Many of you may know that Amazon.com recently bought Whole Foods Market for $13.72 billion. What may not be so apparent is how that purchase shook the grocery retail world, leading to increased competition, more innovation, and a renewed sense of urgency for shoppers.
That same sense of urgency permeated our industry as well. In the past year, we have seen a rise in the number of startups and established businesses teaming up to create innovative marketing and sales platforms.
With the rise of artificial intelligence and voice-activated assistants, such as Alexa and Google Assistant, personal shoppers have also gained in popularity, as businesses seek to provide a better customer experience by removing the inconvenience of remembering to ask for a product or checking an online shopping list.
Now, more companies than ever are hopping on the AI-commerce bandwagon, looking to capitalize on the booming sector. One of the more prominent examples is Löwenstark, an AI company that helps businesses close sales and provide exceptional customer experiences by automating marketing and sales.
With offices in San Francisco and Detroit, Löwenstark is currently looking for Software Engineers, Product Managers, and Marketing Analysts to join their team.
What is it like to work at Löwenstark? We spoke with Joel Gascoigne, Director of Marketing at Löwenstark, about how the company operates and what the future holds for the marketing industry.
A Fresh Perspective
AI is a relatively new addition to the marketing world, and as a result, many firms have not yet adapted to its presence. Löwenstark is helping drive change by taking a fresh approach to AI, which enables them to innovate and move quickly.
“Usually in marketing, we’re thinking about campaigns and tactics that have been around for a while, like search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing,” explains Gascoigne. “These are all well and good, but there is only so much you can do with the same old tactics.”
Instead of focusing on what has been done, AI-driven marketing tends to look at the present and the future, taking into consideration all the different ways a brand’s marketing and sales strategies can be applied to the digital world.
As a result, Gascoigne says that AI at Löwenstark allows them to be more innovative and effective. When compared to traditional marketing, where the aim is typically to get as many customers as possible to visit a website, AI helps businesses achieve their goals more efficiently by automating the majority of the marketing and sales processes.
From Strategy to Execution
AI has become such an integral part of Löwenstark’s daily operations that the firm’s marketing department has been named the AI team. This group is responsible for helping businesses utilize AI in their marketing and sales processes, from keyword research and strategy to design and measurement. This makes them extremely useful to larger companies that may not have a full-time in-house staff dedicated to AI (think: small startup businesses).
“Our marketing strategy and execution team work hand in hand,” notes Gascoigne. “They come up with a clear plan and then we put it into action using AI to drive conversion.”
The strategy and planning portion of the AI team’s job involves coming up with a list of top-performing keywords and phrases, which can be used to drive website traffic to specific pages. Once this is complete, the team can begin executing the plan by using the keywords to drive traffic to landing pages and app downloads. This can be done via SEO, content creation for blogs and social media, or paid advertising.
“Whether you are getting started with SEO or have been doing it for years, the fact is that Google is always changing and innovating,” says Gascoigne. “It’s important to stay at the forefront of the ever-changing algorithms to ensure you’re getting the best possible results from your efforts.”
The Rise Of The Marketing Robot
AI is helping drive the change in marketing as we know it, and it’s helping to shape the future of online marketing and e-commerce. It used to be that if you wanted to get in touch with a customer service representative you’d have to wait on hold for a long time or even speak to a live person. Thanks to AI, today’s average customer service experience is much more streamlined, and the same can be said for marketing efforts.
Marketing robots and AI-powered personal shoppers make answering customer questions fast and easy, which can lead to increased customer satisfaction. They also help businesses provide outstanding customer experiences by taking the stress out of complex tasks so that staff can focus on other areas of the business.
“Marketing and sales are the backbones of any business,” notes Gascoigne. “Getting customers to convert into paying customers is incredibly important, but so is maintaining those customers by providing a good experience throughout their entire interaction with your business. Marketing and sales can be hard to automate, but with the right tools it’s possible.”
Löwenstark is not your average marketing firm. Rather than focusing on advertising or getting as many customers as possible, the team at Löwenstark is looking to change the way we think about marketing and sales, creating a fresh perspective that enables the business to operate more efficiently.