What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the programming of machines to think like humans, enabling them to make decisions or discover insights. AI has a wide range of applications across various industries, with its most notable subset being Machine Learning. In the realm of marketing, AI plays a crucial role in uncovering new customer segments, optimizing message delivery, and orchestrating multichannel marketing campaigns.
AI in Marketing Analytics
AI’s impact on marketing analytics is profound. Various applications utilize AI to analyze customer data, revealing new insights for effective communication. For instance, Natural Language Processing (NLP) can gauge customer sentiment following brand interactions, providing valuable insights into the messages that should be shared next. Additionally, AI can conduct retrospective analyses to identify the best-performing combinations of marketing campaigns, ultimately enhancing specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
AI in Campaign Creation
AI significantly streamlines the campaign creation process. It enables marketers to dynamically discover homogeneous customer segments and recommend tailored content for campaigns. By leveraging AI algorithms, marketers can identify new audiences or subsets of existing audiences that respond positively to specific communications, allowing for timely adjustments. For example, eCommerce platforms can utilize AI to dynamically change product recommendations based on customer behavior and preferences.
AI in Campaign Orchestration
Campaign orchestration involves determining which campaign to send to each customer. AI is essential in this process, especially when aiming for individualized customer experiences. AI models can quickly identify all available campaigns for each customer and recommend the next best action, optimizing marketing automation efforts.
AI Applications in Marketing
As highlighted, AI can be employed in various marketing applications. Organizations should prioritize which AI applications to implement based on the value they can bring. Some common applications include:
Data Insights
AI serves as a powerful tool for providing data insights, particularly for marketing teams lacking access to data engineers. AI models can autonomously identify patterns in customer data and cluster customers accordingly. Furthermore, AI can assist in analyzing campaign results, revealing their impact on different KPIs through analytic models like marketing mix modeling and multi-touch attribution.
Personalization
Personalization is a prevalent use case for AI in marketing. AI models excel at identifying customer preferences and personalizing content in real-time. Common applications include product recommendation models, dynamic websites, self-optimizing campaigns, and personalized messaging via chatbots.
Campaign Recommendations
AI can also recommend content to marketers during campaign creation. This includes suggestions for tone of voice, imagery, and campaign optimizations. AI can identify subsegments of targeted customers who respond better to specific campaigns, enhancing overall effectiveness.
Scheduling
A subset of campaign recommendations, scheduling is a common application of AI in marketing. With each customer preferring to receive communications at their own time, send time optimization algorithms have become essential in marketing automation software.
Programmatic Advertising
For digital marketers, leveraging AI for programmatic advertising offers significant advantages. AI models can analyze data in real-time, predict campaign results for different audiences, adjust bidding strategies to maximize ROI, and match content to audiences to enhance relevance.
Next-Best-Action Decisioning
The most advanced application of AI in marketing is next-best-action decisioning. This approach uses AI to determine the best campaign for each individual customer, rather than relying solely on marketer-defined automations. In this setup, marketers define campaigns and segments, while the algorithm decides which to deliver to each customer from all available options.
What is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation refers to the use of technology software to automate marketing tasks and workflows. Marketers utilize marketing automation to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in executing marketing strategies. Commonly automated tasks include sending pre-scheduled campaigns via channels such as email, social media, and SMS. Marketing automation software often includes capabilities for scheduling multi-step campaigns, also known as customer journeys, which allow marketers to plan a sequence of campaigns based on specific customer behaviors.
Best Uses of Marketing Automation Tools & Platforms
Marketers employ marketing automation tools for various goals. The most basic form involves automating emails based on behavioral triggers, such as form completions or purchases. However, to maximize the benefits of marketing automation, marketers should move beyond basic uses.
Leveraging additional data when planning campaigns enhances the sophistication of sending logic and segmentation, leading to greater value from automation platforms. The more segments and campaigns a marketer creates, the more impactful the marketing automation software will be, as it can help scale communications without the manual effort involved in sending them each time. Additionally, managing multiple channels from a single source yields better returns than focusing on a single channel. Finally, integrating marketing automation tools into reporting practices creates a closed loop of automation that spans creation, execution, and insight discovery.
Example: Email Automation
Email automation is one of the most common uses of marketing automation. As one of the first digitally native mass communication channels, email automation tools allow marketers to manage the volume of messages they need to send. These tools typically include the ability to schedule emails for specific times, with advanced solutions offering dynamic scheduling based on customer time zones.
Moreover, email automation tools can sequence and trigger emails based on customer behaviors, such as sending transactional emails after a purchase or reminders for customers who have items in their online carts. However, traditional email automation tools are limited to a single channel, lacking the capability to automate multi-channel campaigns and customer interactions.
Conclusion
AI and marketing automation are revolutionizing the marketing landscape. By harnessing the power of AI, marketers can gain deeper insights, create personalized experiences, and optimize their campaigns more effectively than ever before. As organizations continue to explore the potential of these technologies, the future of marketing looks promising, with endless possibilities for innovation and growth.
Vijaya Varma Pothuri is a seasoned technology leader with nearly two decades of experience in software engineering, specializing in marketing automation, AI-driven solutions, and B2B systems. As a Salesforce Lead Software Engineer, Vijaya has developed scalable architectures and leveraged emerging technologies to enhance marketing strategies. His work focuses on transforming customer experiences through the innovative use of AI and automation, positioning him as a thought leader in the digital marketing landscape. Passionate about the intersection of technology and marketing, Vijaya continues to drive impactful solutions that shape the future of customer engagement.
