What is AI marketing? The next digital step for businesses

Digital marketing is now taking its next step forward with AI marketing. It’s been automating so many of its aspects, so it’s no surprise that it’s adopting artificial intelligence. How does this work, and what does this mean for the future of marketing?

Before anything else, we’ll have to be clear about what artificial intelligence is. Once that’s done, we will talk about how it can help or hinder marketing campaigns. More importantly, we’ll talk about how to prepare your marketing and your job for this AI-powered future.

The world is changing even faster due to technology and the coronavirus. If you have a business, you must find a way to adapt to these major shifts. That way, you can turn machine learning into “machine earnings”!

What are artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning?

What comes to mind when you hear the word “AI”? Is it your Siri or Alexa following your voice commands? Perhaps you remember the bad computers from movies like “The Matrix”?

We don’t have machines that can think for themselves yet. But we are getting closer. This type of marketing proves we’re getting there, though. So what is artificial intelligence?

It’s a broad term that describes machines that work similarly to human intelligence. In other words, it does tasks that only humans could do back then.

These include making decisions, translating languages, and recognizing voices and faces. AI will be able to do more as it improves.

Hence, Towards AI marketing head Roberto Iriondo calls it a “moving target.” AI tech still has a lot of uses, though. Take machine learning and deep learning.

Machine learning is a subcategory of AI. It predicts patterns using structures set by other humans. You see machine learning in action when Spotify’s recommendation engine for songs.

Also, we have deep learning. It’s a field under machine learning. For example, it helps AI programs recognize an image of a cat. It also makes predictions, but it doesn’t use preset structures.

Remember Siri and Alexa? These voice assistants rely on natural language processing (NLP). It’s the tech that allows them to recognize and understand what you’re saying.

How does an AI marketing strategy work?

AI is learning more and more about how to perform our tasks. This is why various industries are starting to adopt it. This type of marketing is just one of the popular ways this is happening.

It’s just regular marketing that uses AI tools. They could help your campaign work faster and earn bigger. If you look closely, it’s been here for quite some time:

• Virtual assistants – This refers to voice assistants like Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Cortana. Aside from playing your favorite song, their AI capabilities can improve the customer experience. For example, they can quickly suggest products based on a client’s past purchases.
• Email marketing – We have tools for launching email blasts to customers. However, you still have to tell it when to send the messages. AI can determine when is the “best time” to send emails to each client.
• Chatbots – Have you noticed the button found at the bottom right of various websites? Click those, and a chatbot will appear to assist you. It will answer questions on its list. This can improve call center efficiency because it lets agents focus on more pressing customer issues.

Pros of AI marketing

AI marketing tools can help your brand become more efficient and profitable. Let’s take a close look at how it improves marketing:

• Accurate adverts – As a business owner, you have to make sure you send the right ads to your target audience. Google Ads and Facebook Ads have been providing AI in marketing for several years. They’ve helped many companies increase conversion rates and sales with the power of AI.
• Understand customers – This is a major part of AI marketing strategies. Its tools can collect a lot of website data in real-time. It could help you gain a deeper understanding of customer needs. Eventually, you can turn the data-driven insights to improve customer service.
• Lower costs – Remember our call center example? Without AI-powered marketing, a company has to get more agents to deal with minor customer concerns. Now, AI could do it so the existing agents can handle more serious issues.

Read More: The 12 Ways That Can Help You Promote Your Business

Cons of AI marketing

Everything has its issues, including AI. There are still things it can’t do. Learning about these downsides can help you make full use of its tools. Let’s take a closer look at each one:

• People still prefer talking to a real person – Chatbots can answer basic questions like “What are your products?” It still can’t discuss issues with people, though. This is why many organizations will still need people. Only they can perform the important roles.
• Fewer jobs – Letting AI perform tasks is great for companies but not for some workers. The AI-powered tools could take away their jobs. It’s also happening right now.
• It’s hard to explain – Most people don’t know about how AI works. Let’s say your AI tool causes problems. You’ll have a hard time explaining that to staff and customers who rely on you. This is why some vendors want tools to become much easier to understand.
• Data limits – AI-powered marketing needs vast amounts of site data. A business must be able to gather and store all that. This is why planning is so important in using AI for marketing.

How can I use AI marketing?

If you want to adopt this method for your business, you have to follow certain steps. Let’s talk more about each one below:

1. Set goals – Similar to any other marketing strategy, you need to have clear objectives. Ask yourself how your brand could benefit from AI. Should you truly use it? Or do you just need to make your existing campaign better?
2. Follow data privacy rules – Make sure you follow the standards regarding how to handle customer data. Otherwise, you may run into problems later.
3. Get quality AI-powered tools – We said that AI marketing relies heavily on data. This is why you should use the best applications.
4. Get AI experts – Marketing teams usually don’t have the know-how needed for AI. This is why you should get third-party assistance. Get a company that has advanced-level skills for building and maintaining your AI applications.

Will AI replace marketing jobs?

If you have a business, you may be wondering if you won’t need marketing roles. If you’re an employee, you might be anxious about AI taking away jobs.

Fortunately, businesses aren’t replacing every job with AI. It still can’t do plenty of things that humans do. Here are just some of them:

• Imagine – AI can help you reach your goals. But it is still up to you what those goals will be. The tech can’t turn human emotions into meaningful content.
• Empathize – It can’t understand or share peoples’ feelings. You can’t teach AI to act according to morals or culture.
• Innovate – AI marketing tools are products of innovation. They can’t produce it, though. It’s up to us to create wonderful things with the tech.

What’s more, we have great news for those scared of robots taking jobs. You can protect your employment by adopting in a certain way. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Is your job too specialized? – If your work only applies to a certain field, AI might put your job at risk.
• Do you perform the same task over and over? – If it is, AI could learn its pattern and do it too. What’s more, it might do it faster, cheaper, and better.
• Is your work data-driven? – If your job relies on analyzing data, it’s at risk from AI. The tech already does it far better than humans.

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, perhaps you should try another job. Find one that can apply to multiple fields. You may check our article for the best online jobs for ideas.

Final thoughts

AI marketing just means using the tech for this purpose. Businesses still need people to handle the tools. In the long term, more of them will rely on this type of marketing.

If you have a business, you need to promote on the inter. Before you think about implementing AI, you’ll have to handle this first. Fortunately, LeadAdvisors has the digital marketing solutions you need.

It has experts that can handle every aspect of your digital campaign. This includes social media marketing and web design. Click here to learn more about LeadAdvisors.

Learn more about AI marketing

Can AI replace marketing?

While we have AI marketing nowadays, this doesn’t mean you won’t need people in your team. AI still can’t do a lot of things that people can. For example, it can’t come up with new ideas for your marketing campaign. AI can only help you turn your marketing goals into reality.

How does AI help marketing?

Artificial intelligence can make marketing faster, cheaper, and better. It could gather far more high-quality data than any marketing team can on their own. Also, it could make online advertising more fine-tuned to each of your customers’ interests. What’s more, Chatbot AI can improve customer experience and reduce costs.

Is AI marketing safe?

This way of promoting brands has some downsides, just like any other type. For example, most people still prefer talking to a real person instead of an AI or Chatbot. More importantly, a business must be careful when handling massive amounts of data for AI marketing. Otherwise, they could get in trouble with customers or worse.