Marketing is an industry that many believe will see a major shift from artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, a McKinsey study found that a single business function other than sales will have the greatest financial impact. This means that if you are a marketer and don't use AI, you may be missing out on the most transformative technology.
In fact, very few people today are not using some form of artificial intelligence in marketing. Indeed, there are so many tools with AI capabilities that we are used to using them without even thinking about them. The most widely used social search and advertising solutions, email marketing platforms, e-commerce solutions, and content creation tools all use what we call "AI" in business today. To be clear, this is not what we mean by "general purpose" AI - machines that can think and communicate like us and do almost anything. In today's business world (and marketing in particular), artificial intelligence refers to software that helps us perform certain tasks, such as answer questions, and get better with more information.
However, my experience is that while there are many tools out there, and most marketers are more comfortable using them on a day-to-day basis, it is often done on a case-by-case basis. Many marketing departments still lack a coordinated and strategic approach when implementing large projects. Equally important, much is left behind in developing an AI-friendly culture that prioritizes data, and in developing and upgrading skills to meet skills needs.
Paul Rotzer, founder and CEO of the AI Marketing Institute and author of the new book Marketing AI, tells me this is true in his own experience. When he recently tested his hypothesis by researching the mention of AI terminology associated with the world's top 50 marketing leaders, he found that only four of them spoke openly or related to the use of AI.
“My question is, who is running this? Who does it in marketing?
So we find that data-rich industries that require high personalization and intelligent automation of their operations have been using AI (health, financial services) perhaps for the last decade, but are using it in their business. sale.
"But the industry has a strong need for personalization, better customer experience, more predictable results, why would you use AI. But overall, at a macro level, we are still very early in understanding and adopting AI...perception.
So what are the most compelling uses of AI in marketing and where are they already being used?
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Advertisers face the ongoing challenge of finding the best way to place ads to get the most out of their money.
Facebook and Google are the largest online advertising platforms and both offer tools that combine audience segmentation with predictive analytics. Segmentation groups customers by gender, age, income level, interests, and countless other characteristics. Predictive analytics determines which groups are most likely to interact with a particular product or service. Facebook, Google, and all other platforms that offer advertising capabilities allow businesses to target thousands of potential customers with different versions of advertising media to measure and evaluate their effectiveness. With traditional advertising methods such as television, newspapers and magazines, it is very difficult to attribute revenue growth to advertising content, placement or external factors. AI-powered advertising tools and platforms make this easier, but are most effective when used as part of a coordinated AI marketing strategy and in conjunction with the other marketing areas covered here!
public relations
Previously, public relations focused on the issue of providing products and services to mainstream media and professionals. In today's online world, the media landscape has exploded, providing opportunities to promote brands directly through social media, as well as through third-party influencers and sponsored and unsponsored content creators. But how do you know where to find the best influencers to build and maintain relationships?
Again, AI can help by tailoring products for people with cultural audiences that can align with the brand's appeal and values. However, some of these AI applications in marketing go further, such as AI-powered influencer Lil Mikel, who uses chatbot technology to create all-digital personas. Even though he's not around, his millions of followers consider him a style expert and voluntarily follow his advice, meaning he can earn huge royalties from brands like Calvin Klein and Prada.
Writing press releases, developing external messages, and finding the best sales pitch (online or digital) to expand your reach are other PR tasks that can be accomplished with AI.
content marketing
“Content is king” has been conventional wisdom in marketing departments since the dawn of Web 2.0 and the rise of user-generated content platforms (including social media). But what kind of content is king? And where should we put it? How often, how detailed or simple… simply put, how do we ensure that our content achieves our goals, builds our brand, positions us as an expert or authority in our field and, of course, generates sales and leads?
Well, one way is to use artificial intelligence. Buzzfeed is one of the largest content-driven websites in the world, and Roetzer explores how it uses artificial intelligence to control all aspects of its operations, such as: B. Determining whether certain content is likely to go viral and what content to suggest to visitors using publishing tools such as tagging , categorization and personalization that I want to see and automate everyday aspects. What really sets Buzzfeed apart as an AI-powered content publisher is its strategic approach, measuring and optimizing user engagement to find every piece of content and information that can then be used in marketing.
e-marketing
Email marketing is often about customizing your headlines, layout, and text to impact those important open and click-through rates. Minor differences in the language used can mean the difference between an email that is identified as one of the 148 billion pieces of spam sent daily and caught by filters, or identified when it is opened and finds its way to its intended address. Buyer. advice on what to buy.
There are a number of AI-based tools that make this task easier, such as: B. Phrase, which automates the creation of subject lines; "Seventh Sense" which optimizes mail delivery times; and rasa.io, which makes it easy to create personalized newsletters.
What's the next step?
Realizing the clear potential of AI will depend on understanding the business of the need for a coordinated and strategic approach to implementing AI marketing. It should be clear how the different use cases I mentioned above can be useful individually. But real value comes when we start to use them together to answer our most pressing questions, influence our most important metrics, and achieve important business goals.
Rotzer told me "That's a tough point because a lot of business people still think of AI as some kind of abstract science fiction - I don't think they realize it's very accessible, you can look at AI today - you'll find this one tool behind it for $19 per month and give it a try... not like you have to spend six months training pilots.
But you need people with the right skills. Outside of large companies, most marketing departments do not employ and require specialized data scientists.
As a company goes through an ongoing process of developing a culture of data literacy and AI, it is increasingly important to enable people who are already experts in their fields to learn and understand the importance of technology.
As for those who were absolutely right . . . "Honestly, hard to find," said Retzer.
"Both brands do this and they don't want to talk about it because they think it's a competitive advantage - or they really don't do anything...they have a team that can do it"...people who understand what AI is capable of apply it to a real business problem and it's really hard to find a lot of business people who can apply it to use cases."
You can click here to watch my webinar with Paul Retzer, CEO and Founder of the AI Marketing Institute, where we cover many other aspects of AI in marketing, including machine creativity and marketing ethics. webinar will be useful for him. The latest book, Artificial Intelligence Marketing.
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