There’s a transformation happening in marketing. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the opportunities it presents, from streamlining processes to driving ROI, are changing how marketers reach customers, shape campaigns and develop strategies.
Indeed, AI-powered tools and algorithms are rapidly becoming indispensable – according to recent research, 61.4% of marketers have used AI in their marketing activities and 88% believe their organisation must increase its use of AI to meet customer expectations and stay competitive.
But, as the technology advances, it’s important that a human touch remains. In this blog, we look at how best to use AI-based marketing and why its success involves striking the right balance between technological and human input.
Using AI in sales and marketing campaigns
AI has brought about a shift in how businesses connect with their audiences and drive results. Its versatility and adaptability have made it an invaluable tool for marketers, allowing them to streamline processes and drive efficiency by optimising content, making data-driven decisions, enhancing the customer experience and automating routine tasks.
Let’s look at what AI can do in more detail.
- Automate sales-related tasks
AI can automate repetitive and time-consuming activities such as researching target prospects and their needs whilst machine learning algorithms can sift through huge datasets to identify potential leads, analyse their online behaviour and gauge their potential interest.
- Create content
AI systems can generate blog posts, social media content and even email marketing and by harnessing natural language processing (NLP) and predictive analytics, content can be tailored to align with target audiences and current trends. Its capabilities are such that it’s predicted that by 2025, large organisations will generate 30% of outbound marketing messages through AI, up from less than 2% in 2022.
- Increase personalisation
We’ve talked before about the benefits of personalised marketing campaigns and how AI can analyse vast amounts of data to provide insights into individual customer preferences and behaviours. This information can then be used to deliver tailored messages, recommendations and product offerings.
- Engage with customers
AI-driven chatbots are available 24/7 to answer queries, provide product information, and guide customers through the sales funnel.
- Optimise campaigns
AI’s algorithms can monitor campaign performance in real-time, conduct A/B testing, and optimise ad targeting and spending.
- Analyse data
Large amounts of data from multiple campaigns can be collated and analysed swiftly and easily, providing valuable insight into customer behaviour, campaign engagement and other trends.
The benefits of using AI in marketing
Clearly, AI can do a lot; what we’ve covered so far are just some of its capabilities and the technology is evolving fast. So, what are the main advantages of introducing AI into your marketing activity?
- Increased efficiency
The main advantage of AI is the increased efficiency it brings. By automating routine processes such as data analysis, email marketing and social media posting, marketers can save time and focus their efforts on more strategic activities.
- Make better decisions
By analysing historical data AI can help forecast future trends and customer behaviour, so businesses can anticipate market shifts and changing customer preferences. And identifying other meaningful patterns and insights allows strategies and campaign performance to be monitored and adapted to achieve better results.
- Improved customer relationships
Customers have high expectations and providing a 24/7 response and advice service via chatbot enhances their experience, improving satisfaction, engagement and retention rates. The use of AI also provides marketers with the types of insights required to develop more personalised campaigns which resonate with customers and build better brand loyalty.
The importance of human input
Having said all that, and while AI is capable of things that we would never have time to do such as personalising millions of landing pages or analysing extensive amounts of intent data, ultimately the technology is only as powerful as the human behind it.
Only with human intervention can AI deliver the best possible outcomes: results that align with human values and are transparent, accountable and beneficial.
One of the reasons is that although AI can analyse data and make predictions, it lacks emotional intelligence; that ability to understand and interpret human emotions and sentiments. Without this it can’t understand nuance, context or other subtleties of human behaviour – which is exactly what enables marketers to craft messages and campaigns that resonate with audiences on a deeper, more personal level, leading to genuine connections.
Building lasting relationships often requires a human touch. Customers commonly prefer human interactions for complex enquiries or when making significant purchase decisions because, unlike chatbots, humans can demonstrate empathy, showing understanding and care for customers’ needs and concerns.
Human marketers also bring a level of strategic thinking and adaptability to the table that AI alone cannot replicate. The insights provided by AI are only valuable if they are properly understood and used in a way that drives positive change. Humans are able to use them to identify emerging trends, adjust strategies in real-time and make intuitive decisions that might not be apparent from data alone. And in a dynamic marketing landscape, this ability to pivot and innovate is invaluable.
People and technology deliver results
At Interlink, we recognise that the best results come from combining marketers’ creativity and empathy with the supercharged analytical abilities of AI. Our understanding of mindset, behaviour and desire coupled with our innovative technology is what elevates us above the rest – and the focus on the wellbeing of our own people makes a difference too.
Our strong values, 4-day week and focus on employee happiness mean we are officially a ‘Great Place to Work’. We put people first and far from seeing AI taking over jobs, we’re using it to help marketers become more human-centric and effective in their work.
Research by McKinsey found that only 5% of jobs can be fully automated, underlining the belief that AI is most effective when implemented alongside human activity. There’s no doubt that AI is a powerful tool with a number of benefits but without strategic input, it’s just another collection of data. To become something really useful, it needs the human touch.
Book a call with our sales team today to find out how our AI-based marketing can drive quality leads for you.