Marketing automation is an industry that is growing quickly which is why the majority of the companies are already using some form of marketing automation. Marketing automation can use artificial intelligence (AI) to better target customers.
- 30 % of companies worldwide will be using AI in at least one of their sales processes by 2020. (Venture Harbour)
- Chatbots will power 85% of customer service by 2020. (Innovation Enterprise)
- Global spending on cognitive and AI systems is predicted to reach $57.6 billion in 2021. (IDC)
- 44% of executives consider the data provided by the artificial intelligence to be its most important benefit which helps to make decisions. (Chatbots Magazine)
- 63% of the people choose messaging an online bot to interact with a business or brand. (Mindshare)
- The growth of virtual assistants is believed to reach $15.79 billion by 2021. (ValueWalk)
With the growth of the industry, the use of AI in marketing automation is also increasing. Â It has an important role in marketing efforts. In fact, it is taking marketing automation to the next level. The need for AI-based technologies is more than ever since customers are expecting fast and personalized service.
Below are some of the reasons why AI is widely used in marketing automation.
To Reach More People
Marketers can use AI to target customers whose profiles go with the profiles of their existing customers. The interests of customers, their buying habits, and past interactions can provide valuable data to sales teams so that they can identify the likely targets. It makes marketing more efficient and allows companies to build highly-targeted content.
The analysis of customer data aids in email marketing, ad content, social media marketing, and search engine optimization, and it is the processing power of AI that makes such analysis even possible.
Customer Retention
Keeping customers is as big of a challenge as finding customers. Keep providing value as well as relevant content to retain customers, which is the basis of the success of every company.
It is due to AI that the companies are able to remain up-to-date with minimal input, get personalized content and recommendations to the customers, have chatbots and virtual assistants to provide human-like assistance to the customers.
Increasing Efficiency
Chatbots increase efficiency and decrease overhead costs. Personalized information about the customers can be used by a chatbot to provide valuable assistance or service in a targeted and friendly manner.
Personalization and timeliness are the important factors used by AI to increase efficiency as well as enhance user experience. Now interaction with chatbots has become much easier for the customers.
Below are some trends to watch in the coming years
Marketing automation is being adopted by numerous companies. It is also helpful to define the significant changes in the industry.
Trend 1: Voice And Visual Searches
Organic search opportunities prove to be very profitable for companies. Considerably, more than half of product searches originate on Amazon now. However, voice and visual searches with the help of IoT devices is also increasing.
Smart speakers, present in all devices now, are increasingly used by customers to search and buy products. Content is being generated by savvy marketers to capture voice searches and unlock this expanding market.
The usage of Visual searches is also growing with the growth of technology that is behind them. Facial recognition, reverse image lookup are some of the emerging technologies that are sure to grow rapidly in the future.
Trend 2: Improved Customer Experience
Be it personalization, automation or chatbots, customers nowadays expect a high level of service. It has almost become a norm to provide tailored content. In fact, the companies that are not using ML and AI to deliver unique messaging to each consumer are not doing well in business.
The good thing about this technology is that it is not only for brands with a big budget. Any company can improve their customer’s experience by deploying automated marketing campaigns based on AI.
Trend 3: Predictive Lead Scoring
In order to analyze potential leads, factors like demographics, social information, online posts, and behavioral data are used by predictive lead scoring. Then a score is assigned to them to predict whether the lead is qualified or not.
The efficiency of lead generation is immensely enhanced by this. Marketers use this to create and deliver content targeted at just the right people. What can be totally automated is the lengthy efforts to identify and tier leads.
Trend 4: Enhanced Integration
Different types of devices are used by the people throughout their day, which has blurred the lines between different types of marketing.
As far as the customer is concerned, the differences are irrelevant, but the key is integration. If the companies do does not want to miss any opportunity, they have to cater to their customers by providing a seamless experience between devices and across multiple channels.
Conclusion:
Having an omnichannel strategy is critical to the success of retailers. This effort requires AI so that companies use all of their customers’ data notwithstanding the source and also provide the same level of customization and service across all platforms there are used by their customers. If AI is not used then the workload to achieve this is prohibitive. AI can help to discern how and why a customer left and also help in determining the best way to reconnect. AI offers lots of possibilities but that does not have to be overwhelming.
Stay updated with the latest technological advancements. Automation and AI are surely the next game-changers in the marketing industry. Their roles touch the basic aspects of marketing as well as play a huge role in driving results.
Zahoor Bhat has over 10+ years of experience as an online editor and media manager. He has worked with major online news and content sites as a media manager. He is well versed with major content management systems and web platforms such as WordPress and social media networks including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google Business, Yelp, Instagram & Linkedin. He is an expert in content creation, proofreading and finally making it live. Being a social media expert, he is able to make relations with social media influencers and make sure to generate leads and grow business via different social media platforms.
