AI and the future of marketing

Advances in technology mean that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) tools are propelling every industry forward – including marketing. Just like the efficiencies found in manufacturing and the error reduction found in a quality setting, marketing AI has the opportunity to improve branding, customer communication, and advertising – almost any aspect of a company’s marketing domain.

AI marketing has been used by companies with a global presence for a number of years. But as the technology becomes more accessible, smaller providers of AI technology are appearing in the market that are able to help businesses of any size.

To give some context, the number of businesses using AI services grew by 270% from 2015 to 2019 –?and that acceleration of uptake is only set to increase. But how can organisations like yours get started – and automate aspects of your marketing?

What is AI in marketing?

AI marketing is a way of using AI to take customer and company data and in some way augment the use of that data beyond what a person or group of people could achieve. AI can improve marketing campaigns and customer journeys, as well as how firms attract, nurture, and convert prospective customers.

AI is a very broad term and encompasses really any computer program that can carry out complex tasks without human intervention. While it isn’t ‘intelligent’ in the way that you and I are, its extensive processing capabilities mean it can handle more data in an hour than a person could in a lifetime. Data has become a modern-day commodity, and as methods of transmission and storage become more effective, programs that can derive insight from these growing data lakes are the key to unlocking the potential of any marketing team.

Benefits of using AI in marketing

There are numerous applications for AI in marketing and each of them provides unique benefits. These benefits can be quantitative, for instance, increased purchases via mobile, or qualitative for things like improved customer satisfaction. If you’re wondering why a business would pursue qualitative instead of quantitative, consider that brands that want to break into new markets need to raise awareness of the products and services in that sector before they can enter it fully.

The specific benefits are going to be linked to each piece of AI tech and its application but there are some more general perks that can be associated with artificial intelligence in marketing. 32% of marketers use AI in communications and media so there’s clearly a hunger for what the technology offers.

Real-time personalisation

In a world where engagement is key and brands are fighting over the attention of customers, personalisation offers businesses a way to attract new buyers and retain them. AI can assist you in sending customised communications to customers at the right times in their buying journey. AI may also assist marketers in identifying at-risk clients and provide them with information that will encourage them to return to the company.

Improved marketing metrics

Many businesses struggle to keep up with the volume of data generated by their digital marketing initiatives which make it difficult to review the success of specific campaigns. AI-powered dashboards provide a more comprehensive perspective of what’s working, by creating a web of the data available and gaining insight from all the connections between that information.

Quicker decision making

AI can perform tactical data analysis faster than humans and use machine learning to arrive at quick decisions based on campaign and customer context. This frees up team members to focus on strategic projects or other tasks that a robot wouldn’t be able to complete. Being tactical is extremely important, particularly in the world of social media campaigns where the landscape can shift quickly and brands must respond at the same speed if they want to be successful.

Shorten sales cycles

One of the main aspects of providing exceptional service is to have a better understanding of your clients. It’s a lot easier to determine your leads’ interests and buying behaviours using AI, and that means you can provide them with options that speed up the buying process. Whether you’re using WhatsApp, email or any platform in between to communicate with customers, having the information at the right time to help push them through the customer journey is a big bonus that AI offers.

Who’s doing it best?

As with any rapidly growing piece of tech, there are startups left, right, and centre. With AI, there are so many different applications that there is space for new businesses to thrive and usually, the technologies that are built are highly specific so niching down isn’t a problem. Let’s look at some of the interesting companies that are out there right now pushing AI marketing.

Votek?– AI voice analysis

Votek is a Dubai-based AI firm that specialises in Arabic Natural Language Processing (NLP). They’ve built an Arabic Speech Recognition System which operates offline and recognises both standard and spoken Arabic accents. Governments, businesses, and educational institutions all use their technology. Their NLP system is used in Loujee, an educational smart toy which interacts with children to provide learning and skills-based activities.

Narrative?– AI content generation

Narrativa is a natural language artificial intelligence and data augmentation platform for CX, advertising, e-commerce, communications & sales. Their solutions improve text variability, readability and conversion by using AI to generate custom content. The Narrativa Knowledge Graph includes contextual information so you can go beyond the next best offers and targeted marketing to create more relevant end-to-end customer experiences.

Persado?– AI copywriting

Persado uses ML to create hyper-relevant content by understanding each individual user’s preference for distinct linguistic elements. It sounds complicated because it is, but Persado’s machine learning models are trained on individual-level response data from previous campaigns and use anonymised data to protect customer privacy. Persado creates content using machine learning algorithms that are tailored to each individual user to increase engagement across all platforms.

GumGum?– AI ad placement

GumGum’s Verity is a platform for pre-bid contextual targeting that ensures that advertisers reach users in contextually relevant, brand-safe and brand-suitable environments at scale. Unlike post-bid measurement and verification solutions, the contextual intelligence platform classifies the page before the impression is served, allowing for more accurate and effective cookieless targeting for advertisers.

Market Muse?– AI metrics

Market Muse uses AI-powered stackable filters to make content discovery simple and quick for internal marketing teams. The platform lets users delve into any aspect of their site or content topics to identify the most popular and engaging content they have to inform further marketing efforts. Metrics are intended to help content marketers in identifying, prioritising, and executing well designed content.

Where’s AI headed?

Well, that question is really very open-ended. So far the technology has been used to tackle the challenges associated with data. That’s what the current industry is built on. But, as people find new and imaginative ways to think about AI and how it can help us, we’re going to see big changes in how it is used in marketing.

Processing power and memory are not the limiting factors of this technology; instead AI is only shackled by preconceptions and existing schools of thought. Thankfully, developers everywhere love what AI and ML can do and so there is an influx of talent and investment into the industry.