The last quarter of 2022 saw a large spike in interest for artificial intelligence (AI) thanks largely to OpenAI releasing its beta version of ChatGPT, a trained Natural Language Processing (NLP) model which you can interact and have a conversation with. NLP models work by being trained, using a dataset, to understand the human language by analysing sentences and the grammar used. They also analyse the individual meaning of words used and make use of algorithms to extract this data and present a response. NLP has been present in the mainstream for a while in the forms of products such as Google Assist, Siri, and Alexa.
Google Trends data confirms this surge in interest in AI:
At its core marketing involves gaining an understanding of customer needs, aligning those needs with relevant products and services, and convincing people to purchase them, each of these aspects can be assisted and improved upon with the help of AI.
Chatbot marketing
AI driven chatbots have been around in various forms for a while not only for customer support, but as a way to generate leads and engage with prospects they can be very effective. The benefits of having a bot always online 24/7 while your human sales team is asleep or otherwise engaged are plentiful and it is in some ways like having an additional team member. In order for the bot to deliver accurate responses to questions and for automation purposes, as well as NLP it will also need to use machine learning as ChatGPT does. Machine learning is the act of utilising algorithms which instruct to gain knowledge and improve from experiences without having to be explicitly programmed. AI-powered chatbots, for instance, use NLP to decipher what the user is saying and what their goal is, and machine learning to constantly provide more appropriate answers by learning from previous conversations.
Before you setup an AI machine learning driven chatbot, there are a few things to consider:
- Which audiences do you want to target? Do you want to reach only qualified leads?
- When and where should your bot be present? Having the bot always present across your website has its advantages but there may be specific areas or pages where it may be more effective.
- Consider at which areas on the website are your potential customers most likely to respond to promotional materials. What pages or activities demonstrate a high level of engagement?
Sentiment analysis
Social media is now one of the key marketing channels to utilise for your business, being able to engage with your audience in real-time and address their needs has many advantages. Sentiment analysis involves recognising and classifying emotions, opinions, and attitudes that are expressed in written form as text. You as a business can use this as a social listening technique to gain an understanding of how your customers feel about your brand or products by analysing social media posts, product reviews, and online surveys. For instance, you can quickly detect negative comments by monitoring tweets that mention your brand through keywords, hashtags, and related products. This gives you an opportunity to contact people who have had negative experiences and try to resolve their issues..
AI sentiment analysis tools use NLP and machine learning algorithms to process and sort social media data, just like a human would but the process is automated and much faster. Monkeylearn is one such tool currently available, it has an Application Programming Interface (API) to connect to so if you have developers they can connect to this and build a custom analysis tool. Hubspot and Brandwatch also have AI based sentiment analysis tools.
Predictive analysis
Thus allows marketers to extrapolate data from audiences and together with a machine learning algorithm, use in order to try and predict what actions should be taken. Many of the most successful corporations in the world use predictive analysis to gain a better understanding of their customers and give them an edge over their competition. Predictive modeling can provide a forecast of how well a complex marketing campaign could perform before you begin allocating budget to it making you aware of any potential risk.
Content creation
Using AI and machine learning, content creators are able to create content more quickly and make it more personalised and tailored to each visitor, such as through blogs, emails, landing pages, and more. AI writing assistants such as Jasper are already starting to become common tools for content creators to use. Some key benefits for content include:
- Create content faster
- Increase productivity
- Reduce the number of errors
- SEO optimised text articles for better results
For video based content there are AI platforms such as Synthesia.io which require just a text based script to automatically generate a video such as for product marketing, it’s presented by a seemingly real human and in up to 65 different languages.
Conclusion
AI is here to stay and looks set to be a key technology to utilise as part of a digital marketing strategy for a business. For more information on AI, machine learning and how it could benefit your business, please get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to help.
