In a time of economic uncertainty, it’s more important than ever to stay ahead of the curve as well as the competition. Stale digital marketing strategies simply won’t make the cut. Here at Bluetext, we’re committed to providing our clients with the latest and greatest when it comes to up-and-coming marketing strategies and trends. In this blog, we’ll look at five key predictions to bolster your marketing strategy in 2023. 

Content Marketing in 2023

Gone are the days of strict, professional content and messaging for companies. In 2023, consumers are looking for you to empathize with them, breaking down the traditional walls that separated corporate from compassion. Lean into emotive content filled with transparency, empathy, and relatability. Your customers want to know they can trust you, especially in times of economic uncertainty when every penny counts. Ditch the sales-based pitch in your content and speak to your customers as if they were your friends. 

Short-Form Video

In today’s culture, TikTok is all the rage. The average user now watches 19 hours of video content every week, and a lot of that is happening on their mobile devices, accounting for 80% of all mobile data traffic. In other words, short-form video is huge and should be taken seriously by companies heading into 2023. 

Producing content specifically for TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts also lends itself well to companies, as shorter content takes less time and effort to produce. Additionally, viewers are more likely to engage with a shorter video that gets straight to the point versus a video they have to sit through for 30 minutes. 

Augmented Reality

Using AR in marketing campaigns was certainly on the rise in 2022 and will continue to grow in both capabilities and use as we get into 2023 and beyond, with the global AR market expected to reach $28 billion by 2028. While AR may seem to be only available to large companies with large marketing budgets like Ikea, there are opportunities for smaller companies to lean into the augmented reality trend. Even something as simple as adding augmented reality functionality to your business card could be a great way to set yourself apart from the competition. You could add buttons to text or call, include a pop-up video showing off your product, and more.  

Artificial Intelligence

Although the technology behind artificial intelligence is still maturing and a sound business case is still being developed, that doesn’t mean you’re not able to jump ahead of the curve. It is predicted in 2023 that the science behind marketing data analysis will benefit greatly through AI with tools such as TensorFlow and Gretel, allowing your company to glean more information from your data than ever before and drive higher profitability. 

The power of conversational AI will also continue to grow (looking at you, Chat GPT) on the back of terabytes of data, enhancing your ability to actively engage with your customers on a personalized level. Tools like Campfire and Kore are making it easier for businesses to take advantage of the power of artificial intelligence with their platform-based solutions. 

Metaverse

The metaverse was certainly a trending topic throughout 2022 and will continue to make headlines into 2023 and the future. According to a recent study, 59% of consumers are excited about transitioning everyday activities to the metaverse, with a similar number of metaverse-aware companies (57%) already adopting the concept. In 2022, we saw a variety of events being hosted in the metaverse, a trend that will continue into next year via virtual tradeshows, customer experiences, and facility tours. We’ll also see an increase in metaverse use for internal business processes such as employee onboarding, training, and even company happy hours. 

Advertising in the metaverse will also continue to rise in popularity as the metaverse itself continues to grow. In order to align with the metaverse ethos, ads will need to be immersive and complement the user experience, allowing advertisements to become part of the gameplay and establish meaningful engagement with users. 

You may already be aware of these upcoming trends and the implications they could have for your business but unsure of how to start addressing them. Bluetext has the expertise and industry experience to help you grow your brand and implement effective changes to your marketing strategy. To learn more about our offerings, contact us today.

No matter what industry your company is in, or who your target market is, the goal of any customer interaction is to foster a relationship that converts to revenue. In today’s digital landscape, customers’ expectations have elevated to instant yet personalized feedback to their questions at the click of a button. While this seems like an impossibly daunting task, it has become an expected digital experience with the help of technology. Artificial intelligence-powered live chat, chatbots, and messaging apps have all helped companies achieve this blend of efficiency and customization. Below, we dive deep into the power of conversational marketing and how to implement the right strategy for your business. 

What is Conversational Marketing? 

In its essence, conversational marketing is a series of one-to-one interactions in real-time across multiple channels. Conversational marketing enables you and your team to foster relationships with both potential customers and existing customers, improving overall online customer experience and brand perception. A successful conversational marketing strategy ensures your customers feel satisfied and supported in all their questions, and trust your brand throughout every stage of the sales funnel.  Additionally, as we know, data is a powerful tool, and utilizing conversational marketing technology can increase that amount of data allowing you to tweak your strategy and increase conversions. Every conversation could be considered a mini focus study and learning experience for how to continually improve your business.

Chatbots

As your business scales up, so will the number of questions from prospective and existing customers. That being said, there will come a time when it is simply not feasible to increase the number of sales representatives you have to answer every question that comes in via your website. That’s where chatbots come in. Chatbots have become the go-to conversational marketing tool for a lot of businesses. Platforms like Drift, which integrate seamlessly with your existing website make chatbots a very easy and effective way to up your conversational marketing efforts. Chatbots are very effective when it comes to easing customer pain points quickly and provides a visual cue of reassurance upon landing on a web page that support resources are readily available. Pre-programmed answers to frequently answered questions allow you to talk to your customers, regardless of the time of day. This is especially beneficial for businesses with an international reach, as customers outside your local time zone will always feel supported. If the query is too unique to respond with a canned response, chatbots can connect the customer with a live representative who can better answer their questions. Plenty of conversational marketing platforms enable businesses to identify which leads are most likely to buy and then move them to the front of the line.

Customer Feedback

Pulling data from your chosen conversational marketing tool on customer engagement will only get you so far. At the end of the day, you’ll need to gather feedback from your customers, asking them their thoughts on how to improve the customer and prospect experience on your site. This will not just enable the customer to feel that they have a say but also will help in the optimization of the tools after some time. Adding a quick feedback survey to the end of a chatbot or live chat conversation will go a long way in improving customer satisfaction. 

How to Get Started

Implementing a successful conversational marketing strategy starts by choosing the web pages where you want your conversational bot to engage with your visitors. Sometimes it makes sense to have a constant chatbot available on every page, at all times. Other times, and especially when utilizing live chat versus a chatbot, it pays off to choose the pages that get the most traffic, have the most conversion opportunities, or have visitors with a high intention of buying. This will help maximize the number of interactions you enter into, and the likelihood of success of those interactions. Now that you’ve decided where you want to speak to your customers on your website, it’s time to define what kind of information customers will ask for, and how in the simplest terms you can provide them with that information. As a general rule of thumb, try to keep the conversations simple. Your customers will expect the interaction with your company to be smooth and want to get answers and guidance quickly.

Regardless of the size of your company, having a conversational marketing strategy is key to increasing customer satisfaction and therefore revenue. Are you looking to begin your conversational marketing strategy but not quite sure where to start? Contact Bluetext and see how we can help.

New year, same buzzwords. We’re all familiar with the phrase “machine learning”, but finding a practical application for it that supports your business model is another story. The key to effective digital marketing campaigns is taking full advantage of emerging technologies, and if you’re looking to increase your marketing team’s productivity and efficacy, look no further than machine learning. From paid media campaigns to search marketing strategies, recent machine learning enhancements have skyrocketed its digital potential. As brand marketing becomes more closely integrated with performance marketing, introducing ML to your digital marketing strategy is an effective way to assist your team on both fronts.

According to Google’s Chief Search Evangelist, “The future of brand marketing is digital, and it’s automated. As a brand marketer, if you can start thinking like performance marketers when it comes to KPIs, measurement, and budgets, you’ll be poised to win.” 

Looking for ways to get started with machine learning in your marketing processes? Here are a few ideas:

1. Introduce personalization at scale.
   Personalized advertising is a tried-and-true success tactic, and machine learning makes personalization at scale easier than ever. Whether you’re personalizing for 100 users or 100,000, AI makes the process quick and effective. Better-targeted ads, personalized messaging, and individualized user journeys are just a few ways that ML can boost your brand.

2. Leave the bidding to the machines.
   Free up your team’s time by handing off PPC management to a tool like Google Smart Bidding. With automated bidding, your team can focus more on strategic planning and goal-setting instead of cent-by-cent differences.

3. Implement a chatbot on your website.
   Chatbots are simple integrations that can have a major impact on the conversion rate of your site. The best chatbots use AI to make the customer’s journey as simple as possible, guiding them to the right information or product with minimal back-and-forth. Trusona uses a pre-populated chatbot, so users don’t have to lift a finger to type a response; they can simply choose from the options presented.

4. Iterate, optimize, and iterate again.
   Iteration is one of the greatest strengths of processes that use machine learning; rapid analysis of digital performance means that your team can respond in real-time to shifting trends and interests. Ultimately, the introduction of machine learning to your brand’s marketing tactics will result in better products and better performance.

Implementation of machine learning could be the next major step in your brand’s growth. To learn more and see how Bluetext can partner with you in that growth, contact us.

Have you ever navigated to a new website with a question, and spent too much time hunting for an answer? While companies spend large amounts of time developing and building out an information architecture for their user journeys, they may not always have the use case of each unique user in mind. To be fair, they aren’t mind readers! There are times when consumers may simply need to be guided to exactly what they’re looking for – and there is no better way to ensure that than with a chat experience integrated on your site. 

As consumer behavior changes over time, it is important to be able to meet your user and provide a user experience that matches what they have become accustomed to. In the same way that it has become the norm to order a pizza online instead of calling into your neighborhood spot, the prevalence of 24/7 support and availability should be captured in the online experience.

With younger generations, in particular, an instant messaging option is a preferred way to communicate, and if companies can make it easier for their customers to get what they are looking for through a chatbot, this will pay off. A recent study found that up to 68% of respondents indicated that they are more likely to use a business that offers convenient communications if they have the option to choose where to make a purchase.

A seamless integration for a chat experience where a bot or a real person responds in real-time is critical. It can be extremely frustrating when users are waiting around for something that should warrant a quick response. Ever been stuck on the phone waiting for hours to get past automated messaging machines to ask a question? It’s incredibly frustrating and more often than not people get impatient and hang up. Online inquiries are no different, if you leave a user aimlessly browsing on their own and unsuccessful in finding their answer they will get impatient and bounce from your site. Installing an automated chatbot gives users a clear destination for their questions, and avoids the dead-end drop-off. While chatbots may not be real people, it gives users the illusion of a more personal experience and grows brand trust that your company is willing to solve their problems. Convenience is key in today’s society, and online browsing is no exception. 

Online chatbots sound great in theory but can seem intimidating to execute. However, with the assistance of a website design and development agency, such as Bluetext, you can integrate a chat service into your current or new website design. The advantage of working with a full-service digital marketing agency is that they can analyze your search traffic patterns, help identify some common user journeys and pain points, but also style and develop a chatbot fit to your brand identity. This creates an even more seamless user experience on your site because the chatbot integrates and matches the current website, almost like a well-dressed store employee ready and able to answer any questions.  

Is it time for your website to step up its support game? Consult Bluetext to find out what kind of chatbot or user experience modifications can improve your website. 

The creative industry is abuzz with excitement, fears and anticipation of what recent AI developments may bring. Many generative AI tools have emerged in the marketplace, each promising their own unique advantages. As explored in our previous post, generative AI tools can be a powerful aide to the ideation process. So how do you go about using generative AI to enhance the ideation efforts? For a creative, visual output, text-to-image AI tools will utilize an input-output format. Meaning, the generative AI models are trained to follow instructions in a prompt provided and generate an image based on entered keywords, styles, and more. Bluetext recently leveraged Midjourney to explore its capabilities.

Our Challenge  

Bluetext was sought out by a financial software company looking to create an attention-grabbing go-to-market campaign that would improve overall awareness of the unified brand and increase in qualified leads. The campaign needed to be creative and impactful. Visuals needed to be striking enough to capture the attention of their potential customers and differentiate them from their competitors, and compelling enough to effectively address the pain points of their target audience.

One of the ideas that arose during the campaign conception process was to show a hyperbolic demonstration of one of the target audience’s biggest challenges – that dated technology can hold them back, literally. To help with the ideation process and find inspiration for the campaign visuals, Bluetext turned to MidJourney. 

Ideation Process: 

The process involved a delicate game of trial and error — entering prompts and making tweaks to the keywords, information and instructions we provided in order to try and generate a range of visuals that may fit with the campaign strategy and vision. Here’s a sample of what we tried:

Base Prompt: “Business man, technology holding back”

Refined Prompt: “Realistic, sideview of a businessman sitting in a chair in the office, shirt is connected to printer cables behind him, he is being pulled back from his desk by cables, 8k”

 

Refined Prompt: “Ultra realistic photo, side view of business man sitting at desk working on a computer, behind him are more computers, wires from the computers behind him are attached to his shirt pulling him away from his desk”

Variations on Selected Image: “Ultra realistic photo, side view of business man sitting at desk working on a computer, behind him are more computers, wires from the computers behind him are attached to his shirt pulling him away from his desk”

Prompt:”Side view photo, young business man looking at computer, wires from other computers behind him are wrapped around his torso, tied to chair, hands on desk, wires tight and look like they are pulling guy away from desk”

Prompt: “Ultra photoreal, ultra-detailed, side view, businessman sitting at desk working on computer, computers behind man have wires reaching out and wrapping around the man, tangling and tying him to chair”

Prompt: “Photorealistic, ultra detailed, side view, young businessman sitting at desk looking at computer, more computers are behind man and have wires reaching out and wrapping around the man, man is tied to chair with the wires, man looks frustrated”

[insert visuals and corresponding prompts]

Outcomes & lessons learned:

As you can see from the examples above, this technology is by no means perfect. After hours of iterating, we struggled to get the visual output to match exactly what we were trying to convey. 

This brings us to a few key takeaways. Generative AI tools have very real limitations, like in the realism of art (see the human appendages below) and in output control. Also, while generative AI is a great starting place for brainstorming, it will likely not produce your final product. It is best used as an ideation-stage tool to help get your creative juices flowing.

As demonstrated above, generative AI tools will produce results, but they may not always be exactly what you are looking for. That is why it is important to set realistic expectations for the AI model’s capabilities and refine your prompt writing to produce successful outcomes. The best prompt writing process to follow depends on the specific generative AI tool being used and the desired outcome, but general tips can help improve the quality of the output generated by the AI model:

• Be clear and specific about the desired outcome or task. This helps ensure that the AI model understands what it is being asked to do and produces relevant output. For example, if you are using an AI model to generate a creative writing piece, clearly specify the genre, tone, and other relevant details.
• Provide the AI model with as much, high-quality input data as possible. The quality of the input data can significantly affect the output generated by the AI model, so it is essential to provide diverse and representative input information that aligns with the desired outcome.
• Experiment with different prompts and input data to identify which ones produce the best results. The quality of the output generated by the model can vary depending on the information and instructions provided, so testing out a variety of inputs can help increase your chances of receiving a relevant and accurate response.
• Review the output carefully. While AI models can generate impressive output, they are not perfect, and may require some editing to meet the desired standards.

Interested in head-turning campaign creative for your business? Get in touch with Bluetext to learn how technology-powered creatives can bring your vision to life.

It’s no secret that Conversational AI has become a familiar part of our everyday lives. With the rise of virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, the way that we interact with technology has become more personalized than ever before. But the benefits of AI go far beyond simple voice commands and smart speakers; Conversational AI is a tool that can optimize efficiency in a wide variety of industries and contexts, from customer service to healthcare to education. 

Outcomes & Benefits From Business Process Perspective

Conversational AI systems, also known as chatbots or virtual assistants, are designed to provide personalized communication with users. For some, their first thought of AI might include Siri announcing the weather, or Alexa updating their shopping list. However, what many people don’t realize is that the capabilities of Conversation AI go much deeper and can be the key to optimizing business operations. AI can improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and personalization of communication with customers, employees, and stakeholders.

Industry Index

As AI technology continues to advance, businesses across a broad range of industries are discovering innovative ways to integrate it into their operations to enhance processes and productivity. As market offerings of AI continue to expand, almost every industry is finding new and unexpected ways to leverage new technologies. The capabilities of AI are limitless; here are just a few of the most unique and surprising real-world use cases of AI.

• Real Estate: Online real estate platform Compass is using AI to create custom listing videos for clients in just a few clicks. Their AI-powered phrase recognition technology is able to pull out key listing attributes and pair them with the best suited images, generating a professional and personalized video for potential buyers. 
• Construction: AI produces a multitude of benefits for construction and manufacturing companies. From increasing safety to optimizing work schedules, AI in the construction industry has proven its value. Buildots, a construction tech company, has created a wearable 360-degree camera that uses AI to monitor construction sites by detecting schedule deviations, incorrect installations, and unsafe conditions.
• Financial: According to Insider Intelligence’s AI in Banking report, 80% of banks are aware of the benefits of Conversational AI in their industry. It enables frictionless, 24/7 customer interactions, lowers the possibility of human error, and increases customer satisfaction for a multitude of use cases, including but not limited to bank transfers, closing and opening accounts, card replacements, and password resets. Aside from these advantages, AI in financial settings can also identify variations in transaction patterns and other warning signs that could indicate fraud.

• Media & Telecommunications: Businesses can leverage AI to monitor and analyze audio and video data to report findings in real time. Call centers, for example, can utilize AI-enabled solutions to transcribe and document phone conversations, which can then be analyzed to detect customer sentiment, identify key topics and issues, and mine discrepancies. Additionally, AI in customer care centers can help bolster real human interaction by managing mundane tasks and helping find a solution in a fraction of the time that it would take a real person. 

• Healthcare: AI-powered chatbots can help patients schedule appointments, send reminders, and provide information about appointment logistics. Conversational AI tech can also provide patients with information on health conditions, treatment options, and self-care instructions.
• Higher Education: By leveraging conversational AI, educational institutions can provide more personalized and efficient learning experiences, improve student outcomes, and reduce the workload on teachers and administrative staff. One way that AI can help to automate tasks for educators is by providing automated assessment and feedback on student assignments, while also identifying areas for improvement and recommending learning resources.

Power of Amelia AI

Amelia AI, Bluetext’s partner, and client of brand services, has established itself as an enterprise leader in Trusted AI by consistently providing reliable and secure AI solutions. Amelia uses a combination of natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, and cognitive reasoning to understand the intent of user requests and provide relevant responses. Unlike traditional chatbots, Amelia learns from every interaction, evolving and improving its understanding and responses over time in order to better all future interactions. 

One of the key advantages of Amelia is its ability to integrate with existing enterprise systems, enabling seamless communication across departments and workflows. Amelia can also be deployed across multiple channels, such as web, mobile, and voice, providing a consistent and personalized experience to end users. Amelia is able to optimize business efficiency across all types of industries by streamlining processes and elevating customer service and experience. For example, Amelia AI was hired to fill the role of Virtual Engineer for CGI clients, specifically handling incident resolution and ticket management. Through the engagement, Amelia helped CGI reduce client outages by 30 percent.

Amelia also paired up with Visionworks to transform their customer experience operations by operationalizing the process to schedule eye exam appointments, provide order status updates, answer store-related questions, and more. Amelia represents a significant step forward in the development of conversational AI, providing organizations with a powerful tool to improve customer engagement, reduce costs, and drive innovation.

The Future of AI Optimization

As natural language processing and machine learning algorithms improve, AI technology will become increasingly adept at understanding and responding to human speech in more complex and nuanced ways. Companies that have successfully incorporated AI into their business operations have proven that they can automate routine tasks, reduce operational costs, and enhance customer satisfaction and retention. Beyond improving processes, AI technology can lend valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences, ultimately improving and personalizing their experience. With the potential to transform nearly every aspect of business, it’s no wonder that AI is becoming an increasingly popular technology for companies to adopt.

In recent years, the field of artificial intelligence (AI) has made incredible strides in developing sophisticated algorithms and models capable of producing new content, ideas, and even entire works of art. This technology, known as generative AI, works by using machine learning algorithms to generate new content based on the patterns it has learned from massive stores of data. Generative AI tools are quickly gaining traction in the world of marketing, with brands and creatives around the world starting to experiment with the technology to bring their visions to life. 

With generative AI tools, marketers can jumpstart their design and creative ideation process, experiment with new formats and ideas, and even help ensure their messaging resonates in the marketplace. In this blog, we will delve into the world of generative AI and explore the creative possibilities and opportunities that this technology offers.

Generative AI Tools & Process

From design to copywriting, generative AI can significantly enhance traditional ideation processes and has made it easier to create high-quality content quickly. It’s well known in creative fields the ideation process is the toughest hurdle, once an idea is conceived the execution flows naturally. So the thought of removing the age-old writer’s block or creative slump is game-changing for creative minds across every medium. However, while A.I. can produce impressive results, it’s by no means a magic wand. The tools require a great deal of human input and forethought to guide the AI algorithms and improve the overall quality of the output. In this way, generative AI is a powerful sidekick to humans, rather than a replacement.  

So, how do you go about using generative AI in your ideation efforts, and what tools are available to you? Well, that answer depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If you are looking for some sort of written output, you will want to use a generative AI tool that uses natural language processing to generate a text response. If you are looking for a creative, visual output, you’ll want to use a text-to-image AI tool. Regardless, these tools will utilize an input-output format. Meaning, the generative AI models are trained to follow instructions in a prompt provided by the user and generate a human-like response in the form of a detailed, written answer or image. 

Now, where to start? There are countless generative AI tools out in the market today that can be leveraged as creative writing and design jump-off points. ChatGPT, from OpenAi, is a free (and increasingly popular) online conversation tool and language model that can be used for various applications including answering questions, writing content, text translation, topic research, or report generation. In the world of marketing, ChatGPT can aid in writing content and blog posts, creating brand messaging, and even name ideation. 

Jasper is another AI copywriting tool that is particularly great for headline ideation and social media content writing. Jasper also enables you to experiment with different messaging and see what copy resonates the best with your audience. Jasper has a browser extension that allows the model to help improve and create tailored content for your brand, anywhere you are working online. Similar to ChatGPT, Jasper works based on prompts. You can choose between utilizing pre-made templates or open-ended commands in order to guide the model to produce content output you’re looking for. 

Here’s a quick example of what using one of these copywriting tools (ChatGPT) for help with a naming project may look like:

• Building your prompt: First, you’ll want to provide ChatGBT with some relevant information about your brand or product so it can understand the context of your request. Start by defining your brand or product in a few simple sentences and provide ChatGPT with some related keywords and key differentiating factors. Then, ask ChatGPT to generate name ideas for your brand or product based on the information and keywords you provided.

• Refining the output: After ChatGPT generates a list of name ideas, review the suggestions and refine them based on your preferences, brand values, or market trends. Remember that A.I. is based on machine learning, which takes feedback data to generate more content similar to the positive outputs and less like the content with negative outputs. Much like training a dog, you must make it clear what outputs you want to positively or negatively reinforce to shape the desired behavior. And ultimately, practice makes perfect. The more inputs and feedback you provide, the more data A.I. tools collect and leverage to improve their outputs. ChatGPT will generate more suggestions based on the refined criteria, and repeat the cycle until you see a name that fits your vision or sparks new ideas of your own.

Much like copywriting, there are several design and visual-focused generative AI products available to marketers and creatives alike. In addition to ChatGPT, OpenAI has also created an AI model focused on visual output. Named DALL·E 2, this model can transform natural language descriptions (or prompts) into realistic images and art. Two other popular text-to-image models include Stable Diffusion and Midjourney, the latter of which was recently leveraged by Bluetext on a client project.

Generative AI Takeaways

Because generative AI is not a perfect technology, in order to get the most out of these tools, it is essential to understand their strengths and limitations.

Some of the main benefits of generative AI include:

• Creativity & Exploration: Generative AI tools have the ability to generate novel and creative outputs that can be used for a wide range of marketing purposes. They can explore new ideas and insights that may not have been discovered through traditional methods.
• Efficiency: Generative AI tools can automate tasks that would otherwise be time-consuming or difficult for humans to perform, such as generating complex visual or written content.
• Personalization: Generative AI tools can create customized outputs based on specific inputs or user preferences, which can be used to create personalized products or services.

In contrast, generative AI tools have several limitations and concerns, some of which are:

• Output Bias: Generative AI tools can amplify biases present in the training data, leading to outputs that reflect societal or cultural biases.
• Limited Control: Generative AI tools can sometimes generate outputs that are difficult to control, leading to unpredictable or undesirable results.
• Contextual Understanding: Generative AI models cannot comprehend the nuances of human language, emotions, or cultural references, which can result in inappropriate or nonsensical output.
• Intellectual Property: Ownership and copyright of content generated by these tools is unclear, leading to potential legal challenges.

Actual or A.I.? This image of the Pope sporting a Blenciaga puffer jacket went viral as an example of A.I.’s powerful potential to trick viewers.

In conclusion, the potential of generative AI tools is vast and can have a transformative impact on creative processes. However, it is important to acknowledge AI’s imperfections. Keep in mind at the crux of A.I. is machine learning, meaning the technology is always learning, digesting more data to refine its ability and improve outcomes. The more practice and use these tools get the better the ultimate result. Creatives and marketers should approach their use with realistic expectations and carefully consider their application in specific contexts, but embrace the possibilities and inspiration the technology offers with open arms. And remember – there is a certain level of human input that will always be required to make creative visions come to life.

As marketing professionals improve at optimizing their advertising campaigns around personalized messaging and graphics for target audiences, a “Time Machine” strategy of targeting prospects will become more prominent in 2019.

What’s a Time Machine for marketing? It’s a new approach to targeting the best prospects based on what they might have done – or attended – in the past.

Tracking behavior via AI and advanced analytics of individuals who have attended an event in the past and targeting them for digital outreach offers a new avenue of personalized digital marketing. In one recent example, Bluetext identified everyone who has gone to see a sports team over the past year, with the intent of serving up ads for with offers to buy season tickets or branded merchandise. Only recently have the data analytics and AI been available that could identify who attended a game over the past year. That’s why we call it “Time Machine” technology.

Yet, Time Machine strategies don’t stop at just attendance. Personalization also means setting up a whole system of user personas, messages for each persona, and specific creative that will appeal to them. Then, if prospect (A) performs action (B), they receive item (C); while prospect (X) performing acting (B) will result in them receiving item (Z). So while two individual prospects may have both gone to the same game, getting them to buy the tickets for next season may require different messages to push them over the finish line. Tracking behavior via artificial intelligence and targeting audiences for digital outreach is just one of the ways that a “Time Machine” strategy leverages deep data as a new avenue of personalized digital marketing.

Personalization is powerful because it solves the problem of relevance. Traditionally, ads were targeted at mass audiences, meaning that the vast majority of impressions were useless because they were not relevant to the viewer. A Time Machine strategy, paired with a robust personalization system, means that you can deliver more relevant ads and, in turn, have a better chance of converting more prospects.

At the end of the day, a Time Machine strategy is all about increasing relevance by matching an individual’s past behavior with a message and/or creative that compels them to repeat that behavior. Your brand’s value proposition, communicated in the prospect’s language, matching their expectations, and addressing their unique needs and desires, will be more meaningful with a Time Machine strategy.

Learn how Bluetext can help you make the most of the top marketing trends for 2019.

Move aside, Don Draper. Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving in. Compelling creative and hard-hitting headlines aimed at the general masses are only a fraction of the modern marketer’s job description. With reams of data about millions of online consumers at their disposal, marketing professionals today more closely resemble a nerdy math geek, a spreadsheet in hand, than the smooth-talking Mad Men of old. In 2019, they’re more effective, too.

AI makes marketing smarter and more effective. That’s thanks to the advent of Artificial Intelligence in digital marketing. Although AI has been around the industry for some years, the power of AI to deliver personalized, relevant, and timely ads to an individual online is only growing stronger, and marketers are growing savvier with their new tools. By employing multivariate testing methods in advertising, marketers can test all of the traditional elements of an ad campaign – imagery, headlines, Call-to-Actions (CTAs), and color – and add the mountain of consumer data into an AI engine that will deliver the right ad to the right person at the right time in the right place. Rudimentary tests will optimize around single ads that perform the best to a broad audience. The best Mad Men of 2019 will use multivariate testing to serve unique combinations of each variable in a single ad for a single category of user. AI is here.

Artificial intelligence is offering a powerful new tool to digital marketers, who can use the capabilities of AI to both test and modify how marketing campaigns are delivered to target audiences in a far more personalized way. Before the advent of AI, the testing of banner ads or email campaigns would have been limited to A/B variables, such as subject lines for email or headlines for digital banners. Fancy experiments could also test different graphics, but it typically would be limited to two or three versions at most.

No more ‘spray and pray’. Appeal to individual consumers in 2019. With AI, marketers can now test a wide variety of media attributes, including colors, font, calls-to-action, and background image specific to an individual consumer. AI can assess that person’s past preferences to predict what will have the most impact. That opens up much greater opportunities with retargeting. Not only can the ad display the same product that the consumer was considering from the day before, but it can also suggest, as just one example, the angle of the image that would be the most appealing to that consumer.

The brains of AI, of course, are its algorithms. While AI software may vary in their algorithm, all deliver modern marketers with the unprecedented ability to make real-time calculations about advertisement opportunities. Known as Moment Scoring, AI can determine the likelihood that a digital consumer will engage with an ad and make the desired action based on the goals of the marketing campaign. More than just delivering ads in the moment, AI in 2019 is more cost-efficient by predicting what marketing actions to take in which moments, thereby optimizing your campaign’s spend toward those users that are most likely to convert from prospect to customer.

If you’re not using AI, you’re already losing. According to a report by eMarketer, advertisers around the world have caught on to the power of AI for their marketing campaigns. Nearly 40% of advertisers surveyed indicated that they already use AI’s media spend optimization tactics to make their campaigns more cost effective, with another 31% indicating that they plan to use that tactic. Dynamic creative – ads that change automatically based on the AI’s information about an individual user’s behavior, location, and interests – is already employed by 42% of respondents and is planned to be used by an additional 27% of those surveyed. All of this is to say, if you’re not yet incorporating the power of artificial intelligence into your digital marketing efforts, you’re already losing to the competition.

For a digital marketing campaign that optimizes your budget and delivers results thanks in part to the powerful tools of Artificial Intelligence, partner with Bluetext.

Learn how Bluetext can help you make the most of the top marketing trends for 2019.

Dynamic content may be the next big thing for digital marketers. In the marketing world, as personalization becomes more in demand, the power of artificial intelligence and data analytics to deliver personalization through dynamic content generation is taking on a larger role. That artificial intelligence is taking the guesswork out of marketing. No longer do digital marketers need to “hope” that, for example, a blue-themed campaign landing page with lots of large images or a certain type of blog post will appeal to all audiences. Artificial intelligence can provide real insights on messaging, graphics, color schemes, and even the types of content that marketers push out to target audiences.

This evolution may be closer than you think. In fact, according to eMarketer, forty percent of marketers in a recent survey responded that they were currently using AI to fuel their dynamic creative. That number was consistent with audience targeting and segmentation, creating a clear path to real personalization. This tactic has given advertisers the unparalleled ability to know their audience through identification, segmentation, and targeting.

Because various types of testing can be done now thanks to AI, marketers are able to find the optimal way to target a particular consumer. This includes elements such as colors, fonts, call to actions and images. Targeted advertisements not only serve a consumer the product they were looking at in the days or weeks before but in a way that would be most appealing to him or her, increasing the likelihood of engagement.

Beyond customizing the content that users are served, consumers are increasingly interested in curating their online experiences as well. That helps explain the endless number of social media platforms available to us.

We recently worked with the cognac company, Courvoisier, to launch their Honor Your Code campaign microsite which truly defines what we mean by “user-generated content.” The site encourages users to create a meme by uploading a photo, adding their hometown, and choosing a “code” that they respect and honor. Memes are then shared to social media, and ingested into the CMS by an Instagram API to display in a scrolling mosaic grid. Users are also able to explore the “Heatmap” by clicking on cities across the country to view other codes being shared and possibly even their own.

The Honor Your Code site on mobile provides for a unique user journey with more of a “native social” experience. Videos and Instagram posts display in a scrolling, digestible way users have become accustomed to. The site also features age authentication and a product locator.

It’s no question that people love personalized content. According to Janrain, 74 percent of online consumers get frustrated when content on the websites they visit has nothing to do with their interests. It’s clear that generating dynamic content for your audience is vital to a brand nowadays, so why not take a deeper dive into each individual’s profile to better understand what will work with that specific target audience? It is much more effective to serve content types and styles that the individual responds to instead of a blanket assumption of one-size-fits-all.

Learn how Bluetext can help you make the most of the top marketing trends for 2019.