This week is about starting an honest conversation about AI. By walking through what AI means for marketers we are trying to paint a clearer picture of how it can help you – because it was invented to expand your capability.
We say AI stands for Augmented Intelligence. Extending your natural abilities by effectively supersizing YOU. Yesterday we touched on its role in customer insights and today we’ll move forward through the funnel and into reach. How can you harness the power of AI targeting your customers online?
If you’ve been lucky enough over the last few years to bump into a series of TV documentaries on the subject then you’ll have heard everything from the twisted genius behind the Fyre festival through to the online ‘cold war’ that plays out in the Social Dilemma. While the meat of these films is about something deeper, AI looms in the background making the sinister stuff more effective. Flip all that on its head and we can apply it to your world, your brand and your role in reaching more prospective customers.
At 40%, Marketing teams prioritise AI and machine learning higher than any other department in enterprises business today and 80% of B2B marketing executives say that AI revolutionised their industry in 2020.
Much of what I’ll cover can be applied in any channel you choose to advertise via. I use the word advertise in the loosest sense but effectively I mean getting your brand in front of the right people in the right place at the right time.
We are exposed to AI every single day when we interact with social media. How you see relevant content, how it knows to tag your face or offer you a job recommendation are all signs of machine learning.
And when we use these platforms for marketing we take advantage of the exact same toolset but with very little say in how it regulates our spend or brand exposure.
However, outside of each platform’s own spaces, there are plenty of ways to leverage AI to scale up your efforts. If sourcing content like photography is labour intensive then you can find ways to speed up that process by training simple tools to ‘forage’ for visuals that match your style or brand palette. Add their ability to scan your written content and add the most effective number of related hashtags (based on their reach and cut-through) and you’re saving more valuable time.
Then the final benefit might be in the management and scheduling where you can let the AI track open and engagement levels in order to select the timing or audience segment that creates the greatest impact.
If our approach to social is via paid activity then AI can support you with the heavy lifting. Optimisation and amplification can require lots of effort from your marketing team and budget. Don’t despair though because once AI has a sense of your copy style and choice of words it can create variants, test differences and choose winners based on the results.
You might want to put your product in the hands of an influencer to boost sales but instead of climbing the mountain of research required to find the right niche YouTuber or TikTokker let the AI select a shortlist based on the data. It can all sound a bit science fiction but it’s basic stuff and it’ll allow you to get on with something more important. The majority of AI use cases result in cost reduction first and foremost – that saving can power something on your wishlist.
AI usage across Social Media is big business and it’s expected to hit a value of $3,714.89 million by 2025. Take advantage of this flurry of activity to find what’s best for you and fits your ambitions and budget.
It’s a similar picture in the Search space where the AI can drastically cut the time spent on keyword research, competitor analysis and monitoring intent. SEO experts will always have their favourite tool on hand and the leaders all use aspects of AI in their functionality.
The search-related opportunity with the content is as huge as you’d expect but beyond asking the AI to optimise old content or refine your latest efforts for word count and related keywords, why not use it to identify opportunities? Let your AI loose on the competitive landscape and identify trending topics in your industry and spot gaps in the market where your brand can serve up the most effective topics to target.
No matter the channels you choose – across email, programmatic display advertising and even digital Out of Home, AI is finding ways to help improve reach and give new value to the marketers making decisions for their brand. The same tech used when social media uses facial recognition to tag your friends is embedded in the smart cameras embedded in some outdoor ad spots. By identifying age, gender or even mood we can get deeper performance data, serve up personalised creative or optimise based on footfall.
Currently, just over half (53%) of marketers expect their use of AI to improve effectiveness in driving revenue – which camp do you sit in?
Hopefully, by keeping the conversation honest and simple you can see that you’re already on track to being better at what YOU do because AI can fill in the gaps. Or maybe you’re yet to explore the places you can augment your intelligence and the examples above have sparked an idea in your mind? Either way, let’s keep the conversation going and tomorrow we’ll explore how AI can help you inspire your customers to convert for mutual benefit.
