How to Predict Customer Behavior Using AI from Standard Insights

Want to predict customer behavior and forecast demand?

Standard Insights is a growth marketing platform that uses AI to do just that.

The company's AI takes raw data from your ecommerce or sales data and turns it into profitable predictions about what your customers are going to do next.

We spoke with Jerry Abiog, cofounder and CMO at Standard Insights to learn more about this AI-powered marketing solution.

In a single sentence, describe Standard Insights.

Standard Insights are the creators of an AI as Service growth marketing platform that helps businesses leverage their first-party data to target the right person with the right product at the right time—leading to improved growth and market share.

How does Standard Insights use AI?

We empower businesses to weaponize their first-party data to help them build their moat to gain that competitive edge.

We take raw data from a business' ecommerce platform, POS, ERP, or spreadsheets and turn it to derived data to:

• Predict your customer's potential profitability
• Predict what your customer base is likely to buy on a macro-level through micro-segmentation based on demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavior characteristics
• Hyper-personalize recommendations on what each of your customers is likely to purchase
• Implement forecasting to help your business predict how much of a given product will sell in a given day, week, or month

Our mission is to be the global standard on how successful businesses prioritize and execute their customer engagement from Insights gleaned from their data.

What are the primary marketing use cases for your AI-powered tech?

Many marketing companies pitch that their solution will help drive top or bottom-line growth. We're no different.  

What separates us from the others is that we employ a process that allows business owners to know their customers better than they know themselves.  

We first build a foundation based on data with omnichannel campaign execution to:

• Improve customer experience
• Prevent customer indecision
• Tell the customer what to do next

Once established (similar to regular exercise and a healthy diet), business owners can expect to see:

• Increased sales
• Improved average order value

Imagine that you have 500 varieties, 5,000 customers, and 25,000 purchase orders sitting in your POS as a wine shop owner...

By analyzing your customers' purchase patterns and others like them, you can identify that Johnny likes pinot noirs over merlots vs. Suzy who prefers pinot grigios over rieslings.

In another instance, we help the owner forecast that 100 bottles of merlot, 50 pinot grigios, and 20 rieslings will sell in the upcoming week—helping to manage inventory expense better.

What makes your AI-powered solution smarter than traditional approaches and products?

Two things.  

First, we enable one to prioritize and execute data-driven omnichannel campaigns (email, text, social media) from our software.

Many solutions do the data presentation piece but lack the taking action piece. Doing so is like owning a nice car that sits in the garage and not driving it.  

We do both through API connections with email and texting platforms. (Here shortly, we will be launching our email platform called QuickReach as part of the Standard Insights product line.)

Second, we offer managed services to help create and run these data-driven marketing campaigns.  

The last thing we want is to sell a subscription service that you don't use. Also, given the labor crunch, many don't have time to learn new software.  

This offering enables business owners to focus on other tasks while implementing a data-driven approach with their marketing initiatives.

Clients can often see significant labor savings combining the AI and human touch with our software and managed services offerings.

Are there any minimum requirements for marketers to get value out of your solution?

Ideally, we would like to see an established business of 3+ years (brick-and-mortar, restaurants, dispensaries, ecommerce) with revenues north of $1 million, 1,000 purchase transactions, and 250 customers with high, repetitive purchase rates (wine shops, grocery stores, restaurants).

Who are your ideal customers in terms of company size and industries?

We want potential clients experiencing pain—someone who is losing market share to their competitors down the street.  

We want the restaurant owner who's mad at how third-party food ordering platforms keep all their customer and order data.  

We want the cannabis delivery company to get their data and inventory protocols in line to position themselves for acquisition.  

We want the CMO of a retail company that cannot analyze the purchase patterns of their 10,000+ customers.  

Lastly, we want that visionary that wants to set themselves apart from their competition by using new technologies.

What do you see as the limitations of AI as it exists today?

Four things.

First, many companies pitch their AI as the "magic pill" that solves their business problems overnight. It's a marathon, not a sprint. It requires a systematic approach to doing the right things every day.

Second, many confuse BI with AI. Though both fall under the analytics umbrella, they're not the same.  

BI looks at what happened in the past. AI looks at what happened in the past that helps make predictions for the future.

Think of the difference between a flip phone and a smartphone; both make phone calls, but one is much more powerful. Which would you use for your marketing campaigns?

Third, with AI applications commonly known for Amazon, Netflix, Tesla—many businesses think the price points may be out of their reach. Nothing could be further from the truth with the democratization of AI, where if a company has enough data they can take advantage of its powers with affordable pricing.

Finally, many think that AI marketing tools are coming for their jobs. Quite the opposite, as many are dealing with labor shortages. These platforms can enable companies to do more with fewer employees.

What do you see as the future potential of AI in marketing?

Massive. Businesses need to take ownership of their data to gain and sustain a competitive edge. Four reasons are driving this:

• Inflation
• Labor shortages
• Elimination of third-party cookies shortly
• Over-reliance on social media platforms which are prone to shutdowns and censorship

It's a perfect storm for companies to start learning and implementing the array of AI marketing platforms that can help them.

Any other thoughts on AI in marketing, or advice for marketers who are just getting started with AI?

Read books and articles on AI.  

I recommend two books:

• Competing In The Age Of AI
• The Tipping Point

Jump in the deep end of the pool. Participate in software demos, and if it makes sense with your objectives, pull the trigger.  

Don't wait. Otherwise, you could find your company falling behind and disappearing, such as Sears, Borders Books, and Blockbuster.  No one is too big to fail.