Let's get real: Microsoft Copilot for marketing and customer insights

Marketing is building an ongoing and engaging experience for your audience with authentic and compelling content, using images that resonate and inspire, powered by smart strategies, flawless execution, along with expertly chosen media placement. And, of course, data.

True marketing is a round-the-world journey and back again, not just a day trip or a long lunch. And in developing Copilot for marketeers, Microsoft clearly agrees.

Copilot for Dynamics 365 Marketing and Customer Insights delivers end-to-end marketing - from strategy and planning to creativity and execution across the entire journey. What does that mean in the world of marketing? What are the real-life wins?

“Marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed."

Dan Zarrella, award-winning social, search and viral marketing scientist, and author

While much has changed in marketing over the last decade, the basic principles of delivering the right messaging to the right people through the right medium have not. Doing one without the others is meaningless. And the better the data, the more personalised and powerful the message, the medium, and the outcomes.

According to McKinsey, 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalised interactions, and 76% get frustrated when this doesn't happen. Furthermore, says McKinsey, companies that excel at personalisation generate 40% more revenue from those activities than average players.

But we’re sure you know already, getting the data you need to excel at personalisation and segmentation is a challenge. 

To meet the now hyper-personalised expectations of today’s customers, marketers must have a deep understanding of their needs, drivers, and behaviour. However, much of this information is locked away in data platforms and managed by your gatekeepers: the data and analytics teams. So, it can take weeks to access and analyse the data using SQL queries, slowing down your ability to seize and capitalise on market opportunities.

Enter Copilot.

Using natural language, data analysts and marketers can engage directly with your customer data – saving significant time and effort. By typing in a query in their own words instead of identifying the query in SQL, instant insights abound. Your marketers have answers in seconds – no programming or queueing for resources is needed.

Microsoft Copilot offers simple prompts enabling your marketers to explore, understand, and predict your customer preferences and needs in real-time. Your marketers can also review customers’ lifetime value, product preferences, and more to validate their campaign strategy and use that knowledge to deliver highly relevant marketing communications. All without needing to turn to your already busy data and analytics team.

Suddenly, you’re #winningwithdata – but without the effort.

While we’ve highlighted Copilot's power to generate accurately segmented marketing lists, its talents extend far beyond that. Because now comes the fun part: Copilot will (when you ask it nicely) build all the campaign artefacts you need to leverage your data - not just content and graphics.

In short, Copilot moves beyond our current expectations of generative AI tools to that of a process generator - rolling up its sleeves to develop entire marketing strategies and tactics and suggest contextually appropriate content topics, content, and graphics based on your marketing brief. That might include blogs for the website, articles for LinkedIn, online ads, eBooks, emails, and more. Every component will meet your brand requirements (because you’ve trained it) and only access approved digital libraries for imagery and information.

Once presented, your marketers only need to review the proposal, fleshing it out or redacting where needed, before setting Copilot in motion to deliver refined creative elements and plans based on feedback.

Unlike many generative AI tools, Copilot supports the entire journey. But it doesn’t stop there. It can also track customer engagement, whether through clicks on digital advertising or email opens. Then, evaluate those metrics and make suggestions to further optimise the campaign. And there’s even talk of fulfillment becoming part of that Copilot marketing journey.

In some ways, yes.

But this is mainly because some of these marketing Copilot features are still in trial mode. So, watch this space.

However, you’ll soon have access to a junior marketer, copywriter, and designer who will not only make your marketing dollar go further but enable your marketing team to use their skills to add value and thought leadership, not do the donkey work. Your senior people will, in effect, efficiently be highly skilled curators, not creators. Trialing different marketing approaches (A/B testing, for example) to find one that resonates with customers and prospects will be affordable and fast, rather than requiring your beleaguered creatives to return to the drawing board for each iteration.

However, it’s important to remember that Copilot can’t and doesn’t act in a vacuum. To get real - that’s not its job.

Copilot’s ability to deliver meaningful output depends on human instruction and knowledge, so it needs to be in the hands of an experienced marketer who knows what good is and understands your business brand, goals, and strategies.