The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Marketing

Artificial intelligence (AI) plays a more significant role in marketing than ever, with this technology automating and streamlining various marketing tasks that team members once completed manually or with now-basic tools. So how can you use AI to enhance marketing outcomes and connect on a deeper level with prospects in your pipelines? Learn more about artificial intelligence in marketing below!

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI) Marketing?

Artificial intelligence in marketing refers to the use of AI technologies to automate and streamline marketing tasks such as lead generation, lead nurturing, content creation, and moving prospects through funnels. It serves various purposes:

• • Reducing labor resources for marketing teams

• • Identifying cost-saving measures for future marketing campaigns

• • Improving relationships with potential customers

• • Generating data about prospects for analysis

• • Converting leads into bona fide customers

• Driving revenue for companies

AI technologies for marketing include machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), and natural language processing (NLP). All these technologies utilize complex AI algorithms to make life easier for your marketing team, removing the pain points of generating, nurturing, and engaging leads across different channels, platforms, and devices.Before AI, marketers had to manually collect data about leads and prospect potential customers, resulting in human error and the use of labor resources. For example, marketing teams would conduct market research and focus groups to learn how potential customers thought and behaved. AI automates these tasks and generates, at times, far more accurate insights from a bigger sample size than manual methodologies. AI is not perfect — yet. Humans are still required to create AI algorithms and interpret AI-generated data sets. Plus, artificial intelligence can pose a risk to organizations by generating implicit data biases that might result in legal complications. For example, when this technology produces inaccurate, and potentially libelous, data about a competitor. That said, AI is fast becoming one of the most-used technologies in marketing circles, and for good reason. It can save labor resources for marketing teams, resulting in cost savings for money-conscious companies, especially during an economic downturn. AI also allows marketers to focus on more valuable and interesting tasks than data entry, processing, and analysis. The question is: How will you use AI to improve marketing objectives?One thing's for sure, AI is not going anywhere. Research from HubSpot shows that the market for artificial intelligence was worth $15.84 billion in 2021 and will increase its value to more than $107.5 billion by 2028. It's no wonder that more marketers are incorporating AI into their workflows. But how do they do this?

How to Use Artificial Intelligence in Marketing

You can use AI to replace various manual marketing tasks, including:

Communicating with prospects

Chatbots automate communication between marketing/customer service teams and leads, with robots generating human-like responses to common questions from potential customers in real time. Marketers can then spend time answering more complex questions.

Identifying valuable leads

Lead sourcing/generation is no longer a manual and time-worn process. Marketers use AI software to discover high-value leads interested in their company's products and services and discard low-level prospects that have no intention of purchasing offerings.

Email marketing

AI makes email marketing easier by automatically generating messages for potential customers. This technology can also personalize email marketing materials, resulting in greater open, read, and conversion rates. With AI-generated emails, marketers can move more prospects through their pipelines. It's that simple.

Content creation

AI for content creation includes automatically generating headlines, content briefs, meta descriptions, and other content marketing elements, freeing up resources for both marketers and copywriters. While AI certainly won't replace writers, it provides them with the resources to create high-quality content for your company or client, resulting in more brand awareness and conversions.

Conversion

AI tools can pinpoint the exact time marketers should convert leads into customers and suggest the best conversion methods at different touchpoints. That might include an outbound phone call, text message, funnel page, landing page, or call-to-action (CTA). With AI marketing, you can boost conversion rates and drive more sales and sign-ups to your company's services.

Benefits of Using AI in Marketing

Advantages of artificial intelligence in marketing include:

Reducing labor resources for marketing teams

AI automates manual tasks, removing the need for talented marketers to perform administrative and data entry and processing jobs.

Identifying cost-saving measures for future marketing campaigns

AI discovers different ways marketers can save money, including switching to a more cost-effective customer relationship management (CRM) system for customer profiling.

Improving relationships with potential customers

Relationship-building with prospects can take months or sometimes years, involving a careful nurturing process across multiple touchpoints. You can enhance relationships with potential customers by investing in AI technologies and learning more about prospects' behaviors, interests, purchasing habits, product preferences, and demographic information.

Generating data about prospects for analysis

Data collection is another time- and labor-intensive task for marketers. AI streamlines this process by automatically generating data from multiple and sometimes disparate data sources, including databases, SaaS tools, apps, and e-commerce platforms. The result? A more comprehensive data collection process for marketers that results in successful data analysis.

Converting leads into bona fide customers

Knowing how and when to convert leads into paying customers is challenging. AI makes things easier for marketers by processing data insights for conversion, helping your teams improve conversion rates and increase sales.

Driving revenue for companies

Although training marketers to use AI correctly and responsibly requires an outlay, you'll generate a return on investment once you start driving revenue for your company. Perhaps no other technology enhances sales quite like AI, making this technology a must-have for any marketer.

Challenges of Using AI in Marketing

Now you know the answer to the question, "What is artificial intelligence marketing?" and its benefits. So what are the challenges of artificial intelligence in marketing?

Data governance

AI algorithms require a vast amount of data to work properly, with the results of this technology dependent on the information that powers it. However, moving data into AI tools can violate data governance frameworks like GDPR and CCPA, especially when marketers process and analyze data without permission from leads.

Ethics

AI throws up ethical dilemmas when using this technology to replace human-powered tasks. However, it's critical to realize that AI is a tool that helps marketers and should never hinder them or render them useless. Use AI to support marketers but not replace them.

Data biases

AI requires humans to create the algorithms it needs to do its job. However, people have implicit biases, which can bleed into AI tools and cause legal implications for businesses. For example, algorithms might discriminate against potential customers of a certain race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

Types of Artificial Intelligence Marketing Solutions

There's not just one type of AI marketing tool but many:

• • Chatbots allow leads to communicate their preferences and requirements to companies with little human intervention on behalf of marketers

• • Predictive analytics platforms forecast future outcomes for marketers based on historical data and statistical methods

• • Social media sentiment tools discover what leads really think about your company or client's offerings on social media networks like Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok

• Personalization tools customize content for different segments of your audience, helping you engage potential customers and move them through your funnels

Final Word About Artificial Intelligence in Marketing

Although artificial intelligence is a relatively new technology, you can already see its impact in marketing circles. AI helps you communicate with leads, create content, improve conversion rates, and automate other tasks, making it a valuable resource for marketing. However, realize the challenges and risks of this innovation before incorporating it into your workflows. How AI will change marketing remains to be seen as this technology is constantly evolving and becoming smarter. Symphonic Digital transforms your entire marketing lifecycle, from lead generation to conversion. It all starts with an SEO audit, which evaluates how well your website performs on search engines like Google. Request your audit here. Or call +1 866-669-3969 to learn more about this full-service marketing solution provider.