Before we get into the benefits of artificial intelligence in digital marketing, let’s go back to understanding what artificial intelligence is and how it helps in digital marketing. Artificial Intelligence is the ability of machines to think and act like humans and do things that are considered “smart”. The goal of artificial intelligence is to do the actions that can be performed by humans too. With each passing time as the world is evolving and is getting exposed to the internet, the development of artificial intelligence along with our dependency on it will only increase in the near future. Since the Covid pandemic the world has adapted to the use of technology and use it in various ways, one such way is Digital Marketing.
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence:
Digital Marketing refers to a type of marketing which makes use of the internet and various digital based items such as smartphones, desktops, laptops, etc. to help promote your business’s products or services with the help of various social media channels such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. With the rise of technological advancements, a new concept called “Artificial Intelligence (AI)” has come to existence. Artificial intelligence refers to a computer program that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence such as learning, reasoning, problem solving, etc. Artificial intelligence can help revolutionize the way brands impact consumer behavior and how they influence the purchase making decisions of their customers, it also helps increase productivity among the people. According to a study it is seen that 67% of the marketers who use artificial intelligence say that it helps speed up the content creation process and make time more efficient and productive.
Now that we know what is digital marketing, what is artificial intelligence and how they interact with one another, let’s look into the pros and cons of digital marketing and the benefits it provides.
Pros of AI in Digital Marketing:
Here is a look into some of the pros that artificial intelligence offers us in digital marketing.
Personalized and relevant messages:
Artificial Intelligence helps understand user behavior and based on their online journey, it recommends similar products or products that it thinks would be of interest to a particular user based on their search behavior.
Personalization of projects:
Identifying possible potential customers and understanding their user behavior can help suggest possible products for purchase to your target audience., identifying possible demographics like purchase location, behavior, purchase history etc.
Cons of AI in Digital Marketing:
Chatbots aren’t always useful:
Customers (especially the older generation), don’t always like to talk to a robot to solve their problems and unsophisticated chatbots make it sound robotic. Thus chatbots should be used carefully keeping the target audience in mind and it should be accompanied by a human agent most of the time.
Algorithms aren’t always right:
Humans are made up of a mix of emotions and they cannot be contained into a formula. Emotions are what makes humans unique, it’s what makes a user’s experience unique as we are constantly changing, evolving and growing.
Now that we know what is artificial intelligence, what is digital marketing and how they interact with one another and the pros and cons, let’s look into the benefits of AI in digital marketing.
Benefits of AI in Digital Marketing:
Content Moderation:
Artificial intelligence behaves like your digital magician, it analyzes the data about consumer behaviour, preferences and interactions and helps to tailor-make content, making it look as if it was personalized just for you. Artificial intelligence helps to create personalized content, making consumers feel more connected. For example, Netflix is a streaming service which has incorporated AI into understanding their users behaviour and suggest recommendations according to their past viewing history. This helps increase the interactions on the platform making it more user friendly and consumer focused.
Generating Ideas:
As human beings we may have a thought in mind, but we don’t always succeed in executing it the right way, or sometimes fail to think out of the box. With the help of Artificial Intelligence and well-written prompts, you can brainstorm new marketing strategies or campaign ideas, explore a variety of blog topics, generate catchy taglines, etc. It makes your life easier and helps you generate ideas quicker. Once you have an outline of an idea you can tailor it according to your needs.
Chatbots:
Since AI has come into existence, many companies have incorporated chatbots on their website. Chatbots can be used to provide personalized customer service, collect user feedback, increase engagement and customer satisfaction. Since they are robots they are available 24*7 and can be trained to answer basic query questions, but it’s important to see that it is assisted by human agents for most part of the interactions. They can help collect consumer feedback and data for lead generation and marketing.
Let’s look into a few real world examples that have made use of AI in Marketing.
Starbucks:
It makes use of predictive analytics, i.e it collects data of its customers who use loyalty cards or the mobile app, to enhance their user experience and help deliver personalized recommendations. Based on Starbucks AI, customers are recommended products according to their past orders.
Amazon:
It made use of customer experience to enhance shopping experience. It generates personalized products based on customer user behavior and their browsing history and accordingly gives product recommendations to its user.
Digital marketing in itself is a huge topic and it is only going to evolve henceforth. With the introduction to Artificial Intelligence and its growth, digital marketing has become challenging and requires you to be ahead of its time. I hope this article has helped you understand how AI has helped in marketing and the kind of benefits it has provided the brands and companies with.
Guest article written by: Ruth Hariss