Marketing and sales are constantly changing—and our strategies need to change with them. With this in mind, we interviewed the world’s leading experts in sales, marketing, and innovation to provide a forecast and insight into 2018 and beyond. Here are some of their key insights on what to expects for the rest of the year:

Businesses Will Find New Ways to Leverage Artificial Intelligence

AI is effective for solving problems, and increasing the ease of the decision-making process. Machine learning– a subset of AI – will be particularly important in 2018 and beyond. Machine learning allows computers to react to situations via analysis, self-training, observation, and experience. This allows platforms such as Google and Facebook to deliver more relevant information quickly, based on previous user preferences—meaning optimization and targeting efforts are set to improve dramatically.

The Ability to Track and Target Consumers Using Cross-Channel

Chuck Moxley, CMO of 4INFO argues that being able to identify consumers and deliver personalized messages across multiple platforms is crucial. The data gained from these interactions allow for continuous analysis and optimization of campaigns, as they run. By reaching customers where they are, we’ll be able to improve conversions and the conversion experience.

Sales and Marketing Teams will Begin to Merge into a Single, Unified Revenue Optimization Machine

This may be a foreign strategy for most businesses, but merging sales and marketing departments is crucial, because they have the same overarching goal – revenue generation. By leveraging the data on every customer, opportunities for improved nurture campaigns, customer journeys, and sales opportunities can be communicated seamlessly between the two parallel teams—decreasing miscommunications and rivalries between the departments.

Predictive Analytics will Help Improve Marketing ROI

Predictive analytics is crucial to both marketing and sales efforts—encompassing the ability to leverage data mining, statistical modeling, and machine learning to predict possible outcomes. For marketers we can optimize our campaigns based on consumer analytics reports that provide insights on past behavior, probable customer responses, and retention tactics. For sales teams, price-setting strategies can be better informed based on what will drive conversions and align with the customer base.

Prescriptive Analytics will Help Businesses Make Better Decisions

Prescriptive analytics goes hand-in-hand with predictive analytics, as predictive analytics tells us “What could happen?”, while prescriptive analytics tells us “What should we do?”. This means as marketers we can find out what will likely occur, why it will occur, and how to react and plan our efforts and messages to consumers.

Implementing these strategies will be difficult and take some time to master.

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