AI Driven Marketing: Developing a Future-proof Marketing Strategy
Aug 1, 2023
The landscape of marketing is taking a remarkable turn with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Companies, from startups to global enterprises, are increasingly leveraging AI-driven marketing strategies to gain a competitive edge and maximize their growth potential.
Understanding the Role of AI in Marketing
AI has emerged as a game-changer in the world of marketing. By harnessing the power of AI technologies combined with customer and brand experience data, marketers can garner crucial insights into customer behavior and market trends.
AI uses technologies such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), sentiment analysis, and more, to guide decision-making. This enables businesses to stay ahead of the competition and be prepared for the dynamic challenges of the marketplace.
By 2030, AI-driven marketing is set to drive 45% of the global economy, with data-driven product enhancements, personalized services, and influencing consumer demand playing a significant role.
Exploring the Applications of AI in Marketing
Social Media Listening
AI-powered social media marketing enhances efficiency by taking social listening to a whole new level. AI algorithms use aspect-clustering to identify and extract relevant details from social listening data, helping marketers gain a deep understanding of the customer's mindset through social media sentiment analysis. This allows companies to anticipate their customers' next move and take strategic actions for intended results.
Content Generation
AI-powered platforms like Sprout analyze the voice of customer (VoC) data in social posts and reviews to inform what content your target audience is most interested in. They also identify keywords and triggers to help develop compelling posts, respond better to customer comments, and inspire more impactful product descriptions for your website.
Automation
AI-driven smart automation empowers social media managers and customer service teams to improve operational efficiency. It helps achieve business goals efficiently by taking the guesswork out of tasks such as scheduling posts at optimal times for the greatest impact or categorizing incoming messages.
Audience Segmentation and Personalization
AI marketing can drive your omnichannel business strategies based on market segmentation, aligning your campaigns with customers who are most likely to buy your product or offering.
Data Analysis for Customer Insights
AI and machine learning give critical customer insights on a range of aspects to help you make strategic marketing decisions. This can empower you to quickly adapt to changing market trends, prioritize budgets based on what aspects need the most investment, and deepen customer relationships.
The Advent of AI Technologies in Marketing
AI technologies like semantic classification, named entity recognition, and aspect-based sentiment analysis are helping businesses garner targeted insights specific to their industry. Advanced AI technologies such as Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Semantic Search, Named Entity Recognition (NER), Neural Networks, and Sentiment Analysis have been instrumental in transforming the marketing landscape.
The Future of AI in Marketing
The future of AI in marketing holds immense potential with advancements such as Computer Vision, AI Chatbots, Predictive and Prescriptive AI, and responsible AI on the horizon.
Computer Vision
Computer vision allows AI marketing tools to derive insights from non-text digital data available in the form of raw images.
AI Chatbots
Conversational AI in the form of virtual agents and intelligent chatbots is set to change traditional marketing. They can boost engagement with existing customers and prospects to generate leads and also analyze their data to provide fine-grained insights.
Predictive and Prescriptive AI
Predictive and prescriptive analytics make AI marketing tools essential for marketers. Predictive analytics enables businesses to anticipate outcomes and develop a business strategy well in advance based on past voice of customer data.
Responsible AI
Responsible AI ensures that AI tools are developed more thoughtfully and trained with diverse data to remove biases. There are also data privacy, copyright, and governance rules being developed to ensure that ethical and societal implications are considered.
The Framework for AI-Powered Marketing
Understanding the two types of intelligence level (task automation and machine learning) and whether AI is stand-alone or part of a broader platform can help classify existing AI projects and plan the rollout of future ones.
Implementing AI in Marketing
Implementing AI in marketing requires a strategic approach. Starting with rule-based, stand-alone applications that help employees make better decisions, and over time deploying more sophisticated and integrated AI systems in customer-facing situations can maximize the benefits of AI.
Expanding the Reach of AI in Marketing
As companies become more sophisticated in their use of marketing AI, many fully automate certain types of decisions, taking humans out of the loop entirely. This approach is essential in domains that require repetitive, high-speed decisions, such as programmatic ad buying.
Overcoming Challenges and Risks in AI Marketing
Implementing AI applications can present difficulties. Stand-alone task-automation AI, despite its lower technical sophistication, can still be hard to configure for specific workflows. As companies adopt more sophisticated and integrated applications, other considerations arise.
Incorporating AI into third-party platforms can be tricky. Also, companies must keep customers' interests top of mind. The smarter and more integrated AI applications are, the more worries customers may have about privacy, security, and data ownership.
Conclusion
While marketing AI holds enormous promise, it's crucial for businesses to be realistic about its current capabilities. Despite the hype, AI can still accomplish only narrow tasks, not run an entire marketing function or process. However, its capabilities are rapidly growing, and it's already offering substantial benefits to marketers.
