Digital marketing is now bigger than traditional marketing in the US, according to figures by eMarketer. Interestingly, the sector will continue to take up a larger market share of ad spend worldwide. This growth will come on the back of increased adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning by digital marketers.
Traditional advertising mediums like TV and billboards have been the dominant for a long time. At the turn of the 21st Century well into the 2000s, advertisers scrambled for an opportunity to increase their visibility through a slot on the TV during prime time. The same was true for billboards. However, it is began to dawn on advertisers that few people pay attention to billboards and that viewers immediately switch channels when a commercial appears. As such, while the impressions were high, conversion rate continued to plummet. Then came the Internet.
Internet marketing has revolutionized the whole concept of advertising. For once, advertisers are able to interact directly with the consumers. Marketers can design ad campaigns whereby messages are sent directly into the consumers’ inboxes. Notably, there were about 4.5 billion active internet users worldwide as of October 2019, according to Statista data. Therefore, marketers have the opportunity of a lifetime to reach this population in a matter of minutes through social media and other platforms.
AI & ML are a white knight for marketers
However, marketers soon realized that there is a deluge of information on the internet that distracts consumers. The problem of inattention is something all marketers consider seriously. Besides inattention, the billions of internet users do not have common tastes and preferences. In particular, some users might spend hours on Facebook while another huge chunk of internet users spends hours on YouTube. As such, there was need to tailor information according to the habits of the user to maximize the impact of the messages. Here is where AI and ML became relevant.
Among many other things, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) enable marketers to target each internet user with customized information. Nevertheless, it is crucial that marketers understand this technology well before opting to deploy it during ad campaigns. Alternatively, one could hire full stack developer to help to design AI and ML into an ad campaign.
ML and AI in digital marketing
Artificial intelligence entails enabling machines to imitate the human way of doing things. This includes using data to make independent decisions. By imitating the working of human brain, artificial intelligence has enabled machines to do jobs that were previously reserved for human workers. For example, most motor vehicle companies are employing robots in car manufacturing factories. Machine learning, on the other hand, is a branch of AI. Specifically, ML is the ability of a machine to think on its own using data. This way, the machine can solve intricate problems in a fast and efficient manner.
In a marketing setting, AI and ML seem apt. The technology can help marketers to succeed in areas that were previously intractable. For example, the technology enables marketers to solve digital marketing problems that are complex and too cumbersome for a human mind. This includes finding insights from consumer data, which are helpful in streamlining the process of marketing.
Big companies like Google and Amazon are already using this great technology to drive up advertising revenues. Notably, Amazon uses AI to recommend products to customers. Simply, AI leverages data like previous buying habits, product searches and so on to tailor recommendations for every buyer. Google, on the other hand, uses AI to process the search data of every visitor on its search engine to tailor the ads that appear on the search engine results pages (SERPs). This way, both Google and Amazon are able to make smarter decisions.
What can digital marketers achieve with the help of AI and ML?
AI and ML offers a huge potential to digital marketers in terms of driving up conversion rates. Particularly, they can use AI analytics to personalize marketing campaigns as well as use chatbots to interact with consumers in real time. However, what exactly can digital marketers achieve with the help of this great technology?
Enhanced customer experience
In traditional marketing, the goal for marketers used to be to convince as many people as possible to consume a product or service. Few marketers paid attention to the individual experiences of the consumers. However, the coming of the internet changed things and now user experience is crucial in any marketing campaign. Digital marketers can achieve enhanced customer experience by employing the services of a full stack development company that has a deep understanding of AI and its potential. Interestingly, studies show that machine learning is the ideal tool to use in a marketing campaign that seeks to grow the user experience of consumers. Particularly, ML is beneficial when it comes to improving the shopping experience of online customers.
Leveraging feedback to optimize content
Every day, digital marketers have to contend with content that does not connect with the target audience. Given the size of the target population, it is impossible for a marketer to know exactly what each consumer wants. Even if each consumer offered his/her feedback, a marketer would not be able to read through each item. Fortunately, AI and ML provide solutions. Using the technology, marketers can automate some of these activities, like analyzing feedback, to facilitate optimization of marketing content.
Customer engagement
Many visitors to websites do not know what exactly they are looking for. As such, they need guidance, which they can achieve through asking questions and having them answered. The duration that questions take before being answered matters to the visitors a lot. However, marketers cannot be able to answer all questions from millions of visitors. They need to rest. How about installing an AI solution that does not tire and learns continually to improve the quality of interactions? Well, marketers who leverage AI-based chatbots are able to engage their customers 24/7. All a marketer needs to do is to hire Node JS developer who will create a chatbot. Chatbots are the most significant application of machine learning. Using past interactions with customers, chatbots refine how they approach customer engagement. As a result, customers may not even realize that they are in conversation with an AI machine.
Automate content creation
The rise of AI is a threat to many in the workforce since the technology is facilitating the automation of many jobs. However, it has been argued that AI will only be able to automate tasks that follow a fixed routine. These are tasks like financial accounting, typing, and car manufacture and so on. Unfortunately, that is not true. Companies like Frase are developing Conversational AI, which are AI-based technologies that enable machines to have conversations with human using natural language. Besides conversion, these technologies can create smart content faster than humans can. Instead of spending a lot of time and money to create marketing content, digital marketers can use Conversational AI to automate some tasks. For example, the technology can help in topic research and preparation of summary to be used in creating content. Other tasks that the technology can automate are to scale the content created and to optimize already created content.
Avoid errors
Errors are costly to marketers. However, erring is inevitable for any system that relies largely on human effort and intelligence. Fortunately, AI and ML present a great solution by automating crucial activities like analyzing marketing data. Oftentimes, humans are limited when dealing with large datasets. Considering that the amount of data that marketers deal with is only going to increase, there is need for systems that provide useful insight without making errors. AI systems use intelligent algorithms developed and refined over years. As such, a marketer cannot expect the system to get anything wrong. For example, there is no way an AI system will get the name of a customer wrong. Once the data is in the database, the system has a 100% recall rate. Additionally, AI can help to avoid errors that arise from data that is either outdated or duplicated. An AI software can identify and correct such issues to ensure that predictions and insights developed from the data are accurate.
Bottom line
AI and ML facilitate marketers to perform many activities in real time. All that is needed to is hire a Node JS development company and provide it with the full and relevant details. Fortunately, as the significance of the technology in many industries becomes apparent, the technology is becoming more popular. As a result, many top-notch developers are opting to develop great solutions for sectors like advertising.
Digital marketing has a long way to go besides taking over as the go-to platform for advertisers. This is because of increased adoption of the internet as well as the availability of great technologies like AI and ML. Marketers have a lot to gain if they leverage AI including better engagement with consumers, improved user experience, optimized content, and prevention of errors arising from the human factor.
Nice to read your post. We need to ensure the best use of artificial intelligence. Consider the business situation where need for the AL. Artificial intelligence has an important place in helping organizations find better solutions for customer needs, enhancing automations and complementing existing customer service processes, but it cannot replace the human touch and the need for genuine emotional connections.