In Part 1 of this series, we covered ways sales and marketing teams in the industrial and manufacturing sectors can harness the transformative power of AI and get started using it to achieve their business goals.
That’s a solid overview, however you may find the most challenging aspect of putting AI to work is reviewing all the possibilities (there are thousands of AI tools out there). The Weidert Group team has been seeking out different tools and evaluating them. Here are our seven top picks that marketing pros can put to use right now.
EDITORS NOTE: This is the second in a 3-part article series focused on artificial intelligence. The series is based on a talk Weidert Group president Greg Linnemanstons presented at Manufacturing First Expo & Conference in October, 2023, “Artificial Intelligence: How Industrial Sales & Marketing Teams Can Leverage its Power.” Greg addressed how industrial businesses can properly leverage AI to save time, improve quality, advance innovation, and enhance the human experience. AI was used to assist in writing this blog series, beginning with loading a PDF of Greg’s presentation into ChatGPT Plus. As you should do with all AI-generated content, a human edited AI’s results (in this case that was me, a Weidert Group writer).
Part 3 will cover AI tools used for sales (subscribe to the blog here to ensure you don’t miss it).
According to preliminary results of our ongoing survey, The State of Industrial Sales & Marketing (see details below to participate), only 19% of industrial marketers said they are not currently using any AI tools for marketing. Imagine how your competitors are gaining an edge using AI.
AI tools have revolutionized how marketers approach content creation, with writers cutting time from parts of the development process by using AI. According to our survey, nearly 60% of marketers are now relying on AI for tasks ranging from outlining and researching to creating interview questions and copywriting an initial draft. So what tools are they using to get ahead?
It’s been just over a year since ChatGPT was released, inspiring marketers all over the world to start experimenting with AI-powered content creation. The latest and most powerful version, ChatGPT Plus, has expanded these capabilities, offering advanced features such as creating design direction, generating copy for diagrams, and analyzing marketing data charts.
The tool, priced at $20/month/user, provides a versatile platform for marketers seeking efficiency and innovation in content creation. With AI's assistance, marketers can produce more diverse and creative content, tailored to specific audience needs and interests.
HubSpot promotes its Campaign Assistant as an efficient way to create marketing emails, ads, and landing pages quickly, streamlining the asset creation process. For instance, upload a whitepaper and have the tool generate related promotional content, and then you can use HubSpot’s Content Assistant to refine it.
It’s free to use, but you’ll need a HubSpot Marketing Hub license to use the “generate email” or "generate landing page" options, which open the drag-and-drop editors in the respective marketing tools.
According to our survey, 46% of industrial marketers now use AI for keyword research, content optimization, on-page SEO best practices, and more. Just remember to use these tools in conjunction with a solid SEO strategy (and human oversight).
Semrush is a platform used to enhance online visibility. One way to do that is to optimize blog or web content incorporating secondary keywords, using proper keyword density, and maintaining ideal content length. It’s amazing what some specialized SEO tools are capable of doing.
Priced at $108/month for the Pro level, Semrush requires human oversight to ensure context and relevance.
AI's role in image and video generation is growing because it’s so easy to create impressive art. Yet, only about 12% of marketers (according to our survey) are using AI for photo-realistic rendering, brand styling, and creating ad campaign formats.
DALL-E 3, now available through ChatGPT Plus, is a powerful tool for generating images based on text prompts. It's particularly useful for creating custom images for blog posts, unique visuals for social media, and art for digital ad campaigns.
The cost of DALL-E 3 is included in the monthly fee of $20/month for ChatGPT Plus (not an additional charge). Below is an example of what it produced when we asked it for a diagram showing the "design for manufacturability" process. It's worth noting that prior to this image generation, it gave us an outline of what the infographic content would be so we could refine our prompt if needed.
Just as is the case with copy generation, these visuals are not intended to be used as is, since they don't align with your brand — but they definitely save time in the direction you'd give to a designer who's creating your infographic.
Video is becoming more and more valuable. After all, 89% of customers were convinced to buy something after watching a video, according to Wyzowl. Canva, a free-to-use graphic design tool, does double duty for image and video generation.
Canva’s Pro version costs $15/month/user, yet this is when its AI capabilities really shine. Its new “magic studio” can generate, fill, and even translate images (translate ads into multiple languages). You can also use its text-to-video feature to create simple videos using stock footage. Then you can drag that footage into your branded templates to make creating assets like social ads a breeze.
AI tools can enhance audience intelligence by providing valuable insights and data-driven strategies for understanding and engaging with target audiences, helping industrial marketers stay ahead in today's competitive landscape. Yet, with only 5% of marketers using AI for audience intelligence (our survey), this area represents a significant opportunity for competitive advantage.
The right tools provide insights into persona research, audience segmentation, and co-marketing opportunities. Delve.ai uses website and social following data to create live personas, offering a dynamic and data-driven approach to understanding target audiences.
Like many AI tools, Delve.ai uses “freemium” pricing; i.e., the free, basic version gets you interested in the service, yet you pay for the upgraded, or premium, version.
Buyer intent data is information that indicates a potential customer’s interest and readiness to make a purchase. This valuable insight into customer behavior allows for more targeted and effective marketing using the power of AI.
When you know potential customers’ readiness to purchase, you can tailor marketing efforts and improve conversion rates. Propensity uses intent data to automate account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns and effectively hand off leads to the Sales team.
To conduct our survey, the The State of Industrial Sales & Marketing, we partnered with our friends at Databox, a software company that helps businesses improve their ability to see their data in real-time and draw meaningful insights. Among other business development questions, we wanted to see where industrial professionals are when it comes to their use of AI for marketing and sales activities.
If you’re a marketing and sales professionals at an industrial/manufacturing company, you’re invited to see how other industrials align teams, the AI tools they use, and how they track performance. Click the link below to take the 5-minute survey today! You'll get instant access to the results and your answers will be anonymous.
