Blueshift Uses AI for Digital Marketing Customization | February 2024
Blueshift, a marketing automation startup, focuses on cross-channel customer engagement by leveraging data and artificial intelligence (AI).
Blueshift, a marketing automation startup, focuses on cross-channel customer engagement by leveraging data and artificial intelligence (AI). Blueshift gives clients access to its cross-channel marketing platform that adapts to each customer.
Inside cross-channel marketing
Cross-channel marketing refers to connecting and communicating with customers across multiple marketing channels. Digital marketing channels include social networks, content marketing, mobile and apps, email, search, and more.
One product Blueshift offers is GenAI for Personalization, an integration with OpenAI that uses generative AI and first-party customer data (i.e., information collected directly by a company from its customer base) to improve personalization and engagement.
What is Generative AI?
Generative AI uses artificial intelligence to produce new content including text, images, audio, and more. AI chatbots (e.g., ChatGPT), image generators (e.g., DALL-E), and other generative AI tools are changing digital marketing. These tools can be used to write copy, process customer data, answer common questions, automate routine tasks, translate documents, and more. OpenAI is the AI research organization behind ChatGPT.
With Blueshift’s product, marketers can easily generate content for various digital marketing channels with a personalized tone and style for each customer. For example, with email marketing, marketers can generate various email components such as subject lines, preheader text, and more that are customized to match different consumer interests and behaviors. Content can be generated from scratch, or marketers can start with content they created and have the tool adjust it. Additionally, the tone of a message can be customized based on factors such as age.
Doing more with first-party data
According to Blueshift, companies can do more with less data when they pair first-party data with AI. Google and other online platforms are phasing out third-party ad trackers. Because of this trend, which is good for user privacy but challenging for businesses, marketers are looking for new ways to leverage first-party data. First-party data is limited in its scale and scope compared to third-party data, but AI can potentially fill in some of the gaps.
Blueshift's co-founder and chief executive officer Vijay Chittoor says many companies engage with customers in silos throughout the customer journey rather than taking a cross-channel approach. Chittoor also points out that with data sets becoming increasingly complex, manual decision-making by individuals may not be as efficient as decision-making empowered by AI. By syncing customer data from the entire customer journey and making AI-driven decisions, Chittoor suggests customer engagement will increase across channels.
Blueshift's marketing automation competitors include HubSpot, Adobe, Oracle, and ActiveCampaign. Blueshift’s clients include housing rental platform Zumper, video creation tool Animoto, and online learning platform Skillshare.
In the Classroom
This article can be used to discuss digital marketing channels and email marketing (Chapter 13: Digital Marketing and Social Media).
Discussion Questions
- Name and describe three digital marketing channels.
- What is generative AI and how can businesses use it to their advantage?
- Describe how Blueshift uses AI to help clients customize their messages.
This article was developed with the support of Kelsey Reddick for and under the direction of O.C. Ferrell, Linda Ferrell, and Geoff Hirt.
Sources
Asa Hiken, “How Generative AI Is Creating Custom Content in Email Marketing,” AdAge, February 23, 2023, https://adage.com/article/digital-marketing-ad-tech-news/how-generative-ai-creating-custom-content-email-marketing/2475106
"Blueshift Brings Generative AI to Personalization," Yahoo! Finance, February 23, 2023, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blueshift-brings-generative-ai-personalization-140000295.html
Kyle Wiggers, "Blueshift, a Marketing Automation Startup, Raises $40M in Debt," Tech Crunch, January 23, 2024, https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/23/blueshift-a-marketing-automation-startup-raises-40m-in-debt/
Victor Dabrinze, "Leveraging AI to Supercharge Customer Engagement: Blueshift CEO Weighs In," SiliconANGLE, December 7, 2023, https://siliconangle.com/2023/12/07/leveraging-ai-supercharge-customer-engagement-blueshift-ceo-weighs-cubeconversations/
O.C. Ferrell is the James T. Pursell Sr. Eminent Scholar in Ethics and Director of the Center for Ethical Organizational Cultures in the Raymond J. Harbert College of Business, Auburn University. He was formerly Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Business Ethics at Belmont University and University Distinguished Professor at the University of New Mexico. He has also been on the faculties of the University of Wyoming, Colorado State University, University of Memphis, Texas A&M University, Illinois State University, and Southern Illinois University. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from Louisiana State University.
