Marketing Technology
Greg Krehbiel, President Of The Krehbiel Group, On AI Marketing Wave
Share
Overview
The Q&A session with Greg Krehbiel, President of The Krehbiel Group, explores the strategic integration of AI and Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) within the modern marketing technology (MarTech) landscape. Throughout the discussion, Greg underscores the importance of adopting emerging technologies thoughtfully, balancing innovation with clear objectives and human oversight.
Here is a small introduction to Greg Krehbiel:
Greg solves technology, strategy, operations, and process problems for publishers and others. His expertise includes Customer Data Platforms, acquisition and retention, e-commerce, RFPs, fulfillment, and project management. Greg's decades-long career in B2B and B2C publishing has included lengthy gigs in editorial, marketing, product development, web development, management, and operations. He's an expert at bridging the intellectual and cultural divide between technical and creative staff.
We at TechDogs had an opportunity to interact with Greg to get a holistic viewpoint on leveraging AI and CDPs to enhance marketing effectiveness—while keeping strategic clarity, human judgment, and empathetic collaboration at the forefront.
TD Editor: Many companies jump into integrating AI into their MarTech stack without a clear strategy. What are some pitfalls businesses should avoid when adopting AI solutions?
Greg Krehbiel: As a general rule, I’d say you shouldn’t undertake any major effort without a clear strategy, but there’s another angle to this that you should consider. Fortune favors the bold, and as a friend likes to say, “When you’ve got a wave, surf.” Sometimes, you have to try things and see what happens.
In any case, here are some basic guardrails to avoid the catastrophe.
- Develop a deep understanding of what AI can and can’t do. Some ideas sound interesting, but they rely on a misperception of what AI is good at and how it works.
- Pay close attention to where AI requires human oversight and deliberately incorporate that into the workflow. Make it hard or impossible for unvetted AI products to get out of draft status.
- Remember Gall’s Law, which states, “A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.” Start with something that works, test it in the real world, and improve it based on user feedback. You can’t design a complicated system from scratch.
- Google and Apple are having a hard time keeping up with openAI. Don’t think your little team of developers is going to beat them. Use successful tools; don’t reinvent them.
- Be very transparent about AI's role in your system. Don’t pretend an editor or customer service representative is responding when it really is a computer.
TD Editor: How can AI be effectively integrated into marketing operations to enhance productivity and customer engagement?
Greg Krehbiel: First, distinguish productivity from creativity. AI is a great productivity tool, but you have to be careful using its output. Use it to get and expand upon ideas, but don’t trust its guidance.
A creative consultant named Ian Edgar told me that AI tends to blandify things. I like that. If you want to be unique and interesting and offer something of value, the generic, bland garbage from AI won’t do that. Don’t let AI write your content.
AI notetakers are a simple way to increase productivity because you spend less time memorializing decisions and takeaways. But remember to review and edit them!
AI can also quickly create charts and reports from large data collections.
To enhance customer engagement, use AI to more precisely target users down to the individual level rather than by large categories or user groups. Fine-tune content or product recommendations based on individuals.
You can also use AI to predict churn. Create segments of customers in danger of churn and create re-engagement campaigns to win them back. Use AI-driven content recommendations based on what you know about those individuals.
TD Editor: The customer data platform is one of the key components of any Martech stack. Many organizations struggle to implement customer data platforms effectively. What key steps would you recommend to ensure a successful CDP deployment?
Greg Krehbiel: There’s plenty to say on this topic, but I’ll focus on the top three. Pick the right vendor to begin with, work diligently on your use cases, and budget for appropriate resources.
To pick the right vendor, look for a company with experience in your industry and your business model. A CDP specializing in retail isn’t the best choice for a publisher, and vice versa.
Consider company size as well. If a CDP’s client base is made up of billion-dollar companies with thousands of employees and you’re under $100 million with 200 employees, it might not be a good fit.
The most important thing to ensure CDP success is to be very clear about your use cases. You’ll need those for the vendor selection process and implementation, as well as for making a timely return on your technology investment. A CDP needs to demonstrate how it will help you create value for each one.
CDPs don’t solve problems on their own. They’re just tools, and they’re only as good as the people using them. Consequently, you have to make sure you have the right resources to make it all happen.
It’s important to get buy-in from all stakeholders, but you still have to put one person in charge, and that person has to have the resources, decision-making authority, and money to get the job done.
You don’t necessarily need in-house staff. Many CDPs offer professional services, or they have experienced implementation partners that can help you get the job done.
TD Editor: How can organizations go beyond data collection to fully leverage the capabilities of CDPs in improving customer engagement and business outcomes?
Greg Krehbiel: A CDP allows a business to provide more focused attention to customers based on their unique characteristics and behavior. Different companies may apply that concept differently, but here are a few examples to get you thinking about ways to use your customer data to provide an improved service.
- Find out the best way to communicate with each customer. Some people respond to emails, some to chat, and some to phone calls. Communicate the way the customer prefers.
- Customize marketing efforts based on both, purchase behavior and onsite activities of customers.
- Create different access levels based on a customer’s history or engagement.
- Be proactive about the access. If paying customers haven’t been engaged with your content, reach out and fix that before you lose them.
- Find common points of interest among your users. This can be helpful for product development, customer service, or even in creating communities.
- Change your web or app display when your customer is in your store or nearby.
An often overlooked part of customer engagement is to focus on key customers. While you want to create a good experience for all your customers, it’s crucial to create an excellent experience for your best customers. So, for example, when your best client is in the customer service queue, bump him up to the top.
TD Editor: Over the years, you've bridged the gap between technical and creative teams in publishing. What strategies have been most effective in fostering collaboration across these functions?
Greg Krehbiel: The single most crucial thing is to realize that the people who work in other departments are well-meaning, intelligent professionals who are just as invested in the success of the organization as you are. Or … whether they are or not, that must be your default assumption.
There’s an old saying that people are entitled to their own opinions, but they’re not entitled to their own facts. I think that saying doesn’t quite capture the issue. The differentiator is not facts or opinions. It’s the story. To get along with people in other departments and functions, you have to understand their story. They’re looking at the issue from inside their story, and if you don’t make an effort to understand that story, you’ll never be able to communicate.
Consider this. A mirror means something very different to Alice in Wonderland than to Snow White’s evil queen. A green light on a railroad track means something completely different than a green light in a shipping channel. It depends on what story you’re in.
When the tech guy says, “I need a requirements document,” and the marketing person is tempted to think, “He’s just being difficult,” they’re looking at the same problem from inside two very different stories. In the same way, when the marketing person is trying to respond to unreasonable, short-term demands from the C-suite or sudden and unexpected changes in the market, the tech guy is tempted to think marketers are a bunch of flakes who can’t stay focused on one thing.
Technology needs to be stable and reliable. Marketing needs to be flexible, creative, and fast moving. Both sides need to have a deep appreciation for the requirements of the other side and should understand why those needs exist, along with the context in which they make sense.
To foster collaboration across and between these groups, it’s necessary to bridge those gaps in understanding so both sides appreciate genuine needs, their origin, and their purpose.
Thu, Dec 12, 2024
Liked what you read? That’s only the tip of the tech iceberg!
Explore our vast collection of tech articles including introductory guides, product reviews, trends and more, stay up to date with the latest news, relish thought-provoking interviews and the hottest AI blogs, and tickle your funny bone with hilarious tech memes!
Plus, get access to branded insights from industry-leading global brands through informative white papers, engaging case studies, in-depth reports, enlightening videos and exciting events and webinars.
Dive into TechDogs' treasure trove today and Know Your World of technology like never before!
Disclaimer - Reference to any specific product, software or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by TechDogs nor should any data or content published be relied upon. The views expressed by TechDogs' members and guests are their own and their appearance on our site does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by TechDogs' Authors are those of the Authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of TechDogs or any of its officials. While we aim to provide valuable and helpful information, some content on TechDogs' site may not have been thoroughly reviewed for every detail or aspect. We encourage users to verify any information independently where necessary.
Trending Discover Dialogues
Sara Hillenmeyer, VP Of AI & Data Science At Payscale On Building Fair, Explainable, And Decision-Ready Compensation Intelligence
Burkhard Boeckem, CTO At Hexagon, On Advancing Autonomous Systems Through Precision Intelligence
Sangeet Kumar, Co-founder And CEO Of Addverb On Industry 5.0 Playbook: From Automation To Adaptation
Greg Young VP Cybersecurity & CorpDev, Trend Micro On Beyond Firewalls: Culture, Clarity & Resilience
Lakshman Arthimalla, Director – Data And Analytics At YASH Technologies On Unlocking Enterprise Intelligence With SAP BDC
Join Our Newsletter
Get weekly news, engaging articles, and career tips-all free!
By subscribing to our newsletter, you're cool with our terms and conditions and agree to our Privacy Policy.
Join The Discussion