Mumbai: As B2B marketing grows more complex with longer decision cycles and fragmented buyer behaviors, Innova Solutions is stepping up to simplify and unify the process. Under the expertise of Innova Solutions’ Sr director, head of marketing, APAC SBU & India, Arpita Dubey, who has over 18 years of experience, the company is utilising AI and data-driven tools to break down silos and deliver personalized customer experiences that drive business growth.
Indiantelevision.com’s Arth Chakraborty caught up with Dubey to talk about integrating AI into B2B marketing strategies, challenges when adopting AI for marketing purposes, and more.
Edited Excerpts:
On the first steps for integrating AI into B2B marketing strategies
To strategically leverage technology in B2B marketing, it is crucial to clearly define key objectives and identify opportunities where AI can have the greatest impact. Integration of AI in marketing enables curated persona development and hyper-personalization, which are vital for targeted campaigns aimed at niche audiences. By improving data analytics and content generation, AI allows for faster, more cost-efficient processes and better utilization of marketing budgets.
Initial steps should include conducting a cost-benefit analysis, assessing the maturity and capabilities of AI tools, and identifying marketing techniques where AI integration can enhance brand presence and accelerate growth, all while meeting marketing and overall business objectives.
On the AI technologies or tools that are currently most effective in your marketing efforts
The effectiveness of any tool is directly tied to the specific marketing objectives it aims to fulfill. At Innova Solutions, our strategic priorities include enhancing brand visibility, establishing ourselves as an employer of choice, driving business growth, and cultivating a brand that resonates with customers, employees, and job seekers. To achieve these goals, we are leveraging AI-enabled automation tools like HubSpot for advanced segmentation and hyper-personalization of campaigns and ZoomInfo for deeper audience insights.
We utilise the integrated AI capabilities of Salesforce to optimize customer relationship management. Additionally, we harness the power of generative AI platforms to revolutionize content creation, enabling us to produce high-quality content at scale while significantly reducing the time and costs associated with these efforts. We are also using an in-house developed content management platform that has the capability to store, train various resource banks and provide quick output for various services customer testimonials, etc. Furthermore, we are continuously exploring tools and technologies that enhances our performance ensuring that our digital presence remains strong and effective.
On the biggest challenges you faced when adopting AI for marketing purposes
As AI becomes increasingly integrated into marketing systems, several strategic challenges arise in achieving full-stack AI adoption. Foremost among these are ensuring content authenticity, maintaining data quality, preventing data leakage, and avoiding plagiarism. In the B2B marketing landscape, where our programs span multiple services across diverse industries and geographies, training AI models with extensive resource banks presents a significant challenge.
A major hurdle has been related to data quality and integration. Ensuring that existing data is both clean and compatible with AI systems demands substantial time and resources. Furthermore, equipping the marketing team with the skills needed to effectively utilize AI tools involves considerable investment in upskilling and training.
On measuring the success of your AI-driven marketing initiatives and the crucial KPIs
The success of AI-driven marketing initiatives is measured through several key performance indicators (KPIs), including lead quality scores, conversion rates, customer lifetime value, and return on marketing investment. Custom metrics have also been developed to track efficiency gains in marketing processes.
On the emerging AI trends that you believe will significantly impact B2B marketing in the near future
Conversational AI, extended personalization capabilities, AI-enabled SEM are some of the trends in AI technology that are most likely to evolve and profoundly affect B2B marketing in the near future. Apart from this, we are also in a time where we need to be more targeted in our approach, AI-enhanced account-based marketing (ABM) is another trend that I am seeing picking up speed, leading to more efficient and effective ABM campaigns. Lastly, as I mentioned earlier AI in data analytics and decision-making is going to further evolve and become more seamless and help in driving better ROI.
