Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been making a splash in recent years, with developments changing the ways traditional companies do business. It’s made some significant changes in the world of marketing, whether discussing the field of affiliate marketing or social media marketing.
AI is improving the ways businesses understand their consumers’ behaviors. Most importantly, these improvements are even changing the way consumers are behaving with brands.
What is AI and How is it Affecting Marketing
AI, in its simplest form, is an enhanced way of digital communication between computers, networks, and platforms. Programs utilizing AI are using highly intelligent programming which allows for predictive analysis, modeled off of the logic systems used by humans—all with the enhancements of modern computing.
Data is gathered across the Internet of Things (IoT), the vast network of interconnected digital devices, all of which communicate across the internet. The aggregation of user data across the internet—from a person’s Google searches to their Amazon purchases to what times of day they’re most likely to check their email—can be analyzed to understand a consumer’s habits. These habits can then be distilled by marketers to better understand what consumers are most likely to be a part of their customer base, wherein marketing content can be specifically drafted around their interests to secure sales.
Comfort Spending More Money
One of the greatest benefits of AI is that its use of machine learning technology will improve the ways marketers can learn more about their customers and what they want to buy. This is beneficial to marketers, as the more that can be learned about consumers and their habits the more that a business’s marketing strategy can be developed to these specific interests.
These developments will enhance the sales funnel, making it smarter and more responsive, becoming specifically tailored to consumers based upon their past internet searches, purchases, email engagement, and more. This enhanced technology will make it easier for your business to target these consumers directly, sending promotional emails and offers that are statistically likely to secure a sale conversion.
Shopping Will Feel More Convenient
Online shopping has already improved the consumer shopping experience from what it once was: having to get dressed to go to the store; sometimes having to brave hoards of people, especially around the holidays, to shop for a specific item—which might be sold out by the time you get there! But now consumers can shop right from the comfort of their home, even while lying in bed.
The enhanced comfort felt by consumers, both by being able to shop anywhere and to feel as if they’re being specifically marketed to, will make the shopping experience feel more convenient. But the process is only going to become more efficient with the introduction of AI models, such as face recognition and voice detection technology, which can allow customers to place orders with more ease. The process will only become easier with time, too, making the shopping experience simpler and more pleasurable.
Building Brand Trust
Getting lifelong customers involves building trust with consumers—people want a brand they can believe in. To enhance these measures, many businesses are making serious efforts to increase their honesty, transparency, and security. This often involves showing a value for the protection of a customers’ personal information.
AI takes transparency and security a step further by helping businesses personalize the information they share with their customers, by collecting their data, without putting a consumer’s data at risk.
And in the world of influencer and affiliate marketing, AI can be utilized to better produce content aimed directly towards niches. By developing more specialized content, affiliates can work to build more trust with their consumer base, gaining merited attention with smart content.
Increased Brand Loyalty
Part of maintaining a business is developing customer loyalty. AI can help companies develop customer loyalty by cutting out all of the old tactics meant to capture a consumer’s attention—the old methods of pandering to customers won’t work, so you need to connect with them on a personal level.
Consumers are sick of seeing so many social media ads, particularly ones that aren’t geared towards their interests. Rather than throwing a massive net at the marketplace, your company can use AI to better target the exact consumers you want to bring into the fold. With AI, your systems have increased means to analyze large datasets, helping your business identify the products, services, and ads groups of consumers want to see. Thus, you’re able to identify the types of content you need to produce going forward, ensuring that consumers see the right ads of yours—content aimed directly at their needs, wants, and desires.
A Customer’s Voice Becomes Important
As mentioned earlier, AI is going to have more impact than making it easier to process large quantities of data. Moreover, AI-driven voice features are going to personalize the consumer experience further, allowing them to become engaged with the shopping experience without having to rely on a keyboard.
Voice command features being developed are making it easier for consumers to make purchases from devices like Amazon Echos, Google Homes, and voice-activated apps, all by recognizing the person’s voice. This level of communication enhances the intimacy between consumers and the brands they are making purchases through, as it’s simplifying the process further and further.
And as the technology continues to increase, it will only make the process better, allowing for consumers to engage with brands more readily and efficiently.
AI is going to change the way marketers and consumers interact with one another in the years to come, but all for the better. Improvements will enhance marketing and branding to a more personalized experience, helping consumers feel as if they’re being seen by companies, allowing for the purchasing process to seem more personalized.
From now on, consumers will no longer have to seek out companies for a specific product. Rather, it will feel like a brand is coming directly to them.
