HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS TRANSFORMING DIGITAL MARKETING?

When you imagine what artificial intelligence (AI) "looks like," you might be thinking of a synthetic consciousness developed by humans, as many sci-fi movies portray.

Apart from the realm of fantasy, AI is simply a system that can perform tasks that normally requires human intelligence. These include problem-solving, recognizing emotions, and even diagnosing diseases.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

To put it simply, artificial intelligence refers to the intelligence showcased by machines. AI empowers machines to think about, respond to, and perform tasks like humans. It also helps machines learn from experience and adjust to new input.

Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly popular because:

• It increases precision and accounts for more accuracy and fewer errors, which means greater work efficiency.
• It analyzes more and deeper data for valuable insights.
• It can add to the capabilities of various devices with its smart, useful algorithms. GPS trackers, voice assistants, and home automation systems are just a few examples.
• It adapts to new input through progressive learning algorithms.

How AI can provide a competitive edge to your digital marketing efforts:

• Help You Understand Your Audience Better: AI can analyze data to easily predict the buying behaviors and decisions of your target customers.
• Improve User Experience: You can use AI data to provide your audience with what they actually need.
• More Effective Marketing: AI helps you end the guesswork. You can create a more effective marketing strategy for your business with AI’s data-driven analysis.
• Increase Productivity: Using AI algorithms, you can automate a number of repetitive tasks. This can help you increase productivity and save you both time and money.
• Increase ROI: AI empowers decision-making and also helps you create better-performing content. Implementing AI digital marketing strategies helps you reach out to the right audience with deals they can’t refuse.

AI And Digital Marketing

In the world of digital marketing, AI can streamline and optimize marketing campaigns. It can also eliminate the risk of human error. While much of the digital marketing world is still dependent on human ingenuity, an AI program might be able to generate a report using nothing but data. However, to truly connect with your customers, you'll still need the human touch.

Empathy, compassion and storytelling are all attributes that machines can't emulate, at least not yet. At the end of the day, AI is not bound by human limitations. If Moore's Law holds steady for a while, there's no telling what AI will be able to do in the near future.

Chatbots

Chatbots are the biggest example of the use of AI technology. They act as a virtual assistant for consumers whether you ask Alexa to play your favorite song or Siri to set an alarm.

There are several AI chatbot programs that can help you engage with your customers in a better way. You can add useful chatbots to your websites, emails, apps, and text messages.

You can use chatbot programs to reach out to your customers or respond to their queries. They have the ability to answer the most common queries that your customers might have. And they can engage in human-like conversations that improve customer experience.

For example, coffee giant, Starbucks, is making efficient use of AI digital marketing strategy to supplement human employees.

When you need your favorite coffee with minimal human interaction, the Starbucks Barista bot for Facebook Messenger has you covered. It orders you coffee, just the way you like it.

The bot even understands complex orders. You can not only order a simple “latte” but also place complex orders with special requests. The bot easily allows you to order coffee like a “double tall mocha non-fat extra hot no whip.”

AI-Enhanced Digital Advertising

I believe artificial intelligence will also continue to change the way businesses advertise. In fact, today's digital advertising strategies would be impossible without a rudimentary form of AI. Even electronic billboards can be powered by AI-based delivery systems.

These systems operate autonomously, placing the right kinds of ads in front of the right kinds of people based on complex algorithms and big data. This is what's known as "programmatic advertising."

Not too long ago, ad development was mostly a creative endeavor. It still is, but businesses must look beyond creativity if they want their ads to be effective. Today, it's all about targeting and delivering the right message.

Consumers and business to business (B2B) buyers are overwhelmed every day with advertisements. Most of them are irrelevant, so they simply close the ad or move on to their next task. When this happens, advertisers lose money.

With AI, businesses can optimize their return on investment by only placing ads in front of relevant viewers. Ads can be bought automatically, then personalized at scale. Many advertisers are already using this technology.

Personalized Product Recommendations

Many retail and ecommerce brands use AI technology to track their customers’ preferences, habits, and buying behavior. These insights help them make suggestions on products and services that their customers may be interested in.

Knowing your customers’ buying habits can help you craft a more effective marketing strategy. You can promote products that your customers may actually want to purchase.

AI digital marketing and data analysis strategies are far quicker and more accurate than any human capability. It empowers you to personalize the user experience for your audience, engage them, and increase ecommerce sales.

Ecommerce giant, Amazon, uses AI-powered recommendation engines to effectively provide personalized suggestions. These recommendations play a vital role in scaling up sales and contributing to their revenue growth.

Amazon’s recommendation algorithms consider their users’ buying history, items in their cart, items they’ve liked, and what other users bought or viewed.

Behavior Analysis And Predictive Analytics

More and more companies are hiring professionals like data scientists and programmers for their marketing departments. That's because their skills will soon be the backbone of most marketing campaigns.

The internet is like a giant behavioral science laboratory, but there are so many data sets that humans alone can't possibly hope to analyze them all. That's where AI comes in.

Using machine learning and big data analysis, AI is able to provide businesses with deep insights into their customers. Not only will businesses be able to hyper-personalize interactions, but I imagine they'll also be able to predict future customer behaviors based on the data collected.

Businesses are pouring plenty of money into AI investments. As more AI use-cases occur, we'll discover the most and least effective ways of applying this technology in digital marketing.

Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. 

Conclusion

Artificial intelligence is an incredible technology that can work wonders for your brand.

Using AI digital marketing strategies will help brands deliver improved customer experience and do more effective marketing. It will also ensure faster problem-solving for consumers.