Want to be the Hero of your Marketing Team? Embrace AI.
Look at any major business conference and there is bound to be a session focused around AI, if not two — or ten. If the conference is focused on marketing then the number of times AI is mentioned sky rockets. Why? Well, it could have something to do with the fact that 89% of marketers agree that AI is set to revolutionize marketing.
But with so much innovation and news, how do marketers determine the areas that AI will have the most impact? Here are five of our favorite ways AI is changing marketer’s lives for the better.
1. Data-Driven Decision Making
How many times have you heard a marketer claim that their campaign spend, tactics or goals were based on a data-driven decision? Press them on where that data came from and how they drew their conclusion and often… you’ll start to see some cracks. According to CleverTap, marketers use less than 5% of available data to make decisions. Can a decision be truly “data-driven” if 95% of the data isn’t being analysed?
But it isn’t the marketer’s fault. In today’s marketing landscape “big data” is a huge resource to manage, and it is fairly impossible for a normal human brain to take it all into account — yes even if they are Excel wizards. With the power of AI, marketer’s can finally harness the full 100% of data in order to make truly data-driven decisions that don’t crack under the pressure.
2. More Time To Be Creative
Truly great marketing stands out to consumers because it uniquely represents a brand and evokes emotion. It’s an art. Which is why marketing has historically been one of the most creative functions of a business. But with 51% of marketers feeling like they spend too much time analyzing data in their day-to-day roles, they don’t have time to let creativity take priority.
Too much of a marketer’s time is absorbed by pulling the dreaded weekly, monthly or quarterly report for management. What if a virtual assistant could do that for them, instantly creating graphs and drawing conclusions? AI is making this a reality and it means that marketers will have more time to brainstorm, experiment and be creative. In other words, with more time, they can get back to the true art of marketing.
On another note, marketers could even rely on AI regarding creativity, as we have now seen AI as AARON able to create art pieces. Eager to get started? AI can already help from content curation to narrative generation.
3. Consumers Are Already Responding Well to AI-Powered Marketing
Early AI-powered marketing tactics are already working. Over the 2017 holidays millions of products were recommended to consumers through AI-powered recommendation systems to help consumers find the products they were looking for.
Headlines have sometimes sensationalised these marketing tactics, calling them creepy or intrusive, but the truth is that consumers today (especially Millennials) are comfortable with the idea of AI powered marketing, and if it enables a more valuable experience for them, they embrace it.
And as AI is spreading, 80% of US senior marketers believes consumers are ready for AI, whether they know it, or not.
4. Better Customer Experiences
With the right data and AI in place, the possibilities in terms of customer experience are virtually infinite, from ad optimisation to customer service.
Marketer’s today talk a lot about “moments” referring to key happenings in consumers lives that a brand wants to tap into to win them over. AI has enabled predictions, clustering, sentiment analysis and more to deliver highly targeted advertising.
And AI allows brands to take this one step further through the marketing funnel, to replace static FAQ and call centers with chatbots.
Not only is AI making this possible, but it is making it easy for marketers to create valuable customer experiences such as these. And when consumers like an experience it tends to work better — bringing us onto our next point.
5. ROI
When marketers have the tools and time to be creative, they make better experiences for consumers. When consumers like an experience, they respond to it. Also, properly analyzing marketing data helps marketing teams stop wasting money on tactics and audiences that aren’t performing well for them. All of this leads to a much higher return on investment for marketers and businesses as a whole.
A McKinsey study recently highlighted that Netflix’s has saved $1billion by reducing churn. This type of examples proves that we can expect the potential return on investment for AI in the upcoming years to be massive.
To wrap it up…
These are just some of the reasons why 30% of worldwide marketers are prioritising AI this year. What are your plans?
