In this blog we ask some of our favourite marketing experts about new marketing automation and AI tools. This is the third blog in a series of blogs where we ask marketing leaders for their feedback on a number of questions. This blog will address the question “What are your thoughts on new marketing automation and AI tools?”
 

Here’s what they had to say:

Marketing automation and AI is currently used in businesses to improve customer experience and offer support. The next wave of marketing technology will be focused on chat bots and creative solutions. Although there is a lot of noise in the space, good (and true) AI needs data to be able to make impactful changes. Keep an eye out for products with growing userbases because their insights can help your business get results.
 
– Sarosha Imtiaz, Co-Founder at Aiva Labs
 
I think marketing automation and AI tools are awesome from an efficiency standpoint. For example, as a small team, being able to schedule social media posts ahead of time really saves time and allows us to focus on more heavy-lifting tasks for our clients. With that being said, I believe there still needs to be some manual interaction with automation and AI tools. They need to be optimized and improved as your team grows and your target audience changes.
 
– Kayla Thomson, Marketing Manager, VA Partners
 
I think that AI tools are still largely in the testing phase. We’ve used a few with different clients and they’re cool and flashy, but I haven’t seen them deliver immense value to warrant mass adoption. I see them more as a nice bell or whistle to boost an already successful campaign.
 
– Sourov De, Managing Partner at Stryve Digital Marketing, @Sourovde
 
If used properly, marketing automation and AI tools make marketing more efficient and effective by showing brands where to focus their efforts and who really matters. That said, marketing automation and AI aren’t silver bullets or magical; they’re tools. Great marketing is driven by meeting the needs of customers and knowing your customers inside out.
 
– Mark Evans, Principal at ME Consulting, @markevans
 
I think marketing automation is a wonderful thing when used authentically. It can free you from mundane tasks, allowing you to have more time to be able to build stronger relationships with your audience. We use Sprout Social to automate our social media scheduling so that our time can be spent on more valuable things like community engagement and interaction. However social media bots that comment and follow other accounts on your behalf are less valuable because they are not genuine or authentic. Another tool I am excited about trying is the audience persona builder from Social Bakers. It uses AI to take data from Facebook and Google analytics and supposedly forms customer personas that you can use to inform your communications. There are so many great tools out there, however, it is important to evaluate them based on how they impact audience trust and your brand’s authenticity.
 
– Jennifer Paukman, Social Media and Content Specialist at Ramp Communications, @jenniferpaukman
 
Our software at Spently is essentially marketing automation so I’m a big advocate. I also really like the use of bots on websites that can help qualify inbound leads. I think if you want something to scale, you should automate as much as possible, but you still need humans to step in to build relationships.
 
– Vincent Panepinto, Co-Founder at Spently
 
I think new marketing automation and AI tools can enhance both the marketer’s and customer’s experience. A customer can access information on demand, while the marketer has more room to focus on other initiatives and become more creative with their messaging.
 
– Bianca Sicilia, Marketing Manager VA Partners
 
What is your take on marketing automation and AI tools for 2019? Please add your feedback in the comments section below.