Digital marketers are leveraging AI to enhance their strategies and achieve better results in various ways. The first AI concepts started near Alan Turing’s time. Alan Turing’s work on the concept of a universal machine (the Turing machine) and his famous paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” (1950), which posed the question, “Can machines think?” and introduced the Turing Test as a criterion for intelligence in machines. Neural networks, a foundational concept in machine learning, have a history that dates back several decades being introduced during the same time Turing was bringing these subjects to discussion and analysis.
Now that modern day computing is less expensive with hardware and bandwidth, it’s the time in technology where major growth spurts are being made and this technology is making its way into company’s and consumer hands alike.
Let’s look at some of the key areas where AI is working well for digital marketers:
Personalization: AI enables marketers to deliver highly personalized content and experiences to their customers. By the super power of AI analyzing customer behavior, preferences, and interaction data faster than ever before, AI can tailor recommendations, emails, and advertisements to individual users, increasing engagement and conversion rates. Consider the ability you would have if you had all the data at your fingertips and had to do your own analysis, it would be fantastic but take more time.
Predictive Analytics: AI helps in predicting future trends and customer behavior by analyzing historical data. This allows marketers to make data-driven decisions, optimize campaigns, and allocate resources more effectively when diagramming the customer journey. This will also enable you to have many customized customer journeys to tailor communication style and strategy to like customers within the same segments. Work smart, not hard.
Chatbots and Customer Service: AI-powered chatbots provide instant customer support, answer queries, and guide users through the sales funnel. This enhances customer experience and frees up human resources for more complex tasks. This also enables a hybrid model of support where AI can manage your queue and send escalated messages to real humans with the expertise in that area, also providing for greater customer satisfaction.
Content Creation and Curation: AI tools can generate content outlines, such as blog posts, social media posts, and ad copy, based on specific keywords and topics. They can also curate content by selecting and sharing relevant articles, videos, and other media, saving time and ensuring consistent content output. They key here is to understand that humans will always know reality and context better than AI. All AI outlines and content should be modified by a human, thereby leveraging AI for processes, but keeping it authentic by the brand with brand experts. Consider AI, of your best researchers that delivers you a myriad of options fast.
Ad Targeting and Optimization: AI improves ad targeting by analyzing user data to identify the most relevant audience segments. It also optimizes ad placements and budgets in real-time, maximizing ROI and reducing wasted spend. Consider the power – again, this needs to be moderated by a human to constantly consider context and brand knowledge.
Email Marketing: AI enhances email marketing campaigns by segmenting audiences, personalizing content, and optimizing send times. It can also predict the likelihood of email opens, clicks, and conversions, allowing for more effective campaign strategies. In essence, human programmed algorithms have been doing this in email clients for decades.
Social Media Management: AI tools can assist in scheduling posts, analyzing engagement, and identifying trends on social media platforms. They help marketers understand which content resonates with their audience and optimize their social media strategies accordingly. Again, you will notice the trend of what has traditionally been identified as an algorithm is now being called AI as its being created by machine learning and not human analysis.
SEO and SEM: AI improves search engine optimization (SEO) by analyzing search patterns, identifying keywords, and optimizing content for better rankings. For search engine marketing (SEM), AI can automate bidding strategies and identify high-performing keywords to maximize ad effectiveness. Again, human intervention is necessary here as keywords are extremely contextual and AI may be your 1st point of reference for research, but then human intervention should be employed to outrank folks solely relying on machines. Nuances matter here and this is where responsible marketers will separate themselves from the pack.
Customer Insights and Segmentation: AI helps marketers understand their customers better by analyzing large datasets to uncover insights and segment audiences based on various criteria, such as demographics, behavior, and preferences. Doing gut checks with real data libraries can be the difference between dirty data and extremely distinct and detailed data. Always benchmark your use of AI with what you know has historically delivered the best source for this information.
Sentiment Analysis: AI-powered sentiment analysis tools analyze customer reviews, social media mentions, and other user-generated content to gauge public sentiment towards a brand or product. This helps marketers understand customer perceptions and adjust their strategies accordingly. Pairing this with your customer journey is another way to segment your customers and speak in the correct tone for that audience.
Overall, AI is empowering digital marketers to work more efficiently, make better-informed decisions, and create more impactful marketing campaigns. Ensure you are bringing your special flavor to AI as it is not supposed to replace cognition at large. Some tasks can be relegated to automation, but for the most part, there should be a disposition to roles only humans can manage. Where does the human element make a difference? Pay attention as AI evolved and you will find that niche your market needs to have managed and serviced by humans, just like marketing.
