When most people think of artificial intelligence (AI), they see machines that can communicate with humans, such as Alexa or Siri, or other developments, such as self-driving cars. They are thrilling and captivating, but the reality of AI is dozens of tools and applications silently operating in the background, making our lives easier by automating routine chores or generating predictions.
This is true across many industries and corporate functions, but especially in marketing, where using AI to place goods and offerings in front of potential clients has been normal practise for some time, even if we don't always know it!
Nowadays, the term artificial intelligence (AI) refers to software that is capable of learning and improving its performance without the intervention of humans. This implies that, although we've become accustomed to employing machines to assist us with heavy lifting, they may now assist us with occupations that also involve thinking and decision-making.
A massive number of previously unanswerable queries, such as "would this individual be interested in my products?" or "What will the outcomes of this advertising effort be?" may now be answered by machines if given the correct information. Additionally, because machines can give answers far faster than people, they can easily chain together complicated sequences of enquiries to forecast things like who is most likely to buy your items and where the greatest spots to advertise could be.
It is the fundamental idea behind all business AI today: automating the processes of learning and decision-making to provide information (often referred to as "insight") that aids in performance improvement. And marketing is one area where technology has certainly come in handy!
Marketing that is targeted
The elevated use case for AI in marketing is that it increases ROI by making marketing more efficient, which is frequently one of a company's largest costs. Before web advertising, firms would spend large sums of money for TV, radio, or newspaper advertisements, fully aware that only a small percentage of those who viewed their commercials would ever become customers. This was extremely inefficient, but corporations had little alternative if they wanted to establish themselves as market leaders.
We've learnt a lot about who is and isn't enthusiastic about our goods and services thanks to the internet. Amazon's recommendation engine technology, as well as Google and Facebook's targeted advertising platforms, were responsible for the initial breakthroughs. Now, each of those platforms has been enhanced with machine learning technology, allowing them to grow more successful as more data about clients and their purchasing behaviours are pushed into them.
AI-powered content marketing
Because of the emergence of social media marketing and our increasing desire for online material, content-based marketing has become the dominating method of marketing in many sectors. AI can help us figure out what sort of material our current and future customers are interested in, as well as the most efficient ways to disseminate that content to them. Advertising creatives have long sought formulae for designing advertisements that get people talking and spreading the message with their peers. This may now be done automatically using a variety of AI-powered solutions. For example, headline-generating algorithms track their success and alter their output to improve metrics like email open rate or social media post share rate.
Taking this a step further, AI is gaining the capacity to handle the whole content development process for itself, providing material and visuals that it knows will be well-received by its target audience. Personalisation will be a big buzzword in this arena, as individual consumers are delivered material that is specially tailored to them, maybe using information and reference points that the AI understands are important to them, interlaced with the broader marketing messaging.
AI will also become more beneficial in determining where a consumer is in the purchasing process. If it detects that people are "shopping about," evaluating various products and services, it might provide material meant to differentiate your product or service from rivals'. If it detects that they are about to make a purchase, it can send them promos encouraging them to "act now" to take advantage of a limited-time deal.
Sourcing micro-influencers
Influencers are another major marketing trend right now, and AI algorithms are already being used to ensure that the personalities most likely to appeal to you show in your search results and social feeds.
Advertisers will increasingly employ AI to find smaller influencers who are most likely to align with their brands and audiences. This has resulted in the creation of "micro-influencers," who are often ordinary individuals, rather than superstars, who have specialised expertise and have utilised it to establish a niche following that values their viewpoint. Companies may use AI to locate micro-influencers with the correct audiences for them across a wide range of niches and target segments. When it makes sense to spend $100,000 on Justin Bieber or a Kardashian, AI can assist determine whether it makes sense to pay 100 individuals $1,000 apiece to talk about their product. Once again, it is about increasing efficiency by following data rather than merely implementing what a marketer believes is the ideal strategy.
CRM using AI
Customer experience management is a critical skill for any marketer to acquire, as current customers are frequently the most crucial source of income for a firm. In this case, artificial intelligence (AI) may be used to lessen the risk of customer "churn" by recognising behavioural patterns likely to lead to consumers leaving. These clients can then be automatically targeted with customised promotions or incentives in an attempt to reestablish their loyalty.
Chatbot technology, driven by natural language processing, is also becoming increasingly popular among AI-augmented marketers. This may be used to categorize incoming client enquiries, allowing those that demand a speedy answer to be catered to decrease discontent. AI-powered CRM will also enable firms to more correctly estimate sales across all markets in which they operate, allowing stock and resources to be dispersed more effectively. It may also be used to maintain the quality of data in the CRM system by detecting customer records with mistakes or duplicates.
The future of the marketing
DigitalxMarketing has embraced ongoing industry developments by utilizing various AI-based technologies to improve service delivery. If you'd like to learn more about how AI can help your business, please get in touch. We would be delighted to discuss our technology with you and demonstrate how it may help you improve your marketing efforts.