Computers get smarter by the day. Savvy marketers have the chance to get smart with them.
Modern digital marketers are already familiar with basic concepts behind data analytics. In most cases, marketers pore over data they’ve collected from website visits, ad clicks, and social media interactions, figuring out how to make their properties more enticing.
That past- and present-focused form of analytics is powerful. But, it’s not the only option.
Predictive analytics allows you to look into the future. It’s like an AI-driven crystal ball that lets you peer into the future. It crunches the data at your disposal and gives you true future-focused advice, one step beyond the actionable insights of regular analytics.
Predictive B2B Analytics in a Nutshell: It’s About Pattern Recognition
Although today’s artificial intelligence has many limitations, there’s one thing it’s excellent at: Recognizing and acting on patterns. Machines can discover patterns in a data set of millions of interactions even the most perceptive analyst would find impenetrable.
Predictive B2B marketing analytics harnesses that power – applying statistical algorithms and machine learning to existing data – so you can assess what might happen in the future. Your brand won’t just be following trends – you’ll be predicting and preparing for them.
So, how does this look in practice?
There are a few common use cases, with more being developed regularly:
Prospecting
Predictive AI can build sophisticated models to determine which company characteristics and signals are truly aligned with a future purchase. That, in turn, empowers them to seek out similar prospects who are not yet represented within the database.
Lead Scoring
Lead scoring is one of the best ways to make sure you focus your attention on best-match leads. It could save you thousands of hours over a year. Predictive analytics can accelerate the process of making your scoring framework accurate and easy to use.
Customer Segmentation
Customer groups, personas, and sales stages are easier to understand than ever using predictive B2B analytics. Not only that, but you can correlate and compare leads on multiple dimensions in ways that were virtually impossible before.
Cross-Selling and Upselling
Cross-selling and upselling give you the opportunity to add a tremendous amount of value to your customer accounts. It’s easier to sell to an existing customer than to a new one, so you could find yourself adding millions to the bottom line this way.
The time to get started with predictive B2B analytics is now. Although these analytics platforms are becoming more robust by the day, they have yet to see widespread deployment. That makes them a powerful competitive differentiator rather than a true “must have.”
The future is predictive analytics. Get started soon or you might be left in the past.