AI in B2B marketing is inevitable. According to ON24 research, about 9 in 10 B2B marketers are already using AI in some way. Stanford University research also found that marketing and sales functions had the highest rate of AI adoption in 2023.
There’s sound reasoning behind the adoption of AI for marketing. According to ON24 research, marketers believe investing in AI could generate better data and insight, efficiency and time savings. Additionally, those marketers already using AI are seven times more likely to exceed their business goals than miss them.
So, how do you get your marketing team started using AI? Here are six steps to get you on your way.
1. Check internal policies
Even if executives are calling for AI, as with just about any new software or technology, it’s crucial to check with your relevant teams that there are no particular regulatory restrictions on the use of AI which could impact you.
Even if you’re not in a regulated industry, it’s wise to research vendors and identify the ones that have the best security and privacy practices.
2. Drive initial adoption by providing access to enthusiastic team members
If you are fortunate, your marketing team will be open to using AI from the start. In fact, they may already be experimenting with it in their personal lives. However, there may be some who either have misgivings about using AI or don’t see how it can improve their jobs or marketing in general.
The advice here is to start small. Use readily available and off-the-shelf tools such as ChatGPT for Teams or Microsoft CoPilot, if they meet your requirements. Ask them to experiment with using AI for basic marketing tasks and help them learn how to write prompts that will help generate the results they are after.
Additionally, ask them to record the impact it has. For example, does it save time? Were they able to produce more content? Were additional opportunities created? Letting your team discover the use cases for AI through their own experimentation will go a long way toward getting them on board.
3. Use examples of your own success to drive wider buy-in and support
After your team has adopted and used AI, it’ll be time to roll it out to the wider marketing team and other related functions such as sales, customer success and customer-facing departments. While you may not run into any resistance, by now, you’ll have data to back you up.
Use the data you’ve collected to show how AI can have a positive impact. Again, it will likely have saved time, helped create additional content and created further opportunities. Third-party data such as The State of AI in B2B Marketing in 2024 report can also help build a business case for additional investment in AI.
4. Formally make AI tools a part of your marketing workflow for short-form promotional content
Now that success has been demonstrated across teams, make sure AI continues to be used to realize its benefits. AI is a tool that helps with efficiency and frees up time for marketers to concentrate on things like strategy. However, it’s only effective if your team continues to use it after the shiny new toy feeling wears off.
Start simple by making AI another go-to tool in your marketing workflow. Use it for smaller tasks such as writing webinar titles, email subject lines or PR headlines. Your team may have already experimented with using AI this way, but now it will be a formal way of doing things. This will also enable you to identify issues and familiarize everyone with AI.
Here are some tools that can help with short-form promotional content:
-
- ChatGPT
- Microsoft CoPilot
- ON24 SmartText
5. Expand the use of AI to workflows and processes for longer forms of content
Once AI is regularly used for smaller tasks, it’s time to incorporate it into creating lengthier assets such as blog posts, articles, e-books and webinar transcripts.
You don’t have to jump directly into having AI write a full blog post or e-book. Maybe have it create an outline for a blog post or subheaders for an e-book. As soon as you’re comfortable with those results, try having it write a full blog post or an e-book based on your webinar. You can also try using tools like ON24 Key Moments to pull out popular moments during your webinars to create snippets you can share on a nurture page.
Of course, AI is neither a substitute for humans nor infallible. So, make sure to read through the content AI has generated to ensure it’s what you want and on target with your desired messaging. It will likely need a few tweaks, but in the end, it will save you loads of time.
Here are some other tools to explore when using AI for longer-form content:
-
- ON24 Key Moments and AI-powered ACE
- Writer.com
- Adobe Firefly
- PlayPlay
6. Cover the entire buyer’s journey, using AI to create personalized content and wider campaign touchpoints
As you grow more comfortable with using AI to create individual pieces of content, consider expanding its use to create personalized versions of content and offers at scale. In fact, using AI for personalization is a very popular use case for AI. The Personalization in the AI Era report shows that 88% of the B2B marketers surveyed said they would use AI to help with personalization efforts. Furthermore, 84% believe that personalization is more attainable by using AI.
Alongside personalization, take advantage of AI to create content for key campaign touchpoints. Target buyers throughout their journey using segmentation and offer them the content they need at every stage. Some tools that will make this easier include Adobe Dynamic Chat and ON24 Segment Builder.