Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has become increasingly advanced and innovative, so much so that many modern movies have used AI as supporting or even main characters. Think Iron Man’s JARVIS or the movie Her. However, while AI technology is rapidly developing, we aren’t quite at the level movies portray. This doesn’t mean that artificial technology isn’t useful in other fascinating ways. As the relationship between artificial intelligence and digital marketing becomes more intertwined, marketers will be able to carry out their jobs more efficiently, and perhaps more effectively, than ever before.
With the use of AI technology, digital marketers can spend less time on certain tasks and place more emphasis on others. What tasks AI can cover largely depend on the context of the work. For example, one of the significant uses of artificial intelligence in marketing is to process big data, such as consumer information that can then be used to segment an audience. Known as Natural Language Processing (NLP), this realm of AI enables a computer to understand human language to the point where it can derive feelings and opinions as well as deliver appropriate responses.
This type of technology can be applied towards market segmentation, in which marketers focus on a specific target audience that is divided by a category such as demographic, geographic location, or interests. A narrower segment potentially calls for a more positive response to marketing as the marketing is tailored to the interests of a custom group.
A basic example of NLP technology is the Swiftkey Keyboard available on smartphones, which predicts which words you will use based on your past conversations and corrects typos. This type of tech can be applied on a broader scale: chat bots. Increasingly today consumers utilize various messaging platforms such as Messenger and Whatsapp.
Consumers also communicate across social media such as Twitter and Facebook and expect to be able to communicate with businesses this way as well. In fact, according to Lithium Technologies, 78% of people who complained to a brand via Twitter expected a response within one hour. Businesses and marketers can ensure that a company is viewed as responsive, friendly, and helpful via chat bots that can help a consumer with common issues or direct them to a live person who can.
Using AI to develop tailored recommendations is not a brand new concept. Powerhouses such as Facebook and Netflix use such technology to provide a personalized experience for a user that does not come across as too obnoxious. Amazon’s “recommended for you” section takes advantage of algorithms generated by AI to directly target a user’s interests and preferences. Knowing what interests a consumer will help marketers understand how to reach their desired audience without turning said desired audience off.
The field of digital marketing can utilize artificial intelligence to maximize email marketing with content that is personal and relevant to the consumer, reducing the risk of the consumer deleting it or marking it as spam. Artificial intelligence can sort through big data to identify key elements of a target audience’s interests or personality. Ultimately, AI will allow for very specific targeting and context-sensitive communication between marketers and consumer. This in turn produces ROI that far exceeds marketing material that lacks any sort of connection to the audience.
