Early in July 2023, the Packaging Valley marketing focus group gathered at the premises of the network’s member company Stako GmbH Maschinenbau in Wolpertshausen, Germany. One focus of the event was on the topics “SEO in Internationalisation”. A central role in all this was also played by the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in marketing.

Building a strong brand and achieving effectiveness are what companies strive for. Online marketing is now indispensable in reaching these goals. But how does a company get started with optimising its online presence? How could a successful path to the internationalisation of the website look? How can AI help with this and be applied sensibly in marketing?

Following an introduction to Stako GmbH Maschinenbau presented by Martin Stapf, Managing Director of Stako GmbH Maschinenbau, and Levin Stapf, Purchasing and Sales
at Stako, two brief informative presentations provided answers. Maurice Marinelli (founder) and Tobias Brändle (SEO Content Marketing Team Leader) of webstube GmbH provided an overview of the central elements in initiating website optimisation in their presentation “SEO in B2B” and explained why SEO makes sense in B2B. A special role was played by themes such as inhouse vs. extern in B2B, innovative technologies for SEO, SEO in niche sectors and the future of search engine optimisation.

Afterwards, Rueß Group GmbH Managing Partner Steffen Rueß spoke about international SEO and showed one possible way for internationalising websites. He talked about the search engine-optimised website as the base medium for international marketing, as well as digital communication as a sales opportunity. The participants received an insight into the multi-layered issue of how advertising can be effective, the significance that non-brand keywords have, and the particularities involved in an international context, for instance in regard to the diversity of terminology, search volume and additional languages.

AI is not a new topic as every-body knows. Although it hasn’t been so present before, it’s been on everyone’s lips ever since the emergence of tools like ChatGPT. But how do I have to change what’s being done in my company today in order to be able to use AI sensibly tomorrow? The attendees discussed AI’s potential in marketing among themselves and with the speakers, talking about the pros and cons of using AI and the possibilities of AI-generated SEO texts.

What’s clear is that AI has arrived in marketing. “What’s decisive is that companies and those of us who are marketing decision-makers react flexibly to the requirements. The trick is to adapt and react at the right time and to take and use what makes sense,” said Andreas Häußner, Vice President of Marketing at Rommelag SE & Co. KG and Speaker of the marketing focus group.