How Artificial Intelligence improves your marketing

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the future-oriented technologies. It is indispensable for a comprehensive digital transformation of companies. No matter whether you are in B2B or B2C business. Because without AI, your company will not be able to hold its own against the competition in the long term

Why efficient marketing needs artificial intelligence

As an entrepreneur, you are on duty for your business around the clock. Therefore you know that marketing technologies have changed dramatically. And will continue to change in the future. Compared to the past, they are much more complex. Without artificial intelligence, it is no longer possible today. It links customer data with user behavior and derives forecasts from it. No successful company can afford to do without analyzing the behavior and wishes of buyers. And to do so, it needs intelligent software that uses the findings of data science.

Data science is the extraction of important information from a huge amount of data. The interdisciplinary science works with algorithms. And uses digital systems that extract specific patterns from unstructured and structured data sets. It uses probability models of statistical learning, machine learning, forecasting, data technology and programming. To better understand the new possibilities that Artificial Intelligence offers, I would like to briefly explain what Artificial Intelligence actually is.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the name given to a branch of computer science. It includes processes such as machine learning. The German Institute for Marketing defines AI as follows (https://www.marketinginstitut.biz/blog/kuenstliche-intelligenz/online): AI deals with the digital processing of perceptions by computers. These compare the recorded data with programmed algorithms and then trigger a targeted action. The software thus uses the algorithms to perform tasks that previously could only be performed by humans. And which require human skills such as perception, learning, problem solving and assessment.

The most important areas of artificial intelligence are perception, deep learning, natural language processing (NLP) and action. The AI subfield of action includes natural language processing, robotics, predictive analytics and expert systems. These are computer programs that provide special problem solutions. With the help of predictive analytics, you can use large amounts of data to create forecasts. And thus make reliable business decisions.

Machine learning helps you to better deal with the huge and still growing amounts of data: Big data is analyzed, evaluated and converted into actions precisely and quickly. This enables you to exploit existing potential, reduce risks and gain a competitive advantage. Deep Learning processes information similar to the human brain. For this purpose, the computer uses neural networks in accordance with the human model. It examines the incoming information, links it to larger data groups and then draws the appropriate conclusions. The algorithms, which are arranged in several layers on top of each other, are capable of automatically perceiving and distinguishing objects. Neural networks are used, for example, in modern speech and face recognition systems.

Application of AI in marketing

Even if AI is only slowly gaining acceptance in German companies, its positive influence on advertising campaigns is undisputed. You can find out more about its acceptance (source and here). The self-learning technologies can be used for various applications. And provide answers to the following questions:

When do I have to address the customer in the Customer Journey?
Which advertising media can I use to best reach them?
Which customer needs an additional incentive to buy?
To which product does the customer react in particular?
How can I prevent the migration of certain customers?

• When do I have to address the customer in the Customer Journey?
• Which advertising media can I use to best reach them?
• Which customer needs an additional incentive to buy?
• To which product does the customer react in particular?
• How can I prevent the migration of certain customers?

With these AI solutions you optimize your marketing

Modern marketing also makes use of the Artificial Intelligence areas mentioned above. As an entrepreneur or marketing manager with a data science background, you surely know that you can automate your advertising campaigns with artificial intelligence. And make them more efficient at the same time.

Marketing Automation

You can save a lot of time and money by using a proven marketing automation solution. And can significantly increase sales and profits. Marketing Automation is a comprehensive software that automates sales and marketing. If it has a customer relationship management system, you will attract your target group faster, receive more leads and turn them into qualified leads and sales.

Recommender systems

Many companies have problems defining the needs of their customers. This is hardly possible without technical assistance in view of the huge amounts of data. Here, too, Artificial Intelligence offers competent help. A recommender system is a software tool that uses collected information about buyer behavior to predict their future behavior. The Recommender System facilitates personalized online communication with prospective buyers and customers. Recommendation systems continuously scan all your channels used for marketing purposes for visitor and customer activities. And filter out the products that best meet the customer’s needs and interests from text information, product descriptions and audio-visual presentations. Then they display them as recommendations.

This efficient tool also uses machine learning. It uses customer feedback (website clicks, purchases made, ratings, comments) as its database. The generated product suggestions not only refer to already known articles. If the customer finds them suitable, they encourage him to make further purchases. This way you can increase customer satisfaction and strengthen long-term customer loyalty. A good example are the Amazon additional products. They are displayed to potential buyers during the product search and the entire customer journey. And are based on the personal purchase history.

Chatbots

AI Chatbots help you as a marketing manager to handle customer inquiries and orders. The chatbots, which are also based on Machine Learning, are technically integrated into the company website. Instead of communicating with people, the prospective buyer or customer communicates with an intelligent technical system. And this can be addressed outside business hours, which increases customer satisfaction and saves personnel costs. Normal chat offers answer simple questions about articles and their availability, because they react to certain keywords. In the chat window that opens, the customer can leave a message or chat with a person. He or she receives a quick response and gets the feeling of being in good hands with your company. Using particularly intelligent chat offers, they can even complete their entire purchase.

Social Networking Bots

Social Networking Bots take over various tasks on the social media platforms. They

• analyze posts
• share contributions
• links
• follow other users
• make comments
• create own posts
• conduct independent actions

The artificial intelligence programmed into them not only gives social networking bots a realistic profile with history, photos and contacts. They are even able to simulate human behavior. And they acquire knowledge automatically. If you are an entrepreneur and want to use this intelligent software for your advertising campaigns, program your social networking bot with a positive rating. It will then recommend your products to others and influence your target group in their purchase decision. Compared to a person paid for his activity, the bots are much cheaper. And work for your company around the clock.

Hyper Targeting

Hyper Targeting is an extremely efficient way of addressing target groups. This artificial intelligence software continuously examines your stored data with regard to user interests, problems and wishes. Or registers the visitor behaviour on your website. The results can be used by your marketing manager to create individually tailored ads and advertising offers. Because of the personalization the addressee actually feels addressed. You as entrepreneur achieve the greatest possible advertising effect. And avoid at the same time cost causing scattering losses.

Better placement of advertising

As an entrepreneur you must of course be interested in presenting your advertising on the most suitable advertising spaces. In order to find them faster, use algorithms that analyze the respective environment. If they come to the conclusion that the environment is unsuitable for your content, the display of your advertising is stopped immediately. The Artificial Intelligence based system is methodically similar to A/B Testing. If your advertising contains a lot of information, the intelligent tool searches for you a website that also contains a large amount of data. On pages that visitors only skim, simply designed short advertisements will do well. The AI analysis tools use empirical values to determine which these are.

New customer acquisition with the help of inference

Inference is a method in which logical conclusions are used. If you want to expand your customer base, the AI evaluates information about your existing customers. And draws conclusions about your target group and which leads are most likely to become new customers. This makes your advertising campaigns much more efficient and cost-effective.

Sentiment Analysis (Text Mining)

The Sentiment Analysis (mood analysis) evaluates unstructured data such as product reviews, posts, e-mails and comments in Internet forums and social media platforms. With its help, your Data Science experienced marketing manager can conduct a comprehensive social media monitoring. And thus directly find out what is posted there about your brand and your products. He can get a precise picture of the image of your company. And he knows what customers consider to be in need of improvement in your offer and customer service. The software used for sentiment analysis learns automatically. In the learning phase, sample data is presented to the computer. These serve to distinguish positive from negative comments later on. Your intelligent computer is then able to classify unknown content. This is done by the tonality of whole sentences and certain words. The mood analysis tool even understands complex speech patterns, ironic and sarcastic comments. And processes texts, visual and audio-visual content for you.

AI-controlled price adjustment (Dynamic Pricing)

Big data analyses are used in e-commerce to design intelligent prices. The price optimization system used by Amazon, for example, automatically adjusts product prices to demand. In doing so, the tools that work with artificial intelligence use operational and customer-related factors in equal measure. With their support, you can set prices that are tailored to the individual customer and his willingness to pay. The self-learning system examines their purchasing behavior and the size and region of their place of residence. It also finds out which end device he uses to shop on the Internet. The data obtained provides valuable information about the price acceptance of the buyer. And this information can then be used for individual offers and personalized vouchers.

Personalized content

As you know, only personalized content is well received by your target group. Personalization in marketing

• improves customer loyalty
• facilitates cross-selling
• increases the turnover

The successful implementation of your content strategy includes the segmentation of your target group into subgroups. An individually adapted content strategy takes into account the purchase history of the respective customer, his interests and age. The segmentation of your customers is done via cluster algorithms. These divide your customer base into 10 to 20 almost homogeneous sub-groups based on specific behavioral patterns. Each of these subgroups shows a typical behavior pattern. And your marketing manager can use these manageable customer segments for his personalized campaigns.

Some of the stand-alone learning programs are even able to find out which wordings are most effective within the same subgroup. And then create the appropriate content (source). But an AI-based system not only helps you with content creation: the intelligent tools even take care of the maintenance and distribution of the machine-generated content.

Using AI to prevent the migration of customers

In order to prevent your customers from buying from the competition in the future, you use artificial neural networks to detect dissatisfied customers in time. These examine the behavior of migrated customers for specific patterns. And based on these patterns, they then assess the probability of your existing customers migrating. Because they filter out the critical cases, you can tie them to your company with attractive offers. Your predictive analysis system also helps you win back former buyers. For example, it informs you which discount is best used for this purpose and which former customer should be contacted personally.

Automatic control of the Customer Lifetime Value

The well-known marketing concept of Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) or customer value can nowadays be controlled via automatically generated evaluations. This makes your campaign even more successful. Artificial neural networks answer questions like

• What turnover do I achieve with the customer?
• How much potential can I expect from him in the next business year?
• How high should the advertising budget be for this customer?
• Which of my customers are not profitable?
• Which of them have no potential?

within the shortest time and with great accuracy. And assign a specific value to each of your customers. Your marketing manager can use this as the basis for an individual customer approach.

Optimization of returns

High return rates cause unnecessary costs. In some companies these costs are even over 30 percent. Self-learning systems give the customer recommendations during the sales process as to which sizes, colours, cuts and styles best suit him. The intelligent software uses the identified patterns to determine the return risk of each individual product. And presents the buyer with alternative items. In this way it contributes to a sustainable reduction in the return rate. And increases customer satisfaction.

Machine learning and e-mail marketing

E-mail marketing is becoming increasingly important for more and more advertising companies. And not only because it has a high degree of automation. AI-based solutions offer a potential that is far from exhausted. They support your employees in

• generate suitable headings and subject lines
• to create text modules that encourage your target group to convert in the best possible way
• create visual content tailored exactly to your target group
• Split-test email content

In addition, the self-learning technologies have the task of automatically pre-sorting e-mails. They are then played out according to customer behaviour and matching the individual CJ Touchpoints. And of course with the most suitable content. Because Artificial Intelligence significantly shortens the customer journey, it also reduces the average abort rate (source).

Conclusion

An elementary component of successful marketing is and remains human action based on know-how and experience. However, solutions that use artificial intelligence make this even more efficient. They simplify, accelerate and improve online marketing campaigns. And thus ensure that you as a company are always one step ahead of the competition.