The Beginners Guide
It seems like artificial intelligence is everywhere we go. As an enterprise marketer, your job spans multiple functions and channels, so it’s crucial you understand what A.I. is and how you can use it.
So, what is A.I.?
In short, artificial intelligence is the technology that “thinks” and “behaves” as humans do.
More specifically, A.I. enables machines to perform cognitive tasks like learning, reasoning, problem-solving and optimizing. These functionalities are now widely used to help solve business problems, develop autonomous vehicles, recognize faces and analyze texts.
As it relates to marketing, A.I. helps with an array of tasks such as content intelligence, creating buyer personas, gaining insights into customers and ultimately, enhancing consumer experiences.
Why should you care about A.I.?
As A.I. continues to unleash possibilities never imagined before, PwC estimated that the market of artificial intelligence will reach $70 billion in 2020. A.I. is poised to transform the global consumer and enterprise markets in astonishing ways.
Excited? Horrified? Either way, the marketing profession’s curiosity, and spending in A.I. have escalated steadily.
A BrightEdge survey found that in 2018, 60% of enterprise marketers made plans to use A.I. in their content marketing strategy.
According to a recent Gartner Marketing Maturity Assessment:
- 63% of the Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) expect their innovation budget to increase in 2019
- Nearly 1/3 of the marketing budget goes into marketing technology
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But wait, if marketing technologies can do the job, why do we still need marketers? Though the fear of job replacement is common in certain industries, we see A.I. as more of a companion than a competitor for marketers at large companies.
IBM CEO Ginni Rometty captured this idea by suggesting a better way to put A.I.: “augmented intelligence.”
How to apply A.I. to your business?
Now that you know a little bit more about A.I., let’s explore how you can use it. Here are a few tools you can start using today to help with marketing planning, operations, and analytics.
1. A.I. Marketing Score
First, we recommend evaluating the marketing technology you use. The Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute developed the A.I. Score for Marketers test to help you understand where your company might value AI based on your goals.
2. Chatbots
Time to get rid of that cliched image of a clumsy talking robot. Chatbots –– computer programs designed to talk like humans using A.I. –– nowadays are helping more and more companies thrive in customer services. As chatbots develop into greater sophistication, they can deliver highly human conversations 24/7 to handle inquiries and complaints.
Chatbots will become a solution for 80% companies by 2020, according to Oracle. What about your company? Luckily, you can easily subscribe to bot-engines like Drift, Chatbot.com or Chatfuel to start experimenting with chatbots.
3. Hyper-personalization
As a marketer, you understand the importance of delivering the right message to the right people. With individual behavior data, A.I. can offer more precise customer profiles and predict their future decisions. Social Bakers, for example, uses A.I. to help you define personas and target with purpose. Dynamic Yield is another tool that assists omnichannel personalization to deliver the most relevant message to your customers.
4. Content Intelligence
Finally, consider incorporating a content intelligence platform into your tech stack. Through in-depth reporting, content intelligence platforms offer more reliable insights into the effectiveness of your content so you can better optimize your content strategy.
Enterprise solution focused companies like Persado and Vennli can help you understand what messages resonate the most with your customers.
Closing Thoughts
Given the array of tools developed in just a short time, it is clear that A.I. has the potential to enhance your marketing strategy and keep your enterprise competitive. Here at ConceptDrop, we’re excited about the prospects of A.I., too. That’s why we’re building a SMART marketplace that streamlines your outsourced content needs on a moments notice.
Interested in learning more? See what else our blog has to offer here!
