Machine Learning- A boon to Marketing
Machine Learning! What?? I am a Marketing person. It’s not meant for me. Goes in your mind every time you hear this term. It’s not even a question to be asked. Because it does.
So, Machine Learning is for the ‘techies’. Yes, what you call as computer geeks. It could be a fortune to you marketers. Whattt?? Yes! How?? A bit patience. Go ahead reading.
You shop online. You get interested in specific kind of products. Surprised to see the website recommending you similar products? Ads pop out. Ever wondered how an online retailer provides nearly immediate offers that too the ones that may interest you? Or how few websites provide real-time answers to your requests? Does it read your mind? Kind of.
It’s here where Machine Learning comes into existence and action. Your day to day activities is powered by Machine Learning.
Machine Learning
In simple words, this is the combination using statistics and computer coding to make predictions on the basis of patterns discovered in the data you are dealing with. It is unlike the typical rule-based algos that follow a set of instructions by developers. These algorithms are indeed designed to analyze the data, extract information, recognize and discover the patterns that we the humans cannot find manually. Why?? Because it is an ocean of data and drawing patterns out of it is nearly next to impossible. So machine learning enables the computer to see things in Big Data which is not possible by the slower and biased humans. And the insights out of these algos can be further used in numerous ways by the marketers to predict which way building and designing campaigns for their target audience would actually work.
So now you know the reason behind online retailers giving you instant recommendations subjected to your interests and the products you had been searching.
Not being New
Machine Learning has decades-old history. Machine Learning has appeared and come along since the early days of the 1960s. Although new algorithms and technologies are emerging and evolving possibly leading to new implementations and applications. Despite such evolutions, Marketers don’t use it because of the fact they find it complex. As a reason of which, machine learning algorithms are beyond the reach of marketers and their business, therefore, cannot take the maximum benefit out of it. However, to address marketing challenges, specialized applications are available.
Machine Learning in day to day lives??
Almost everywhere! Don’t believe me? Know them yourselves
- Face detection: The camera knows when you smile and snaps pictures.
- Face recognition: The auto-tagging in pictures on Facebook. The auto-detect feature in phone’s unlocking system. Machine Learning enables software to identify faces.
- Image classification: Application of deep learning in improving image classification or image categorization in apps such as Google photos.
- Google: Google defines itself as a Machine Learning company. It is using ML to improve search results and search suggestions
- Facebook ‘Add Friend’ suggestions
- YouTube videos suggestions
- Anti-virus: Machine learning is used in Anti-virus software to improve detection of malicious software on computer devices.
- Anti-spam: Machine learning is also used to train better anti-spam software systems.
- Weather forecast: Machine learning is applied in weather forecasting software to improve the quality of the forecast.
- Detecting frauds in banks
- Netflix: Predicting taste in movies/shows
- Pandora: Predicting taste in music
- News Website: Recommending articles to you based on the type of News you consume on the website.
Now, savvy marketers have understood the importance of machine learning. That machine learning can eliminate the assumptions and guesswork when it comes to knowing about the target audience, in order to design and build campaigns that are beneficial. Now this is a smart step in data-driven marketing.
So just imagine how well you can use machine language to improve your customer marketing for increasing engagement and lead conversions. That’s how you harness the impartial and massive power of computers otherwise impossible for us. Marketers! You don’t have any reasons to not use this amazing thing you had been avoiding.