Dawn of the AI Marketing Revolution
Marketing automation has been around since the late 1990s. However, artificial intelligence has only recently begun to realize its full potential.
How will new AI technology transform the marketing profession over the next few years? Here are a few things to look out for.
Brands will have a Clearer Understanding of Their Customers
Almost all brands understand the importance of customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, few brands can effectively deliver on their promises. According to a study by American Express, 95% of brands fail to meet customer expectations.
The problem is that it is very difficult you understand what customers actually want since their needs change continuously and different demographics have different priorities. Fortunately, new AI systems are making it much easier to understand customer trends.
AI Will Drastically Increase Sales
Over the last decade, search marketing and other digital advertising platforms have helped brands generate more leads on a tighter budget. “According to the Bangkok-based marketing agency Inceva, 87% of people who search for a local business either call or go to that local business within 24 hours. Local marketing analytics are allowing companies to become proactive and not reactive as they had been before.”
Halligan’s partner, Dharmesh Shah states that marketing automation will drastically increase sales. He claims that marketing software will be fully autonomous and able to generate leads on its own.
Shah refers to these future algorithms as the “Match.com of lead generation.” Companies can spend more time converting existing leads and serving their existing customers instead of focusing on lead generation.
Understand Different Marketing Platforms Better
All brands understand the need to learn as much as possible about their customers. Few recognize the importance of understanding the marketing mediums they use, which is just as important.
Whether you are marketing on Facebook, Google or Pinterest, you must understand the nature of the platform. You need to understand how customers engage with it.
AI makes it much easier. All of these platforms retain extensive data on their customers. Savvy brands also collect data and look for trends between all of their campaigns. This helps them understand what strategies yield the best results.
Marketers Will Not Become Obsolete
While marketers are excited about the future of AI, they have a major concern – will AI put them out of work? According to Shah, it will not.
Artificial intelligence will be capable of handling most of the mundane aspects of marketing. However, it will never be capable of the sophisticated, strategic decision-making that marketing professionals and counter every day. AI will free them up to focus on the more interesting and complex challenges they will deal with.
Which Brands Will Be Pioneers of Marketing AI?
Brands in every sector are likely to leverage artificial intelligence to better service their customers. Here are some brands that are leading the AI marketing revolution.
Expedia
In October, Expedia announced that they will be using AI to improve customer experience. “We are going to take it on the service side,” said Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. “I think the planning experience and build for AI [artificial intelligence] has a real challenge because you are going to get a lot of null results. The AI isn’t going to understand what you say.”
Campbell
Campbell Soup has started using AI to better reach their customers. They have used insights from Watson, a new cloud-based cognitive engine from IBM, to provide information to their target demographic. Customers can ask Watson for Campell’s soup ideas and other information, which can be used to reach them.
North Face
North Face, an outdoor sports apparel company, is also finding customers through Watson. When customers ask where they can find the brand’s sports apparel, it provides clear directions to the nearest North Face store.