Jul 18, 2017
It’s impressive for a startup to see 3000 percent growth in sales leads, but a legacy brand? That’s a phenomenon – especially when it’s a legacy brand so entrenched in American culture that you could argue it is synonymous with bald eagles and freedom. We’re talking about Harley-Davidson.
So, how did this iconic brand increase their sales leads by almost 3000 percent?
Predictive analytics, powered by artificial intelligence.
Predictive analytics encompasses a variety of statistical techniques from predictive modeling, machine learning, and data mining that analyze current and historical facts to make predictions about future or otherwise unknown events.
In a recent Harvard Business Review article How Harley-Davidson Used Artificial Intelligence to Increase New York Sales Leads by 2,930%, Brad Power shares how one NYC Harley-Davidson dealership transformed its lead generation efforts with Albert, the first artificial intelligence marketing platform for the enterprise. Albert performs many of the time-consuming, manual tasks which humans are unable to perform at the speed and scale required for efficient and effective consumer interactions. The tool enhances overall marketing productivity by complementing the role of human marketers. Here are a few examples of the areas in which humans and machines perform best.
In addition to Harley-Davidson having a record number of sales in the first weekend using Albert, the AI-platform dramatically increased digital marketing ROI and drove a massive number of new leads by locating potential buyers that the brand didn’t know existed.
“AI systems don’t need to create personas; they find real customers in the wild by determining what actual online behaviors have the highest probability of resulting in conversions, and then finding potential buyers online who exhibit these behaviors.” – Brad Power
Harley-Davidson isn’t the only brand reaping the benefits of the AI Advantage. Here are 3 other companies successfully utilizing AI-powered predictive analytics to disrupt the marketing value chain:
- Persado leverages artificial intelligence to predict the best possible messaging copy related to the prospect’s stage in the customer journey. The platform analyzes massive amounts of customer data and uses past behaviors to predict future actions, and then generates semantic and grammatically correct messages automatically. It’s a great example of how AI and marketers can work together to create a personalized and relevant customer experience.
- Drift illustrates how artificial intelligence can enhance customer engagement. Drift’s AI powered chatbot enhances real-time customer engagement by allowing prospects to interact with the brand and receive instant, relevant feedback. If the request cannot be met by AI and requires human interaction, Drift’s chat platform uses content within the chat conversation to route the request to the appropriate person within the company.
- Mintent uses predictive analytics to make content marketing automation more targeted and relevant for prospects. The platform enables marketers to plan, produce, publish, and measure marketing content. It then analyzes the audience’s content interaction based on persona behavior and provides recommendations to craft better performing content.
Each of these companies highlights an area where machine learning will disrupt the marketing value chain. The common thread behind all the reasons why AI will transform marketing is the pace of change and sheer magnitude of new technology that marketers must deal with on a daily basis. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are poised to solve many of the complexities that exist within marketing Systems today – allowing marketers to get back to what they’ve always been good at: Strategy.
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