Why Marketers Should Begin Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) More
Artificial Intelligence is already being used in a wide range of industries, but with the exception of a small percentage of marketers (like me), it's simply not being used enough in marketing.
What gives? Marketing AI has the potential to revolutionize the way that companies interact with their consumers, but it's going to take some time before it becomes widely adopted. If you're wondering why so many marketers aren't using AI yet—or what they might be waiting for—this article will help explain how and why marketing AI is poised to take off.
Marketing Automation
Marketing automation is a software tool that allows you to automate repetitive tasks in your marketing activities. In essence, it’s a way of automating the day-to-day tasks that marketers have been doing manually for years and saving yourself time.
Marketing automation tools allow you to set up automated email campaigns and drip campaigns, which will automatically send emails or messages out on a specific schedule (e.g., once per week) to all of your customers based on certain criteria such as their purchase history or income level. This can be incredibly effective at keeping people engaged with your brand without requiring any additional work from you or your team!
Analytics
Analytics are a critical tool for marketers, especially those looking to optimize their campaigns and increase their ROI. AI offers a variety of analytical insights that can be used to track and improve marketing performance, including:
Growth projections
Competitive analysis
Audience behavior
Content Creation
AI can help you create more relevant, engaging and personalized content that is localized. It can also help you create more consistent content across channels.
Let’s consider a few examples of how AI will allow for the creation of better content, starting with relevance:
A retailer wants to offer an online experience that’s tailored to each customer’s tastes and preferences. AI-based recommendation engines can help the retailer find the right products based on what they know about their customers' shopping habits and interests.
A financial services company wants to provide financial advice in a way that feels personalized but still unbiased. The company could use machine learning techniques to analyze past interactions with customers and then tailor responses based on those interactions (e.g., "We noticed these past interactions have led us here; let's talk about next steps").
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Voice Search
As we enter the second decade of the 21st century, one thing is clear: voice search will play a big role in how people interact with computers. In fact, it already does. Google Assistant has been around for several years now, allowing you to set alarms and reminders, manage your calendar, get directions or traffic info from Google Maps (or Waze), control smart home devices like lights and thermostats—even order food delivery! The point is that voice search is not going away anytime soon.
So what does this mean for marketers? Well, if there’s one thing we know about our customers it’s that they want everything faster than ever before—and voice search delivers on this promise exceptionally well by reaching users in their cars or at work where they can’t easily use their hands to tap away on their phones. Plus, because people tend to talk more casually when speaking into a microphone rather than typing out words using fingers or thumbs on screens; marketers should also consider how they can optimize content specifically for conversational queries instead of just writing out keyword-heavy descriptions like “online marketing agency near me."
Influencers and Ambassadors
One of the coolest things about artificial intelligence is that it can help marketers find and connect with the right people.
Marketers can use AI to find influencers and ambassadors by looking at a number of factors, including:
Social media reach
Engagement rate (likes, comments)
Reach on other platforms (e.g., YouTube, Instagram)
Forecasting
To understand how AI is being used in marketing, we must first understand a bit of machine learning. Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence that allows computers to learn from previous actions or experiences. This type of learning can be programmed into the system so that it can make predictions and decisions based on past behavior or data.
Machine-learning algorithms are implemented by feeding large amounts of data into a system; this data consists of input variables (elements within a process) and output variables (results). These algorithms then use these relationships to predict future outcomes without any human intervention.
Forecasting is one area where machine learning has proven useful—and it's especially helpful when dealing with large amounts of data such as sales figures, website traffic levels and other metrics that don't lend themselves well to human interpretation alone.
For example, if you're running an online retail store selling shoes online then you probably want your site's search engine optimization strategy optimized for keywords related to shoe shopping—words like "cheap," "designer" or "size 7." A basic keyword analysis might tell you what people are searching for but doesn't necessarily give insight into why they're searching those terms specifically.
There are many different ways that marketers can use AI, though they aren't using it yet.
Companies can use AI to improve customer service, marketing, sales, data analysis, and productivity.
Customer Service: AI can be used to automate the process of answering customer questions. For example, if a customer asks where you're located or how much something costs, you could automate the response with a bot that answers their question immediately.
Marketing: You can use AI to increase your audience reach through better targeting and messaging. For example, by providing an algorithm with information on your customers' habits and preferences it will be able to target them with relevant content in their preferred mediums—like email or social media—at just the right time for them to act upon it (like when they're interested).
Sales: With an automated sales assistant that makes calls on your behalf (based off of a script provided by you), salespeople are freed up from having to make cold calls themselves while still reaching their quotas each quarter because they know that their software is going out there doing what they would be doing anyway—only better!
Conclusion
AI is here to stay, and it's only getting better. As the technology advances and becomes more accessible to marketers, there will be an explosion of new ways AI can be used in the marketing industry. With more tools, marketers will be able to make smarter decisions that save time and money while improving ROI.
If you want to learn more about how you can use AI to grow your business online, feel free to click here to schedule a free consult!