In the fast-paced world of marketing, AI isn't just a buzzword—it's your secret weapon. Imagine harnessing the power of technology that not only understands your customers but predicts their next move, crafting a user experience so tailored it feels like magic. With 90% of modern marketers are already leveraging AI to catapult their campaigns into new heights, the question isn't if you'll join them—it's how quickly you can.
AI can automate customer interactions, analyze and predict their behavior, and customize their experience of your brand across multiple channels. It can also make tasks such as collecting consumer data and targeting advertising much,mucheasier.
Indeed, AI can be the top tool in a marketer’s repertoire—if they know how to use it properly. In this guide, you’ll learn the ropes of AI in marketing, including its varied applications, potential challenges, and how to use tegies.
Understanding AI in marketing
AI technology has been employed in an increasingly wide set of roles in recent years, including writing, editing, and content production. AI, however, is largely a catch-all term used to describe any technology that replicates a task once done by humans. This can include a plethora of different kinds of activities, such as:
- Research
- Data analysis
- Creative work
Consequently, AI can handle various marketing tasks, from conducting research to suggesting products that consumers are most likely to buy. One of the first major instances of AI in digital marketing, in fact, came in 1998 when Amazon’s collaborative filtering tool began recommending users items based on purchasing patterns en masse.
As AI became more complex in the early 2010s, it began taking on tasks such as filtering massive amounts of data and generating articles in lieu of human-written content. Now, a decade later, ChatGPT has become a common tool for crafting blog posts, and video-generating AI is on the verge of revolutionizing the ways marketers create media. Let’s explore common uses of AI in marketing strategy:
Content generation
Generative AI programs create content based on user inputs. Generally, this means writing a series of prompts for the program to follow while generating its end product. This is known as natural language processing (NLP), which enables machines to understand, interpret, and respond to human language in a valuable way.
For example, think about the autocomplete feature in email services. As you type, the NLP system analyzes the context of your sentence, predicts the next word or phrase you might need, and provides a suggestion. This is possible because AI algorithms process the vast amounts of text data available to them, learning patterns of language use. They consider the semantics of the sentence, which is the meaning conveyed by the words and their combinations. They also take into account the syntax, which is the arrangement of words into coherent sentences following grammatical rules.
Text-based language models, such as ChatGPT, are the most famous players in this sphere. However, similar image and video-based models are gaining popularity as well.
Automation
From automatic doors to self-driving cars, automation by AI takes a variety of forms. AI automation is the act of replacing human labor with a robot or application. For marketing tasks, AI could automate the process of aggregating consumer data or emailing customers after they make a purchase.
Data analysis for customer insights
AI is much more efficient at analyzing data than humans. It can sort through the browsing, purchasing, or viewing history of users and highlight insightful patterns far quicker than we can.
Thankfully, AI works for you and is happy to share useful, actionable insights to inform your future marketing strategies and campaigns.
Applications of AI in marketing
AI these days is pretty remarkable—it's like having a smart, dependable team member ready to dive into various essential tasks. When you're looking at beefing up your marketing strategies, AI could be a game-changer for you. It's about leveraging AI to enhance what you're already doing, whether that's tailoring your emails to resonate with customers or sifting through data to find hidden insights.
Customer segmentation and targeting
AI can determine your users’ demographics and sort them into groups based on characteristics such as:
- Gender
- Age
- Marital status
- Occupation
In general, individuals from these demographics share interests and thus, purchasing patterns. Segmentation allows you to target these groups with specific products, services, and advertising campaigns that they find relevant.
Predictive analytics and consumer behavior
Predictive analytics is the process of using AI to forecast consumer behavior. AI can examine patterns in engagement and sales to predict:
- Emerging trends
- Impending challenges
- Solutions to issues before they arise
These insights are crucial for determining which products or services to push and which to put on the back burner. So, instead of poring over graphs and sales figures to see what’s hot and what’s not for the season, simply ask your analytical software to tell you.
Chatbots and customer service
A chatbot is a quick, cost-effective, and cordial way of handling customer relations. They can resolve a variety of issues without having to involve a real person. And, for problems they can’t handle, users can quickly be redirected to a human representative.
Heyday is a popular chatbot used by companies. One of their features allows users to ask for a curated shopping cart, resulting in increased online sales.
Personalized content and user experience
AI can track users across multiple channels and tailor their experience to suit their style and sensibilities. AI-powered personalized User Experience (UX) is why you’ll often see the same product staring you down on social media, streaming services, and search engine results.
For instance, imagine you're browsing a website for a new smartphone. You check out a few models but decide to think it over. Later, while scrolling through social media, you see an ad for the same smartphone models you viewed, with a special discount just for you. Then, when you watch a video on a streaming service, a tailored ad for smartphone accessories pops up, complementing your potential new purchase. This seamless integration of personalized content across different platforms, powered by AI, is an omnichannel strategy at work. It not only makes your experience more cohesive but also significantly increases the likelihood of completing the purchase.
Programmatic advertising and ad optimization
Programmatic advertising is the process of auctioning ad space on websites and other digital platforms to marketers who deem it the most valuable. AI can assess a potential advertising spot’s value, bid on it according to your predetermined guidelines, and choose the optimal ad to fill it with should it win.
Challenges of AI in marketing
AI is an effective marketing tool, but it isn’t without its ethical concerns and limitations. For instance, generative AI has swallowed up the type of work that professional copywriters used to thrive on.
Furthermore, although implementing AI can revolutionize how businesses operate, employees will be forced to adapt to its newly established systems. The rapid adaptation of AI is also raising questions over the safe handling of user data and general cybersecurity concerns. Thus, some companies have adopted established principles that dictate how they use generative AI.
Implementing AI in marketing
As tempting as it is to simply load up a cutting-edge AI assistant and start enhancing your posts, first consider these recommendations to successfully implement AI into your marketing strategies:
Establish goals
Whether it’s inciting more engagement with your posts, identifying sales trends, or raising popularity with a faltering demographic, outlining specific end goals is key for using AI. Doing so allows you to plan which AI tool to utilize and how to put it to work most effectively.
Maintain quality data
For generative AI to create content or analytical AI to provide actionable insights, they need massive amounts of customer data. Some relevant business analytics information will be general, such as location and age, while some will be industry-specific.
For example, if you’re a realty company, you might want to gather information on potential customers:
- Neighborhoods of interest
- Marital statuses
- Occupations
So, even before implementing AI marketing techniques, determine what data is relevant to your needs and begin compiling it as soon as possible.
Create an AI marketing strategy
Identify the areas of your current marketing strategy where AI could improve metrics. If your social media content is lackluster and gets limited engagement, consider implementing generative AI to enhance text, picture, and video posts. Or, if you’re having trouble keeping tabs on your demographics, consider using it to improve your segmentation and targeting.
More often than not, businesses will likely find several areas of their current marketing strategy that can be successfully reworked with AI usage.
Choosing the right AI tools and platforms
There’s a vast variety of contemporary AI technology available. One of the most recent and revolutionary, however, is Nextdoor’s new generative AI Assistant.
Assistant helps neighbors communicate more clearly and cordially. It helps craft and personalize posts and provide more relevant recommendations to users—including local businesses and professionals.
Claiming your small business page on Nextdoor could mean community members contacting you via Assistant recommendations. And, while you’re there, test out its generative capabilities to produce some powerful, personable posts or help with your advertising copy.
Measuring and optimizing AI-driven campaigns
When gauging the effectiveness of your AI-driven campaign, look back on the original goals you set out to accomplish. Did you:
- Double-up your social media followers?
- Increase sales by tapping into the latest trend?
- Pique the curiosity of a new target demographic?
If you achieved what you set out to do, then your campaign was a success! If not, reflect, review, reevaluate, and retry using different AI strategies and techniques.
Revolutionize your approach to marketing with AI and Nextdoor
AI is a multi-faceted tool that you can use for a variety of marketing purposes. From gathering analytics to generating content, it can handle many crucial marketing tasks and help you decide how to steer your campaigns. And, if you’re looking for an effective platform for your upcoming marketing efforts, try Nextdoor.
Nextdoor is where communities discover local businesses. People trust Nextdoor’s small business advertising recommendations because they come from other trusted locals. Furthermore, the interactive platform provides a convenient space to communicate with potential customers—and an AI Assistant to make those conversations all the easier.
Claim your business or those of your clients on Nextdoor, and begin building a closer relationship with the community around you.
Sources:
- Statista.Ways in which marketers used artificial intelligence (AI) worldwide in 2021 and 2022.https://www.statista.com/
- Oracle.What is AI?https://www.oracle.com/
- Amazon Science.Two Decades of Recommender Systems at Amazon.com.https://assets.amazon.science/
- Yahoo Finance.Who’s Afraid of Robot Journalists?.https://finance.yahoo.com/
- Forbes.First-Ever AI Video Platform Integrating Text-Generated Image And Animation .https://www.forbes.com/
- Forbes.How AI And Automation Are Transforming The World.https://www.forbes.com/
- Harvard Business Review.Should You Share AI-Driven Customer Insights with Your Customers?https://hbr.org/
- Forbes.Customer Segmentation: The Ultimate Guide https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/customer-segmentation/
- Search Engine Journal.Exploring The Marketing Potential Of Predictive AI.https://www.searchenginejournal.com/
- Amazon.Programmatic Advertising.https://advertising.amazon.com/
- Forbes.Mastering The Challenges Of AI: Privacy, Security And Compliance Strategies.https://www.forbes.com/
