[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/05\/30\/the-robots-are-coming-to-marketing\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/05\/30\/the-robots-are-coming-to-marketing\/","headline":"The robots are coming \u2013 and it\u2019s not all bad news for marketers","name":"The robots are coming \u2013 and it\u2019s not all bad news for marketers","description":"The robots are coming, but have no fear. Marketing is becoming a revenue center for companies as technology delivers a big boost to marketers.","datePublished":"2018-05-30","dateModified":"2023-08-29","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/karen-hunkin\/#Person","name":"Karen Hunkin","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/karen-hunkin\/","identifier":287,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b25d45c3630f6e3f11fd3614f6e85177125b3d5678042102e2d93a98cf1833b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b25d45c3630f6e3f11fd3614f6e85177125b3d5678042102e2d93a98cf1833b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/thumbnail-d92a70a2a87ca28fbbdfd18a169b70f3.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/thumbnail-d92a70a2a87ca28fbbdfd18a169b70f3.jpeg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/05\/30\/the-robots-are-coming-to-marketing\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/sales\/crm\/","name":"CRM","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_relationship_management","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q485643"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/intelligent-enterprise\/","name":"Intelligent Enterprise","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Intelligent_enterprise","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q6044119"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/","name":"Marketing","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marketing","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q39809"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/marketing-general\/","name":"Marketing","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marketing","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q39809"]}],"wordCount":539,"keywords":["AI (Artificial Intelligence)","CRM | Customer Relationship Management","Customer Experience | CX","E-commerce","Machine Learning","Marketing"],"articleBody":"Fair warning: I’m a long-time fan of stories like those in Blade Runner, Brave New World, and The Handmaid\u2019s Tale. Though it may seem that I\u2019m getting all dystopian-future, and painting a picture of doom for marketers, the reality is that marketing in the future is going to change.And, yes, it\u2019s going to include robots \u2013 though maybe not the kind of robots you think.The robots are coming!As customers increasingly expect personalized, timely, and relevant messages, it\u2019s no longer good enough to spend time writing a campaign brief, pulling a data set, and building your campaign in a system before it goes through multiple approvals and finally goes out the door, triggered by no more than the recipient\u2019s action on the last step or email they received.This is where the robots come into play. They won\u2019t replace people, at least in the medium term, but they will bring a level of machine learning and AI to marketing \u2013 using all that data that everyone is generating to predict customers\u2019 behaviors (in real time) based on their history, demographics and actions, and put the right offers in front of them \u2013 on mobile, web, in-store, or whatever platform the customer prefers.In 2017, 43% of customer engagements in Australia happened across five or more channels \u2013 meaning that consistency and timely experience are critical.In this brave new world, customers will also expect you to prove that you\u2019re using their data the right way. Whether or not GDPR – or legislation like it – applies in your market, using data responsibly and respectfully is now key to customer relationships. In Australia, 78% of consumers told us they would stop buying from companies who misused their data \u2013 and that was before the recent Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal.Do better: Technology will improve marketingThe technology to do all this isn\u2019t far away, and elements of it can be done today. I was told recently about a financial services company who traditionally delivered 50 triggered campaigns a year, and now use intelligent marketing platforms to deliver 300 concurrent campaigns a year.The interesting thing is that this automation hasn\u2019t been viewed as a way to reduce headcount \u2013 they have the same size team running this much larger number of activities, but their roles have changed: they now focus on campaign optimization, outcomes measurement, and development of new campaigns required to fill gaps rather than process driven campaign build.Not only does this make their roles more interesting (and change the skill sets required to make up the team), but their effectiveness ROI is so much higher in this new world that marketing is now perceived across the organization as a revenue centre. It’s easy to demonstrate the fantastic value marketing adds to the business.Don\u2019t be scared that an army of Cybermen is going to march in and demand everyone upgrade (a la Doctor Who), but, on the other hand, don\u2019t imagine for a moment that marketing won\u2019t see more robots in the future.  Every digital moment matters.Are you making the most of them?1,000 business leaders dish on how to stand out from the crowd with a great CX. Get the details\u00a0HERE.\u00a0"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2018","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"05","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/\/05\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"30","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/\/05\/\/30\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"The robots are coming \u2013 and it\u2019s not all bad news for marketers","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/05\/30\/the-robots-are-coming-to-marketing\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]