This entire post was generated by AI, or was it? Read on and decide for yourself ;).
As a business owner or marketing professional, you’re always looking for ways to scale your marketing efforts. Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful tool that can help you achieve this goal. In fact, IBM recently announced they are laying off approximately 7,800 employees who will be replaced by AI.
In this article, we’ll explore how AI is used in marketing, the companies that are successfully implementing it, how we are implementing AI tools, and the best practices for using AI in your marketing strategy.
Introduction
Artificial intelligence refers to the ability of machines to learn from data and make decisions based on that learning. IBM is a leader in developing artificial intelligence technology with its Watson AI, alongside OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.
While the future roles of AI in today’s business world is not fully known and ever-changing we can see some examples of how it’s already impacting many industries. Here are a few examples:
- Google & Microsoft are both implementing conversational AI in their search algorithms.
- IBM announces replacing HR professionals with their Watson AI.
- Various marketing teams are utilizing AI to help draft articles and brainstorm ideas.
- Software teams are using AI to critique their code or even help code.
For this post, we are mainly going to be focusing on how AI is impacting the marketing space. In marketing, AI can be used to analyze customer behavior, create content, and optimize advertising campaigns. The use of AI in marketing has become increasingly popular in recent years, with more and more companies adopting it to gain a competitive edge.
The interesting part is AI has been used in marketing for years with tools like Google Advertising and email marketing software. However, it’s just now gaining real recognition and use as AI tools become publicly available for smaller teams.
Defining AI in Marketing
AI in marketing involves the use of machine learning algorithms to analyze customer data and automate marketing tasks. This includes everything from personalizing email campaigns to optimizing ad targeting. By leveraging AI, marketers can gain insights into customer behavior that would be impossible to obtain manually.
Importance of AI in Marketing for Small Businesses
Small businesses often have limited resources when it comes to marketing. AI can help level the playing field by automating tasks that would otherwise require significant time and effort.
For example, AI-powered chatbots can handle customer service inquiries, freeing up staff to focus on other tasks. Additionally, AI can help small businesses compete with larger companies by providing insights into customer behavior that would otherwise be out of reach.
AI Use Cases in Marketing
There are several ways that AI can be used in marketing. Here are some of the most common use cases:
Personalization and Targeting
AI can be used to analyze customer data and create personalized experiences. For example, an e-commerce site might use AI to recommend products based on a customer’s browsing history. Similarly, AI can be used to optimize ad targeting, ensuring that ads are shown to the right people at the right time.
Predictive Analytics
AI can be used to analyze customer data and make predictions about future behavior. For example, an AI-powered tool might predict which customers are most likely to churn, allowing marketers to take proactive steps to retain them.
With our marketing automation software, we use AI to predict when a user is most likely to open an email.
Chatbots and Customer Service
AI-powered chatbots can handle customer service inquiries, freeing up staff to focus on other tasks. Additionally, chatbots can provide 24/7 support, ensuring that customers always have access to help when they need it.
Content Creation and Curation
Possibly the most utilized lately is using AI to create and curate content. We use this quite frequently at WolfPack Advising to help draft articles, social media posts, email campaigns, and more.
For example, an AI-powered tool might generate social media posts based on trending topics or create product descriptions based on customer reviews.
Companies Using AI in Marketing
Many companies are successfully using AI in their marketing efforts. Here are a few examples:
Tesla
Tesla uses AI technology in their autopilot features for self-driving vehicles. Computer models consistently learn the visual cues of the road and use that information to make decisions to drive the car safely.
Google uses its Captcha tools to filter out spam. You often see their Google reCaptcha logos before you log into a site or when filling out a form. The cool part is anytime you fill that out, you are helping Google train its AI!
Netflix
Netflix uses AI to recommend content to its users. By analyzing viewing history and other data, the company is able to suggest movies and TV shows that are likely to be of interest to each user.
How to Use AI in Digital Marketing
If you’re interested in using AI in your digital marketing strategy, here are some steps to get started:
- Identify areas where AI can be used to automate tasks or gain insights.
- Choose an AI-powered tool or platform that meets your needs.
- Integrate the tool or platform into your existing marketing stack.
- Train your team on how to use the tool or platform effectively.
- Continuously monitor and optimize your AI-powered campaigns.
How We Use AI In Digital Marketing
Our team utilizes ClickUp’s AI tools to help our team’s productivity and draft marketing content. The image below shows all of the different tools for marketing ClickUp offers.
Here are some of the common uses of AI within our digital marketing agency:
Our content writing team uses AI to help draft early versions of their blog posts, such as this one on what happens when you report a Google Review.
The social media team uses AI to help draft captions, hashtags, and post ideas like the one shown below.
Our marketing automation support team uses AI to help draft customer support replies.
The operations team uses AI to help draft standard operating procedures and training documentation.
Finally, the PPC team uses AI to help draft ad copy.
For us, the use of AI is endless and helps our team become more productive. We are able to get more done in less time, all while still being creative!
Best Practices for AI-Powered Marketing
As with any technology, there are best practices that should be followed when using AI in marketing. Here are a few key considerations:
Data Privacy and Security
When using AI to analyze customer data, it’s important to ensure that you’re following best practices for data privacy and security. This includes obtaining consent from customers before collecting their data and implementing appropriate security measures to protect that data.
For most smaller businesses, this is already taken care of for you when using tools like Bard, ChatGPT, or Google Ads.
Ethical Considerations
AI has the potential to be used in unethical ways, such as manipulating customer behavior or perpetuating biases. It’s important to consider the ethical implications of using AI in marketing and take steps to mitigate any potential harm.
Again for smaller businesses, most will not have to consider this. However, you may need to consider the potential of letting employees go over implementing AI.
Using AI For Content
As of right now, AI is not powerful to fully replace human-generated content. The present-day is the worst AI is going to be, so maybe sometime in the future AI will have more expertise than our digital marketing experts. But, keep in mind that AI-generated content should be treated as rough drafts.
In order to fully improve your SEO, you will need to focus on your content than simply putting it on AI autopilot.
Continuous Learning and Improvement
AI is constantly evolving, and it’s important to stay up-to-date on the latest developments. This includes continuously monitoring and optimizing your AI-powered campaigns to ensure that they’re delivering the best possible results.
The Future of AI in Marketing
As mentioned previously, this is the worst AI will ever be, tomorrow AI will become that much better. Moreover, as quantum computers become more mainstream, training AI models will become faster and even more accurate. Check out the video below to learn more about how quantum computing works and how it will impact the future of AI.
So the real question now becomes, how is this going to affect our everyday life? Some experts such as Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak are calling for a pause in AI development from all companies to focus on the downsides of AI technology.
I believe we are already seeing the early effects in today’s job market. More jobs and experts are needed in quantum computing and computer science. While other job roles that are more routined are being trimmed such as HR positions.
If there’s one piece of AI that cannot keep up with humans, it’s our ability to tap into our emotions. I firmly believe marketing is partly tapping into those human emotions. A business’s branding has a heavy focus on human emotion. Additionally, a human marketer still needs to pilot or steer AI in the right direction to pull on human emotions in ad copy, content writing, and in podcast/video scripts.
So, will AI trim off marketing departments? Probably. Will marketers or digital marketing be completely taken over by AI? Most likely not. Marketing professionals would need to become experts in their AI companions to help with their work, deliver results, and analyze marketing campaign results.
Conclusion
AI has emerged as a powerful tool for small businesses looking to scale their marketing efforts. By automating tasks and providing insights into customer behavior, AI can help level the playing field and provide a competitive edge. As AI continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative use cases emerge in the world of marketing, but also in various other industries.
Now it’s time for the call to action. Start today with an AI tool like Chat GPT, or use software that integrates with OpenAI such as ClickUp to help streamline your business and team tasks.
Does your marketing team need help? Schedule a consultation with us today.
