Are you struggling to communicate with your customers at all times? Fortunately, artificial intelligence (AI) can help you to improve your marketing strategy. In fact, it is estimated that the AI market will have a $5.05 billion revenue by 2020, and is a factor that will dominate the marketing industry in 2017. So now is the perfect time to incorporate AI into your own strategy.

So what is AI?

The first thing to do is understand what exactly AI is. It sounds like some form of futuristic technology, but it is in fact not a new concept. In fact, the term was coined by Stanford researcher John McCarthy in 1956.

Computerworld defines AI as “a sub-field of computer science. Its goal is to enable the development of computers that are able to do things normally done by people – in particular, things associated with people acting intelligently.”

Examples of AI include facial and voice recognition, algorithms and targeted ads. These are all designed to help your life be easier by undertaking tasks you don’t want to do, such as data analysis.

AI is becoming a huge factor in the marketing industry. It can assist with a large range of tasks, meaning you can focus on other areas of your business.

How can AI help my marketing strategy?

1. Customer service

This is one of the big incentives for using AI. You want your business to have the best customer service possible. Who wants to waste time on the phone waiting to talk to support? Fortunately, in recent years there has been an increase in popularity of chatbots. This allows businesses to have customer service available 24/7, and people are able to interact with the company online, rather than over the phone.

Some of the biggest companies are already taking advantage of chatbots. Brands such as Sephora, Uber, Starbucks and eBay have been early adopters of AI chatbots. These chatbots offer another way to communicate with the brands, and help customers to complete their transactions on platforms such as Facebook Messenger and Twitter. Considering messenger apps are continually rising in popularity, this is something that any business should capitalise on. You can offer 24/7 customer service, and spend your time on other aspects of the business.

2. Customer targeting

Businesses can use AI to offer personalised recommendations to their customers. AI is able to analyse customer data and produce more personalised ads, product descriptions and recommendations. This will help businesses to not only attract new customers, but gain customer loyalty as well.

However, it’s important to note your chatbot should appear to be human. If you have a low-quality chatbot communicating with your customers, they will be able to tell, and will not finish their transaction.

3. Consumer analysis

Nobody wants to spend all of their time doing data analysis. This is where AI comes in. Chatbots work by tracking consumer behaviour and noting purchasing patterns. This allows companies to see what items are being purchased and by who. Tracking can show what items are being marketed correctly and what needs to be changed.

Questions frequently asked to chatbots can also be tracked, and can be used to give feedback to companies, who can then improve on any problem that is frequently asked.

4. Recommending content

AI is a great thing to consider if you’re serious about your content marketing strategy. It often takes a lot of time and energy to promote your content, and if you’re not using ads on social media, you can often see little results for your effort.

AI can help to place your content on sites with readers who are most likely to consume your article. This means you’ll achieve a higher click-through-rate and more traffic flow to your website, all with less effort on your part.

5. Site feedback

Customers can use AI to communicate with a brand and give feedback about their sales transaction and any web optimisation issues. Questions frequently asked to chatbots can also be tracked, and can be used to give feedback to companies, who can then improve on any problem that is frequently asked.

Consider using a chatbot to conduct surveys about a customer’s experience. This is particularly important if customers aren’t completing their transactions, and you’re not receiving any sales.

If you’re considering using a chatbot as part of your marketing strategy, make sure you pick one that is secure. You don’t want to end up losing your valuable customer data or have customers not complete a transaction because it doesn’t seem trustworthy. Make sure your chatbot has security capabilities including encryption, access control policies and data privacy.

It is easy to see chatbots can be greatly beneficial to companies. However, it’s important to ensure chatbots and AI does not completely replace any human interaction. Instead, make sure you use chatbots as a complementary service to human interaction. Doing this will help to improve your marketing strategy, and your company will see improved results.

This was brought to you by Matter Solutions. Matter Solutions are experts in digital marketing with over 15 years of experience in SEO and Web design.