As marketers, we are always in pursuit of new ways to reach consumers. Whether through new ways to segment audiences or building personas, marketing is a constant reevaluation of how to understand and connect with our buyers. In today’s modern market, leveraging data is arguably the best way to facilitate this reevaluation. With a significant number of transactions and shopping experiences taking place online, consumers are leaving millions of data breadcrumbs––key insights into their shopping habits and preferences––across the internet that marketers can use to inform their strategies. Following this breadcrumb trail manually is a daunting task; however, with advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) the path forward is becoming clear. By streamlining advertising programs and operations with AI, marketing teams can supercharge their data analysis, streamline tasks, boost marketing outcomes and efficiency, and ultimately, maximize ROI.
One key way AI is streamlining marketing operations is through data processing and analysis. Advanced AI tools have the ability to collect and analyze data from a wide variety of sources, from websites, to email campaigns and social media. AI has made it possible to process large data sets faster than ever, which reduces data silos, delivers key insights into consumer habits, helps identify of market trends, and more. In other words, AI can map and consolidate those data breadcrumb trails for you––to reveal complex analytical insights that enable informed decision making, and unlock additional bandwidth within your team by freeing up staff from tasks that can effectively be automated.
Furthermore, machine learning (ML) algorithms can make predictions from patterns and trends in the data, which can guide optimal budget allocation to maximize brand reach and engagement. Overall, with AI assisting in the heavy-duty data analysis, your team can make better, data-driven decisions more efficiently and stay agile as technology advances in real time.
Integrating AI into your marketing strategy can also free up capacity for your team by automating repetitive tasks such as scheduling social media posts across multiple platforms and monitoring engagement. AI can analyze survey responses, social media comments, and other customer feedback to identify trends and sentiment. This in turn enables precise consumer insights and budget-conscious targeting strategies that boost spending power.
Targeting customers is a key element of any marketing strategy, and at this point, personalization isn’t an option, it is the expectation. With AI, marketing teams are able to identify highly specific and, perhaps, previously overlooked audiences and create content designed specifically to engage them. With personalized content, consumers feel connected to the brand and ultimately make a purchase.
In fact, according to Epsilon, 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides personalized experiences and McKinsey has found that personalization can increase marketing return on investment (ROI) by 10-30% and lift revenue by 5-15%. With AI’s help in generating better personalization efforts, ROI will follow.
Another way to maximize ROI in your marketing efforts is through optimizing your ad campaigns. It is important to conduct testing on the variations of your ads to gauge its performance, so that it can help inform future ad strategy. AI can automatically conduct A/B testing to determine which ad is performing best in real time to inform either pull or promote ads based on the data. Moreover, with this data AI can uncover which consumers are most likely to convert, targeting ads to them, effectively reducing ad spend waste.
The optimization of ad campaigns with AI is not just limited to real-time changes and analysis. AI can also make predictions and forecast future performance based on what it learns from previous campaigns and historical data. Marketing teams will be then be able to make strong data-driven decisions based on the digestion of large amounts of information to inform their advertising strategies.
eBay is known for being an AI/ML early adopter. The ecommerce platform has many users, and as the number has continued to rise, they needed an automated email generation process that wouldn’t feel impersonal. eBay invested in an AI-powered copywriting tool. The machine learning was sophisticated enough to keep their brand voice, optimize email subject lines, and even generate Facebook ad copy.
Before they launched the tool, eBay used A/B testing to determine what subject lines and ad copy were most effective. The A/B testing helped the tool create copy that sounded natural and kept the personalized touch users had come to expect.
Marketing efforts are only rewarded if customers are actually happy with the brand and its products as advertised. If a brand does not follow through with the quality it proclaims to have, word of mouth of customer dissatisfaction is the death knell all marketers are trying to avoid. As such, the relationship between marketing and customer service is key for retaining valuable customers––and AI can also help in this effort. Online chatbots and virtual assistants powered by AI models trained to handle common customer queries and gather information on their issue are growing in popularity with both customers and brands. Given the speed and accuracy that these chatbots can process customer queries, customers are more satisfied with their service and as such, are more likely to remain a customer.
Domino’s AnyWare program, developed to make pizza ordering easy and fast, boasts 11 different ways customers can place an order, including voice-activated commands sent to Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home.
AI is revolutionizing the way that marketers create, deploy, and strategize ads. It has the capacity and breadth to analyze data more thoroughly and faster than ever before, leading to maximized efficiency and ROI. From automating data analysis and other repetitive tasks, to providing forecasts for future performance and streamlining customer service, leveraging AI in the right ways can completely transform your brand’s reach and engagement. AI- powered martech is ready to help you drive innovation, optimize your marketing strategy, and provide an enhanced experience for your customers. It’s a win-win for everyone. Interested in getting started? Contact us to learn more.
Courtney is a seasoned communications and public relations professional with 17+ years of experience working in both the public and private sectors in diverse leadership roles. As Data Axle’s Senior Public Relations Manager, she is intently focused on elevating the company’s media relations presence and increasing brand loyalty and awareness through landing coverage in top-tier media outlets.