Waikato Business News March/April 2018

40 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS March/April 2018
Are you marketing intelligently?
Doing more with less, it’s a mantra that
every marketing manager has experienced.
It’s a very versatile phrase; often used as
motivation.
But for marketers who
have implemented the
use of Artificial Intelligence
(AI), it is their reality.
From running highly complex
personalised campaigns to
identifying customer behaviour
hidden in plain sight, AI
enables the modern marketer to
do more with less.
When it comes to sales and
marketing, the three big questions
are, who to contact, when
to contact them, and how to
contact them? Trying to answer
these questions is hard enough
at a national level, so at an
international level this is not
only difficult but also expensive.
But AI can help you with
this.
A Utah based company
called Insidesales.com uses AI
to help businesses by enabling
them to better identify who
to sell to and how to engage
them. Using a combination
of cross-company, global and
behavioural data with outcomes,
Insidesales.com solutions
enable sales teams to
improve the identification of
who they sell to and how they
sell to them which results in an
increased rate of won sales,
Once a prospect is identified,
very little is as important
as constant and appropriate levels
of contact.
Customer expectations
around the speed of replies
from businesses has been on
the rise and over time has
gone from the expectation of a
prompt reply to an immediate
reply.
Meeting such high customer
expectations is an exceptional
challenge specially when considering
the costs of having a
human first responder available
to answer every query and follow
up 24/7/365.
Enter Conversica, a AIM
company based in California.
Corversica, have created a software
for sales and marketing
that “fosters real conversations
to discover your most qualified
sales opportunities.”
Coversica, engages leads,
tailors request to get a response,
interprets lead responses, qualifies
your leads, alerts your
sales rep, and follows up with
the lead to ensure that everything
has gone smoothly. Their
client base consists of Oracle,
Microsoft, SAP, and EPSON
amongst others.
As increasing numbers of
transactions are carried out
online tried and tested sales
techniques used for upselling
and cross-selling have suffered.
This could be perceived as
a disadvantage, but a Seattle
based company called Amplero
has used AI to help their clients
solve this problem. Using
Amplero, clients were able to
increase the number of products
purchased per customer,
increase the number of conversions
from free trials to the paid
offering, and increase the spend
MARKETING MATTERS
> BY MEHRDAD BEHROOZI
Mehrdad (Merv) Behroozi is general manager of Hamilton graphic
design and web development company E9. Phone: 07 838 1188
Email: merv@e9.nz
per user.
Amplero’s AI Marketing
(AIM) solution was able to take
out the guess work involved in
upselling and cross selling. All
Amplero’s clients had to do
was to input available offers
and define when and to whom
the offers were to be served.
The AIM system used all
the data provided to it about the
customers to test and identify
marketing messages that would
be most likely to result in an
upsell.
There are plenty more
examples of how AI Marketing
solutions can be used and there
is a good collection of solution
providers in the current market.
What is important to understand
is that these solutions are
accessible to everyone. Small
to medium sized companies
and individuals can make use
of AIM just as effectively as
large companies with giant
marketing budgets.
The big question isn’t
whether you should use AI
Marketing, it is when can you
start?
Record crowd for Dingle event
A record crowd of more than 120 people
attended Lunch with Sir Graeme Dingle at
Waikato Stadium, a joint Waikato Chamber
of Commerce and Institute of Directors,
Waikato branch event.
Sir Graeme, famous for his
moutaineering exploits,
is considered to be “the
father of New Zealand outdoor
pursuits”. He is also
well known for founding the
Graeme Dingle Foundation
which has 25,000 young people
in its programmes each
year.
Sir Graeme’s humorous and
inspirational talk had a room
full of Waikato businesspeople
buzzing.
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Application criteria
5
Waikato branch is kindly sponsored by:
1. Susan-Jane Davies with Sir
Graeme Dingle.
2. Mark Junge and Megan
Beveridge.
3. Former Institute of Directors
Waikato chair, Margaret Devlin
and new chair, Simon Lockwood.
4. Tonia Cawood and Roger Wilson.
5. Emma Haddock and Stu
Davidson.
6. Rachel Karalus and Helen
Jarman.
7. Gillian Spry and Brad Saxton.
Waikato Branch Emerging Director Award (Disability Sector)
The Institute of Directors in
New Zealand (IoD) promotes
excellence in corporate
governance, represents
directors’ interests and
facilitates their professional
development through
education and training.
• Is an existing financial member of Waikato branch of IoD or would like to
become one.
• Would like to pursue a governance pathway
• Has demonstrated an interest in governance.
• Completion of application form and a written submission, maximum
1,500 words, as to why the applicant should be considered for the
Emerging Director Award
• Must have a disability or have a close family member with a disability.
Award - total value $5,000
• Complimentary membership with IoD for 12 months
• Complimentary attendance at all branch functions for 12 months
• Mentoring with experienced director for 12 months
• $4,000 towards IoD professional development (must be spent in current year)
• 'Director Development'* position for 12 months with Life Unlimited
* The emerging director will have the right to participate in board and audit committee meetings but
will not be able to vote on any board resolution. The successful applicant will be required to sign
a confidentiality agreement with the sponsoring board. The position will be unpaid.
This award in
association
with:
Applications close at 5.00 pm, Monday 23 July 2018.
To obtain an application form please contact our Branch
Manager, Megan Beveridge, email:
waikato.branch@iod.org.nz, tel 021 358772, fax 07 8547429.