketing, it’s already happening. Think about some of the interesting technologies that are now doing the things once reserved for the humble human: predictive analytics, algorithm-based cluster analysis, AI, machine learning and natural language processing. It’s a world away from the way marketing worked ten years ago.
You just need to look at how analytics have changed customer segmentation. For example, analytics applications quickly get to work on huge and varied datasets and they can give you really detailed results you can use in your CRM or customer experience systems to do highly targeted marketing.
One company that does this is AgilOne, a cloud analytics specialist that uses advanced segmentation to help marketers optimise their cross-channel communications. It pulls together information from lots of different data sources and the platform continually learns from user behaviour.
Content and ad targeting is another thing machines excel at, particularly technologies that use deep learning. Today’s algorithms can detect trends in user behaviour, recommending and serving content with a high likelihood of user engagement and click-through.
However, the machines can’t do everything. Content generation, copywriting, video, animation, audio, and other forms of creative assets still remain the domain of humans. There has been some experimentation using computers to write news stories, financial reports and even advertising copy. But on the whole, the output is rubbish and you wouldn’t want to unleash it on your more valuable prospects.
And so, despite all of these impressive innovations, the role of the human remains more important than ever. People still buy from people and marketing will continue to be a very sophisticated and nuanced business.
Updating your skillset
That said, marketing in today’s digital environment has evolved massively. New job roles are emerging with a greater focus on analytical skills, for instance, and those of us who work in sales see the benefits when it comes to activities such as Account-Based Marketing. Then there are other disciplines, such as Search Engine Optimisation and Social Media Optimisation, which require a different mindset from the marketing roles of yesteryear.
What’s important is that these job functions, performed by marketing professionals with different backgrounds and specialities, work together seamlessly. Many marketing activities rely on a combination of creativity, analytics and project management and so instilling a culture of collaboration is key.
Having the right tools in place really helps you to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to smart and effective digital marketing. It might be worth you having a look at Box’s platform, which you can learn more about by watching this video.
