From self driving cars to video games, AI (Artificial Intelligence) is taking over several major industries. The digital marketing industry is one such industry that has incorporated artificial intelligence to their strategies in small steps and have reaped significant benefits. As user experience is improving exponentially, the ease of getting accurate results has never been smoother. This revolution would allow many companies to have an enormous reach. It would also lead to many conversions and reduce the customer churn rate. Below are few ways that AI is used in digital marketing.
Chatbots
Chatbots are now being used quite extensively in many websites with the intention to provide immediate customer support to users. Chatbots are essentially chatter bots that are programmed to interact with customers based on the data that it receives. The chatbot is ready to answer several frequently asked questions. Additionally, it can answer further responses the user might have and thus engage in a conversation. The chatbot also stores the information of the user’s queries and details so if the user comes back and starts a conversation with the chatbot, it will retrieve the data and continue the conversation.
Voice Search & Speech Recognition
Conversational User Interfaces (CUI) are at the heart of the current wave of AI development. Smart assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Home, are very relevant these days as they allow the common to be an active participant of this technology. One of the greatest effects of an increase in voice searches would be the volume of data that could open up to marketers. For example, it might be able to identify users’ home region based on their accent, choice of words and pattern of speech. Voice searches are more casual and can lead to tremendous increase in search volume. Marketers can use this to find more details about how users are searching which can allow them to solve puzzling market research mysteries.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality is another aspect of AI that could be used to provide consumers the ability to see and feel the product before purchasing. This allows consumers to make decisions easily as they are able to perceive the product before purchasing. This stimulates a prompt response from the consumer and in turn increases the revenue. Consumers can see details of products very easily simply by allowing their gadget to face. With virtual fitting rooms, a consumer can try on clothes without having to actually put them on. The size and fit would automatically be recognised. Virtual mirrors can allow consumers to try on makeup without having to use any makeup. With the variety of industries that could use AR, the possibilities are endless.
Content Creation
AI plays a significant role in the field of content marketing, allowing processes to get streamlined at a time of immense content overload. With AI, marketers can automatically generate content for simple stories such as stock updates and sports reports. A lot of content nowadays are all products of an algorithm and you might have even read it without noticing it. Having said that, AI can only go as far as the data provided to it. It would be a difficult to produce innovative content that are answers to open ended questions.
Advertisement Boost
Advertising Tech utilizes AI to a great extent. AI provides potential customers with a personalized experience tailored to their needs. This is done by understanding consumer data and displaying customized campaign that are relevant and engaging and in turn push irrelevant messages and advertisements. You may have noticed that advertisements that appear on Youtube or on apps are strangely relevant to your recent searches. This is called Behavioral targeting which is essentially a technique used by advertisers to increase the effectiveness of their campaigns through information collected on an individual’s Web-browsing behaviour, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made. This is done using cookies. When a user visits a website, a cookie is saved to the computer. The cookie has details about your visit that help separate you into a specific group. This makes you a target for advertisers and hence only relevant information appears on your screen. Behavioral data can also be combined with other user information such as purchase history to create a more complete user profile. Audience Insights are also used to extract data and displays advertisements based on the region, sex, and age.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality now pairing with digital marketing that revolutionize advertising. This paves the way for extensive consumer engagement. Almost every brand can implement virtual reality in some way to market products and services to consumers. Something as simple as creating a 3D advertisement using 3D glasses brings to life to boring, flat advertisements.
After the purchase of Oculus Rift by Facebook, we know that virtual reality is going to be incorporated in digital marketing extensively very soon. The idea behind Facebook acquiring Oculus was to enable two or more people to interact together virtually. They continue to expand on this with with the inception of the 360-degree photos which allows users to perceive that they are standing in the exact area the photo is showing.
Author Bio:
Kiran is the CEO and Co-Founder at Growisto, a Digital Marketing Consultancy funded by AngelList Investors. He is an Angel Investor and has 12+ years of extensive experience in SEO, Content Marketing, and Performance Marketing. He also runs www.organicfacts.net, a health and nutritional portal that generates monthly traffic of over 5 million.