Have you been thinking about adding predictive marketing technology into your marketing stack, but aren’t sure where to start? Then you’re in the right place.

You’ve likely been hearing about how predictive technology can help improve the way you interact with your customers and create more effective marketing campaigns. Predictive technology provides you with a way to stand out from the crowd and have a leg up on the competition — but you have to understand what it is first.

That’s exactly what we’ll cover in this article. Here’s a quick look at the topics we’ll cover:

• Predictive marketing 101
• Benefits of adopting predictive marketing
• How to use predictive marketing as part of your marketing strategy
• The Top Predictive Marketing Software Platforms

Predictive Marketing 101

Predictive marketing is the idea of using data to help drive intelligent decision-making. It takes the customer data you already have and turns it into actionable insights that can predict what marketing actions are most likely to succeed.

Predictive marketing technology can help you to achieve higher performing campaigns, increase customer lifetime value, increase employee engagement, and much more. By using various types of predictive technology, you can continuously improve your current marketing efforts.

When it comes to developing effective marketing campaigns, predictive marketing can make a big impact. By using real customer data you can make data-driven decisions that are much more likely to engage and convert your audiences.

There are tons of different ways that you can use predictive technology in your marketing strategy. To help you start the visualize it, here are a few examples, shared by CIO, of how some organizations are already using predictive analytics:

• Automotive: studying driver behaviors to develop better driver assistance technologies and the autonomous vehicle in the future
• Financial services: forecast financial market trends to better prepare for future market shifts
• Manufacturing: predict the location and rate of machine failures to reduce downtime and potential injury
• Retail: use real-time data to determine if sharing additional product information or incentives will increase the likelihood of a future purchase

Predictive marketing allows you to create a personalized experience for your audiences that provides them with the content they need before they even knew they needed it. It’s a very powerful tool that can keep audiences engaged and continuously coming back for more.

Benefits of Adopting Predictive Marketing

There are a number of ways businesses benefit from adopting predictive marketing efforts. Whether that is by better understanding who their customers are to improve campaigns or creating more loyal customers — it’s well worth the investment. Let’s take a quick look at a few of the benefits predictive marketing will bring your business.

Increased Revenue and Higher Return on Investment

Predictive marketing can provide you with a higher return on investment and directly impact your business revenue.

By having a better understanding of your customer data, you can pinpoint how customers are interacting with your current content and use that information to create more customized messages. These messages are much more likely to resonate with audiences and bring a user back to your site to convert.

Having the ability to collect and analyze data to understand what happened and why it happened will allow you to plan for what comes next. With these insights, you can predict and plan for future customer behaviors, which can result in drastic improvements in campaign performance and ROI.

Here are just a few examples of how you can increase ROI and impact revenue through predictive marketing:

• Predict customer churn and develop campaigns to re-engage these audiences
• Grow customer lifetime value by understanding what customers are willing to make a full-priced purchase versus those who won’t purchase without a coupon
• Know how likely customers are to open and engage with your emails to pinpoint the frequency you should be sending messages
• Identify who your most loyal customers are and encourage them to continue to visit your site

When it comes to predictive technology, there are many different ways to increase ROI for successful campaigns. Understanding your customer data will present you with opportunities to reach your customers at the right moment, with the right content.

Improve Your Customer Experience

Not only will you be creating more effective marketing campaigns that bring in higher revenue dollars, but you’ll also be improving the experience for your customers. Having a good customer experience is becoming a very important element for businesses.

In fact, many customers will choose to purchase from a company that provides them with a great customer experience over the price of the product.

Consumers are putting less weight on price and product and more on customer experience. This means that if you provide an amazing customer experience, consumers will be more likely to purchase and come back to your company for their needs.

So how does predictive marketing improve the customer experience? Through personalization and providing customers with the content, they need at the right time.

Consider how these examples provide a positive experience for a customer:

• After a large purchase, the customer received an email with a guide on how to care for their new product
• Receiving product recommendations based on previous purchases that are just what the customer was looking for
• A new show pops up on their video streaming platform that is relevant to their interests and watches history

Improving your brand’s customer experience will provide you with both short and long-term benefits. From increasing sales through product recommendations to building loyal fans, customer experience is an important element that predictive marketing can help improve.

How to Use Predictive Technology As Part of Your Marketing Strategy

Predictive marketing can play a big role in your marketing strategy. From improving personalization to sending relevant product recommendations, it can all be done through predictive technology.

With the right data, the possibilities are endless. You can pinpoint new ways to reach and attract your audiences. In this section, we’ll take a look at a few different ways to incorporate predictive technology into your marketing campaigns.

Predictive Product Recommendations

As you gather customer data, you’ll start to see trends and patterns in the things they’re purchasing or browsing. This provides you with valuable insights that can be turned into product recommendations that move users down the funnel towards a conversion.

Personalized product recommendations can increase the average order value and with the help of predictive technology, you can see even higher results.

Product recommendations are a great way to increase average order value. By providing customers with recommendations based on the products they’re purchased before, you’re increasing your chance of selling more products. Image courtesy of Barilliance.

Here are a few examples of how you can easily integrate predictive product recommendations into your marketing strategy:

• Customers that have purchased X also purchased Y, so you should always send someone who purchased X recommendations to purchase product Y
• Certain items are usually purchased together, so you should display these items together
• Promote best selling products from the customer’s favorite category
• Share new products with customers and make it more customized by only sharing the content their most interested in

Predictive product recommendations are a great way to bring users back to your stores to purchase more. It’s one of the most effective and direct ways to increase revenue and keep your customers engaged.

Predictive Content Recommendations

The idea behind predictive content recommendations is very similar to that of predictive product recommendations — it’s all about getting the right content, to the right person, at the right time.

Predictive content recommendations are generally driven by machine learning technology that learns what the most relevant content to show each user is. This technology targets a specific user, rather than a larger segment or group of customers, which is what makes it so unique.

Predictive content recommendations are driven by the user, not lookalike or those who have similar profiles. That’s what makes this content so much more appealing to the customer and increases engagement rates. Image courtesy of Towards Data Science.

Content is distributed to users based on their previous actions, behaviors, or future intents. That is why this type of content can make a big impact on a user and encourage them to engage with the information they’re receiving.

Having the right data will allow you to provide your customers with the most relevant content to their needs and let you know when they need it most. And luckily with the right automation tool, all of this can be done behind the scenes and automatically.

Predictive Lead Scoring

You’ve likely heard of traditional lead scoring and you may already be doing this as part of your own day-to-day process. Predictive lead scoring takes that process to the next level by analyzing all of the customer data you have available.

This happens with the help of machine learning and AI. These technologies can sift through your contact database and produce structured reporting and insights based on your customer behaviors and trends.

Predictive lead scoring can be a very beneficial tool. In fact, many companies that are already using this technology believe it’s more valuable than traditional lead scoring.

Companies that have already made the investment in predictive lead scoring are happy with their results. They’re finding that it provides more value than traditional lead scoring techniques and they plan to continue using the technology in the future. Image courtesy of Upland Software.

Here are just a few of the benefits you can expect to get when using predictive lead scoring technology:

• Automatic data processing will save you time
• Improved quality and accuracy of lead scores by using rules and weights
• Look for common and uncommon traits in your hot leads
• Keep lead scores up-to-date with real-time customer behavior tracking

Predictive lead scoring will allow you to better target customers based on where they fall within the sales funnel. Having the ability to target when a consumer is likely to convert allows you to provide them with the most relevant experience possible, resulting in more sales.

The Top Predictive Marketing Software Platforms

While it might seem overwhelming at first, integrating predictive technology into your marketing strategy doesn’t have to be a difficult task. There are many software and platforms available to help make managing your data easier than ever before.

In this section, we’ll take a look at a few of the top predictive marketing software platforms available and give you a quick overview of each. No matter what company you choose to work with, making the investment into a management platform will be one you won’t regret.

Listrak

Listrak is an integrated digital marketing platform that will provide you with everything you need to integrate predictive analytics into your marketing campaigns. By using historical customer data you can predict future behaviors and send personalized content based on real-time interactions.

Use your customer data to learn more about who your customers are and predict what their future needs will be. Knowing what customers are more likely to purchase with a coupon or when to send a message can make the difference between a high and low converting message.

Predictive Marketing Capabilities:

• Use predictive models to predict things like future spend and lifecycle stages, likelihood to make a purchase, coupon affinity, and more
• Know when to send your marketing messages for the highest performance with Listraks’ Predictive Delivery algorithms
• Learn what products your customers are interested in and begin to serve them product recommendations that encourage them to convert
• Leverage automated predictive segmentation to ensure you’re sending your customers the right information based on their data history

Here’s what their customers are saying:

“A data-driven, easy to use tool for marketers to automate their SMS, email, and CRM programs.” – Listrak Customer Testimonial

Pricing: Pricing is customized and based on specific business needs, you’ll need to contact a Listrak representative to learn more.

Website: https://www.listrak.com/

Additional capabilities: Email, SMS, social, mobile push, direct mail, and more

DataRobot

DataRobot is an enterprise AI platform that can help businesses make data-driven, automated decisions. With solutions for nearly every industry and company need, DataRobot has the tools you need to achieve all of your advanced marketing goals.

DataRobot provides you with a centralized platform to manage all of your data-driven initiatives. Whether you’re looking to automate your process, better understand your customers, or understand what your competitors are doing, it’s all possible with this platform.

Predictive Marketing Capabilities:

• Optimize each message you send to your customers and provide product recommendations to drive sales
• Increase customer loyalty by having the ability to predict what offers and program elements will result in higher customer engagement
• Predict net promoter scores and potential customer churn through machine learning and automation
• Analyze competitor prices and offerings to keep your products competitively priced

Here’s what their customers are saying:

“Data-driven marketing communications result in subscribers receiving fewer, better-targeted emails which strengthen relationships between DR Koncerthuset and its subscribers.” – DataRobot Customer Testimonial

Pricing: Pricing is customized and based on specific business needs, you’ll need to contact a DataRobot representative to learn more.

Website: https://www.datarobot.com/

Additional capabilities: This platform has solutions to meet the needs of various industries and business roles.

IBM Watson Studio

IBM Watson Studio provides businesses with a platform that allows them to build and scale their AI capabilities. From finding ways to optimize scheduling to building stronger relationships through AutoAI technology, this platform can help your business grow.

IBM Watson Studio allows you to build models to better understand your data from discovery to outcome. You’ll also have the technology you need to make educated predictions based on real-time data.

Predictive Marketing Capabilities:

• Optimize schedules, plans, and resources allocation by predicting potential outcomes
• Utilize AutoAI technology to explore relationships and build models to increase automation
• Easily build automated workflows and models with an intuitive drag-and-drop platform
• Use ModelOps to synchronize cadence between application and model pipelines to optimize your AI and app experience

Here’s what their customers are saying:

“IBM Watson: Top-notch tool with lots of security features.” — IBM Watson Studio Review

Pricing: There are several plan options available to meet the needs of various businesses. Review the plan options to determine what option is best for your business.

Website: https://www.ibm.com/cloud/watson-studio

Additional capabilities: This platform provides you with a number of data science tools and integrates well with other platforms.

Qlik Sense

Qlik Sense is a data analytics platform that can help your business better understand the data you already have and capture new insights to improve your current marketing efforts. Whether you’re looking to identify particular customer patterns or improve customer segmentation efforts — Qlik Sense is a platform you’ll want to consider.

Qlik Sense provides a data analytics platform that provides you with the insights you need to make informed customer decisions. By understanding who your audience is and learning more about their behaviors and interests, you can plan future marketing campaigns with these insights in mind.

Predictive Marketing Capabilities:

• Gain a deeper understanding of the purchasing behaviors and patterns of your customers to predict future behaviors
• Analyze your website analytics to better target customers by knowing what they’re most interested in
• Segment customer groups to deliver higher ROI and increase conversion rates
• Use your customer data to make data-driven decisions, improve personalization, and make predictions on future behaviors

Here’s what their customers are saying:

“Using data and personalization, we’ve extended our print brand to digital, and it’s attracted over 100 million users.” – Qlik Sense Customer Testimonial

Pricing: Pricing is customized and based on specific business needs, you’ll need to contact a Qlik Sense representative to learn more.

Website: https://www.qlik.com/us/

Additional capabilities: This platform has solutions to meet the needs of various industries and business roles.

SAP Analytics Cloud

SAP Analytics Cloud brings together technology like business intelligence, augmented and predictive analytics, and planning capabilities into one centralized platform. This platform will allow you to manage all of your data needs at scale.

With the SAP Analytics Cloud, you’ll get an end-to-end analytics experience. By tracking and analyzing data you’ll have a full picture of who your customers are and how to best reach them for the most optimal results.

Predictive Marketing Capabilities:

• Leverage one platform to discover, analyze, plan, and predict customer behaviors and interactions across all devices
• Use predictive forecasting and machine learning tools to uncover top performing influencers and make educated planning decisions
• Predict outcomes and automate predictive planning with the help of augmented analytics
• See all of your important analytics in one central platform to make more informed decisions

Here’s what their customers are saying:

“Watson Studio helped our business problems have better solutions.” — IBM Watson Studio Customer Review

Pricing: Pricing is customized and based on specific business needs, you’ll need to contact an SAP representative to learn more.

Website: https://www.sap.com/products/cloud-analytics.html

Additional capabilities: The SAP Analytics Cloud is specifically used for data and analytics, but SAP has various other platforms available.

TIMi

TIMi provides businesses with a real-time analytics engine that gives them the power to harness their customer data and develop highly effective touchpoints. With a team full of machine learning, AI, big data, and business intelligence specialists, you’ll be in good hands with the TIMi platform.

Having the right tool can make all the difference when it comes to understanding and using customer data. Whether you’re looking to improve the customer experience or learn what channels provide the highest ROI — it can all be done with TIMi.

Predictive Marketing Capabilities:

• Listen to customer data insights to improve the customer experience and provide your audiences with the right content when they need it most
• Use precise and accessible predictive models to help form strategic decisions to improve your business
• Gain access to automated reports that keep you up-to-date and visualize your customer data
• Build predictive models to ensure you’re using the right channels and interaction points to maximize your ROI

Here’s what their customers are saying:

“We reduced by 10% the churn on the customer segment with the highest churn rate.” — TIMi Customer Testimonial

Pricing: Pricing is customized and based on specific business needs, you’ll need to contact a TIMi representative to learn more.

Website: https://timi.eu/

Additional capabilities: This platform is mainly used to provide deep insights into customer data and drive strategic decision-making.

RapidMiner

RapidMiner is a data science platform that can help you integrate predictive marketing technology into your current strategy. Whether you’re looking to know what customers are at risk of churning or need to understand what future product demand will look like — RapidMiner has the tools you need.

RapidMiner is a great tool for businesses looking to leverage predictive marketing technology. You’ll have the resources you need to collect, analyze, report, and react to customer data. With RapidMiner, you’ll quickly improve your current marketing efforts and start seeing results in no time.

Predictive Marketing Capabilities:

• Predict which customers are at risk of churning and put a plan in place to bring them back to an active status
• Predict and pinpoint the customers who are more likely to provide future revenue and have the highest lifetime value
• Forecast future demand to be prepared for future needs and have the demand your customers need
• Use machine learning to provide customers with the next best action based on their real-time interactions with your brand

Here’s what their customers are saying:

“Rapidminer is the one-stop shop for creating and delivering data science solutions.” — RapidMiner Customer Testimonial

Pricing:  Pricing is customized and based on specific business needs, you’ll need to contact a RapidMiner representative to learn more.

Website: https://rapidminer.com/

Additional capabilities: This platform focuses on providing businesses with the data they need to improve the customer experience.

Board

Board is a decision-making platform that helps businesses make strategic, data-driven decisions. It allows you to easily manage and understand your data to turn it into actionable insights.

Board provides you with the data insights you need to make strategic business decisions. By having all the data you need in one central location, you can save time and have a holistic view of your data. This allows you to understand and predict your customer needs to improve your marketing campaigns.

Predictive Marketing Capabilities:

• Automate the building of data mining and predictive models for ease of development
• Use business intelligence to explore your data by creating easy to use, interactive reports and dashboards
• One centralized platform that allows you to see all of your data and insights in one central location
• Stimulate what-if analysis based on customer data and use those to plan and predict future needs

Here’s what their customers are saying:

“With Board, we have significantly increased the accuracy and speed of our forecasting, and are now in the position to continuously balance supply and demand. Our Board-based Integrated Planning Solution gives us a clear competitive edge.”  — Board Customer Testimonial

Pricing:  Pricing is customized and based on specific business needs, you’ll need to contact a Board representative to learn more.

Website: https://www.board.com/en

Additional capabilities: This platform focuses on providing businesses with the data they need to improve the customer experience

Alteryx

Alteryx is a data automation platform that can help your business understand the data you have from across various platforms and interfaces and bring it into one comprehensive view. With the help of technology such as machine learning and natural language processing, you can make that data go even further.

Alteryx provides you with an easy-to-use platform that allows you to get the data insights you need. With this tool, you can bring all of your customer data together to identify trends and patterns that allow you to predict future needs.

Predictive Marketing Capabilities:

• Bring all of your customer data together across platforms including social media, Salesforce, automation platforms and more
• Automate data-driven processes and develop triggered actions that engage your users based on real-time behaviors
• Tap into machine learning, natural language processing, visual text mining, and more to better understand your customer data
• Use all of this customer data to start to learn and predict what your audiences want and need from your brand

Here’s what their customers are saying:

“As a global bank, our clients count on us for solutions and advice. To meet these demands, data is critical to our digital transformation initiatives. Integrated automation platforms enable us to not only accelerate our analytics and data science to provide the best quality service and automate many processes, but they also upskill thousands of people across the bank and allow them to add even more value” — Alteryx Customer Testimonial

Pricing:  Pricing is customized and based on specific business needs, you’ll need to contact an Alteryx representative to learn more.

Website: https://www.alteryx.com/

Additional capabilities: This platform provides businesses with an array of data analytics and science tools.

Predictive Technology Can Take Your Marketing Strategy to the Next Level

Predictive marketing is something that isn’t going away and if you haven’t already made the decision to adopt the technology, now’s a perfect time.

By better understanding your customers, you can provide them with hyper-personalized marketing experiences that drive them towards converting. Knowing exactly what they need, the moment they need it will put your brand in their inbox at the precise moment they’re ready to make a purchase.

However you choose to implement predictive marketing into your strategy, you won’t be disappointed.

So what are you waiting for? Get started implementing predictive marketing into your marketing plans and find the platform that works best for your needs.