As you begin executing your business goals set at the beginning of this year, it isn’t too late to considering embracing an emerging trend to help accelerate your innovations – Open Design. This refers to the practice of being transparent about the process of building products and services (without giving way too much of the final product).

It’s similar to the practice of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) in higher education—sharing information and problems about your expertise, for free, with an interested community.

In many ways, Open Design aims to break down siloed industries and workers. By sharing information about how and why your business does what it does, Open Design actually reduces the amount of work your employees may have to re-do. The open access of the design system allows them to work beyond the traditional confines of their roles.

As creative and often specialized fields like design become increasingly open, the amount of “tedious” work that used to require attention is lessening.

Some of these mechanical tasks are becoming automated as a result of collaborative efforts in Open Design across industries and other times it is the result of interdepartmental collaboration within individual corporations.

This evolution makes sense: if your web team gets feedback from your sales team that a certain process isn’t intuitive and that difficulty creates a bottleneck—they’d act on that feedback and eliminate the blockage.

Abstract reports that companies that focus on the streamlining of their design systems have revenues 32 percent higher than those that adhere to conventional methods.

Taking advantage of Open Design systems would allow your entire team to focus efforts on higher level problems rather than recreating the wheel with mechanical (and often easily programmable tasks) each time they need to begin a project. These cumulative, increasingly efficient efforts, can help your business scale.

Presenting a product or service in its most immaculate, polished state has been the strategy for virtually all organizations, and overselling items with known flaws is a practice as old as time. According to marketing researchers, however, this approach may not be the only way to achieve optimal results due to something known as the “Blemish Effect.”

The Blemish Effect isn’t quite the inverse of the perfectionist product pitch; rather, it builds on the theory that small problems with a product or service can actually throw into relief its good qualities. For example, a small scratch on the back of an otherwise pristine iPhone might draw one’s eye to the glossy finish, while an objectively perfect housing might not be appreciated in the same way.

The same goes for mildly bad press or a customer’s pros and cons list. If someone has absolutely no complaints or desires for whatever you’re marketing, the end result can look flat and lacking in nuance. Having the slightest bit of longing associated with an aspect (or lack thereof) of your business means that you have room to grow, which can be tantalizing for the eager consumer.

A Stanford study indicates that small doses of mildly negative information may actually strengthen a consumer’s positive impression of a product or service. Interesting.

Another beneficial aspect of the Blemish Effect is that it helps consumers focus their negativity. “Too good to be true” often means exactly that, and we’re eager to criticize where possible; if your product or service has a noticeable flaw which doesn’t harm the item’s use, your audience might settle for lamenting the minor flaw and favoring the rest of the product rather than looking for problems which don’t exist.

This concept also applies to expectation management. Absent an obvious blemish, it can be all to easy for consumers to envision your product or service on an unattainable level.

When they’re invariably disappointed that their unrealistic expectations weren’t fulfilled, your reputation might take a hit, or consumers might lose interest after the initial wave.

The takeaway is that consumers trust transparency, so in describing your offering, tossing in a negative boosts the perception that you’re being honest and transparent, so a graphic artist could note that while their skills are superior and their pricing reasonable, they take their time with intricate projects. The time expectation is a potentially negative aspect of their service, but expressing anything negative improves sales as it builds trust.

It should be noted that the Blemish Effect applies to minor impairments in cosmetic or adjacent qualities, not in the product or service itself.

Delivering something inherently flawed won’t make anyone happy.

In an age where less truly is more, the Blemish Effect stands to dictate a new wave of honesty in marketing.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the making its way into every sector, including marketing campaigns. One tool in particular has found a way to simplify modern marketing by taking over menial tasks to run completely autonomous and successful campaigns.

Just ask one of their major clients, Harley Davidson, who raised their sales leads by over 2000% after switching to AI marketing.

Albert is the self-described first ever AI marketing platform and enterprise. Albert learns as a company grows, and autonomously analyzes data and optimizes campaigns to gain new leads.

Although many other platforms like Google and Facebook offer their own autonomous marketing systems, our pal, Al, can work across all channels. That means no more checking every separate channel to get an overview of marketing insights.

Not only does this save time, but it also saves money.

In the present digital age, it makes sense to let AI do the heavy lifting. When it comes to marketing, AI software is able to use online interactions to determine possible leads. For Harley Davidson, Albert generated leads from a large pool of potential customers that made purchases in the past, added items to their cart through the online shop and spent a significant amount of time on the site.

From this larger group, Albert developed smaller groups of “lookalikes,” or potential buyers, and tested out campaigns before implementing them.

This allowed Albert to predict appealing headlines and visuals, while also making adjustments to language that had tested better.

For example, Albert replaced the word “buy” to “call” as a call to action sent in emails and newsletters for customers to find out more about Harley Davidson’s top products.

As Harley Davidson experienced, AI marketing like Albert have the ability to make more accurate decisions that increase revenue and save time. Unlike traditional marketing tactics, Albert can make decisions based on actual data versus just guesswork. Without the ability to analyze online behavior, companies end up underestimating their potential buyer demographics.

Our pal, Al, is able to widen that figure, finding leads that were not even considered, and thus generate more business. The best part is that it is all done autonomously.