AI In Marketing: Nothing Artificial About It

Marketing is a domain that conventionally necessitates a human touch, given its focus on establishing an emotional connection with the audience. At first glance, it would appear that artificial intelligence (AI) would be misplaced inside the marketing ecosystem.

Surprisingly, the usage of AI in enterprise marketing dates back to 1998, when collaborative filtering technology was first used for enhancing user product recommendations. With recent AI phenomena such as intelligent conversational chatbots taking the world by storm, we cannot ignore the potential that lies in AI and marketing technology intertwining deeply in the future.

In today’s marketing landscape, software and data-driven strategies are crucial, with cutting-edge marketing technologies, known as the ‘martech stack’, being commonplace amongst most enterprises. However, analyzing large datasets is a significant challenge for current marketing technologies to handle effectively. By leveraging AI, marketers can analyze large data sets, detect patterns and trends, and create personalized campaigns at scale.

Today, as a mature technology, businesses must adopt AI to transcend the limits of their existing martech stacks.

Intelligent engagement ecosystems: The secret sauce to elevating marketing campaigns

Customers are increasingly desensitized and overwhelmed by large volumes of scattershot marketing campaigns. Siloed processes, lack of customer understanding, and undefined key objectives can render marketing efforts ineffective in driving conversions and building long-term customer relationships. AI can help fill the gaps in any marketing approach by enabling an intelligent marketing ecosystem where businesses and consumers can connect on a personal level.

Deeper personalization at scale

Predictive models that leverage statistical and machine learning (ML) algorithms can help analyze customer data, including comments, videos, photos, and social media posts. This enables marketers to segment customers based on behavior and attributes and deeply understand their needs. Empowered with this knowledge, businesses can drive personalized, targeted campaigns encouraging greater customer engagement.

Actionable insights with predictive analytics

ML algorithms can help generate valuable insights for marketers by performing granular data analysis on large datasets of consumer profiles. One successful implementation is in demand forecasting, wherein marketers identify patterns and trends to predict the evolution of consumers’ product preferences accurately – empowering businesses to meet product demand in time and proactively deliver recommendations.

Another significant utilization is in anomaly detection. Key ML techniques such as clustering, decision trees, and neural networks are applied to detect deviations in established customer behavior patterns. With predictive anomaly detection, businesses can identify customers likely to churn, allowing marketers to pursue them with retention campaigns.

Campaign optimization with automation

AI can help automate a range of routine tasks in marketing campaigns, such as e-mail marketing, scheduling social media posts, budget monitoring, and metrics analysis. This enables marketers to shift their focus to other critical aspects, such as strategization. Additionally, ML algorithms can help automate the prediction of campaign outcomes and conversion rates to help businesses redirect their marketing strategies in the right direction with agility.

Enhanced content impact with natural language processing

Marketers can analyze data and identify trends in customer habits to understand their interests with Natural language understanding (NLU), a component of Natural language processing (NLP). With the other component of NLP, natural language generation (NLG), tailored messages in conversations, recommendations, and offers can be created.

Adding to this, NLP can be utilized for consumer sentiment analysis, where customer feedback, social media posts, and other user-generated content are analyzed to identify the language and messaging that resonates most with customers.

Making marketing in-roads with AI

AI is already creating positive impacts by enabling marketers to optimize their strategies on the go. It has enhanced account-based marketing (ABM) in identifying high-value accounts, driving personalized content creation, and generating real-time insights into campaign performance.

Another business area that AI has elevated is sales. AI-powered speech-to-text technology is helping executives by analyzing cellular conversations for keywords, phrases, and other relevant data to better understand the client’s needs. Moreover, it has enabled businesses to determine the likelihood of prospects converting to long-term clients.

Unlock the AI advantage safely and quickly

The Great Pyramids of Giza and the Burj Khalifa, separated by over four and a half millennia, share a vital thing in common – a well-devised plan. Similarly, before businesses incorporate AI in their marketing campaigns and operations, it is crucial to lay out a comprehensive approach with key steps.

  • Set business goals

    Businesses must identify shortcomings in their marketing strategies and operations. They must then gauge how AI can help solve these shortcomings toward realizing key objectives and results. Critical factors such as budget limitations toward adopting AI must also be considered while establishing their end business goals.

  • Select the right tools

    A sword would be considered an oddity in a chef’s toolkit. While it may enable the chopping of produce and protein, it isn’t quite the right fit. Similarly, it is imperative that businesses choose the right AI platforms and solutions that will elevate their marketing endeavors in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

  • Build in-house expertise

    Without the right know-how to leverage AI in martech, any further investment will remain futile. Thus, it is important that businesses upskill existing employees or acquire new talent with data science and AI expertise.

En-route reinvention, not replacement

AI adoption in martech is expected to accelerate in the coming years, with the market value expected to rise well above USD 48.8 billion1 by 2030, growing annually at a rate of CAGR 28.6%.

But what does this mean for the people in marketing? Are we heading towards a reality where machines solely imbue sentiment in e-mails or decide the next viral social media trends?

AI is not meant to replace human marketers but to help augment their skills and capabilities, empowering them to work more efficiently. While AI can provide valuable insights and data-driven recommendations, marketers can creatively leverage this information in developing innovative and engaging campaigns, helping sustain long-term business growth.

Reference

AUTHOR

Amit Tyagi

Amit Tyagi

Chief Marketing Officer

SUBJECT TAGS

#artificialintelligence
#chatbots
#marketingtechnology
#martechstack
#machinelearning
#customerengagement
#demandforecasting

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