AI Tech Entrepreneur, C-Suite Executive and Advisor. CEO, Co-Founder of Morphio.
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Imagine being able to look into the future and see whether marketing campaigns are home runs or duds. You’d essentially have a crystal ball. Well, it isn’t something out of a sci-fi movie. You simply have to use predictive marketing software.
Predictive marketing solutions use historic and current data to train mathematical models. These forecast the performance of marketing campaigns, customer segments and channels, allowing businesses to focus on ventures that will improve their bottom lines while moving lagging assets to the back burner.
If you’re interested in adopting this type of software, look for demos and trials. Give them a test drive. My company’s software is one option, but there are many others on the market. SAP Analytics Cloud and MicroStrategy’s analytics platform are popular choices among enterprises. No matter the tool, ensure that it integrates with all of your channels and platforms to get the most data to use. Dashboards should be easy to understand and intuitive. Look for fast and helpful customer support that maximizes what you get out of the platform.
Once you’ve done this, here are four powerful ways your business can leverage predictive marketing to grow faster than ever.
Detailed Lead Scoring And Segmentation
HubSpot found that 61% of the marketers it surveyed said generating traffic and leads is their top challenge. But it’s not just about getting leads through the door. They also have to be measured based on their likeliness to close and where they are in the sales funnel. Welcome to lead scoring.
While ranking leads based on their potential conversion rate can be done by hand, predictive software takes the burden off your shoulders. Predictive lead scoring automatically uses the behavior and attributes of leads to forecast conversion rate, lifetime value and other key metrics.
Look for leads that have the highest forecasted scores. They are the most likely to convert. Hand these off to your sales team. Have them reach out and nurture relationships. Offer meetings, demos and exclusive content. Your business may be able to proactively fill the pipeline and convert more leads in a shorter time frame.
Additionally, I suggest using predictive software for segmenting. It can automatically audit existing customers and their past behaviors to forecast the traits that make up the most profitable groups. Take this information and feed it into assets like Facebook Ads or Google Ads to refine targeting. This can decrease cost per acquisition while increasing conversion rates.
Predicting Churn And Funnel Drop-Off
Businesses need thorough marketing funnels to maximize leads and sales. However, how do you know where customers are going to drop off in the funnel? How many are going to churn next month? You will have a superpower if you are able to forecast this.
Predictive marketing software is capable of predicting how many users are going to churn on a consistent basis. Knowing this, you can increase customer service, improve the user experience of your product and adjust pricing. This may help reduce churn and lift revenue over the long term as a result.
Similarly, you can predict where users are going to drop off. For example, if software predicts that users will leave on a checkout or cart page, those can be optimized. Reduce fields on forms, test more benefit-driven sales copy and increase page speed, for example.
Channel And Asset Performance
How are your social media channels doing? Is email marketing outperforming pay-per-click? Knowing which channels are outperforming the rest, or will do so, can save countless hours and thousands of dollars. How? Because you are able to focus on channels that drive the highest bottom line and bring in the most customers versus spending weeks or months spinning your wheels on others.
Use predictive marketing software to forecast the performance of several different campaigns. For example, it might be SEO, PPC and social media. Analyze what the predictions say. Benchmark your important key performance indicators here as well. For instance, SEO might be driving organic conversions, but social media doesn’t move the needle. In that case, put more energy into building backlinks, publishing content and optimizing for search engines while dedicating fewer resources to social networks.
Upselling And Cross-Selling
Presenting more expensive products to customers to increase cart value and revenue is called upselling. Cross-selling presents similarly priced items for the same purpose.
What should you upsell? What should you cross-sell? What if you lose money and opportunities by upselling and cross-selling the wrong products? That’s a serious concern. Predictive marketing software is capable of solving these problems automatically to lift revenue and customer satisfaction.
First, I suggest using forecasting to split test upsells and cross-sells to discover the highest converting combinations. Second, study what products and categories have the highest demand. Make these the center of promotions, your website structure and advertising.
Conclusion
Predictive marketing software is an incredibly powerful tool for businesses. It’s capable of automating analytics and experiments, and it empowers you to forecast campaign performance. Ultimately, you can focus on more important tasks and double down on what drives revenue.
I first suggest using it for lead generation by segmenting leads based on likeliness to close. Hand these off to your sales team for more nurturing.
Second, predict churn and drop-off. You may find that users leave on certain pages before converting. Plug these like a leaking hole. Then, analyze where the software predicts customers will churn in the overall life cycle. Is it one month? Three months? After a trial? Offer discounts or customer service to prevent this.
Third, use predictive marketing solutions for forecasting the performance of marketing channels. These include social media, email and so forth. Focus on the assets that are driving the most traffic, leads and revenue.
Lastly, use predictive marketing for deciding what the best products or services would be to upsell and cross-sell. This can improve customer experience and drive extra revenue.
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Author: Eric Vardon, Forbes Councils Member
