What is Signal-Based Marketing?

Are you looking for innovative, future-proof ways to drive revenue? Then you definitely need to consider shifting your thinking to a digital-first mindset. Two opportunities that B2B marketing leaders should consider are signal-based marketing and the metaverse. Both of these strategies present challenges due to their complexity but they also provide the marketing organization with incredible insight into buyer preferences that can help the organization outperform its competitors.

Read on to discover how both of these unique digital-first approaches can help you leapfrog competitors and drive better revenue results!

What Signal-Based Marketing is and How It Works 

By mastering signal-based marketing, companies can listen more effectively and maximize their reach by centering efforts around those who are ready, willing, and able to buy.

Signal-based marketing refers to the practice of using data signals or digital cues from consumers' behavior to inform marketing efforts. These signals can include a range of data points, such as search queries, browsing history, purchase history, location data, and social media activity. By analyzing these signals, marketers can gain insights into consumers' interests, preferences, and behaviors, and use that information to deliver targeted and relevant marketing messages. 

Signal-based marketing is often used in conjunction with other data-driven marketing strategies, such as audience segmentation and personalized messaging, to help improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Using this strategy can help to reduce the vast amount of noise that marketers get from all the interactions that buyers or customers are having with the brand.  

Leveraging AI to Analyze Customer Signals

AI can help companies identify patterns and relationships in customer data that would be difficult for humans to uncover on their own. These types of tools can help your marketing organization understand what customers think and feel, allowing you to make data-driven decisions that will benefit your customers and your bottom line.

By analyzing social media posts, customer service interactions, and other data sources, AI can identify patterns that you might have missed, like whether your customers are happy, frustrated, or confused. This information lets you quickly address any concerns or issues and improve the overall customer experience (CX).

While leveraging AI and customer signals is a powerful combination, it takes time and expertise to incorporate this type of strategy. Below are some of the key steps that need to be taken to start analyzing customer signals leveraging AI:

Step 1: Collect customer signals

The first step in using AI to analyze customer signals is to collect the relevant data. This can include data from a variety of sources such as customer relationship management systems, social media, customer reviews, emails, call center notes, chatbots, and more. The goal is to collect as much data as possible to get a comprehensive view of the customer's behavior and preferences.

Step 2: Clean and preprocess the data

Once the data has been collected, it needs to be cleaned and preprocessed. This involves removing any irrelevant or duplicate data, and ensuring that the data is in a format that can be analyzed by AI algorithms. This step is critical to ensure that the AI models can accurately analyze the data and produce meaningful insights.

Step 3: Train an AI model

The next step is to train an AI model on the preprocessed data. This involves using machine learning algorithms to identify patterns and trends in the data. The AI model can be trained to identify customer sentiment, preferences, and behavior based on the signals collected in Step 1.

Step 4: Validate the model

Once the AI model has been trained, it needs to be validated to ensure that it is producing accurate results. This involves testing the model on a set of data that it has not seen before and comparing the model's predictions to actual outcomes. If the model is not accurate, it may need to be adjusted or retrained.

Step 5: Use the insights to improve CX 

The final step is to use the insights generated by the AI model to improve the customer experience. This can involve a variety of strategies, such as personalized marketing messages, targeted product recommendations, and improved customer service. By using AI to analyze customer signals, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their customers and provide a more tailored and personalized experience.

Understanding the Metaverse and its Opportunities for Marketers

As a marketing leader, you have no doubt heard of the metaverse, but do you truly understand its potential for B2B marketers? Most leaders don’t. In fact, 18 percent of brand marketing and analytics executives said that they understood the metaverse.

The metaverse is a virtual space where users can interact through avatars, engage in activities, and potentially even complete transactions. It's a culmination of virtual reality, augmented reality, and the Internet of Things (IOT).

This immersive digital experience is a great opportunity for marketers to engage with users in a new and unique way and can provide of a wealth of customer signals being that it’s a completely digital experience. And while this technology is still in the early stages of its lifecycle, reports show that 30% of global organizations will offer products or services through the metaverse by 2026.

As the technology continues to evolve, B2B marketing leaders may want to adapt their strategies to fully leverage the potential of the metaverse and stay ahead of the curve. Brands can create virtual storefronts, host events, and even offer virtual experiences. Imagine creating a virtual reality test drive or hosting a live event within the metaverse. The possibilities are endless. As marketers, it's important to understand the metaverse and its potential as it presents a new frontier in the world of marketing.

Some of the key benefits of incorporating the metaverse into your marketing or GTM strategy include:

• Reduced travel costs: B2B enterprises can use the metaverse to reduce their travel costs by conducting meetings and collaborations virtually, without the need for airfare or hotel accommodations.

• Data-driven insights: The metaverse is a rich source of data that B2B companies can use to gain insights into customer behavior and preferences, as well as to improve their products and services.

• Immersive experiences: The metaverse allows B2B marketing leaders to create immersive experiences that showcase their products and services in a way that was previously impossible.

• Enhanced collaboration: The metaverse enables B2B marketing leaders to collaborate with clients and customers regardless of geographic location, providing an efficient and convenient means of communication.

• Increased engagement: By creating immersive experiences that allow customers to interact with products and services in new ways, B2B marketing leaders can increase customer engagement and satisfaction.

Ways to Engage with Customers in the Metaverse

By creating a presence in the metaverse, you can connect with your customers in ways that were never before possible. Engage with them by creating custom avatars that mirror your brand's image, host virtual events, or even offer AR product demos. The environment is truly a black canvas. By building a relationship with your customers in the metaverse early, you'll be able to create a loyal following and significant brand equity as more B2B buyers start to engage within the metaverse more frequently.

Key Takeaways:

1. Analyzing customer signals with AI helps your business and customers make data-driven decisions. AI can find hidden patterns in social media, customer service, and other data sources.

2. Custom avatars and virtual events are exciting ways for companies to engage with customers in the metaverse.

3. Signal-based marketing strategies in the metaverse must take into account personalization and user experience, which affect user behavior.

5. Increasing the organization's ability to listen digitally is a necessity to better understand buyer and customer needs.

Are you curious about how organizations can leverage the metaverse to drive revenue growth? Listen to the Signal-Based Marketing: Listening To Customers In The Metaverse With Gabe Larsen episode of The RevEngine™ Podcast where we talk about exploring ways B2B marketing leaders can leverage the metaverse for growth, using video more creatively, and how to increase our organization’s ability to turn customer signals into actionable insights.