Three Benefits Of Using AI For Targeted Marketing Campaigns

Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently having a massive impact on technology as we know it. A 2018 survey report from BrightEdge Research revealed their opinions of the three most significant emerging marketing trends. Thetop three picks were personalization (about 29%), AI (about 26%) and voice search (about 21%). What many people don’t realize is that all three of the top choices involve the use of artificial intelligence. 

Traditionally, artificial intelligence is used to analyze data and perform repetitive tasks. As a marketer, you may be wondering how AI can improve your sales. I'm going to show you some of the most useful functions for AI when you’re adding this technology to your business.  

1. Deliver product recommendations.

Marketers must get their products in front of the right audience. Luckily, AI can assist with this daunting task by assessing consumer behavior in real-time and making product suggestions based on their interests. 

Many online retailers have perfected this technique. For example, for some companies, if you look at any of their products, their AI algorithm will suggest additional items at the time of the purchase and long after through a recommended products menu. 

Video streaming applications have their own unique spin on this technique. Subscribers go to their website or app, watch movies or shows (aka products) and get a recommended viewing list the next time they sign on. Some of these companies are upselling premium channels by monitoring consumer behavior with AI. 

2. Improve UX and drive sales.

User experience (UX) is a general term that describes a consumer’s experience on your website or application. UX is more than just how your site looks; it’s how your site functions. Many developers and marketers are turning to AI as a way to improve overall user experiences. 

When you use artificial intelligence to gather consumer data and behavior on your website, you can pinpoint problems and resolve them before they escalate. As a result, more eyes will land on your marketing material. For instance, if you discover through AI data that a large section of your audience is bouncing from a page on your website, you can quickly go to the page and find out why users are leaving.

Additionally, some marketers are using forms with conditional logic to drive sales and create custom consumer feedback reports. These questionnaires branch out and change, depending on the answer given by the customer. It would take months to sift through the data and forms of 1 million submissions, but with AI, it takes just a few seconds. Artificial intelligence gathers the data and produces a report that marketers can use to enhance their products or improve their UX. 

3. Offer fast and effective customer support.

Marketing can be a nightmare if you don’t have competent customer support. Typically, after a new campaign, your website will get flooded with questions from people who are interested in your product or service but not quite ready to commit. 

If you’re not there to help them right away, your chance of securing them as customers falls drastically. AI, in the form of chatbots, is changing the way businesses are keeping in touch with their customers. Some companies are now using chatbots on their websites, social media profiles and mobile applications. 

Despite the fears that chatbots are destroying jobs, they actually can improve your customer support when used alongside your human team and can potentially boost your sales. Many businesses use their chatbot as their “level one” customer service. What this means is if someone has a question about product features, where they can make a purchase or shipping time, the bot is there to answer their question instantly. There’s no wait, no time for them to reconsider -- just a simple, crisp answer to their problem. 

The more challenging issues will land in the hands of your human customer service team, making an excellent system that ensures that all customers quickly get the support they need, which can improve retention and make your marketing campaigns more effective. 

Conclusion

Artificial intelligence has an almost unlimited number of practical uses. It's excellent at helping businesses automate repetitive processes and helping business owners gather data about their website and audience. It’s safe to say that the recent emergence of AI in marketing is just the beginning. We have a long history with AI by our side; we should make sure we are getting maximum use out of this technology when communicating with our consumers.

(Copyright: Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2019/08/29/three-benefits-of-using-ai-for-targeted-marketing-campaigns/#2735067635fb)