Artificial intelligence is here to stay.
While we're still pretty far away from sapient supercomputers and strong AI, machine learning has opened up new possibilities in the world of digital marketing.
New applications of AI technology are already starting to make their mark on social media, in the way that consumers conduct a web search, and in marketing automation software that eliminates what used be tedious manual tasks.
AI is still essentially in its infancy, but it's become impressively sophisticate in recent years.
In a recent blog post, Hubspot explains some of the ways marketers are pioneering the use of AI, across a number of different use cases.
Among them are search, marketing automation, and chatbots.
Devices like Alexa and Google Home, as well as voice searches via Siri or Google Now, are starting to shape the way people search.
Meanwhile, companies' chatbots on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are revolutionizing customer service, and marketing automation is making marketers' jobs a whole lot easier.
Search
AI has already had a tremendous impact on the way users conduct online searches, and, in turn, that's changing the way marketers create and optimize content.
Two big AI advances have changed online searches — and search engine optimization: voice search, and Google's RankBrain.
Innovations like the Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple's Siri, and Microsoft's Cortana make it easier for people to conduct searches with just the press of a button and voice command.
That means the terms they're searching for are changing, too — now, instead of typing in “restaurants in Boston,” users can ask a device, “where should I go to dinner tonight?”
RankBrain is Google's machine-learning algorithm that was created to deliver more relevant search results. It interprets queries and, using the power of AI, serves up the best possible results according to what it interprets from the language.
For example, if you searched for “president” on Google in the United States, RankBrain might interpret that you wanted information about the current president and would serve you information about the individual — and not just the office of government.
Conversational search queries and algorithms are changing thanks to AI — and, in turn, these changes are forcing search engine marketers and content creators to adapt.
Long-tail keywords have been replaced by conversational keywords, and writing blog post after blog post about every topic imaginable has been replaced by the topic cluster keyword strategy, as outlined in the video below.
In fact, we're adapting our blogging strategy to this new model here at HubSpot — and that's partly because of AI.
Marketing Automation
Brands are using the power of AI to customize marketing emails based on customer preferences and behavior to engage them more and — hopefully — prompt them to convert or make a purchase.
Using tools like Boomtrain, brands can send out customized email newsletters based on previous interactions recipients have had with content. AI helps send customized, personalized content recipients might be more likely to interact with — and click through.
Online lingerie brand Adore Me used Optimove‘s AI to segment its customer list into different types of prospects and customers to increase purchases and subscribers to its membership pricing program.
The AI automated the segmentation process and started sending customized content based on each recipient's lifecycle stage via email, text messages, and in-app notifications.
Segmenting customers and contacting them on different platforms helped Adore Me increase its monthly recurring revenue (MRR), average sales price (ASP), along with doubling its active customer base.
When it comes to marketing automation, AI can free up valuable human marketers' time — and quickly create more targeted marketing materials that convert better among customers.
Chatbots
Lots of brands have started communicating with customers using messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Slack.
It's fast, customers are already using these tools to communicate with friends and coworkers, and let's face it — sometimes, you just don't want to hop on a phone call to get an answer.
And chatbots seek to make that process even easier.
GrowthBot seeks to provide answers to commonly-asked questions about marketing and sales professionals — without them having to hunt down the information themselves.
Chatbots' wealth of information — like GrowthBot's — helps marketers and salespeople quickly find and analyze information about their industries and competitors to get their jobs done more efficiently.
Neat, huh?
You can learn more about the future of AI over at Hubspot.
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