Digital marketing balances commerce trends, human psychology, and current technology to influence consumer behavior, so the rise of AI can’t be ignored.
To achieve your goals and stay ahead of the competition, the more you understand AI technology, the better.
Artificial intelligence is the digital simulation of the human thought process. AI-based programs can do limited intelligence-related tasks, including reasoning, planning, learning, forecasting, and so on.
Because of its capabilities, pairing AI technology with data capture, analysis, and other marketing-related tasks can definitely change how you strategize and execute your digital marketing. In other words, AI marketing uses artificial intelligence to make automated decisions based on data analysis about consumers and the market.
There are essentially four types of AI in digital marketing:
- Machine learning is where algorithms can grasp the data to make complex decisions and even predictions. This includes deciphering texts, recognizing images, segmenting customers, and generating responses.
- Task automation, where applications can automate your repetitive and structured tasks with the help of pre-defined sequences or rules. An example of this is sending welcome emails.
- Integrated applications, which are already included in an existing system and enhance the user experience. For example, placing relevant ads by applying machine-learning algorithms on ad platforms.
- Stand-alone applications are separate AI programs that function outside of your main channels or systems. Users must interact separately with them.
The following are 12 ways AI is impacting digital marketing.
Predictive analytics
Something that many marketers can get excited about is AI-powered predictive analytics. This means that AI can analyze customer data to forecast future trends, identify patterns, and make data-driven decisions.
This can help you optimize your digital marketing campaigns in real-time, identify new opportunities, and adapt to changing customer behavior.
Data centralization
As you likely know, successful digital marketing relies heavily on accurate data. The most relevant data, however, is often spread across multiple applications.
AI can help gather, organize, analyze, and segment your digital marketing data automatically. It also can learn and improve over time. This centralized data can then be stored and available for use in your marketing campaigns.
Improvement of A/B testing
A/B testing is the process of showing two variants of any particular element to different segments of your audience at the same time and comparing which variant is more successful. A/B testing is also known as split testing and can be used in many different ways on websites, emails, and so on.
AI can run digital marketing campaigns through algorithms to enable much faster and more comprehensive A/B testing. And, of course, AI algorithms learn the more they’re used, which makes the process more intuitive and the results more insightful.
Check out our nine tips to make your A/B testing even more effective.
Content creation
Considering OpenAI’s ChatGPT application, AI has transformed the way marketers produce content. AI doesn’t just crunch numbers. It has natural language processing as well, where its machine learning enables algorithms to become increasingly accurate each time they’re executed. Therefore, AI is being used to create marketing content and even interpret users’ reactions to it.
A recent study predicts that by 2024, AI-generated content will account for about 30 percent of the total content produced by companies.
This can be a huge time saver regardless of what content you typically create. Some AI programs can even produce personalized content suggestions, ad copy, email subject headlines, and calls to action.
Check out our seven tips to level up your content marketing.
More timely messaging
When it comes to successful marketing, it’s imperative to “strike when the iron is hot,” so to speak. For many consumers, the window of interest can be very short.
AI can actually track customer preferences, analyze their actions and determine when the best time would be to contact them, whether it’s greetings, offers, or other content.
By messaging when consumers are most receptive, AI is essentially optimizing your campaign ROI (return on investment).
Hyper-personalized marketing
Because AI can analyze incredibly vast amounts of data and create individualized experiences, businesses can now create hyper-personalized marketing messages.
It involves leveraging customer data that includes past purchases, browsing behavior, and demographics. This can reduce shopping cart abandonment and help win back past customers.
Overall, personalized emails show a higher open rate and click-through rate than non-personalized emails.
Check out our eight benefits of personalization in your digital marketing.
Voice search optimization
Optimizing your content for voice search is becoming increasingly important since more consumers are using voice assistants, such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, to search for relevant information.
By leveraging AI-powered natural language processing, you can create content that connects with customers through voice search. This can include such strategies as targeting long-tail keywords and optimizing content for featured snippets.
Check out our seven tips to optimize for voice search on your own and get ahead of the curve.
Usefulness of virtual assistants
Remember that the majority of most buyers’ journeys is online, so consumers want easy, self-serve ways to find the information they need to make educated purchasing decisions.
AI can leverage that particular opportunity through virtual assistants that provide 24/7 customer support. One example is a website’s chatbots. Virtual assistance can use data to inform sales and advertising efforts, point consumers in the direction that you want, and free up your human customer service representatives to work on tasks with a higher cost-benefit ratio.
Remember that virtual assistants aren’t just about 24/7, real-time support. They’re designed to engage with natural language processing so that they understand and respond to customer questions and requests. The goal is to elevate the user’s overall experience. About 90 percent of customers say that the experience a business provides is just as important as its products or services.
Check out our eight expert tips to get started with conversational marketing, which involves chatbots.
Feedback analysis
By using AI-powered sentiment analysis, you can analyze customer feedback and even online mentions to understand how customers feel about your brand and its services and/or products.
This information (and resulting analysis) can help you identify pain points, improve your products and/or services, and tailor your digital marketing campaigns to better resonate with customers.
AI can also be used to monitor social media conversations in real time, allowing you to quickly respond to customer feedback and concerns.
Check out our nine tips to improve social listening and gain customer insights.
Intuitive contact segmentation
Lead generation is often the fuel of most digital marketing strategies. Of course, successful lead generation efforts result in a large list of leads, where it’s easy to feel overwhelmed needing to qualify potentially hundreds of thousands of potential customers.
AI applications can cross-reference online consumers’ social media trends, web interactions, and even mentions in public records to build robust profiles for your leads. Some AI algorithms can even tailor marketing messages to each lead, predicting which leads are likely to convert to a sale and executing follow-up actions if a lead opts for a competitor instead of your business.
Augmented reality
Think of Augmented Reality (AR) as an enhanced version of the real world around you. This technological experience involves digital visual elements, sound, and other sensory stimuli. (Remember Pokemon Go? How about that puppy dog Snapchat filter?)
Therefore, AR shopping capitalizes on this technology by incorporating e-commerce elements, giving customers deeper and more thorough information about your products without leaving home.
Keep in mind that AR is not the same as virtual reality. AR simply enhances your physical reality, while VR is fully immersive.
AI technology can help create experiences that blend the physical and digital worlds. About 88 percent of medium-sized businesses are already using or testing AR for some purpose.
Learn more about AR with our three reasons to consider using AR shopping for your business and our five tips to get started with AR shopping.
Self-learning
As mentioned earlier, AI is self-teaching or cognitive, which means that the longer it’s in use, the more accurate and beneficial its decisions are.
AI applications are created to replicate how the human brain works, so they continually evolve. In other words, the more you use AI, the better it becomes.
In conclusion
When it comes to AI, many industries are wondering where the line falls between machines being able to do our jobs and the work that only we can do. Of course, AI marketing will free marketers from busy work and offer more time for creativity and thoroughness. If you can identify the busy work you want to free your business from, then it’s time to involve AI in those tasks.
At DailyStory, we feature ChatGPT in our digital marketing automation platform that can rewrite your content and more.
As you’re exploring AI as part of your marketing strategy, consider leveling up your digital marketing with DailyStory. Features include automating various marketing tasks, personalization, dynamic audience segmentation and so much more. Schedule your free demo or start for free with us today.
