Adobe GenAI Personalization Man with Hat

How can GenAI turn personal into personalized?

Photographic potrait of Duncan Avis
Duncan Avis

EY Americas Customer & Growth Leader

05 minute read 05 Nov 2024

Smarter marketing and sales tools are helping the manufacturing industry reach valued customers.

In brief:

  • Manufacturing companies are historically reliant on personal customer relationships, and emerging technologies can help maintain them.
  • The EY-Adobe team offers capabilities that help enhance marketing and sales efforts with a ready-made, pre-approved content supply chain.
  • Companies across sectors are realizing the promise of personalization at scale.

Smarter marketing and sales tools are helping the manufacturing industry reach valued B2B customers in new ways. Advanced manufacturing and mobility (AMM) companies are in a league of their own when it comes to customer engagement and sales strategies. Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a tremendous market advantage for leaders in this industry who are able to combine the right approach with the most effective tools.

For decades, large-scale industrial manufacturers have relied on individual, in-person relationships with their business customers for marketing and sales growth. It can be a slow cycle when you’re selling large, costly equipment, and personal contact has long been the key to closure.

Now companies are managing hundreds of products, thousands of customers, and diverse sales cycles across different regions. The sheer volume and variation make it cost-prohibitive to create personalized engagement with B2B customers through traditional, face-to-face means.

But technologies such as the Adobe Experience Platform (AEP), driven by the powerful engine of AI, can essentially replace face time with authentic, personalized digital interaction that saves both time and money for manufacturers and their customers alike.

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How EY can help

What holds AMM companies back?

In AMM, the main barriers to adopting emerging technologies are assumptions around the complexity and cost of implementing new systems, combined with a lack of awareness about the business advantages.

 

But outdated marketing and sales models are starting to fall short of the evolving expectations of manufacturing clients, who span a broad spectrum of business acumen, size, capacity and experience.

 

In a market where customers expect one-to-one, client-specific engagement through B2B sales channels, the future growth potential lies in targeted and personalized content – customized, digitally automated and scaled up to business objectives. Advanced digital tools such as the Adobe Experience Platform powered by generative AI (GenAI), can revolutionize the way manufacturers connect with their clients.

 

What is personalization at scale?

Adobe's wide-ranging capabilities use GenAI to offer an unprecedented level of personalization at scale.

 

An initial implementation helps the core marketing team build out a content supply chain – a robust, go-to set of pre-approved assets and quality branded content. These pieces can then be customized and remixed to create interactions that feel uniquely tailored to each customer, removing barriers to sales and reducing production costs.

 

Let’s say a marketer or salesperson wants to create an email tailored specifically to a particular farm, including images of the farm itself. Or they might develop a microsite co-branded for a distributor who serves customers in multiple states and languages. The Adobe platform gives them the tools, the steps and suggestions along the way.

 

This level of personalization, powered by Adobe and GenAI, allows sales and marketing teams to engage clients in meaningful exchanges, anticipate and deliver on evolving customer needs, and ultimately increase revenue, customer acquisition, conversion and retention.

Is there evidence of the benefits for AMM?

The use of GenAI and the Adobe digital capabilities in sales and marketing strategies has shown undeniable results. Companies that have leveraged personalized content report better sales outcomes, higher closure rates, and improved customer engagement. Although the metrics may vary, the overall trend tells us that personalization at scale can significantly enhance the success of sales and marketing efforts.

The EY-Adobe Alliances, leveraging Adobe tools infused with the power of GenAI, can help empower companies to create personalized customer content and reduce the pressure on traditional marketing and sales teams.

EY-Adobe teams take a broad approach to integrating GenAI and digital tools into the sales and marketing strategies of industrial manufacturing companies, resulting in end-to-end processes that are user-friendly, well accepted, cost-effective and successful for business growth.

What’s the bigger picture?

The journey to personalization at scale is not just about enhancing sales processes; it's about fundamentally transforming the way companies engage with their customers. AMM companies have as much to gain as any sector, and likely a lot more, due to the nature of their sales process and cycle.

By building customer awareness and generating leads for personalized sales, companies can anticipate and plan their marketing technology investments to empower scale at speed.

The integration of GenAI through digital tools like Adobe’s AEP platform is a dramatic shift toward more personalized, efficient and effective customer engagement for sales and marketing strategies.

EY teams collaborate, co-create and innovate with leading technology organizations to help us drive positive change for diverse clients every day. As companies increasingly recognize the value of personalization at scale, those who embrace these technologies will be ready to lead in their respective markets.

Summary

Manufacturing companies can no longer rely solely on traditional, in-person customer relationships to drive growth. Leveraging advanced tools like Adobe’s Experience Platform powered by GenAI, the EY-Adobe Alliance empowers manufacturers to scale personalized, digital engagement, enhancing customer experience and improving sales efficiency. By embracing these digital capabilities, manufacturers can break through common barriers, streamline processes, and connect meaningfully with clients across regions. This innovative approach not only transforms customer interactions but positions manufacturers to lead in customer loyalty and market growth through tailored, scalable solutions.

About this article

Photographic potrait of Duncan Avis
Duncan Avis
EY Americas Customer & Growth Leader
Trusted advisor, helping executives through complex transformations. Focused on value and outcomes balanced with the need to build the right culture for sustainable success.
Related topics
Technology
Transformation Realized
Alliances
Customer
Digital

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