Introduction
Technology is massively changing the world these days, isn’t it? One obvious example is artificial intelligence (AI). AI continues to impact the world by the minute, especially certain disciplines in business, like…marketing.
From data analysis to marketing automation to content creation, AI has become a major weapon for marketing teams. The market value of AI in marketing worldwide is expected to grow from $35B in 2024 to over $107B by 2028 and over 70% of marketers use generative AI tools (such as chatbots) in their work.
In this blog post, we explore three ways AI is used in marketing automation to grow demand generation and customer relationships.
What is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation is software that helps companies perform marketing activities automatically and at scale. Routine and monotonous marketing tasks like sending emails to thousands of subscribers, making posts on social media, executing ad campaigns, and more can be handled by marketing automation platforms without the need for human interaction.
Today’s popular marketing automation platforms include Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot, Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and more.
Artificial Intelligence in Marketing Automation Benefit #1 – Enhanced Customer Service
Customer service is more important than ever. A Salesforce study found that “88% of customers say good customer service makes them more likely to purchase again” and “71% of customers made purchase decisions based on customer service quality.”
AI and marketing automation help organizations provide better customer service. For example, a key feature of popular marketing automation platforms is automated chatbots that can live on a website and interact with companies digitally, directly, and automatically.
These chatbots are powered by AI and can be customized at great detail to create tailored customer experiences. Our website (demandthrive.com) has used Adobe Marketo Engage’s fairly new AI-powered chatbot feature, Dynamic Chat, in the past and have had great results with it. I previously wrote a blog post about how to use Marketo’s Dynamic Chat feature that can be read here.
Many companies today are using chatbots to help customers get answers to their questions and find the products and services they’re looking for. And the data shows customers are liking this. For example, 62% of customers would use a chatbot instead of waiting for a customer service rep to take their call.
AI-powered chatbots are just one way marketing automation and AI can boost customer service and satisfaction.
Artificial Intelligence in Marketing Automation Benefit #2 – Personalized Customer Experiences
A lot of research shows that personalization is a key marketing strategy for companies to succeed in today’s landscape. A popular McKinsey study found that 71% of customers expect personalized experiences and companies that do personalization well grow 40% faster than the competition.
A study by Deloitte found that over 40% of executives are investing in hybrid experiences (physical and digital) to increase personalization. In short, personalization is an important modern marketing strategy. It’s about meeting customers at their preferred time, their preferred channel, and with the content and offerings they want or will want. It’s not an easy task, but as illustrated, it’s an important one.
Marketing automation platforms can help organizations do just that by analyzing huge amounts of customer data and making recommendations for what content should be sent to a consumer, when to send the content, and more. The right content can be sent to the right person at the right time.
Artificial Intelligence in Marketing Automation Benefit #3 – Predictive Content
Similar to personalized content, predictive content is another powerful marketing initiative that AI and marketing automation can bring to reality – and at scale and speed. AI and marketing automation can analyze massive amounts of customer data, behavior, and preferences to predict what content will resonate most. This highly targeted process not only helps companies better engage consumers, deliver more value, and generate more sales, but also helps consumers enjoy better experiences and journeys.
A great example of this is Adobe Sensei. Adobe Sensei is an AI tool built right into Adobe’s highly popular marketing automation platform Marketo Engage that can analyze customer data (like behavioral data, location data, and more) to predict which content is the best for someone at a particular time.
With the power of predictive AI, dynamic content can be served to different audiences and users based on their preferences and tastes. For example, a clothing company can feature winter clothing to website visitors from a cold geographic location, and warmer clothes to visitors from warm locations.
Looking for help with AI marketing and marketing automation? Let’s get in touch.
