Here we’ll focus on AI tools and examples that work best for B2B content marketers. We’ll show you how to level up your inbound lead generation and scale effective ABM programs with better data to feed into AI marketing tools.

What does AI mean?

Artificial Intelligence. That’s it! The phrase AI is purely a buzzword though, in reality, it’s a data set and generative model. If you’ve ever played a game against a computer, chess, video games, whatever, you’re playing against AI. These AI may not write you a short story or create an image from the phrase “giant dog eats a tiny burger,” but it’s software all the same. The more uses it gets, the larger the data set, and so the more accurate the generative model can be. Without the data set, these models would not function. This is where a lot of debate around the rights behind AI comes in. However, that discussion isn’t going to be had here.

There are, of course, plenty of examples outside of content creation that include automation in email marketing, personalization features, and even editing tools.

Uses of AI in B2B content generation

AI is ramping up to being used a LOT in various content types for B2B lead generation. Whether you need a blog post written quickly or a ‘new’ image, these models are quickly becoming a near essential tool for content marketing teams who need to produce a variety of engaging content.

ChatGPT, Bard AI, and chatbots

Conversational chatbots such as Google’s Bard or ChatGPT are great for content marketing teams who need lots of copy in a short time frame. The results aren’t perfect, so editing will always need to be considered, especially as the copy often reads as though someone is talking down to you. However, the ability to ask for a specific blog post or blog framework, with different headings and subheadings, created within seconds on a topic you may not be familiar with, is invaluable.

MidJourney, DALL-E, and other image generators

Image generators such as MidJourney have been at the center of the debate over the ethics of AI. This is because there is heavy debate over whether the data it’s pulling from has permission for such use – almost always hard copies of existing work, and in some cases even including artists’ signatures. In the world of content marketing, finding the right image to properly display your point is often challenging. Stock imagery usually looks bland and generic with the best examples getting expensive quickly. Creating new assets that will be used once and need quick turnaround, takes time away from busy content creation teams who will be working on far more important projects.

AI for B2B content marketing: Automated content journeys

AI for content marketing is all about the automation of processes that don’t need to be done by a human – or would take far too long to be a viable task. These decisions and automations are based on data collection and analysis done for you by the tool.

B2B marketers use a variety of content types, from thought leadership to webinars and video explainers. Sales cycles are longer and marketers plan content to capture leads and then keep them interested and moving along the sales, or lead magnet funnel. There’s a huge amount of content to create and organize that targets thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of prospects who are all at different stages of interest.

For B2B companies, tools such as HubSpot are priceless. AI helps content marketers automate segmentation and can find the right customer profiles, see who clicked links, or opened certain emails, their stage in your sales funnel, and decide who to send a relevant email to. This can be for something as simple as a follow-up nurture email to someone subscribing to your newsletter. You can even manage complex automation tasks, and identify someone who only clicks links related to sales topics and make sure they don’t receive an email about accounting.

Data-driven insights for informed decision making

Predictive analytics for customer behavior

AI-driven predictive analytics have become indispensable tools for B2B marketers seeking to understand customer behavior and preferences. By analyzing vast amounts of data, AI algorithms can identify patterns and trends, providing marketers with invaluable insights into what drives customer decisions. This enables businesses to tailor their B2B  content marketing efforts more precisely and optimize content, timing, and targeting to maximize engagement and conversions.

Data mining for market segmentation

Market segmentation is crucial for delivering tailored messaging to specific audiences, and AI-powered data mining has elevated this practice to new heights. AI algorithms can sift through extensive datasets to identify segments based on various criteria such as industry, company size, and purchasing behavior. This leads to highly targeted campaigns that resonate with individual segments, increasing the likelihood of generating leads and nurturing relationships.

Personalization at scale

Dynamic content generation

Personalization has become a hallmark of effective B2B content marketing, and AI is a driving force behind achieving personalization at scale. Through natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning, AI can dynamically generate content that is highly relevant to individual prospects. Whether it’s personalized emails, website content, or product recommendations, AI ensures that each interaction feels tailored, to enhance engagement and foster deeper connections.

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) refinement

AI augments the practice of account-based marketing by providing marketers with tools to identify and prioritize the most promising accounts. By analyzing a range of data points, such as past interactions, firmographics, and intent signals, AI can guide B2B marketers in crafting highly targeted ABM strategies. This results in more efficient resource allocation, focused engagement, and, ultimately, higher conversion rates.

Let’s take a look at some examples of AI-powered tools that help B2B content marketers drive profound, data-rich results.

HubSpot

HubSpot has many automation features that are essential to many businesses. One such feature is its suggested headlines and SEO-optimised content creation.

Marketo

Backed by media giant Adobe, Marketo uses Adobe Sensei in its AI features. Marketo itself is a marketing automation platform and uses ‘Predictive Content’ to help personalize content at scale. This tool helps to segment your audience and choose content specifically relevant to them. By scouring your website, it will suggest specific marketing materials that can be passed on to a lead to help them through their content journey. This can be personalized by you, too, to ensure that only the content you want to be shown is suggested.

Turtl

With over 320 billion data points in its big dataset, Turtl uses AI to help benchmark content performance across teams, companies, and even industries. Users receive in-app messages to help them create better-performing content as they create.

Turtl’s Personalization Engine can scale personalized content for thousands of accounts at a time. This is extremely exciting for 1:Many ABM marketers, saving teams huge amounts of time. Using personalization with individual account data stored on CRMs like Marketo and HubSpot makes highly tuned automation easy – and Turtl integrates with both CRMs, among others.

Experts in the space, strategicabm, completely overhauled their ABM results by combining data.

Turtl was integrated with Drift – their website communication tool – for harmonizing data between Drift and Turtl Analytics. This gave the Marketing department highly relevant data to feed into CRM AI processes for more successful ABM projects. Read about the process in this Turtl Doc.

Click to read strategicabm + Turtl | Case study

Turtl takeaway

As AI continues to evolve, its role in B2B content marketing becomes increasingly pivotal. From data-driven insights to personalized content experiences and campaign optimization, AI offers a wide array of tools that empower businesses to create more effective, efficient, and customer-centric marketing strategies. By embracing AI’s capabilities, content marketers can navigate the complexities of the modern content marketing landscape with greater confidence and achieve remarkable results.