AI and Marketing in 2021
AI and the future of Marketing
Do you ever think of the time where we will finally be able to download food? Yep, same here. Lockdown cooking was all too real. It’s slowly getting there though - AI is already improving so much, it’s only a matter of time before it takes over the world. Such improvements won’t necessarily change your daily work dramatically (at least not for now) but they will definitely make everything smoother and faster. Automating painful routines allows you to focus on what’s really important. What’s cool about AI is that it’s being added to the tools you are already using, which is great because there’s no need for weeks of training to understand how they work. If it doesn’t make your life easier and requires more effort than usual, then there’s no point in using it.
When marketing meets AI, it all comes together. At Mint Stalk, we strongly believe that AI is the future of marketing and we also think that marketers like ourselves should tune into these technological advances now in order to benefit from it in the long-run. It’s simply filling the cracks in our marketing stacks. Although AI is a blanket term that covers multiple different types of technology, it’s pretty much everywhere - we’ve become so accustomed to new technologies that it’s sometimes difficult to comprehend just how fast things are moving. Next thing you know you will finally be able to download food and in a matter of days, this will become your new routine and “cooking” will feel like some forgotten medieval practice. Building a competitive advantage through AI, especially when it comes to leads generation and conversion, works the same way: once you’ve incorporated AI tools into your working environment, going back to manual work is simply not conceivable. These tools are now able to answer questions such as: who in your database represents an ideal lead, who outside your database represents an ideal lead, what next actions to take to convert a lead, what content and offers resonate most with leads, which leads are worth pursuing. ET CETERA. AI-powered tools such as the Sales Navigator on LinkedIn can find you more leads based on what is already known about your current leads and best buyers such as their geographical location, their age, their title within the company, the size of their industry etc. Literally your entire market can be defined within seconds. Other tools can help you compile this information into a more comprehensive way for you to use. Once you have this data in your hand, you can engage, nurture and convert.
The first example we’ll talk about is algorithms. You know when you scroll through YouTube or Amazon and you somehow come across things that you’ve either been thinking of or talking about with your friends? Yes, they are listening to us but mostly, it’s the algorithms that pick up on your behaviour and scrolling patterns (and conversations too. Not cool Google, not cool).This type of algorithm uses keywords and your overall activity online to use it against you and make you buy more: “You wanted a new leash for your dog? Why not buy this matching collar and cute bed that go with it too! And don’t forget, your dog loves these treats you bought for him last time, get some more! Oh, you might want to adopt a tortoise too, ‘cause why not.” Buying more, watching more, eating more … It never ever stops. To make it work better, the algorithm shows your stuff that are more likely to appeal to you based on your data. Even the thumbnails shown to you, are not random - these platforms are always trying their best to maximize their clickthrough rates. AI-powered recommendation engines are widely available for marketers to use and understand their audience better. Leading digital marketing agencies like Mint Stalk are on track to expand through these tools in order to improve and enhance their PPC campaigns, their conversation rates and optimisation, chatbots and so forth.
Google has already put AI everywhere. Even as I’m typing this blog on Google Documents, the integrated smart composing AI is suggesting words before I can even finish writing this sentence. It’s incredible - Google is predicting what I am about to say. Google ads have ultimately enabled marketers to focus less on manually gathering data and more time to focus on strategic development. For the advertising industry, staying on top of trends is vital and AI can only be a positive investment, especially if they can save time by avoiding the strenuous and repetitive manual work. Chatbots are also a great example of how AI interacts with customers on your behalf. Sometimes a real human has to take over especially if the conversation becomes a little too intricate for the bot to make decisions on, but overall they do a good job at answering the basic needs of your online customers. You might not even be able to tell the difference between a human and the bot behind the chat - that’s how good and accurate it’s becoming.
Pairing human intuition with the power of machines has been revolutionary. From AI-generated content to AI-driven data insights, AI in itself is still not completely perfect and still has a long way to go but it is certainly the future for businesses of all sizes. As a leading digital marketing agency based in Dubai, using those tools has allowed us to use the AI’s best practices through testing, automation and insights while still relying on our classic raw creativity and past experiences. Optimizing our highest converting campaigns and landing pages has never been easier. AI is almost becoming a superpower, or a second nature if you prefer. With a potential of trillions of dollars in annual impact, it enhances human knowledge and capabilities to great extents, driving revenue growth while increasing productivity and efficiency as well as generating greater return on investment. As a leading digital marketing agency based in Dubai, we have saved considerable time, effort and money simply by finding the right tools that work better for us in managing our client portfolio and schedule as well as our meetings and market research.
AI can also greatly improve the quality of your sales pipeline as it has an accurate predictive power. For instance, the Shopify app is always suggesting new things for your ecommerce business by scanning the web telling you things like “Hey! I’ve noticed an increase in Google search for hair products. Maybe it’s time to launch your ad” or “You had 5647 visitors this week and 78 % were interested in the laptop cases. Would you like me to start an email campaign advertising these products?” or “The price of your keychains is 15% higher than the average market price. Maybe you should review your pricing.” I mean … how helpful and incredible is that? Sometimes when doing research, you never really know where to start and this is where AI can teach you a great deal without you having to lift a finger.
Empathy, compassion and storytelling are human attributes that AI has not mastered yet and to truly connect with your customers, you still need that special human touch and connection. However, it doesn’t mean that AI cannot learn how to deal with humans on a surface level in order to simplify tasks and alleviate some unnecessary tasks that machines can easily solve. Until AI gets sophisticated enough to perform all of these tasks better than us, digital marketing agencies must take advantage of the endless possibilities available to them today to allow for greater digital transformation before it’s too late.
