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5 AI Trends Every CEO Must Act On
Earlier this year, I shared takeaways from Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report, which showed how AI is reshaping business at a macro level. Building on that, Google Cloud’s 2025 AI Trends highlights five forces that will directly impact companies in the year ahead.
AI is no longer experimental. It is restructuring markets, reshaping customer expectations, and redrawing competitive boundaries. Here are five AI trends CEOs are preparing for now:
Did you lose a big sale to “None of the Above”?
Fri, Apr 26, 2019 — “We win 15% of the projects we propose. Our competitors also win about 15%. “With the other 70% of proposals, no one wins. The prospect doesn’t proceed with anybody.” -CEO of a technology integration company Ever heard yourself saying something like that—or heard a peer say it? The status quo is often your fiercest competitor.
How to Build a Customer-Centric Organization and Avoid Technology Fails
Tue, Apr 23, 2019 — For everyone who tosses an iPhone in disgust or screams when Instagram is down, there are legions of people who praise technology—particularly for its ability to provide better customer service. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality (AR) advances; programs that analyze and target messages to the right consumers, in the right amounts; and just software that puts a customers information at the fingertips of a telephone support agent—all are helping to smooth the confluence between tech and service. So why is it that it sometimes, technology actually deprecates the customer experience? And what can be done about this?
Less is More: How to Keep Content as King of Your Marketing Castle
Mon, Apr 22, 2019 — It’s interesting to ponder what the future holds for marketing. Will we have messages targeted to our eyeballs or windshields, or virtually delivered directly to our psyche? Regardless of what medium will ultimately power the future of marketing, it will, then, as now, be powered by content. In fact, content has been one of the most important, if not the most important, elements of marketing for many years – so successful, in fact, that companies are doubling down on content strategies. In 2018, the Content Marketing Institute observed that 91 percent of business-to-business (B2B) marketers are unlocking the power of content to barker for their businesses. So what, exactly, defines content marketing?
Maximizing your Digital Marketing Channel Mix
Wed, Apr 17, 2019 — “Going digital” with your marketing mix has never been more essential. Most advertisers continue to increase their digital marketing spend in 2019 as billions of consumers are using online social media as a jumping off point into purchase decisions. With more money flowing into digital marketing, the digital channel mix continues to grow in complexity. Though search marketing, display advertising, social media, and mobile remain the mainstays of a digital advertising footprint, each has its role in supporting a particular business objective. When integrated properly, they maximize how we attract consumers, and turn visits into revenue. But before you leap into the digital marketing fray, it’s critical to understand your enterprise’s goals and objectives: Are you seeking to simply educate the public about an innovative offer (market education)? Do you want a target audience to gain greater awareness of your offering as a viable alternative (Brand Awareness)? Are you simply looking for more people to buy your product (raw traffic)? Or, do you want to motivate your current consumers to buy more of your product (higher net per sales)?
How Customer Advocacy Fuels Growth
Wed, Apr 10, 2019 — Regardless of industry or the size of your business, growth is getting more difficult. Today, you need to have an exceptional sales team. You also need to have an exceptional marketing team. But sales and marketing alone aren't enough to sustain growth. The cost of customer acquisition continues to increase and businesses can no longer rely on annual contracts to lock customers in. Over the past year there has been much discussion about the retirement of the marketing and sales “funnel”, which we all have grown to love and the emergence of what HubSpot is calling the “flywheel”.
Is Strategy Development a Losing Game? Three Ways CEOs can Boost Their Odds
Tue, Apr 9, 2019 — If the goal of strategy development is to achieve profit growth, statistically speaking, most companies fail at it. Books like Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick by McKinsey’s Bradley, Hirt, and Smit, as well as whitepapers from the Corporate Strategy Board, point to the exceedingly low odds – one in 10 -- of driving profitable growth, based on an in-depth analysis of thousands of companies. At the core of this conundrum is a coherent organizational culture, which still remains elusive decades after Peter Drucker famously said: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Certainly, we all have been in executive strategy presentations when an intellectual, fact-based debate about strategic choices devolves into chaos – derailed at the hands of human biases and social dynamics.
Manufacturers, Would a Marketing First Responder Help You Resuscitate Growth?
Fri, Apr 5, 2019 — Manufacturing CEO, are you frustrated and concerned because your company is not growing? And what has gotten you here is no longer working and you’re not sure what to do? Until recently your growth has come via customer referrals, word of mouth and sales generated leads. But sales is no longer producing enough new leads or revenue and competition is threatening. Marketing is tactical at best and more random than integrated and aligned. What if you could call in an expert who could quickly assess the problem, identify and prioritize growth opportunities, develop and implement a plan to restore healthy growth and train the management team to carry on? Marketing triage-stop the bleeding, find the low hanging fruit and build ongoing insights, strategies and capabilities.
What CEOs Should Look for in a B2B Manufacturing CMO
Wed, Apr 3, 2019 — In 25 years of marketing, I heard from industrial manufacturing teams—whether it’s a salesperson, business manager or CEO—that marketing is just for B2C. Industrial B2B businesses need nothing more than sales tools and support. So, it’s no surprise that many industrial businesses think that strategic marketing leaders only apply in B2C businesses—so they have not yet considered what strategic marketing can and should do for company growth. And they may not know what skills to look for when it comes time to hire a CMO or marketing manager. Are strategic marketing leaders needed in industrial environments? And, if so, what should industrial companies look for when selecting a CMO or Marketing Leader? To answer those questions, I’d like you to first consider what is similar and different between B2C and Industrial B2B Marketing.
Better Living Through AI: How Computers Will Improve the Service Experience
Wed, Mar 27, 2019 — For consumers tired of endless hold times, long-snaking lines, and difficulty getting customer service, help is on the way. The often confusing, maddening connection to some of our favorite brands and services is about to improve substantially—driven by a pair of tech-powered developments poised to move into the consumer and B2B mainstream sooner than most people think. The first is Artificial Intelligence (AI)—something that, for years, seemed to be the domain of Hollywood hype. Today, whether we know it or not, real learning software is in active use today in a wide variety of areas, ranging from cyber security to your Netflix app.