Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly revolutionizing the marketing landscape, enabling businesses to gain a competitive edge by leveraging data-driven insights to drive growth and revenue. However, many businesses are uncertain about how to implement AI in their marketing strategy effectively. That's why we've created this practical guide on how businesses can use AI for marketing.
In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore the benefits of AI marketing, how it can help businesses scale their marketing efforts, and practical use cases for AI in email marketing, social media automation, and more. Whether you're a small business owner or a marketing professional, this guide will provide you with the tools and knowledge you need to harness the power of AI for marketing success.
What is AI Marketing?
AI marketing encompasses various tools and techniques that leverage AI technology to execute successful marketing campaigns. It primarily involves utilizing customer data to generate and deliver targeted messages at the most opportune moments. However, it also includes other aspects, such as AI-generated blog outlines and chatbots that learn from their interactions.
To illustrate, some of the ways AI can be integrated into your marketing strategy include:
- Augmenting chatbots with natural language processing (NLP) to qualify leads without requiring forms.
- Utilizing machine learning-powered CRMs to comprehensively analyze all facets of customer interactions.
- Leveraging deep learning algorithms in apps to enhance personalization capabilities.
The potential applications of AI in marketing are continually expanding, and it is impossible to cover all of them in this post. With new technologies and companies emerging all the time, the possibilities are virtually limitless. From the marketer's perspective, AI marketing is a time-saving boon that eliminates the need for manual data analysis and campaign development. On the other hand, consumers are more likely to encounter content that resonates with their interests, which can either thrill or unsettle them, or perhaps both.
Why is AI in Marketing Important?
Artificial intelligence has a tremendous impact on digital marketing. As per a survey, 76% of customers expect businesses to understand their needs and expectations. AI marketing enables marketers to analyze vast amounts of marketing data analytics from social media, emails, and the web in a shorter time frame. This is why AI marketing is essential for every business. Let's take a closer look at the benefits of AI marketing:
Automation
AI can enhance the intelligence of your marketing automation. It can work in tandem with marketing automation to translate data into decisions, meaningful interactions, and positive business outcomes. While data is crucial, what matters more is the ability to turn data into actionable insights quickly and accurately. The speed at which marketing tasks are executed and implemented is a critical factor that AI marketing can bring to your business. AI can help marketers scale the number of campaigns they create, determine the next best actions for customers, and define which campaign to send to them properly.
In email marketing automation, AI is a powerful tool that businesses can use to increase customer engagement and email open rates while saving time. AI goes beyond a copywriter by optimizing subject lines for clicks and tracking their performance. Moreover, AI can generate and optimize content in various email formats that are friendly and relevant to recipients. Social media automation also benefits from AI technology, as businesses can use it to increase customer engagement and optimize content, similar to email marketing.
Minimizing Errors
It is a well-known fact that humans tend to make mistakes. The topic of AI and human error has been widely discussed, with arguments over whether AI can be a solution for human error. Undoubtedly, Artificial Intelligence is designed to reduce human intervention and minimize the likelihood of human error. AI has been proven to be effective in addressing human errors, particularly in the area of data security.
Many businesses are concerned about their employees' ability to safeguard customer data and other critical business information due to common data security issues. The increasing risk of cyber-attacks is a challenge that every eCommerce business must consider. Fortunately, AI can help mitigate these concerns by learning, adapting, and responding to a business's cybersecurity needs.
Cost-Savings
AI can help businesses eliminate the wasteful resources typically used to create and implement a marketing strategy. By leveraging AI, companies can achieve significant cost savings by working more efficiently and quickly, thereby increasing revenue. When organizations spend excessive amounts of money and time on tasks, AI can help them complete repetitive and mundane tasks. It reduces the time required to complete these tasks while minimizing errors to zero.
By taking advantage of available talent to perform more critical tasks, the cost of hiring employees can be significantly reduced. With AI, businesses can work more efficiently. For instance, a content manager can use AI to perform thousands of copy and creative variations of A/B tests and automatically create email subject lines. This speeds up the process and can even outperform human performance.
Types of AI Marketing
Marketing AI is not uniform in its capabilities, as it can be classified based on its intelligence level - ranging from simple task automation to complex machine learning - and whether it operates independently or as part of a larger program. However, modern marketing software often combines automation and machine learning, resulting in a blurred line between these categories.
Stand-alone Automation Apps
While automation is a powerful tool, it does not require the same level of intelligence as machine learning programs. Stand-alone automation apps are not integrated into a larger program like a CRM and do not "learn" from their interactions like machine learning apps. However, they are capable of performing automated tasks and enabling complex workflows.
Level of complexity: Low
Example: Examples of stand-alone automation apps include publishing tools that automatically post content on a predetermined schedule and chatbots that guide users through a predetermined decision tree.
Integrated Automation Apps
Integrated automation apps also operate based on logic-based rules, do not learn from their interactions, and require relatively low intelligence. However, unlike stand-alone apps, they function within a larger system. Integrated automation is commonly used in CRMs to aid with simple tasks such as categorizing customers based on their behavior.
Level of complexity: Low
Example : When a customer subscribes to the small business version of an accounting app, the CRM can automatically categorize them as a small business instead of an enterprise-level organization.
Stand-alone Machine Learning Apps
Machine learning is the core of AI - it's where the real magic happens. Stand-alone machine learning apps work independently and leverage vast amounts of data to make complex decisions. Advanced machine learning tools can even learn from user interactions to enhance their predictions and decisions.
Level of complexity: High
Example: Stand-alone machine learning apps include tools that generate personalized plans for users, such as a skincare routine based on facial analysis and advanced chatbots that evaluate user behavior to determine the appropriate time to transfer them to a live customer service representative.
Integrated Machine Learning Apps
To fully utilize AI, it is most effective to combine machine learning with programs like CRMs or advertising tools. Integrated machine learning apps can examine user behavior and promptly determine what to offer them. In contrast to stand-alone machine learning apps, integrated apps securely gather data and offer insights without requiring the user to request information from a separate platform.
Level of complexity: High
Example: By collecting user browsing and purchasing data, an integrated machine learning app can offer highly targeted ads.
Ways to Use AI in Your Marketing
It's no secret that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming industries across the board, with statistics indicating that current AI technology can boost business productivity by up to 40%. With the rapid adoption of new technologies, market leaders are increasingly turning to AI as a powerful tool for staying ahead of the competition. Businesses that leverage AI have a competitive advantage in numerous ways, including in marketing. In fact, an increasing number of businesses are investing in AI-powered marketing strategies to revolutionize the way they reach and engage customers.
To stay ahead of the curve, it's crucial to understand the potential of AI and how it can drive business value through innovative marketing strategies. By embracing AI, businesses can unlock new opportunities for growth and success in today's rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Dynamic Pricing
The pricing strategy that determines a product's price by supply and demand is commonly referred to as personalized pricing. This approach is evident in ride-sharing apps, where prices increase as demand rises, or when discounts are unavailable for online purchases. By monitoring predictive analytics use cases like cookies, search history, and other activities, an application or website's bot can provide real-time pricing. While this may result in fewer discounts or higher prices for customers at the moment, there are benefits to this approach.
For instance, dynamic pricing can benefit customers when demand for a product is low. When hotel rooms go unsold, dynamic pricing can offer competitive pricing to attract customers, ultimately reducing the likelihood of vacancies. While some may view personalized pricing as unfair, it's important to consider both sides of the story. By leveraging data-driven insights, businesses can optimize their pricing strategies, ultimately driving higher revenue and customer satisfaction.
Add Chatbots
Have you ever interacted with a chatbot on an online store or through social media, such as Facebook Messenger? If so, you've experienced firsthand how AI is transforming customer service. While chatbots are commonly used to respond to repetitive customer inquiries about price, size, or quantity, they can also be used to create personalized and tailored content that is more efficient than human efforts.
For example, MobileMonkey's chatbot is a powerful tool that combines AI with personalized content marketing to create proactive advertising strategies. By leveraging AI chatbots in this way, businesses can use them for more than just direct customer acquisition, ultimately driving higher engagement and revenue. AI chatbots are a game-changer for customer service and marketing. By automating tasks and creating personalized content, businesses can provide more efficient and effective services to their customers, ultimately driving higher engagement, satisfaction, and sales.
Content Creation
AI-powered tools can significantly enhance the efficiency and ease of content creation for businesses. While the core of content creation is rooted in human creativity, AI tools can automate specific tasks such as email content, personalized reports/messages, and social media content curation to maximize the efficiency of content teams.
Tools like Rocco can generate fresh social media content that increases engagement with followers. Additionally, businesses can partner with AI marketing agencies that specialize in content creation for various channels to streamline their content creation process. By leveraging AI-powered tools, businesses can create high-quality content more efficiently and effectively.
Product Recommendations
In today's highly competitive marketplace, delivering personalized customer experiences can be a significant challenge for businesses. With consumers valuing personalized experiences more than ever, studies have shown that 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that offers tailored experiences. As a result, many businesses are investing in personalization to stay ahead of the competition.
However, personalization can be a time-consuming and challenging task, particularly when dealing with large amounts of data. Analyzing complete databases to make accurate recommendations can be difficult for humans. This is where AI-based product recommendation systems come in.
By leveraging AI algorithms, businesses can analyze user preferences for product features and identify items that users have previously liked, shown interest in, or purchased. This enables businesses to provide more relevant and personalized product recommendations to their customers, ultimately driving higher engagement and sales.
Automated Email Content Curation
Content curation involves finding high-quality content and presenting it to your audience in a compelling way. While it may seem like simply sharing content created by others, effective curation involves adding value to the content to engage your audience.
By leveraging AI copywriting and email automation tools, businesses can streamline their content curation efforts and save time scheduling and sending emails to customers. With AI, businesses can personalize newsletter content based on audience segmentation and text input, ensuring that the content is relevant and engaging for each recipient.
To make the most of your newsletters, it's crucial to focus on both the messaging and the links included in the content. By incorporating AI-powered tools, businesses can optimize their content curation efforts, ultimately driving higher engagement and ROI.
Better Copywriting
AI-powered tools have revolutionized the world of copywriting by enabling businesses to create high-quality content more efficiently and effectively. By leveraging AI, businesses can streamline their content creation process, saving time and resources while enhancing the quality of their content. One of the most significant benefits of AI-powered copywriting is the ability to generate content quickly and easily. Tools like Copy.ai use advanced machine learning models like GPT-3 to produce authentic, human-like copy almost instantly. With Copy.ai, businesses can select a copy type, provide some words, phrases, and descriptions to base content around, and watch the tool do the rest.
Another way AI can improve copywriting is through the use of paragraph rewriters. Tools like Frase.io can rewrite paragraphs with up to 400 words, making it easier for businesses to improve communication and enhance the readability of their content. AI can also help businesses optimize their email marketing campaigns by generating and optimizing content in various email formats that are friendly and relevant to recipients. AI-powered software can even optimize subject lines for clicks and track their performance.
AI-Enhanced PPC Advertising
AI has become a ubiquitous tool in the realm of PPC advertising. According to research conducted by GoodFirms, AI has produced intriguing results for PPC experts. Some of the top AI applications in PPC include smart bidding, micro-targeting, responsive ads, performance analysis, dynamic search ads, price optimization, and account management.
By leveraging these AI-powered tools, businesses can monitor more advertising platforms than their in-house teams or competitors can achieve. With AI, businesses can automate and streamline their PPC advertising efforts, enabling them to achieve better results in less time. By utilizing these cutting-edge technologies, businesses can optimize their PPC campaigns, enhance their ROI, and stay ahead of the competition.
Sales Forecasting
Every business aims to meet customer expectations and drive sales by knowing what to do next and executing it effectively. With the integration of AI in marketing, marketers can gain valuable customer insights based on data collected from past purchases and interactions. This AI-powered system enables businesses to predict what customers are likely to buy next, the number of products sold, and which products to promote to drive higher sales. By leveraging this approach to business intelligence, companies can avoid overselling or selling out-of-stock products by balancing their inventory.
One excellent example of software that uses AI to assist marketing and sales representatives is Qurious. This software enables reps to instantly understand every conversation with prospects without incurring exorbitant speech-to-text costs. It helps businesses to better understand their customers and participate in their actions, ultimately driving higher sales and customer satisfaction.
Learn How to Leverage AI for Marketing with Universal Creative Solutions
AI has the potential to change the way businesses approach marketing. By leveraging AI-powered tools and techniques, businesses can gain valuable insights into customer behavior, automate routine tasks, and deliver personalized experiences that drive engagement and revenue. From stand-alone automation apps to integrated machine learning apps, there are a variety of AI-powered marketing solutions available to businesses of all sizes. However, it's important to approach AI for marketing with a clear strategy and a deep understanding of how these tools work.
At the end of the day, the key to success with AI in marketing is to stay focused on your goals and use AI as a tool to achieve them. By following the practical tips and advice outlined in this guide, businesses can harness the power of AI to take their marketing efforts to the next level.
