AI is anticipated to double economic growth by the year 2035 and increase labor productivity by up to 40%, as per a report by Accenture

While watching Amazon Prime or Netflix, you have often suggested movies or TV programmes based upon your previous selections. Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana can easily respond to your queries and perform various tasks. While using Google Maps, you are automatically rerouted to fewer traffic areas.

Well, all these are examples of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that we are experiencing in our everyday lives. A lot of brands today are leveraging AI in innovative and interesting ways to proffer improved customer experiences. Making intelligent insights, discerning the specific needs and requirements of the customers as well as interacting with them just as a human has made AI a bleeding-edge technology. Apart from cutting down on business costs, brands have introduced AI in their marketing department to build robust personalized experiences for their customers.

Giants like IBM, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Tesla, BMW, Tommy Hilfiger, Uber, Starbucks, Adidas, etc. have incorporated AI into their marketing strategy which has indeed helped them in propelling their business into the stratosphere.

Benefits of Using AI in Marketing

1. Improved Decision Making with Deep Learning

AI is capable of handling and analyzing mountains of data to reveal significant customer patterns and behaviors. This marketing intelligence gathered can help the marketers in making informed content-placement and media-buying choices. These prognostic abilities also help in building personalised campaigns to improve conversion rate.

2. Improved Personalisation

Customers today are looking for personalized experiences. Leveraging predictive analysis and deep learning, marketers can learn about the needs and preferences of individual customers, looking at their buying decisions and searches. This information is then used to create personalized campaigns that include content, customers actually care about. Additionally, data derived from cognitive intelligence helps to shorten the buying journey by offering the customers with relevant recommendations.

Also read: 4 ways artificial intelligence is innovating e-commerce

3. Unmatched Customer Service

AI-powered chatbots and other digital assistants greatly facilitate customer service. These bots are available round the clock and address customer concerns and queries in real-time. They lead the customers through troubleshoot processes and indulge in evocative conversations with them by easily simulating natural human language.

4. Lead Nurturing and Customer Acquisition

Generally, people visit several websites and browse through a variety of products before making their final purchase. Therefore, it is important for marketers to observe a follow-up sequence that helps in turning the prospective leads into actual customers. With machine learning and analytics, it has become easy to send the right message to the right person that has a positive impact on their buying decision.

Ways to Use AI to Enhance Marketing Productivity

1. Target Market Segmentation

Targeting the right customer at the appropriate time with the correct message is the best way to enhance marketing productivity. The straightforward way helps in optimising personalised marketing campaigns for individuals which can greatly boost the ROI.

A lot of brands are using AI to acquire customer data that can be processed and analyzed to learn about the behavior of existing customers. They are then targeted through personalized messages which momentously lifts the sales cycle.

Also Read: How artificial intelligence is disrupting education

2. Using Chatbots

Chatbot technology is swiftly emerging to become the new buzzword of 2018. The amazing technology helps impressively simulate human language to address customer queries and complaints. Available round the clock, the chatbot filters through the myriad of inquiries and passes on the significant ones to the humans.

It saves time by automating repetitive tasks and enhances productivity. It also gathers important data from customer conversations that can help the marketers in generating qualified leads. And thanks to Machine Learning and natural language processing, these chatbots have become smarter than ever.

3. Automate Customer Interactions

Brands are leveraging AI to improve the buyer’s journey by guiding them through a list of recommended products based on their liking and preferences. A clothing company named The North Face has successfully implemented IBM’s AI technology to help its buyers narrow down their search results. This tremendously speeds up the entire shopping process, reducing frustrations among the buyers.

Some Top Brands Leveraging AI to Improve Their Marketing Efforts

1. Starbucks

Starbucks is one of the many companies using AI and chatbots to improve the customer’s experience. Its very own voice assistant, known as “My Starbucks Barista” showcases an innovative conversational food ordering system, where it accurately takes complicated orders and confirms the pick-up time.

This voice assistant is available on the Starbucks mobile app that enables the customers to place their order through a voice command. Leveraging AI, Starbucks is able to proffer matchless convince and a delightful customer experience that positively impacts its sales.

2. BMW

BMW is another great example of brands using AI to improve their marketing. If the BMW customers opt for a program called BMW Connected, the company collects all significant data about the customers and their cars.

This program uses AI to help the customers schedule car trips, find out and avoid traffic routes, locate a nearby gas station, find a parking space, unlock the car from any remote area and much more. This program was launched through a mobile app and has been integrated with Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Watch.

Also Read: Did Starbucks miss the co-working boat?

3. KNORR

KNORR is a popular food brand that has integrated AI into its marketing efforts to launch a campaign called “Love at First Taste”. The campaign allows customers to create their unique flavor profiles on the official KNORR website and naturally interact with a cognitive engine. Based on their profile, they are offered special and personalized recipes which they can try on their own.

4. Sephora

Sephora, the renowned cosmetic brand was among the few early adopters of AI. It integrated a chatbot technology to welcome the customers on a messaging app called Kik.

The chatbot asks the customers to fill a small survey that helps to know about their choices and likings. Based on that, the bot offers a completely personalized list of product recommendations to guide the buyer’s journey and proffer a delightful shopping experience.

Final Thoughts

AI is on its way to becoming the most effective medium for delivering superlative customer experiences. Also, as technology spreads its wings, AI is anticipated to come to the forefront in a stronger way.

Therefore, it is crucial for marketers to invest in AI to help their brands exhibit a pronounced presence. Even if today, people say that they shall never trust a chatbot or sit in a self-driving car, the way the technology is improving, they will certainly gain faith. So, if you are planning to leverage AI to enhance your marketing, now is the time.

—-

e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Photo by Jens Johnsson on Unsplash

The post AI can greatly enhance your marketing efforts, and now is the time to get in the game appeared first on e27.