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Automation is the future of digital marketing. As new technology develops, more and more marketing processes are taken over by algorithms, software, and machines. This shouldn’t come as a surprise: most industries are moving toward greater automation. In the digital world, this often means employing artificial intelligence for business processes. But how exactly are we using artificial intelligence in digital marketing today? What are the benefits of this development? And what does the future look like for digital marketing? Let’s take a closer look at AI and how it’s transforming digital marketing.
What is artificial intelligence (AI)?
Artificial intelligence, often shortened to AI, is a branch of computer science that deals with building smart machines and software that mimic human cognitive processes. For many people, the first association with AI is a walking, talking robot from some sci-fi movie. In science, this type of AI is called artificial general intelligence and refers to machines that can apply their algorithms to a wide variety of tasks, much like a human being does with their intelligence. Although we are still far off from actual thinking machines, these types of programs do exist. But what is far more common is so-called narrow artificial intelligence. These are machines and programs that are highly adept at performing a single task in a way that mimics how a human would do it. It is this type of AI that you’ll see in marketing.
How can you use artificial intelligence in digital marketing?
AI has an extensive application in digital marketing. As such, it can be used for anything from sending emails to driving traffic to tracking orders. You will, of course, need different programs for each of these tasks. But by combining them, you can automate your marketing to a significant degree.
Collect and analyze customer information for greater personalization
Marketing is all about data. Collecting information about your customers, learning what they like, and turning that knowledge into action – this is the recipe for success. But you can’t exactly ask every person who visits your website or sees your ad what they thought of it, then analyze their responses yourself. You need to be more efficient with your marketing than that, and this is where customer relationship management (CRM) software comes in.
Combining AI and big data technology, CRM software gathers information about your customers from various sources and gives you in-depth insights into their behavior. Not only will this help you better understand your customer base as a whole, but you can also use it to improve personalization on your website. You can offer up customized homepages to each user, tailored to their interests. Or you can personalize ad messages to individual users based on their previous purchases. Personalized ads and pages are far more effective than generalized ones.
Implement real-time tracking
Although this varies significantly by industry, most businesses lose more customers than they retain in an average year. And yet, new customers are harder to acquire, harder to convert, less likely to stay loyal to the brand, and less likely to make big purchases, so they require a greater effort in marketing. Therefore, it is in your best interest to do what you can to keep your existing customers happy and loyal. AI can help you with this by tracking your customers’ actions (or inactions) as they pertain to your brand in real-time. This will help you identify individuals or groups whose interests you are at risk of losing. You can then retarget them in the hopes of keeping them as customers.
Use AI chatbots for customer service
Customer service is vital for customer satisfaction. So when a customer contacts you, you need to treat them well. Among other things, this means being available whenever they need you, staying on the line with them for as long as they need you to, and answering all of their questions in a satisfactory manner. But you probably don’t have the resources or manpower to do this, especially if you have a large customer base. The solution is chatbots. Although not as helpful as real, live customer service agents, chatbots will resolve the most frequently asked questions for your customers any time they require assistance. You just need to program them to respond to specific keywords and phrases.
Improve email campaigns and automate digital advertising
While there are many ways to do digital marketing, email campaigns and digital advertising are techniques virtually everyone is familiar with and uses regularly. By using AI, you can make them easier, faster, and, most of all, better. Firstly, you can use AI technology to automate these processes. This will save you a lot of time and effort. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, you can use AI to personalize emails and ads. This will boost the ROI on your email campaigns and make your ads more effective because people are more likely to react to things that are tailored specifically to their interests.
Create, publish, and market quality content
Quality content optimized for users and search engines alike is a big part of digital marketing. Content of all kinds – text, image, video – can be used to increase website sales and boost the profit on your website, promote your brand, and attract new users or customers. Some of this content, specifically written content, needs to be created by humans. Our current AI capabilities are simply not up to par. But you can use AI to automate publishing and personalize marketing afterward. And in the cases of video or image content, you can even create it with the help of AI software. This will all help you achieve better results with your content more easily.
What are the benefits of using artificial intelligence in digital marketing?
Even if it requires investing in new software, using AI for digital marketing is worth the effort for all the benefits it brings:
- processing larger quantities of data faster: an AI can process massive amounts of data very quickly, giving you the information you need to improve your marketing strategies
- more accurate, information-driven solutions: by providing you with advanced insights and analytics, AIs will help you come up with better marketing strategies tailored specifically to your users
- available 24/7: an AI can work around the clock, always there to collect information for you or assist your customers
- automated marketing processes: AIs can automate many marketing processes, making them faster and easier to complete
Implementing artificial intelligence in digital marketing
When implementing artificial intelligence in digital marketing for your business, you must first set clear goals. What are you trying to achieve? And how can AI help you with that? Then, you should find software that does what you’re looking for. Read reviews to see others’ experiences before making the final choice. Remember to check for compatibility with your current systems and software too. Finally, install the software, set it up, and teach your employees how to use it. You should be prepared for some issues with this step – there’s always a learning curve with new technology. You’ll probably need to make some tweaks to the settings as you go along, so keep monitoring your progress and make adjustments to your AI software as needed.
