Fresh Ingredients to Sweeten Your Marketing Recipe

In my last blog, we explored some tried and true marketing tactics that won’t fade away in the post-digital world.

Change is constant, so the key is being able to adapt and keep a continual learning mindset. With the customer journey becoming more multi-dimensional and personal, it’s important to absorb new technologies and talents, especially those with experiences around the different customer touch points.

Today, I’m going to dive into two new tactics marketers need to explore to help maintain brand relevance as we navigate the increasingly dynamic marketing landscape.

Artificial Intelligence

At the end of 2017, LinkedIn released a report on the top emerging jobs and skills. The top four jobs (machine learning engineer, data scientist, sales development representative and customer success manager) show that emerging technologies like AI are impacting the types of skills and experiences that will shape future marketing leaders.

Customers today want to engage with brands in complex ways that meaningful, and the analytics capabilities that AI delivers can help brands achieve this. Will the rise of AI pull humans out of the marketing equation? No. Remember that we are living in an experience economy which drives the need for human connections and emotions – the human touch is here to stay!

With support from AI’s algorithms, marketing teams will be able to create and recommend more personalized content experiences for each customer at every touchpoint in the customer journey. AI’s machine learning capabilities will help provide cross-channel campaign data needed to learn about each customer’s behaviors and sentiment to better tailor content and engagement style.

At Cisco, we have heavily invested in AI and data science because we know it’s time to disrupt and evolve. We’re using AI to categorize customer interactions, provide framework for how to respond intelligently, and put data-driven recommendations into the right hands at the right time. The best news? If you’re a Cisco partner you can have access to these powerful capabilities through Lifecycle Advantage.

Live Stream Video

Video marketing is no longer an emerging tactic – it’s been here, but it’s evolved into an experimental playground and has become an increasingly powerful way to communicate your brand story to and strengthen relationships with your customers and prospects. Look at how some of the most popular social media platforms have evolved – today we have Instagram stories, Facebook live, LinkedIn native and that’s not the end of it.

With that said, your current social media platforms are great places to start engaging your audiences with your videos. Compared to scripted pre-recorded videos, live stream videos provide real-time transparency to viewers. Viewers know that what they’re seeing is unedited, which makes them feel more connected on the spot leading to increased trust between your audiences and your brand. Insights tools provided by social media platforms can help monitor video views, prospects’ profiles and how long they watched the video for to see what types of content resonated.

For B2B brands, videos are great for live announcements, product demos, testimonials, DIY videos. Check out how we have incorporated Facebook Live videos into our strategy in Partner Marketing at Cisco.

The post-digital world encompasses many disruptions not limited to new technologies and marketing methods. Your brand’s relevance is crucial for long-term success – and limitless possibilities will benefit from limitless learning.Whether intern, manager, or CMO, I encourage everyone to embrace lifelong learning and maintain an open perspective.

Have a question, learning advice, or success story to share? Join the conversation and comment below.