How AI is Impacting the Digital Marketing Landscape

Improved User Experiences

Excellent customer experience is an essential part of a good digital marketing strategy. Users are more likely to convert when they find that content is relevant to them. This turns them into loyal patrons and repeat customers.

AI can contribute to this greatly by collecting data and delivering insights on what kind of content works best for a particular audience. It can analyze elements such as past behavior or location to derive these insights. In the end, what you have is information that can help create personalized experiences. So, when your customer engages with your marketing effort, it appears as though the experience was designed specifically for him/her.

This can turn out to be a game changer in the retail arena, which is currently dominated by online shopping experiences. For instance, you have an augmented reality that plays an interesting role in online shopping today. The technology can allow customers to try out products before buying them virtually.

All this saves time for the customer, which, in turn, minimizes dissatisfaction. In the end, you’re looking at higher returns and increased engagement with the brand.

Voice Search

AI has also led to the development of virtual assistants, which are becoming an integral part of the online user experience. Virtual assistants now are fueling the growth of voice search, which is something that will significantly impact digital marketing as time goes by. Voice search will soon be found on autonomous vehicles and home assistant devices.

We already have devices such as Amazon’s Alexa/Echo and Google Home that rely on vocal commands to carry out tasks. So, a future where voice commands dominate search trends isn’t too far away.

According to research from TheeDesign, around one-third of the searches carried out per day on Google are voice searches. That’s the present we’re talking about.

This is interesting news as far as digital marketing is concerned. You see, search engine algorithms keep evolving and even now, have become less keyword oriented. Today, it’s all about inferring meaning and breaking down queries. So, we’ll be seeing long-tail keywords giving way to casual or conversational keywords. In other words, voice search will be more intuitive.

Another major change that voice search will bring is shorter interactions, which will save time for the customer.

Predictive Customer Behavior

AI can help personalize customer experiences, as we discussed earlier. However, its capabilities go further than that. It can even predict customer behavior. AI now relies on DMPs or Data Management Platforms to collect second and third-party data. This allows for the collection of overall user information, i.e. everything that your user does online. Collected information isn’t just limited to a particular session on the organization or business’s website.

The second or third-party data can help with further personalization and create journeys or profiles that allow for a more targeted approach. This vastly increases the chances of a lead converting into a full-blown customer. As a result, businesses can focus on developing better marketing strategies in general.

Though things aren’t all that perfect now, AI will continue to improve by gathering and analyzing data. As new algorithms are developed, customer journeys will become more accurate and efficient. Businesses will be able to rely on better ROI and sales forecasts, which will influence the development of customer experiences.

Chatbots Will Offer Improved Customer Support

Digital marketing will require newer methods of communicating with the customer, where speed and accuracy play a major role. So, how can AI provide this? Well, it already is with the help of chatbots. Today, chatbots are a powerful tool of communication.

Before we go further, let us first explain what chatbots are. Chatbots are computer programs that can carry out automated tasks. In this case, the task is chatting with the customer via a conversational interface and answering their queries.

Chatbots deliver what is known as interactive engagement. They can ensure better engagement between consumers and marketers through customer service, transactional engagements, and content consumption.

According to a report from eConsultancy, 57% of customers today prefer live chats or chatbots. This is because the modern consumer wants quick solutions and chatbots are capable of meeting this need. Other than that, chatbots can be proactive as well, following up each interaction with additional information and solutions.

Efficient Content Generation and Curation

As surprising as it may sound, AI is capable of creating content as well. Content creation will no longer be limited to humans. You see, much of the content we already produce adheres to a fixed pattern, which makes them repetitive. Machines can replicate this and are already doing so.

In fact, it’s becoming hard to tell the difference.

For instance, AI can develop reports and news based on data that is collected. Technologies such as NLP or Natural Language Processing are giving AI the ability to drive content marketing and production.

Content curation is another outcome of AI. AI can scour the internet for ideal content and suggest it for use. We already use AI to auto-generate emails and not just any email, but personalized emails. This is currently being done at scale.