The latest technology, among many, to be discussed in the digital marketing world is AI (Artificial Intelligence). In fact, most digital marketing professionals have identified consumer personalization and artificial intelligence as the two most likely candidates for the becoming the next big trends in marketing. See the chart below:

Most marketing professionals see these latest technologies as new tools to mix into their bag of marketing tricks to gain an advantage over their competition. The problem is that most of these marketing gurus have not figured out how. Another study asked what was the technology that is on the horizon that they are the most unprepared for. See the chart below:

So, the conclusion is that AI could be the next big thing but marketers won’t know what to do with it. Two thumbs on the same hand. At MARKiT, we have been watching AI technologies develop for over three years and have developed our own proprietary use for prospecting top of funnel leads. We use several strategies but it is all based upon the accurate and refined selection of company firmographics and segmented targeting. In the B2B world it is critical to identify your ideal client by company first and then dig down through the internal structure of these targets to develop qualified contact lists to target with your digital strategies.

MARKiT uses AI technologies in several different ways but have determined it to be a highly effective way to not only identifying target companies but also refining the list of individuals at each of those companies that are appropriate in the purchasing decision making process.

What does this mean to you? I’m glad you asked. Your industrial manufacturing company can utilize our AI horsepower to define new prospects and design custom digital strategies to engage them.

One of our greatest challenges when we initially meet with an industrial manufacturing client is getting persona or prospect data that we can convert. One of the most valuable tools we use is to have new clients define and specifically profile the clients they already have. We are often asked, “Why do you want to know about the customers we are already doing business with?”. Well, let me explain why it is important.

MARKiT uses your current portfolio of clients to find more ‘like-minded’ prospects that are very similar to your current customer list. If we are successful in profiling your current customer base we will attain two important data points for new prospects: market segmentation and individual company firmographics.

What we do with this information is to use our AI tools to digitally search for similar companies (sales volume, number of employee numbers, location, NAICS code, industry sector, and geography) to find new prospects. It is a lot like hunting herd animals. They tend to be of the same species and graze on the same grain. You can start your own research by identifying where your current clients reside, categorically speaking, by using this handy tool.

Once we have a well hewed list of companies we identify pertinent contacts at each company prospect and define what messaging would work best. We often develop several different campaigns for differing job titles. For example, the messaging we use for an engineer will be different from the messaging we use for a purchasing agent or an owner.

MARKiT specializes in finding and converting leads for industrial manufacturers.  When you are ready to get started or would like to see MARKiT’s powerful tools in action give us a call and we’ll meet with you and show you how we can help. You can contact Tim at 248-705-2465 or email him at timb@markit.markitmfg.com.