Here’s a bit of a mind-blowing fact: 90 percent of the world’s total data has been created in the past two years.
According to Spacelift.io, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data per day are generated—some of this through new devices, sensors, and emerging technologies. Think about this: every minute, people have sent more than 527,000 pictures, LinkedIn has added 1,200 members, more than four million YouTube videos have been watched, and 456,000 tweets have been posted on X (formerly Twitter). In fact, we are now entering the “zettabyte era” where one zettabyte equals one trillion gigabytes. The implications of this brave new age are far-reaching, but one industry in particular may be more heavily influenced by all this data than others: marketing.
The challenge for marketers is that customers want it all. They increasingly expect companies to know them and cater to their personal likes, needs, wants, and preferences with every transaction and interaction. From a business standpoint, it is often the marketing team who must achieve this in what’s become a fragmented and multichannel world.
As Forbes reports, “For marketing, this means that as time goes on, the need for advanced tools to analyze and store data will grow. It’s safe to say that very soon all marketing efforts will need to invest in online software specifically geared toward handling big data. Furthermore, the big data tools of today need to evolve or will be outdated tomorrow.”
Finding a competitive advantage in a given business’s field will become increasingly difficult as more marketing groups gain access to the vast swaths of consumer data that is now out there and available. This means that marketers will need to distinguish themselves from the pack through innovation.
While the amount of data out there has exponentially expanded, big data is far from a new concept; predictive analytics have been in play for as long as businesses have gathered information, and for some time now, marketing firms have used predictive analytics to crunch consumer data to capture trends. Sifting through this mammoth amount of information quickly to extract timely insights can be overwhelming without the right technology, but from there, marketers can better position themselves to anticipate what customers might want and make better decisions on when to send offers and effectively segment their target markets.
Indeed, data is increasingly critical in marketing strategy and planning because it is the open window into what a target audience likes, how they behave, and what they may need. It can provide age, geographical location, income, and education level. This data can be combined with information on the websites consumers visit, the purchases they make, and the marketing campaigns they are interested in on social media. These insights are used to make campaigns more appealing.
But again, the vast amount of data isn’t easy to wade through in a quick and effective manner. That’s where two little letters go a long way: AI.
It’s an understatement to say that AI is popping up everywhere and upending practically every industry. We know that it’s making big changes in manufacturing and health sciences. The same can also be said for the business of marketing. From data insights to content creation, AI is changing how marketers think about their strategies and how they reach their target customers.
And as the world moves into a zettabyte-driven, data-focused future, the success of marketing will in many ways be based on attention to detail in data analysis and acting on those insights to make the most of opportunities. Customized experiences for buyers deliver improved results in brand loyalty and sales, and that is where AI in predictive analytics becomes so useful. With traditional techniques, marketing teams may require hours or days to obtain valuable information from small datasets. But with AI predictive analytics, it takes just several minutes to analyze millions of data points and reveal information businesses can use to improve their marketing.
Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business has written about AI and how technology is transforming marketing: “Before generative AI models like ChatGPT emerged, brainstorming topics, creating outlines, writing content, and editing could take hours, if not days. Today, the process is as quick as asking AI tools to write marketing copy such as promotional emails, ads, and articles. Users get output in seconds or a few minutes. This saves time for marketing experts who create content in bulk and regularly. Marketers can also use AI to create images, videos, and audio.”
The technology is fascinating and powerful. Some AI writing tools show users what is needed to get a more personalized output. For example, HubSpot’s Campaign Assistant allows marketers to specify the campaign’s goals, writing style, target audience, and calls to action.
Content generated by an AI marketing tool provides a starting point for most marketers—a source of inspiration. Like any other technology, however, AI writing solutions are not perfect. Their output may be inaccurate and requires a human touch. This ensures the quality, accuracy, and veracity of their content, and alignment with the intended marketing strategy, brand voice, and style. Marketers themselves must thoroughly fact-check, proofread, and edit AI-generated content.
And while all of this can be good for businesses, it can sound pretty creepy to a consumer. Sure, most of us are probably aware that things we do on the internet are being used by marketers to paint a picture of our interests, but it feels invasive nonetheless.
Data collection by companies is happening as quickly as that data is being created by people. And there is a dark side to consider: data collection includes sensitive data about people’s health conditions, personal preferences, and other details that they would never share with someone if they were asked on the street. Personal information can become available through harvesting their online data and as a result, this same data can be used to unfairly target or discriminate against groups of people. Not to mention that all this data can be coopted via cyber-attacks or swindlers looking to scam and defraud people.
So, is AI really our friend? Questions also come from where people’s data is collected. 20 years ago, consumer data was largely collected though point of sale transactions, responses to direct mail campaigns, and coupon redemption, but now it is through online purchases, click-through rates, searching behavior, social media actions, geolocation, and so on. This change has deeply impacted marketing strategies because of new access to detailed information on target audiences. For consumers it has created another feeling: stress. That’s because people don’t know how much of their data is being used or who is using it. And it’s not only that, but the sense that whether it’s through a cellphone, tablet, or computer, everything that we do is somehow being tracked.
In many ways, marketing in an age of significant data is a double-edged sword: it presents the greatest opportunity to date to truly know a target audience; however, that audience is growing more and more nervous about how their data is being used. Who needs more stress in their lives these days? This could mean losing trust in the technology that is intended to improve our daily life and experiences.
Marketers and business owners alike need to be more diligent and transparent than ever before about how data is used. No one wants to face the backlash of upset consumers who feel that their own information is being used against them. Clearly, there’s a lot at stake.
