AI for marketing and product innovation is driving business growth

Stop asking yourself whether you should adopt AI. The real question is: how can you adopt AI effectively to foster innovation and drive growth.  

Moving beyond superficial applications of AI is imperative. I’ve seen too many misguided marketers and thought leaders wrongly claim that AI is just a resource for greater efficiency. But it’s so much more than that; it’s a powerful tool for innovation. Why would you waste the potential of AI for marketing and product innovation on merely “speeding up processes” and other surface-level applications?  

I believe that you should be embracing this technology as a catalyst for:  

• Authentic creativity  

• Ingenious content creation  

• Optimised execution 

Great marketers will use AI to enhance their skills and push through new innovations, while the average marketer will rely on it to replicate existing tasks or content creation.  

I guess I don’t need to tell you which one leads to better marketing strategies and business growth? 

The risk of becoming "average at scale" 

Solely relying on AI to automate basic tasks – like generating generic content or optimising ad placements – can lead to your marketing efforts becoming saturated, indistinguishable from competitors and failing to resonate with your audience. This “copy-and-paste” approach was the foundation of AI adoption at the beginning, we were young, inexperienced, experimenting. We didn’t know better.  

And, yes, while your speed of execution increases, the creativity and value of the content diminishes. Furthermore, it can result in: 

• Missed opportunities for true innovation and differentiation 

• A homogenised market presence, where your business struggles to stand out amidst a sea of average marketing campaigns 

• Being locked in a cycle of mediocrity; producing content that lacks depth and originality 

• High-performing brands embrace the technology strategically, leaving their less innovative competitors (you) behind 

Avoid these by recognising AI as a tool for innovation and improvement.  

But remember, AI can’t solve every problem that you’re facing. If your current marketing strategies lack creativity, AI won’t make them extraordinary – it will only make them ordinary at a faster rate.  

6 tips to go beyond basic AI adoption 

Steering clear of surface-level AI applications isn’t easy. It has its temptations. But, if the past few years have taught me anything, it’s that embracing the following practices can lead to more meaningful and successful innovation: 

1. Invest in understanding AI’s capabilities: Take the time to learn about the full range of AI technologies available. It’s a fascinating world! This understanding will help you identify opportunities for deeper integration beyond basic applications. 
2. Prioritise data quality and diversity: Gather comprehensive, high-quality data to feed your AI systems. Diverse datasets will enhance the effectiveness of AI models, enabling more accurate insights and personalised experiences. And from that, real success can be achieved. 
3. Foster a culture of experimentation: Encourage your teams to experiment with AI in creative ways. I’ve seen the benefits of this in how we approach AI in this company – those workshops and “Learn and Share” session really helped! Promote an environment where innovative ideas are explored without the fear of failure, leading to breakthroughs. 
4. Collaborate across departments: Break down silos within your organisation. Collaborative efforts among marketing, sales, IT, and other departments can unveil unique use cases for AI and drive comprehensive innovations. 
5. Focus on customer-centric solutions: Look for ways AI can solve real customer problems. This approach ensures that your innovations truly resonate with your audience, are neatly aligned with their need and issues, and enhance their experiences. 
6. Implement continuous learning: AI technologies and market trends evolve rapidly. Keeping yourself in the loop is hard when there’s updates every few days (or hours!). Stay updated with developments in AI and adapt your strategies accordingly to maintain a competitive edge. 

How to use AI “better” to drive growth 

I raised these following three points earlier, but here’s a greater analysis and how they help you to steer clear of the “average by scale” death trap: 

Elevate authentic creativity 

By embracing AI for marketing and product innovation, your team can break through creative boundaries and deliver campaigns that truly resonate. Traditionally, marketers relied on intuition and historical data to guide their strategies. 

Now, AI enables your business to access and analyse vast amounts of data; uncovering insights that were previously difficult to get to. Those super-smart machine learning algorithms identify emerging trends and consumer preferences in real time. For example, AI tools can analyse social media conversations, customer feedback, and purchasing behaviour to predict shifts in consumer sentiment. Know what this means? Your marketers develop campaigns that resonate deeply and authentically with your audience’s aspirations – transforming audience segments into engaged communities. 

But creativity is more than crafting authentic experiences. AI aids creative brainstorming sessions by generating content ideas, suggesting themes, and entirely new assets that you’d never have thought of. Your marketing team can instead focus on strategic thinking and refining/expanding on these concepts rather than getting bogged down in the initial creative process.  

Create more ingenious and tailored content 

You have an AI tool that can do anything. So, use it to go beyond your standard assets and deliverables. Ask yourself and your marketing team:  

• Where can we offer more value with AI? 

• What new assets can we provide for our clients that they didn’t know they wanted? 

• How can we use these AI tools to make a big leap forward? 

I’ve seen AI tools bring ideas to life that were lying dormant in my CEO’s head (more on that later). There’s no reason why you should limit your ambitions to the same-old assets of yesteryear.  

Go big. Be imaginative. Have no limits. You really should be pushing the boat out.  

AI can enhance your storytelling through these innovative and interactive formats. No more blogs or social campaigns that every competitor is actioning. Just more compelling journeys for your audience that turn traditional marketing on its head.  

Execute better marketing campaigns 

To drive growth with AI, it’s not enough to just create great content – you need to execute campaigns with precision and agility. In this AI-driven world, that is paramount. AI enables smarter, faster decision-making, ensuring every marketing pound of yours delivers maximum impact.  

Here's how: 

Real-time analytics for smarter adjustments
AI tools provide live performance tracking, allowing your team to: 

• Spot trends and issues as campaigns unfold. 

• Adjust targeting, messaging, or spending instantly based on performance data. 

• Optimise channels dynamically, ensuring resources focus on what’s working. 

Hyper-personalised campaign strategies
With AI, marketers can refine campaigns in ways that resonate deeply with audiences by: 

• Segmenting customers based on granular data like behaviour, preferences, and purchase history. 

• Delivering tailored messaging that evolves in real-time as customer needs change. 

• Anticipating customer actions through predictive analytics, enabling proactive engagement. 

Efficient resource allocation 

AI ensures your budget works harder: 

• Automating A/B testing to find the best-performing creative quickly. 

• Reallocating spend to high-performing channels mid-campaign. 

• Identifying low-value activities and eliminating inefficiencies to stretch your marketing pounds further. 

Streamlined multichannel coordination 

AI unifies campaigns across platforms for a seamless customer experience: 

• Synchronising messaging across email, social, and web to guide customers through a consistent journey. 

• Offering insights into cross-channel performance, helping you focus on the most impactful touchpoints. 

• Simplifying campaign management with automation, reducing manual oversight. 

Fifty Five and Five is leading the way 

Want to see an example of how AI can effectively reshape marketing approaches? Our own Top 15 AI Marketing Innovators Report 2024.  

It’s made for AI-driven marketing people like you, highlighting how powerful thought leaders are seizing the opportunities to use AI in unique and incredible ways. These innovators don’t just see AI as a solution inefficiency; they see it as the rocket fuel to transform how we all should be thinking about creativity, strategy, and customer engagement in B2B marketing. 

But it’s not just a report full of experts providing their fascinating thoughts on how AI will shape the marketing landscape, and its impact across businesses. The best bit is that we built the report on our new AI content platform, so that the advice is:  

• Bespoke to you  

• Based on your job at your company   

• Tailored to your industry 

Our Top 15 AI Marketing Innovators Report 2024 is a good example of how to use AI to deliver extraordinary, not ordinary, results. Through its development, AI tools enabled us to create this bespoke piece of content that can truly deliver exceptional value to the reader. It’s not just a dull report that they’ll leave in 5 seconds. It’s content that has purpose, that provides a different answer and perspective for every reader. 

This is what you should be using AI tools for. To go beyond the everyday assets that you send to your audience and to try new approaches that can generate the “wow” and “awesome” factor that gets clients intrigued to learn more. 

The future belongs to innovative thinkers 

If you just want to put AI to work generating social posts quickly or provide a blog template in seconds; then you’re not being bold enough. Yes, that surface-level use has its benefits. I’m not saying it doesn’t. But limiting your AI scope like that is a waste. 

When you apply AI for marketing and product innovation thoughtfully, it becomes a powerful tool that can drive real business growth. The path forward involves cultivating a culture of innovation where AI and human creativity combine to create impactful marketing campaigns and product innovations.