Applications of AI in Digital Marketing

The Oxford Dictionary defines Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. Its origins can be traced back to the efforts of classical thinkers to characterize human cognition as the mechanical manipulation of symbols. However, the field of AI research was not truly developed until 1956 at a conference in Dartmouth College where the term "artificial intelligence" was coined. Artificial Intelligence is making huge impacts in today's society. It is becoming vital for today's time as it can solve complex problems with efficiency in multiple sectors, such as health care, entertainment, banking, education, etc. AI makes our everyday life easier and quicker.

As it continues to evolve, so does the potential to use it to develop digital marketing campaigns and valuable consumer insights for businesses. Throughout the digital marketing field, AI can help streamline and automate marketing strategies. It can also remove the risk of human error. Although most of the digital marketing field still relies on human cognition, the AI system will be able to produce a report using nothing but data. With its ability to capture, evaluate, implement, and learn from data, AI is revolutionizing the digital marketing field.

If you are a part of corporate marketing, there's a fair chance that you're already using some kind of AI-powered technology in your marketing tools. Yet many advertisers do not realize the advantages of AI and machine learning over conventional 'non-intelligent' marketing tools.

If you are considering your options, or if you're scared of taking a loss, you 're not the only one. Investing in emerging technologies is a huge undertaking and can be daunting when it is underpinned by abstract principles such as machine learning algorithms. So, to help you make your choice, listed below are some of the applications of AI in digital marketing.

1. Improved Personalization & Recommendations

The way in which consumers react to marketing messages and interact with them has changed.  Conventional methods of marketing such as media ads and direct mail are not as effective anymore.  One of the reasons is that customers now want advertisers to target their place, population, or preferences to messages. Most individuals may not participate in non-personalized ads or just disregard it.

Customers are more inclined to engage with their personalized marketing messages. Experian's research reveals that e-mails will be accessed 26% more often when they have personalized subject lines. In addition, 79% of customers in a global Marketo's survey said they would only support brand ads if they are tailored similarly to earlier interactions.

AI helps advertisers to personalize their messages on an individual basis, rather than the target audience that advertisers had usually focused on in the past. The system operates by analyzing consumer behavior on the basis of the information gained from past brand interactions. This means that marketers can send content and marketing communications that are most likely to convert and lead to sales, at the best possible time to drive conversions.

2. Application of AI Chatbots

Chatbots act as a bridge between brands and customers, providing 24/7 interaction.  According to Wikipedia “A chatbot is a software application used to conduct an online chat conversation via text or text-to-speech, instead of providing direct contact with a live human agent.” According to an online survey, 44 % of U.S consumers prefer chatbots to people in terms of customer relations. This helps brands to excite customers when a new chatbot is introduced. Chatbots interact like people but they also minimize human error and are not influenced by emotions. Easily performing repetitive activities, chatbots improve customer service. They can also provide customers with full product information, if necessary.

In addition to these advantages, consumers can choose the language used by the chatbot according to their preferences, allowing the company to provide localized customer care. Many companies have started contact with their consumers using chat services such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to ease the cooperation.

3. Search Engine Optimization

There are several manual tasks that marketers perform every day, such as topic discovery and keyword analysis, that they are not particularly great at doing, or they don't enjoy doing. But a machine will complete the same task in a much faster and efficient way without any complaints.

In the field of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the AI analyzes the interaction between sites, content pages, and search engine rankings. The findings are simple, actionable, and even automated strategies are developed to help fight competition.

Working out what keywords, expressions, or phrases you want to optimize is more than half the battle. Artificial intelligence tools can help.  AI excels in identifying trends in broad data sets, like search volume results.

In fact, tools like MarketMuse, Frase, and BrightEdge offers help on what content you should build to own the traffic for specific keyword clusters. They use AI to derive patterns from the search results, so that you can see what other top-ranking sites are doing to appear first in search ranking around any given query.

4. Understanding and Predicting Customer Behavior

You need to know as much information as possible about your customers to provide the best customer experience. It is quite difficult to obtain this information if you use conventional methods. But it could be much more effective with the power of Artificial Intelligence. According to Forbes, "75% of companies that have implemented AI and its subdivision, Machine Learning, is boosting customer satisfaction by more than 10%."  

Today, we see a very frustrating battle for customer behavior analysis. Many companies and brands are competing to hear and understand their customers more quickly than their competitors. While companies are used to respond to consumer interactions, events, and behaviors in real-time or after the event, it is increasingly apparent that this is not enough. Something needs to be done to keep the user experience at the highest level possible.

This is where Artificial Intelligence comes into play. It can change the way companies communicate with their customers. AI can deliver comprehensive CRM analytics and more meaningful insights into customer behavior, needs, preferences, and wishes. When implemented properly, AI can enable businesses with the potential to bring the best goods to the right customers when the time is right.

Conclusion