Many industries are in the midst of a digital transformation, adopting new technologies with the hope of gaining speed, efficiency, and insight to keep up with customers’ expectations of fast, personalized experiences. Currently, artificial intelligence (AI) is a major driver of this industrial revolution.
This article provides an overview of how AI is changing the nature of modern marketing and how it can revolutionize your business’s strategy.
Marketing and AI: A powerful match
With the explosion of big data and the complexity of online interactions between consumers and businesses, the marketing industry has embraced AI and its myriad applications. Marketing experts know that data generated from online interactions is only beneficial if it’s managed, sorted, and available to users quickly and effectively. This is where AI lends its high-powered analysis to the advantage of marketers.
With AI tools, marketing teams can make better and quicker business decisions based on data gathered, sorted, and subsequently analyzed. AI programs also help marketers to learn who their customers are, what customers want, and what other market segments they can attract.
For example, AI uses data sets gathered from online interactions across platforms to build customer profiles. Advertisements and communications shown to each profile are tailored to entice at every stage of the customer’s interaction with the brand.
How AI can revolutionize your marketing strategy
In recent years, businesses have seen quantifiable and non-quantifiable benefits in how AI tools have transformed, expanded, and improved marketing practices and strategy. One of these benefits is gaining a thorough understanding of customers’ preferences and making timely, data-driven decisions to use that knowledge and increase sales conversions or further market reach.
Below are some ways your business can leverage artificial intelligence marketing to revolutionize your strategy.
Personalized web content experiences
Through a series of complex machine learning algorithms, AI studies data points to learn the behaviors and inclinations of a website’s visitors. The data is then used to predict, curate, and design a content strategy that will serve up personalized content to repeat visitors. This AI marketing tool is also used for content generation.
Another way that businesses are leveraging AI technology is through the use of chatbots. These programs are created to respond to interactions automatically. Chatbot messages can be sent through SMS text, a website chat window, or social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. They can also send the same message each time, reply differently to each message prompted by certain keywords, or use machine learning to craft a personalized response to a query.
Chatbots are gaining popularity as a marketing automation strategy because it’s a way to engage with potential customers on the business’s website, app, or social media platforms. Businesses report gains in customer satisfaction by using chatbots. In this MIT Technology Review, almost 80% of businesses reported measurable improvements in customer satisfaction and service delivery.
AI systems that can personalize content for each target audience are a major advantage if your business relies on website visits and engagement to increase sales. Make sure you have professionals familiar with this technology to implement your marketing strategy. Connect with a global talent pool of independent digital marketing experts on Upwork and achieve the results you have in mind.
Identify and address barriers to engagement
You can also take advantage of AI systems to learn customers’ interests, buyer intent, and purchase history. You can then use the data collected and analyzed to target customers on the right platforms at the right time.
AI tools can identify and address barriers to engagement through:
- Website experience: AI will analyze online interactions and build a customer profile that includes location, demographics, and preferences. AI will then show content matching the customer’s history and profile.
- Notifications: Messages about the brand or product can be sent at the most opportune time by studying when customers will likely engage.
- Targeted marketing: You can use AI tools to convert visitors to customers through targeted email marketing. Marketers have found a 760% increase in email revenue from segmented campaigns.
Automate and optimize digital advertising
Programmatic advertising is a marketing technology that uses AI and machine learning to buy ad space relevant to a business’s target market in real time. This technology is a great asset for modern brands because it gives them the ability to personalize almost every aspect of the user experience, collect data, and learn their customers’ preferences.
This information can then be used to send ads to your target audience using programmatic advertising in various digital mediums such as mobile, video display, and social platforms. As of 2018, programmatic advertising accounted for over 80% of digital display ad spending in the United States. Marketing messages showing on social media platforms are the best example of how AI helps businesses meet their customers’ needs and interests.
Integrate dynamic pricing
Dynamic pricing is a marketing tool where a product’s price is influenced by demand and/or supply. It is not a new concept; however, with the proliferation of AI use in marketing, the factors affecting the price of products are now limitless. For example, the cost of an Uber ride can be influenced by the time of the day, the location, and the day of the week. So, customers will most likely pay less for a ride on a Tuesday morning than on a Friday night in New York City.
By combining marketing concepts and AI tools, businesses can use customer data to their advantage. Watching trends and studying customer traits make it possible for companies to change prices within minutes. Additionally, the prices can be personalized to each customer, depending on their demographics and where they are in their customer journey.
This pricing strategy is done by following a customer’s movements online. A customer’s purchase history, searches, and other activities are picked up and recorded by cookies, applications, or website bots. The resulting data is then used to present the customer with competitive real-time pricing.
It’s a level of optimization that can work to the advantage of any business because “brand trust is second only to price for purchase and loyalty.” Customers often buy based on what they think are the best products with the lowest prices instead of only looking at brands they know.
Forecast sales
Sales forecasting using spreadsheets is hit or miss because of severe inaccuracies due to human error and its extensive process. Although accurately forecasting sales is still a challenge for many businesses, this is changing due to the use of AI technologies, predictive analytics, and machine learning. Machine learning makes data analysis of online interactions between brands and customers a possibility.
AI identifies patterns from online interactions. It learns the buying behaviors of customers and recommends products based on that. Intelligent AI systems may even craft how a business can address a potential customer’s hesitation to buy. Through data science, AI can calculate the probability of a purchase, giving businesses a more reliable outcome forecast of their current and future marketing campaigns.
If you are looking to incorporate this AI feature into your digital marketing strategy, make sure you have the experienced professionals you need to succeed. Engage with independent machine learning experts through Upwork and find the proficiency and skills you’re looking for.
Target highly specific market segments
It’s now easier for marketers to track, understand, and even predict customer behaviors through AI tools. AI also makes it possible for businesses to create customer profiles. Furthermore, these profiles can be segmented into different categories, where customers with similar characteristics and needs are grouped.
Accurate categorization is key because it enables businesses to personalize messaging and offers to each group. Factors such as demographics, age, career, location, etc., are taken into account for the grouping and crafting of promotions and communications. This means that even though an offer is being sent to many people, it’s still personalized so that the message is relevant to a specific group.
Embrace AI with expert assistance
The marriage of marketing concepts and AI tools have shown strong results. Interact and understand your customers better, increase your conversion rates, and attract new audiences with AI technology.
