[Video] Human vs. Robot: Episode 1 – The A.I. Machine – A Humanized Marketing Messaging Series

Summary

In the first episode of our Human vs. Robot marketing message series for technology companies, we take a look at a marketing message from an Artificial Intelligence company. Who takes this one home? The human or the robot?

Here’s the Marketing Message that we are reviewing in today’s episode:

At Awesome A.I. Inc, we combine advanced machine learning, deep learning, advanced data analytics to deliver increased productivity.

Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is all the rave these days. Almost every new software technology startup is leveraging the powerful possibilities of A.I. in some capacity to make our lives easier. It’s exciting technology, and the full extent of how A.I. will change our lives entirely is yet to be seen. From quick automation of manual tasks to fully autonomous processes with no need for human interference, the future of Artificial Intelligence looks bright. Naturally, with such an exciting technology, it’s easy to make your marketing messages sound like it is written for data scientists. If your Artificial Intelligence solution caters to an audience that’s not in the data science field, it’s critical to take time to perform what we call a “human-check” to see if the everyday person can easily understand your message.

Robotic Marketing Message Analysis

To understand the scope of our Robotic Marketing Message Analysis, you first have to understand the concept of humanized technology marketing. To give a simple definition, humanized technology marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on building real connections with people that use your technology solutions. An easy way to remember this is if people read your marketing messages, they should understand what you are saying without needing to have a technology background. If you sound like you are buzz word heavy, chances are, you don’t look very human to the rest of us. Always imagine that you are having a conversation with your great aunt at a family gathering, and she wants you to explain what you do. You might lose her before the pot roast is ready if you keep going on and on about your technology.

Humanized Technology Marketing Assessment

At Brisque, we believe that much like an everyday conversation with another person, every humanized marketing message should have three main elements:

• It should make the audience feel like you listened
• It should make the audience feel like you empathized
• It should make the audience feel like they can see your dream

Again, always imagine that you are having a real conversation with a friend. Your goal is to sell a dream about a new and better world, where your technology solution solves a problem that your friend is having, and his life is dramatically improved because he implements your solution. To do so, however, your friend needs to feel like you understand his problem (you are listening). Your friend needs to feel like you connect with his pain (you are empathizing). Then, finally, you illustrate the world where your solution makes things better (you are creating the dream).

A lot of companies spend time talking about the world where their solution makes things better. Instead of focusing on selling the dream, which is how the solution benefits one’s life, many technology companies focus on talking about the knots and bolts of the solution. Imagine Apple trying to sell you an iPhone and then spending a lot of time talking about their Processor instead of the fact that you can now take pictures and use your phone for almost everything that you would do with a computer today. Certainly, the Processor is what makes the iPhone work, but you don’t care because you don’t plan on opening up the phone. You only care about how much the phone will improve your current lifestyle. Marketing your technology business, no matter the industry, is no different.

Robotic Marketing Message Analysis for Awesome A.I. Inc.

Now, that we understand the elements needed for a humanized message, let’s analyze and grade our marketing message based on the humanized marketing elements – listen, empathize, and dream.

Here’s the message again:

At Awesome A.I. Inc, we combine advanced machine learning, deep learning, advanced data analytics to deliver increased productivity.

Human vs. Robot Messaging Grading

1. Does this audience feel like you listened? Does the author understand their pain? – No, there is no mention of the audience’s pain.

Winner: Robot

2. Does the audience feel like the author empathized with their pain? Is there a connection between the pain and the solution? – No, there is no connection because it doesn’t mention the pain.

Winner: Robot

3. Does the audience feel like they can imagine a dream world where the solution makes their life better? – No, no one goes to bed dreaming about what artificial intelligence, advanced deep learning, and advanced analytics look like (perhaps some people do ????). Generally, these words are not very tangible.

Winner: Robot

Ultimate Winner: 3/3 – Robot

Why this marketing message is too robotic

The marketing message uses a lot of nice-sounding technical buzz words, including advanced machine learning, deep learning, and advanced data analytics. Each term is too broad to help the user understand how the solution works quickly. Another critical element to note here is the writing format for the message. The writer jumps in to talk about how the solution works without discussing why the reader should care to read what’s written in the first place.

Here’s the breakdown

At Awesome A.I. Inc, we combine advanced machine learning, deep learning, advanced data analytics [How] to deliver increased productivity [why].

Years ago, when I started writing marketing messages, I needed an easy way to remember the format as I edited my work. As a result, I came up with a sentence that’s easy to remember and helps in every marketing messaging situation:

‘If you don’t tell me why, I won’t care about how you do what you do, and I certainly won’t want to do what you want me to.

Now that we’ve looked at the storytelling format, we’ll combine the elements of storytelling and humanizing a message to create a different version of the message.

How would we humanize this message?

1. Listening: based on the little we know from this message, this system helps with increased productivity. Meaning the person who would use the solution is most likely struggling with inefficiencies. Since we know Artificial intelligence helps with automation, we’ll assume that the person is doing something manually right now that that solution can help automate.

2. Empathize: Now that we understand that the pain that the solution is eliminating is having to do manual work, we’ll attempt to build a connection with the person by focusing on the pain that they have. At this point, if we know more about them, we’ll use that information to create a sense that we understand their pain.

3. Dream: Finally, we’ll talk about how the solution solves that pain. The critical element here is to focus on a simplified language that’s easy to understand, which helps you identify how the technology benefits the person’s life.

Sample humanized marketing message

In the end, our marketing message could look like this:

At Awesome A.I. Inc, we increase your productivity by automating everything you do today. Our machine learning engine continuously improves your productivity by learning from your everyday activities. In addition, our data analytics feature also provides you with a quick way to easily understand your data.

Note: The phrase “Everything you do today” – should be replaced by the specific task that the person performs that the system will be automating. We have a more generalized message because we don’t have that information.

It’s a wrap, folks! On this one, the robot takes it.

Remember, just like most technology, artificial intelligence is an enabler. Why A.I. makes our lives better is what gets us the non-artificial intelligence enthusiasts excited.

About Human vs. Robot

Human vs. Robot is a video and blog series from Brisque, where we look at how to humanize real marketing messages that sound overly technical or ‘robotic’ from technology companies. Marketing messages used in the episodes are modified to remove any identifying features of the sourced company. All company names used are fictional.

Do you have the guts to find out if you pass the human test?

Get a free messaging assessment to find out how you can transform your marketing message from sounding too technical to more human. Email your marketing message (no more than a paragraph long) and a brief description of your company to hello@brisquemarketing.com. Be sure to include in the subject line: “Human vs. Robot.”

Please note: By emailing us, you agree that we can use your marketing message as part of our video and blog series. As usual, we eliminate all identifying characteristics, and your original message may be further modified to ensure obscurity. Simply put, no one will know it’s your marketing message except for you.