4 Use Cases of AI for B2B Marketers

AI has evolved significantly since the days of Siri’s languid chats with John Malkovich. It not only eases the burden of compiling and parsing information but is beginning to offer new and unique insights. In other words, the days of AI being primarily a buzzword are coming to an end.

Marketers, in particular, are finding that AI is more applicable to their business challenges, with user-friendly, pragmatic products seeing successful adoption. And, as AI and machine learning marketing capabilities are giving B2B marketers more lift and scale across their programs, this exciting tech is poised to become standard best practice as fast as it becomes available.

Here are four key ways that AI platforms and technologies are changing the game for B2B marketers right now.

1. Content: Delivery, Not Creation

Great content is expensive and time-consuming to create. Is it any wonder that so much has been made of AI programs can write content, web pages and emails that are grammatically correct and that target appropriate keywords? As a content marketer myself, I’m fascinated by these technologies, but extremely skeptical that we’re anywhere near an application of the technology that passes a sort of B2B content marketing Turing test. The truth is, the web (and your buyers’ inboxes and social streams) are full of mediocre content. More mediocre content will not stand out in the din of content marketing, and no AI program can generate the kind of new, creative, innovative ideas that will get your brand noticed. Yet.

But that doesn’t mean there’s no room for AI in content marketing.

Where B2B marketers can really flex some AI muscle is in content delivery. Standing out in today’s digital marketplace means maintaining markets of one with thousands—or even millions—of prospective buyers. That means delivering the right content to the right contacts at the right time, but that kind of personal interaction is impossible to scale.

Content marketing AI can scan your entire website and/or content library, categorize and organize the content you create, and deliver the right offers, pages, emails, social media posts, and more, to each buyer at every interaction. That keeps you doing what you do best—creating amazing content and campaigns—and lets AI do what it does best—giving you the lift of super-precise targeting across an enormous number of interaction points.

2. Social Media: Expand Your Audience

It is important to not just look for artificial intelligence you might add to your arsenal, but to examine what AI you might already be using and simply need to leverage better. If you want to experiment with AI and see the impact it can have on your marketing, look no further than Facebook Ads.

Facebook’s Lookalike Audience is a brilliant product that uses your first-party data to help you “find more people who look like your current customers.” With Lookalike, you can create custom audiences and massively expand the impact of your marketing—all based on behavioral data. This data can be:

• Pulled from a website by installing a pixel.
• Pulled from Facebook by assessing people who like your page.
• Uploaded directly as a list of current customers for Facebook to examine.

Similar technology is available for B2B marketers that scans digital signals from all over the web. Predictive lead scoring and predictive account scoring also use AI to expand your ability to reach buyers who look like your customers—in other words, opportunities that align to your ideal customer profile.

3. Google: The AI We All Use Every Day

Social companies like Facebook aren’t the only ones leveraging AI and machine learning to optimize the effectiveness of their ads. With Google touching upwards of receiving up to 3.5 billion searches every day, their RankBrain system might be the AI that people already interact with most, without even realizing it.

What is RankBrain? In short, it’s Google’s machine learning program that determines what and where results should be ranked in organic search. So how do you leverage it for your business’s marketing? By learning to use it.

But is RankBrain worth a B2B marketer’s time? Undoubtedly. As many as 90% of B2B buyers turn to a simple Google search to begin their buying journey, giving the businesses that adapt to RankBrain a distinct advantage. On top of the sheer amount of traffic coming from Google searches, SEO leads have a 13% better close rate than outbound leads.

While RankBrain hasn’t replaced the traditional SEO factors like keywords and backlinks, it is approaching things a bit differently. Now, a mere 53% of top 20 search results even have keywords in the title. Google is getting smarter thanks to RankBrain’s improved natural language processing (NLP), allowing it to parse human language and identify relevant results with more than just keywords. It remains for B2B marketers to lean into the change that Google’s AI is bringing to SEO strategy.

4. Email: Personal Conversations at Scale

Contrary to popular belief, email isn’t dead. It’s just wildly misused. With 270 billion emails sent every day, whether or not yours makes the cut comes down to how intelligently the message is targeted.

For the marketer, that boils down to timing, testing, and segmentation. Here again, AI can help, due to its ability to turn huge volumes of data into useful insight. AI that looks for the right elements can help segment customers, predict the outcome of a multivariate test, or even help you find receptive, adjacent audiences for a specific campaign.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have been working for email marketers for years now, and many email and marketing automation platforms will emphasize their AI powers. The key to finding the right AI for email marketing is to invest in one that updates audience segments in real time, has predictive content capabilities, and provides a robust and marketer-centric vision for where AI will enhance the product in the future.

The Potential of AI, Made Practical

Just like all major technological innovations, artificial intelligence has been met with an initial level of distrust and even fear. However, most marketers recognize that AI is really only solving problems that they were already having: like maintaining personalized interactions at scale and gaining better insights into their buyer journeys.

How is AI serving your marketing strategy? Any use cases I missed?

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Microsoft Warns of Rising Tech Support Scams, Calls for Industry-wide Cooperation

Incidents of tech support scams targeting susceptible PC users are increasing, Microsoft warned. The company received 153,000 reported complaints from consumers in 2017, 24 percent higher than the prior year, according to its detailed security report released on Friday.

Image via Microsoft cloud blog

Reported incidents came from 183 countries, suggesting a widespread global problem. Of those who fell prey to the scam, roughly 15 percent lost money averaging between $200 and $400. There were cases of victims paying significantly more. In December 2017, Microsoft was notified of a tech support fraud in the Netherlands that resulted in the financial loss of €189,000, or about $109,000.

Called social engineering attacks, scammers use a variety of ways to initiate the fraud. Cybercriminals send phishing emails, display strategic online ads or full-screen error messages, install malware, or place unsolicited phone calls to convince victims that their systems or devices have been compromised.

Once victims contact the call center for help, a fake technical support specialist instructs them to install remote administration tools (RATs). This allows fraudsters to have complete control over the device and unrestricted access to sensitive information. They make changes inside the device and point out system errors to convince victims of the ‘problem’. This then prompts unsuspecting consumers to pay for the removal of fake or nonexistent malware.

According to Microsoft, the widespread problem is not limited to its platform but has affected users of MacOS, iOS, and Android systems as well. The FBI received 11,000 tech support fraud complaints in 2017 from 85 countries. Of these, claimed losses amounted to approximately $15 million, representing an 86 percent increase compared to prior year.  

The FBI also noticed an emerging trend: re-targeting past victims of tech support fraud. Scammers pose as government officials or law enforcement and offer assistance in recovering losses in exchange for fees. Other fraudsters act as collection services and threaten the victim with legal action for nonpayment of outstanding tech support fees. Some criminals use obtained personal information to commit additional fraud, such as unauthorized bank transfers or opening of new accounts for unlawful payments.  

Microsoft expressed concern over tech support scams that bypass secure platforms like Windows 10 easily and coerce users into giving unrestricted access to their devices. Because the problem is far-reaching, the company called for industry-wide collaboration and law enforcement partnership. Microsoft continues to form partnerships with web hosting providers, telecom networks, browser developers, antivirus solutions, and financial networks in detecting tech support scammers.  

The graphic below shows how the scam usual works.

Image via Microsoft cloud blog

Customers, on the other hand, can protect and empower themselves through education. Be wary of error or warning messages with phone numbers or emails with malicious attachments. Shut down your device once you receive a pop-up message or locked screen. If you have been a victim, notify your bank to reverse the charges and change all your passwords. Uninstall any application used during the tech support and run a virus scan for remaining malware.

[Featured image via Pixabay]

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Kabbage Teams Up with Ingo Money to Disburse SMB Loans Within Minutes

Mobile lender Kabbage has partnered with push payments innovator Ingo Money to speed up disbursement of loans to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) accounts in real-time. The team-up, slated for a summer launch, is welcome news to SMBs that need fast loan payouts for their additional working capital.

By leveraging Ingo Money’s “push payments in a box” platform, Kabbage can make the funds available to business debit cards or wallet accounts immediately. Whereas loan application and approval from financial institutions take weeks, online lenders like Kabbage has reduced the entire process to mere minutes.  

Kabbage and Ingo https://t.co/OkdHBRYoOW

— DMA (@digmastermindac) April 22, 2018

According to PYMNTS website, Kabbage President Kathryn Petralia addressed the necessity of SMBs having quick access to funding and pointed out that customers often resort to using PayPal to withdraw loan payouts. With Ingo Money, clients now have more available options in moving money within the Kabbage platform.

According to Lisa McFarland, chief product officer at Ingo Money, the push payments functionality means that Kabbage doesn’t need loan originating banks to handle the money transfer transaction to its customers. Apart from the technology, Ingo will also facilitate the SMB authentication and account verification of Kabbage customers prior to real-time funds transfer.

Innovations like mobile lending have become crucial in keeping up with fast-paced technology and the changing business landscape. Small business owners have become more digitally savvy and increasingly depend on mobile platforms for conducting business. With available data online on business activity, sales, shipping, and accounting information, Kabbage can get a comprehensive snapshot of an applicant’s performance right away.   

In a study done by Kabbage, about 17 percent of small business loans were made through a mobile device. Following this trend, mobile lending may account for 20 percent of SMB lending by the end of 2018. Kabbage even increased its available credit line up to $250,000 for businesses with larger and expanding operations. As of December 2017, the mobile lender has extended over $4 billion in loans to over 130,000 SMBs in the US.

The mobile lender’s investors include SoftBank Group Corp., BlueRun Ventures, and Mohr Davidow Ventures, as of writing.

[Featured image via Kabbage]

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Would You Stop Advertising on Facebook if It Offered Users an Ad-Free Subscription?

The idea of having a paid but ad-free Facebook account has been floating around for a long time now. While Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was usually adamant that it wasn't going to happen, the Cambridge Analytica issue appears to be swaying his thoughts. The question now is— “how much would an add-free Facebook cost?”

Zuckerberg had previously stated that people, in general, do not like paying for a service. He also emphasized that Facebook doesn't “offer an option today for people to pay to not show ads.” However, that doesn't mean that there won't be an ad-free service in the future.

Some sectors have pegged the cost of an ad-free Facebook to be somewhere between $11 to $14 per month. The amount is based on the social media giant's recent financial reports. The company earned $84 per user last year in its most lucrative markets, the US, and Canada. If the company's expected 35% growth rate holds in 2018, then it could earn as much as $113 per user. But, if you take into consideration that subscribers would likely have more disposable income than free users, thus making them more attractive to marketers, then it would make sense that an $11 monthly fee would be needed to make up for the revenue Facebook would lose.

Facebook Users May Soon Get an Ad-Free Subscription Option https://t.co/guDcho4XMy pic.twitter.com/doEzxBA348

— iPhone in Canada (@iPhoneinCanada) April 17, 2018

Analysts have speculated that even if 10 percent of users subscribed to the proposed ad-free version of Facebook, there would be no drop in revenue for the company. In fact, Facebook could see a boost in revenue because it would bring in earnings from the subscription fees and advertising budgets would'nt change much.

However, if the subscription fee is low enough to be broadly accepted by users, advertising on Facebook would be less effective and brands and businesses would advertise elsewhere.

For now, most advertisers don't seem to be put off by Facebook's proposed ad-free subscription. The social media giant's two billion active users mean that every other person you know has an account on the platform. And unless ad-free subscriptions cause a big decline in Facebook's user base, advertisers are not likely to jump ship.

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Advertisers Can Now Sell Products With Snapchats Augmented Reality Feature in Lenses

Snapchat has just introduced a shoppable augmented reality feature designed specifically for its Lens. The new shopping AR is geared towards companies who want a novel way to further advertise their products.

The company rolled out Lenses in 2015. The machine learning-based feature enabled users to add different effects to their images. This feature was later expanded to include sponsored Lenses for advertisers. The Lenses allowed users to superimpose ads on their selfies, essentially pushing the brand in the snap they shared with friends.

Snapchat introduces 3 new capabilities of its augmented reality lenses with 'shoppable AR': https://t.co/wbiJ6VzUfs pic.twitter.com/1wyp2jzYcF

— Adweek (@Adweek) April 18, 2018

The new “Shoppable AR” feature pushes existing boundaries further by extending Snapchat's Lenses to include a button that offers users three actions—visiting a brand's homepage, installing an app, or watching a promotional video.

These new tools are now live with four brands—Adidas, Clairol, King, and STX Entertainment. The first two brands are utilizing the “website” lens to promote their products and direct potential customers to a website. For example, the Clairol Color Crave filter gives users the chance to play around and change their hair into different colors. Snapchat users who then tap on the Shop Now button will be taken to a Target page to purchase the chosen hair color.

Meanwhile, King is using the “install” lens to drum up interest in Candy Crush while STX Entertainment is using the “video” lens tool to let consumers view a trailer for the I Feel Pretty movie.

Snapchat now lets advertisers sell products directly through Lenses https://t.co/qg9wXHAA70 by @bheater pic.twitter.com/Z86gnQDSci

— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) April 18, 2018

Similar to other Filters, options for the Shoppable AR can be used just to send a Snap. Links are not saved inside any of the selfies snapped using the filter. These links also open up a browser inside the app.

Checkout for the Shoppable AR isn't on the app, as the feature presently doesn't use the Snap Commerce Platform. It will be up to the advertiser to enable options like sign in, autofill, or Apple Pay.

Snapchat is hoping that the new AR feature will resonate with younger users, the main market for the lenses. The majority of Snapchat's user base are young, internet savvy individuals who tend to block online ads. Hopefully, the three new tools will get products in front of more users.

Advertisers won't be experiencing any price increase with the new Lens feature. There's also no doubt that it will be easy to capture the interest of companies already using Snapchat to market their brands.

Ensuring users stay inside the app is also a brilliant move for Snap since it doesn't feel like companies are actively advertising. The ads offered and product sales have a more organic feel. Plus, it will prompt users to become more engaged with the app, which is what Snapchat wants.

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How EMVs Made Credit Card Processing More Secure

Due to rising incidents of fraud and data theft, credit card issuers and merchants switched to using EMV technology to authenticate transactions. Taking its name from Europay, Mastercard, and Visa, EMV was developed as far back as the mid-1990s, but the technology was only widely adopted in the US with the advent of the liability shift in October 2015. This shift meant that the least EMV-compliant party in a payment process would be the one held liable for fraudulent transactions. 

The use of cards with magnetic strips slowly gave way to the use of the newer more secure EMV cards.

EMV uses small chips or microprocessor to store information, perform processing, and generate dynamic data for every transaction. This makes it nearly impossible to replicate transaction code and create counterfeit cards. Meanwhile, mag stripe cards store unchanging data on sensitive cardholder information that are easy to duplicate.

Because of its security features, EMV-enabled cards significantly reduced fraud-related incidents. According to Visa, merchants accepting ‘chip cards’ reported a drop in counterfeit fraud losses by 58 percent in December 2016 when compared to December of the previous year. Similarly, Mastercard fraud data also saw a 54 percent decline in counterfeit fraud from April 2015 to April 2016.

The migration to chip technology may be slow but looks encouraging. During the recent Secure Technology Alliance Payments Summit, keynote speaker Stephanie Ericksen of Visa revealed that 96 percent of the company’s payment volume at point-of-sale (POS) use EMV cards. In addition, 59 percent of POS terminals in the US accept chip cards—an impressive growth since the liability shift.

Fraud reduction is the biggest benefit for merchants upon shifting to EMV technology. Compliance with the standard also limits the financial liability of business owners if they process a fraudulent transaction. Customers also seem to prefer using EMV-enabled terminals that offer more security. In fact, a 2016 survey by NerdWallet revealed that 43 percent of respondents prefer using chip cards for in-store purchases.

Chip technology helped combat fraud in face-to-face settings, like grocery stores checkout lanes, that use counterfeit cards. But it did not completely eliminate data theft and other types of fraud. Fraudsters have shifted their focus to card-not-present (CNP) fraud on transactions done via phone or online. The threat becomes even more significant as the eCommerce in the US grows at an exponential pace.    

According to Brett McDowell of the FIDO Alliance, 50 percent of reported fraudulent transactions are attributed to CNP fraud. The majority of data breaches in 2016 were due to weak or stolen passwords. This indicates the need for stronger authentication and identity verification processes to better secure the overall payments system, including the EMV ecosystem.  

Despite the achievements and progress in EMV migration of the payments industry, business leaders acknowledge that there is more work to be done. They are also upbeat on the next step in the chip card transition—contactless payments.

Dual-interface EMV cards can also have contactless card reading or near field communication (NFC) features. Consumers only have to tap their card on the terminal scanner for faster checkout. However, there are several hurdles to this technology, such as lack of acceptance, confusion among users, and few companies issuing NFC-capable cards.

There is more to the future of payments, including embedding biometric readers on cards to verify a cardholder’s identity. Industry leaders are also looking at cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, and blockchain as other forms of payment technologies. 

[Featured image via creditcards.com YouTube]

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5 Slackbots to Improve Your Business Operations in 2018

Slack has become one of the most widely used team collaboration tools on the market due in large part to its flexibility. More than just a messaging platform, Slack offers a variety of customizable tools and apps to its over six million daily active users, two million of which are paid.  Among the tools that make Slack flexible and easy to use are chatbots.

Called Slackbots, these chatbot assistants are integrated into Slack conversations. And contrary to what their name suggests, these bots do not slack off. They are designed to sort through messages, monitor assigned tasks, track performance, and even integrate with your email to monitor urgent correspondence, all within the platform. Virtual assistants like Slackbots efficiently handle tedious and time-consuming work, allowing you and your team to focus more on revenue-generating activities.

Whether it’s for productivity, marketing or anything else, there is a Slackbot for just about every business need. Here are some that can make a difference in your daily operations in 2018.  

1. BusyBot

Busybot is a productivity-focused Slackbot that manages tasks for everyone on the team. Users can ask the bot to schedule meetings, assign tasks, and set automated reminders for deadlines—all based in your Slack conversations. With this bot, you don’t need separate software for project management and communication. You also have the option to monitor all assignments on the Busybot website to ensure you stay on track.

2. Astrobot

Another productivity-geared bot, Astrobot manages your email in the comforts of your chat environment. Astrobot is known for its email app and which seamlessly integrates with the Slack platform. Its powerful AI flags high priority messages and sorts them into a separate inbox for easy access. You can also respond to these important emails directly on Slack without switching back to your inbox. Send quick messages by using the slash command/email. Take actions on emails, such as unsubscribe from mailing lists, move emails from specific senders, and empty trash or junk mail by typing ‘Zap.’

3. Workbot

Workbot by Workato is a bot that executes approval workflows – from social media posts to sales estimates and budgets – within the Slack platform. You don’t need another software or spreadsheet to keep track of approvals and rejections. This bot also has integrations with platforms like Workday, Zendesk, and JIRA, among others to quickly resolve issues within Slack. You can communicate with multiple teams across your company. This seamless experience reduces time for resolution and response, thus improving customer experience.

4. Statsbot

Performance metrics is important to every business owner, and Statsbot offers this data conveniently. Its integration with Google Analytics, Salesforce, SQL, Mixpanel, and other platforms allows you to get insights, such as performance summary. This bot analyzes raw data from various sources to deliver reports for easier understanding, right from Slack. It also alerts you of any unusual spikes on your metrics. Thanks to its machine learning features, Statsbot can generate data about customers and their buying patterns. Marketing teams can then tweak their strategies based on available information.  

5. Dbot by Demisto

Sharing makes Slack a great collaborative tool. However, it’s difficult to know which shared content is safe or malicious and the last thing you want is a cyber attack. Demisto’s DBot is a Slackbot that scans every URL, file, and IP address shared on the platform. Its multiple security threat feeds and malware analysis engines to protect and warn Slack users real-time. The bot is updated with the latest cybersecurity threats and provides detailed reports for security analysts. And if it notices any suspicious activity, it will notify your team immediately.

There are numerous Slackbots in the market and some might seem repetitive in their offerings. No single bot can handle your specific needs since every business is different. Try several bots to find the right match in automating some of your tasks. Doing so allows you to prioritize in improving your bottomline and save on expenses.

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