Artificial Intelligence is going to radically change our approach to marketing. It is coming fast and it will change everything. I will explain why segmentation is hitting its limits and how to keep up.
Personalization in marketing has been discussed since the 80s.
It started with simply inserting the customer's name in a letter. This practice quickly evolved, pushing marketing into the era of segmentation.
Consumers were grouped into broad categories defined by criteria such as age, gender, or geographic location.
As technology evolved, these segments were refined and narrowed. We gradually moved from broad-group strategies to a more individualized approach.
That was the era of ultra-segmentation.
Every specificity, every need, every signal, every online activity is analyzed. Contacts are ranked by potential, intent, and qualification.
They are then distributed into dozens of micro-segments and each receives a personalized message tailored as closely as possible to their situation.
The best teams manage to combine the right message, personalized, sent at the right time and on the right channel.
Personalization has become the key to conversion.
Today, you cannot skip it. Acquisition costs are exploding. Consumers are overloaded with ads and content from every direction.
The numbers show it: 75% of marketers say personalization has a huge impact on results. Adding a few personalized elements to an email can double or triple response rates.
Segmentation is expensive, difficult, and limited.
In practice, few companies reach this level of quality and personalization, and it is mostly reserved for the most advanced tech companies.
Setting up and maintaining such a system is extremely hard. Collecting and cleaning data, analyzing it, creating segments, activating them, automating marketing actions, writing content, creating illustrations...
Even the finest segmentation cannot represent the infinite range of possible experiences and user specifics. And even with excellent segmentation, the amount of content to produce is exponential.
The AI will catalyze ultra-personalization
Artificial Intelligence has already transformed how large companies work. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok have nearly taken control of our brains thanks to AIs juggling billions of data points.
These super AIs are insanely expensive and we cannot even dream of access to them, even if Google and Facebook kindly share a bit of data.
Today, data is being democratized.
Including in marketing.
A few years ago we saw Segment make data collection easier; Zapier did wonders for automations; Snowflake pushed the limits of our databases.
More recently, open-source alternatives like Rudderstack, Airbyte, and n8n have made data management more accessible.
These solutions remain technical and are still reserved for the more geeky among us, but we are seeing them more and more often.
Companies are also increasingly hiring data experts.
Now it is AI's turn to be in the spotlight.
Predictive models like those from MadKudu and HubSpot were already starting to take root in the marketing landscape.
But recently the trend has accelerated like never before.
The public release of GPT-3.5 opened up a world of possibilities.
Everything is about to change.
Collecting and processing data becomes a little easier every day, and it will soon be even easier with solutions like Code Interpreter.
Producing content at scale will soon be a commodity. Tools built on ChatGPT are already everywhere and it is only the beginning.
Better yet, these new technologies let us create truly specific and unique content for each prospect. Previously we still needed human intervention for that.
Three ultra-personalization examples you can apply today
1 - Personalized onboarding to maximize activation
Until recently, onboarding was generic. All users received the same set of instructions and information, regardless of their context, needs, or preferences.
Sometimes a few specifics were identified and users were redistributed across four or five scenarios at most.
Today, we can even go as far as sending different sequences based on user activity in the product and the segment they belong to.
Imagine a dynamic onboarding where the user is guided hand in hand.
Thanks to generative AI, we can generate the best content at every moment to help the user complete the next step. And if they cannot, we can provide more detail when needed. Conversely, if they are comfortable, we can move faster so they do not get bored.
Each user will discover the product through a unique angle that fits them. They will be directed to what brings the most value. Your activation rates will explode.
2 - Personalized chatbots with ChatGPT: customer service rethought
Customer support is another area where personalization can have a huge impact. Each customer is unique, with their own questions, issues, and communication preferences. Yet support is often a standardized, impersonal experience.
That is where personalized chatbots come in. Thanks to technologies like ChatGPT, it is possible to create chatbots that deliver a truly personalized support experience.
Imagine a chatbot that adapts in real time to the customer.
Does the customer prefer a formal or informal tone? Do they like jokes or prefer a direct, problem-focused conversation? The chatbot can adapt its behavior accordingly.
Moreover, a ChatGPT-powered chatbot can understand the context of the conversation and use it to provide more relevant assistance. For example, if a customer asks questions about a product they recently purchased, the chatbot can recognize that and tailor its responses.
Finally, a personalized chatbot can learn from each interaction with the customer. If a customer frequently asks questions about a certain topic, the chatbot can recognize that trend and proactively provide information on that topic.
These chatbots can not only offer a better support experience, but also free up time for support agents, allowing them to focus on more complex issues that require human intervention.
3 - Automated AND personalized prospecting
In the world of prospecting, we all know relevance is key. A personalized message is far more likely to capture attention and generate a positive response than a generic one.
That is where personalized automated prospecting comes in.
Imagine an email campaign where every email is individualized.
Lemlist has already announced a model for generating personalized emails that outperforms average human performance.
Artificial intelligence can analyze prospect data to understand preferences and interests. It can then use that information to generate personalized messages that are not only relevant, but also engaging.
For example, a customer who has shown interest in eco-friendly products might receive emails highlighting your company's ecological initiatives.
Another customer who recently purchased a specific product might receive suggestions for complementary products based on their past purchases.
But artificial intelligence can go even further.
It is possible to generate emails that are not only personalized, but also written in a style that matches the recipient's personality and preferences. A customer who prefers a formal tone would receive an email written in a professional style, while a customer who prefers a more casual tone would receive an email written in a friendly, informal style.
Personalized automated prospecting offers enormous potential to improve acquisition efficiency and transform how we interact with customers.
Towards IGEs: personalization at its peak
In a few months, personalization could reach a level never seen before. I call them Individually Generated Experiences (IGE).
The idea is to create a totally unique user experience, end to end, for each individual. This is not just about content, but also about how that content is presented and delivered.
In a world of IGEs, every interaction with a brand would be unique.
Websites, apps, emails, ads, everything would be adapted to your individual preferences, behaviors, interests, and even your mood in the moment.
Experiences would be designed so personally that they would seem to have been created specifically for you.
Using AI, brands could take into account every aspect of your online behavior - your searches, clicks, purchases, time spent on certain pages, and even how you move your mouse or scroll a page.
All of this information could be used to create an experience that fits you perfectly.
Imagine an e-commerce site that adapts not only the products shown to you, but also the layout, colors, fonts, and even background music, based on what the AI has learned about you.
Marketing emails would be so relevant and so well targeted that they would seem to be written specifically for you by a close friend. Ads would be so appealing that they would feel more like personalized content than advertising.
The technologies needed to build these IGEs already exist.
AI, machine learning, big data, natural language processing - all these technologies continue to evolve and improve. And with cutting-edge technology like GPT-4, we have never been closer.
Ultra-personalization is the future of marketing. It is a new era where generic content and mass messaging will be replaced by unique, individual experiences. The brands that adopt and exploit these technologies will be the ones that stand out in the competitive landscape of the future.