The Rise of Artificial Intelligence in Marketing
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic concept; it's a reality that's transforming digital marketing. AI's ability to analyze consumer behavior and search patterns, and utilize data from social media platforms and blog posts, helps businesses understand how users and customers find their products and services.
AI also offers information and tips to users by getting into conversations. Platforms like Chatbots make it easy. Mastercard created a Facebook messenger bot – which uses natural language processing software to decipher what the customer wants and respond as if it were a real person – in a bid to boost its customer service.
AI will soon be the driving force behind many services and, currently, we already see it implemented in such areas as:
- Basic communication
- Product recommendations
- Content creation
- Email personalization
- E-commerce transactions
AI is also particularly useful in analyzing customer behavior and search patterns, and using data from social media platforms and blog posts to help businesses understand how customers find their products and services.
Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic advertising means using AI to automate ad buying so you can target more specific audiences. Real-time bidding, for example, is a type of programmatic ad buying. This automation is much more efficient and fast, which means higher conversions and lower customer acquisition costs.
It’s changing the face of digital advertising so swiftly that, according to eMarketer, almost 90% of digital display ads in the U.S. will be programmatic by 2020.
Chatbots
Chatbots will continue to be an important part of digital marketing in 2020. This AI-based technology uses instant messaging to chat in real-time, day or night, with your customers or site visitors.
Surveys show that:
- Chatbots will power 85% of customer service by 2020
- The top benefits of chatbots are 24-hour service (64%), instant responses to inquiries (55%), and answers to simple questions (55%)
- 63% of respondents prefer messaging an online chatbot to communicate with a business or brand
Personalization
If you want to stand out in 2020, you need to personalize your marketing – and that means personalized content, products, emails, and more.
With the availability of data like purchase history, consumer behavior and links clicked, custom content has never been easier. In fact, 96% of marketers believe that personalization advances customer relationships.
As Kevin George, Head of Marketing at EmailMonks, says, “The future of e-mail is real-time, behavior-based personalization. A study by Marketo shows that personalized, triggered e-mails based on behavior are 3x better than batch-and-blast e-mails.”
Video Marketing
Video marketing is one of, if not the, most important marketing trend today and likely for the next 5-10 years. These numbers show the importance of incorporating video into your digital marketing strategy in 2020:
- 70% of consumers say that they have shared a brand’s video
- 72% of businesses say video has improved their conversion rate
- 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions
- 65% of executives visit the marketer’s website and 39% call a vendor after viewing a video
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a type of word-of-mouth marketing that focuses on using key leaders to drive your brand’s message to the larger market. Rather than marketing directly to a large group of consumers, you instead inspire / hire / pay influencers to get out the word for you.
Influencer marketing is increasingly more popular among businesses these days because traditional advertising has become less effective in attracting leads and customers.
Embracing the Future of Digital Marketing
The digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving, and businesses need to stay ahead of these changes to succeed. From AI to personalization, the latest trends in digital marketing offer exciting opportunities for businesses to connect with audiences in new ways. By understanding and embracing these trends, businesses can create a robust digital marketing strategy that resonates with today's consumers and drives business growth.