March 30, 2016

Will Machines Soon Replace Marketers?

Decades ago it was fun to imagine a future in which robots and computers rule the world. Today, it’s almost a reality. In the marketing world, in particular, the onslaught of marketing automation and programmatic software has led to the automating of many processes that marketers used to do manually. As such, the idea of machines replacing marketers in the workplace isn’t a fantasy any longer.

In fact, a recent episode of “This Old Marketing,” a podcast narrated and produced by Content Marketing Institute’s Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose, tackles this subject, suggesting that, indeed, a computerized takeover is a legitimate concern for marketers.

The podcast points to a recent study that focuses on the types of marketing jobs that could actually be replaced by machines. The report revealed that there are 702 specific job titles that could be replaced by machines, many of which are in the marketing sector. Market research analysts and marketing specialists, in particular, have a 61 percent chance of being replaced by computers, according to the authors of this report, Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne.

So where does that leave creative strategists, content writers and visual designers? Can creative processes be automated by machines? With computers becoming increasingly sophisticated, it’s plausible that a portion of creative processes could be automated, but it’s not likely. To resonate with a human audience, creativity must stem from the human brain. The creative department could certainly use automated processes for administrative tasks such as blasting newsletters, scheduling social media posts or creating email drip campaigns, but the actual creation of content and the brainstorming of ideas simply cannot be done by a computer alone.

The aforementioned report supports the idea that creative processes cannot be automated, as Frey and Osborne calculated only a 3.8 percent chance that writers’ and authors’ jobs could be replaced.

Marketing technology is undoubtedly revolutionizing the ways companies complete repetitive tasks, buy media, distribute content and analyze customer data. However, superior content marketing comes from the human brain’s unique ability to meld insight and context with opinion and intuition. If you think that a machine can create compelling content for your social media accounts, blog site or email campaigns, think again. Reach out to a third-party content strategy vendor comprised of real writers who are eager to help you create an innovative content plan to boost your sales.





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