How AI is Already Being Used in Marketing
The artificial intelligence market grew by approximately 54 percent in 2020, and is expected to increase global GDP in the media and telecoms industry by 12.5 percent by 2030. AI is a contemporary buzzword, causing excitement for an easier, more cohesive way of working for many. For others, the rise of AI is cause for concern, as jobs are put at risk and human skillsets in many areas are superseded.
While AI might feel like a distant dream, it’s already being used in businesses around the world, and prominently in the marketing arena to provide better experiences for customers, more responsive targeting, and better bottom lines for businesses.
While AI might feel like a distant dream, it’s already being used in businesses around the world, and prominently in the marketing arena to provide better experiences for customers, more responsive targeting, and better bottom lines for businesses.
Smart Technology
In 2018, investments in the US around smart technology were valued at $340 million. After recent global events, digital marketing spend on big data, Internet of Things (IoT), and similar are only set to increase. Why? COVID-19 saw many industries adapt rapidly, forced to shift to digital ways of working. With customers not in shops and on the high streets, digital marketing budgets had to be directed online. This meant social media, online ads, and more were where companies were – and continue – to spend their marketing dollars. Smart technologies like big data enable businesses to accurately predict and target customers based on interests and personas, and with increasing rises in AI tech like Google’s voice searches, the amount of big data available has increased. Combine that with technologies like IoT that allow companies to digitise many areas of their business including stock levels and warehousing, and companies can quickly track factors such as the most in-demand products, and direct their marketing towards such market indicators.Ad Campaigns, Directed by AI
According to eMarketer, Google controls more than 40 percent of US digital ad revenue, followed by Facebook with almost 20 percent. While pay-per-click campaigns are run by teams or third-party agencies, more and more responsibility for the success of advertising campaigns is being handed over to AI. Target optimisation and more rapid, wider-scale testing is possible thanks to the inclusion of AI. With the scale of data companies like Facebook and Google have, they’re able to help businesses smartly target the right customers with the power of AI, making campaigns more cost-effective and successful. AI-powered tools can also track the most effective keywords, make suggestions, and continue to optimise campaigns regularly; hourly or daily, and with the ability to scale to virtually unlimited advertising campaigns, takes much of the heavy lifting off the shoulders of human employees.Chatbots That Feel Real
More and more customers are shopping online. By 2025, Statista estimates that there will be 4.91 billion users in the digital commerce segment, and with the average transaction value of each users predicted at $1,095 this year, and likely to grow, online shopping is bigger than ever. While brick-and-mortar sales wane, companies are shifting their attention to online stores. To help this transition and the burgeoning demand of online consumers, many are turning towards AI to help them provide seamless customer support. How? Through the use of chatbots. Able to answer customer’s most frequently asked questions, chatbots can save customer support teams untold hours, while ensuring the experience is smooth and ends in talking to a real support staff member if required. Businesses agree, which is why according to Drift, they’re the fastest-growing communication channel, growing from 13 percent to 24.9% from 2019 to 2020.Opportunities for Content
AI isn’t just helping businesses run the numbers; it’s also helping to generate and curate content, enabling marketers to not only discover what people want to read, but helping them to actually write it. Gartner predicted back in 2018 that 20% of all business content would be crafted by AI; there are many such AI-powered platforms available today, able to generate readable content that’s indistinguishable from human writing much of the time. As AI technologies improve and machine learning is used to align AI and human content development together, much of the writing will fall to AI, leaving marketers to focus on other areas. AI is involved in many areas of business already. Want to know how ASUS can help your business get smart? Speak to ASUS today.
