Embracing AI for Personalized B2B Customer Experiences

Within the last decade, the B2B marketing landscape has changed dramatically. The past year alone has given marketing professionals a lot to consider!

As we wrap up 2023, we’re in an exciting time for B2B marketing. Technology and humanity have come together like never before, with artificial intelligence (AI) continuing to evolve and achieve new ways of segmenting and personalizing messaging — giving marketers plenty of new advantages.

With these advancements, AI-driven tools and the customer experience are taking the front seat. Utilizing them effectively is a must to meet customer expectations in the near future. With AI more widely available, brands that prioritize the human element in their strategies are the ones that'll continue to thrive.

Let’s explore how personalization and AI can revolutionize the B2B experience.

The Role of Personalization in B2B Marketing

It’s crucial for B2B marketers to engage their audiences in meaningful ways. Personalized marketing messages result in improved customer satisfaction, loyalty, and conversion rates.

In fact, 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions from companies, and 76% get frustrated if it doesn’t happen, according to McKinsey & Company. Whether it’s segmentation or sending the right message at the right time, relevant, personalized content increases engagement and boosts conversions.

With the recent developments in AI technology, the potential for personalized marketing has skyrocketed.

Additional Reading: Choosing B2B Marketing Channels & Formats: Engage Buyers On Their Turf & Terms

The Rise of AI in B2B Marketing

AI is revolutionizing the B2B marketing game, making it easier for businesses of any size to compete.

Among the many breakthroughs in AI, one of the more notable ones lies in the concept of a dynamic data integration platform. Think HubSpot’s ChatSpot.ai, which helps users add contacts and create custom reports within the HubSpot CRM, among other functions.

With access to all of your data in one central location, your brand can:

• Improve targeting and analysis
• Generate compelling SEO-optimized content
• Seamlessly create personalized email campaigns

Whether it’s data segmentation or content generation, it’s clear that in the ever-evolving landscape of B2B marketing, AI holds the potential to streamline tedious B2B operations while providing an excellent customer experience.

Weidert Group’s resident AI guru, Eric Severstad, recently published a series of blogs outlining some of the best AI tools currently available to marketers. Part 1 goes over the results from a survey of marketers and sales teams regarding the AI tools they use. Part 2 covers AI for content creation, SEO, and more. To wrap the series, Part 3 digs deeper into AI sales assistants. Take a look at these articles for some great examples of which AI tools should be on your radar.

Personalization and AI: A Dynamic Duo

Given all the tools available, how can you consistently deliver tailored experiences at scale? With its capability to analyze vast data sets, AI understands customer behavior, preferences, and patterns at a granular level. That means you can offer real-time, hyper-relevant content, product recommendations, and interactions that genuinely resonate with each customer.

The result? Enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Traditionally, personalization was a labor-intensive process, often involving guesswork or superficial segmentation. But AI algorithms work around the clock, processing and learning from every interaction. Pair that with human insights, and you have personalization efforts that aren't static but evolve with the customer's journey.

Whether sending timely and relevant email campaigns or offering dynamic product suggestions on your website, AI makes these efforts efficient and accurate.

AI in Action

Let’s explore a real-world example of a B2B company that effectively combines personalization and AI to improve the customer experience.

SEE

Carrie Giaimo, the global vice president of digital experience at SEE, emphasizes the significance of packaging beyond just protection.

SEE, formerly known as Sealed Air, is the inventor of bubble wrap and renowned for its high-quality packaging materials tailored to the specific needs of various industries. SEE helps package everything from everyday items to specialized products, such as alternative meats and dinosaur bones for museums.

Giaimo's current focus is enhancing SEE's digital experience for its customers. The aim is to:

• Integrate buyer consideration paths into the primary website search interface
• Develop a dedicated portal for buyers to effortlessly place and oversee orders
• Infuse data throughout the packaging process using intelligent design and interactive technology

By collaborating with various Adobe tools powered by AI, SEE can craft more tailored packaging experiences for customers based on minimal data inputs. And now, ​​83% of their orders arrive via the online buyer portal.

Tailoring Content and Experiences with AI

Consumers crave hyper-personalized content across touchpoints with your brand — and B2B is no exception.  Personalization makes them feel heard and understood because the content is helpful to their specific pain points. 

That’s where generative AI shines. It’s impressive at automating dynamic content creation and optimization, saving time and resources. You can create personalized content based on the specific needs of segmented B2B customers in minutes or hours instead of days or weeks.

This automation not only increases efficiency but also allows for faster content creation based on market changes and trends. It’s finally possible to keep up. And the results speak for themselves. 

Here's an example of a B2B company that uses AI for tailored content delivery and the increased marketing engagement they saw.

CertinIa

Certinia is a cloud-based financial management software company that's found great success with content personalization with AI to improve the quality and relevance of its content, resulting in more engaged website visitors:

• 3.9x more page views
• 7.3x longer web sessions 
• increase in repeat visitors
• 8.7x longer per session than visitors who did not engage in recommended content 

The best result? A 65% increase in total accounts that engaged with their website.

Navigating the Ethical Landscape of AI Personalization

“With great power comes great responsibility.” And the power of AI-driven personalization is immense. 

It’s understandable that this strength raises legitimate concerns about data privacy. When dealing with information that could shape business decisions, B2B customers want assurance that their data isn’t misused or at risk of falling into the wrong hands.

What’s the right way to tackle this? Finding the right balance between personalization and privacy. Your customers trust you with their information, and it’s your duty to safeguard it.

Make it a priority that any AI systems you invest in adhere to stringent security protocols, employ encryption, and only collect the necessary data to provide an experience that generates happy customers.

Transparency is the foundation upon which trust is built. Before deploying AI personalization tools, put a user-friendly data privacy policy with proper terms and conditions in place. If you don’t feel comfortable writing one yourself, try a free terms and conditions generator to help cover your bases. 

Don't merely communicate what data you're collecting; mention why you're collecting data and how it benefits your customers. Keep consent explicit and easily revocable. Offer straightforward options for customers to manage, review, and delete their data.

When you empower your B2B customers with control over how much data they share, you foster trust — and drive positive customer experiences.

The Road Ahead: The Evolution of B2B Marketing

Future-oriented B2B businesses are already harnessing the power of personalization and AI, positioning themselves leaps and bounds ahead of competitors. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all marketing strategies. In their place, we're witnessing the rise of tailored, individualized approaches powered by AI.

As AI becomes more sophisticated, so does its capacity to analyze and process vast sets of data in real time. Imagine having a tool that not only understands your target market's behavior but predicts it, too. That's where we're headed.

Instead of manual campaign tweaks and endless hours scouring and analyzing data, your role could soon shift toward strategic oversight. That leaves AI with the heavy lifting for data analytics, insights, and real-time campaign adjustments.

So, as a B2B marketer, how do you embrace this future?

• Invest in learning. Continuous learning is key. Instead of running away from AI tools, learn how they work and integrate them into your workflows
• Think customer-centric. AI's true potential shines when you're customer-centric. Dive deep into understanding customer behaviors and use AI to refine and perfect your strategies
• Collaborate and integrate. Don't work in silos. Foster collaboration between tech teams and marketing departments. Seamless integration of AI into marketing strategies is the key to maximizing ROI
• Experiment and iterate. The future is now, but it's also ever-evolving. Be ready to test new AI tools, iterate strategies, and adapt. Flexibility is your ally in the AI-driven world
• Always add a human touch. Remember, while AI can process data, humans process emotions. The human touch keeps your campaigns relatable and authentic

The impact of personalization and AI in B2B marketing has been nothing short of revolutionary. Modern technologies have transformed how businesses connect with clients and optimize their marketing efforts.

It’s time to jump on the AI bandwagon. Remaining current with the latest trends will help you stay relevant to your customers and keep up with the competition. Where one bad experience can cost you, one positive customer experience can help you win the game.

The combination of personalization and AI offers boundless possibilities to deliver exceptional results. By leveraging these technologies innovatively, you can build deeper connections and increase revenue in this ever-changing marketplace.

If done right, you'll be able to win loyal customers in no time. Here’s to your new and improved customer experience strategy!

Editor's Note: Sarah Shaheen, a freelance B2B SaaS writer specializing in writing data-driven blog posts around sales, marketing, and productivity management, contributed research and writing for this article.