Use AI for Marketing to Build Stronger Customer Relationships
To say that artificial intelligence (AI) has become popular as a marketing tool over the last few years would be a serious understatement. In Salesforce’s sixth State of Marketing report, a notable 84 percent of marketers reported employing AI for marketing – up from 29% in 2018. The marketers are also looking for ways to incorporate AI in their work and reported an average of 7 use cases – up from 6 in 2018.
Many companies are reluctant to employ AI for marketing out of fear that it might replace human jobs and become a barrier to building personal connections with their customers. However, it can actually pave the way for more creative career experiences and a better comprehension of whom you are serving.?
How AI works?
AI simulates humans’ way of thinking to provide personalized customer experiences with the scale and efficiency of a machine. It learns from experience to do tasks like humans do, then employs machine learning (ML) to better mimic and automate those tasks. What and how it learns depends on the data it is given. The more data AI collects, the faster it can adapt to fit the requirements of an audience. It is available 24/7 and highly capable of more complex functions over time. It is such capabilities that make AI a powerful marketing solution.
There are 4 usual applications of AI in marketing, and they fall into 2 categories – the amount of human supervision needed to complete tasks, and the adaptability of the system to learn from interactions and adjust for the future.?
Customers like AI for marketing — whether they realize it or not.
Marketing automation technology can assist you in managing marketing processes and campaigns across several channels automatically. This technology absorbs redundant tasks and works in the background to guide the customer journey. Meanwhile, you and your team are free to do more complex work, such as making persuasive content, or fine-tuning your marketing strategy.?
Automation tools are essential for scalable growth, especially for small companies. They unlock your ability to get more leads, close more deals, and measure your marketing success. When businesses invest in this kind of technology, they upgrade their marketing efforts and have more opportunities to personalize the customer journey.?
Like marketing automation, AI is another essential tool for offering the high-touch experiences that customers expect. Brands that employ AI for marketing are in a better position to offer personalized experiences around content, product recommendations, and more. AI can also assist you in predicting optimal send times to ensure you’re delivering the right messages at the most appropriate time.
10 Examples of AI for Marketing
Whether you are just beginning with the use of AI or you have years of experience, it is not always easy to see AI at work. Below are the 10 usual use cases for AI in marketing today.?
1. Search Engines
Bing and Google have been employing AI for years. Back in 2015, Google announced RankBrain, which employs ML to show more relevant search results. In 2017, Bing rolled out Intelligent Search to give more comprehensive answers and images to user queries.?
Semantic search and natural language processing (NLP) assist users to get more relevant information on search engine results pages, even with broad or misspelled queries. For instance, if a user searches for “brown sandals”, they would get a variety of results: the top 10 brown sandals with price under $30, show trends for the summer, or a way to save money on their next pair of espadrilles. Such knowledge can assist retailers optimize their content and products for search so that they can be discovered by new customers.?
2. Content Strategy and Creation
AI plays a key role in informing content strategy. It aids marketing teams in picking relevant topics to enhance their search engine optimization and perform competitive research.?
AI for marketing is also used for content creation. Natural language processing (NLP), is an AI technology that uses data and organizes it into a written story that sounds like it is from a human writer. The process is also known as natural language generation (NLG). Depending on the software, NLP can be employed to set up content ranging from articles and white papers to social media posts. The Associated Press and The Washington Post are two high-profile newsrooms that employ NLP. Retailers can also leverage this technology to set up more content at a lower cost, create product descriptions, and customize landing pages.?
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3. Email Personalization
AI can assist in personalizing email marketing. AI offers useful metrics for marketers and employs past subscriber behavioral data to craft more targeted and relevant messages. Marketers can employ NLP technology in email to customize:?
4. Chatbots
Chatbots employ NLP to mimic human conversations via text. They streamline conversations, offer 24/7 coverage, and save time for social media and community managers so that they can concentrate on more nuanced communications. Marketers can employ chatbots to:?
A boutique skincare seller employs chat technology via SMS and Facebook Messenger to assist consumers determine their skin type and provide product recommendations – no human contact is needed. This technology not just appeals to younger generations: millennials and baby boomers both see the value in chatbots.?
5. Product Pricing
AI-enabled dynamic pricing has become a science. Businesses are employing data to determine demand and competition, and then they impact prices in real-time. When you experience a rise in the cost of an Uber after a concert, for instance, that AI-powered dynamic pricing at work, or “surge pricing”, according to Uber.?
This technology can also employ data to determine what a customer is probably willing to pay for a product. With this insight, AI compares a retailer’s pricing to its competitors to see where they land in comparison. Ever see a great deal on Amazon? Their third-party sellers often employ algorithmic pricing to compete against each other, letting consumers seek out the best price.?
6. Programmatic Ad Targeting
Data and predictive analytics assists retailers in setting up ad campaigns for individual consumers. AI can determine the best time of day to show an ad and even adjust bidding strategies for online advertisements.?
Retailers like Lacoste are personalizing ads according to customer data. Lacoste regularly switched up its creative during a programmatic ad campaign and created 19,749,380 impressions and 2,290 sales across 3 markets as a result. Data from programmatic campaigns can also help your paid search and content marketing strategies.?
7. Recommendation Engines
AI-enabled recommendations are everywhere, from Netflix to Amazon. Using a pair of past user behavior and personal preferences, predictive algorithms can create content and product suggestions. Retailers can also employ AI to assist consumers save time by removing decision fatigue and the need to manually scroll through product pages.?
Take the next step
AI technology would continue to push boundaries of how businesses and customers interact to offer you new and better ways to reach your audience. If you’re interested in taking your first step with personalized marketing, Data Science Autopilot could be the right tool for you to employ. It is an amazing product offered by Inqline that allows you to attract, engage, and retain your customers.?