Month: June 2019

61% of marketers declare that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the most critical element of their data strategy.

Marketing is a fast-paced discipline. If you want to succeed in it, you must stay at the bleeding edge of new breakthroughs.

By 2020, 85% of customer relations will be automated. You, therefore, need to position your brand to stay competitive.

AI is probably the biggest technology push of our time revolutionizing every aspect of marketing. To get the most out of automated customer service, marketers are turning to AI advertising for strategies that can deliver higher value.

Here are some ways in which you can incorporate AI into your marketing to keep up with the times.

1. Chatbots

A Chatbot is an AI software that is capable of simulating a conversation (chat) with a user in natural language.

Brands have taken to using chatbots to interact with their clients on messaging apps like WhatsApp, Slack, and Facebook Messenger.

Through these bots, brands can answer queries customers frequently ask in a speedy fashion.

Since they retain a customer’s data after the interaction, they can build on that information to deliver more personalized experience during the next interaction.

That reinforced learning pattern only makes the experience better for the customer.

2. User Experience (UX)

When you have a website, the user experience will significantly influence whether the customer will return to it or not.

You can use AI to collect information on customers and understand their likes, intent, and desire. Data points to gather here include location, the devices they use to visit the website, demographics among others.

As the user keeps browsing the site, you get to gain more insights about them and deliver appropriate offers and content that resonates with their needs.

AI marketing that helps shape your user experience for the better has the potential to increase your conversion rate.

3. Search Engines

People today take it for granted that they can search for anything on Google and find a relevant result.

Such a scenario is the result of decades of research and analysis on how to create and deliver a more intuitive search experience for customers.

After Google deployed RankBrain, its machine-learning based algorithm, many businesses saw the value of such an application.

Nowadays consumer companies like Amazon take advantage of artificial intelligence marketing strategies that can help them deliver relevant results to you.

Innovations like natural language processing and semantic search determine the relationships between products.

When you run a search, they help recommend similar items and auto-correct mistakes so that you can find the right products.

4. Predictive Analysis

Predictive analysis is the use of data, machine learning techniques, and statistical algorithms to draw conclusions on future actions based on the data.

Using predictive analysis you can determine the probability of a prospect becoming a client.

Thus, depending on the conclusion your draw you can determine how much resources you will dedicate to converting the prospect.

Another area predictive analysis is useful in is pricing. Using this tool, you can more accurately determine which price point will deliver more sales for you.

That information can then contribute towards your value proposition marketing.

5. Email Marketing

Email marketing is a crucial part of any brand’s marketing mix as it is one of the few digital assets they fully control.

But with the rise in sources of data from 10 in 2017 to 15 in 2019, marketers may struggle to personalize these emails.

AI can help you unify the piles of information on a subscriber and learn how to reach more effectively.

For example, it can help you determine how many times to send the email per user and what time of the day is best to send it.

6. Digital Marketing

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a cornerstone for any digital campaign. Typically, PPC ad campaigns are usually managed by an in-house team or a large agency.

AI can help you discover new channels your competition may be unaware of.

Machine learning techniques can help you optimize the layout, bids, targeting, and copy for your campaign.

You will be able to realize a higher return on advertising per campaign by using AI in marketing online.

7. Social Listening

Every brand needs to have a presence on social media to extend its customer service to where its customers are.

Consequently, it is essential that brands have their finger on the pulse of what users are saying about them.

Natural language processing innovation has made it possible for brands to hear what users and the public at large like or dislike about them.

Therefore, they can get ahead of any potential issues before they blow up.

You can also use AI in social listening to identify potential purchasers and nudge them towards a sale.

8. Audience Targeting

Customers today have come to expect a certain level of personalization, and as a marketer, you can’t fail on this expectation.

To help you create more accurately personalized campaigns, you will need to segment your customers as finely as possible.

AI can draw on the data you have on your customers and identify a common variable that can help shape your communication with a specific audience.

For example, if your data shows you that a significant number of your customers are into destiny power leveling, you can set up banner ads to effectively reach them.

9. Voice-Based Services

In the past few years, voice-based services have gained quite some traction.

Voice assistants such as Alexa, Siri, and Cortana have made it infinitely easier for consumers to search and place an order by speaking at their devices.

Natural language processing technology helps improve speech recognition so that customers can successfully issue commands.

AI can help you deploy voice-based services to provide your customers with an avenue for easier sales and interaction.

Beef up Your AI Advertising Strategies or Get Left Behind

Artificial Intelligence is making a big impact on marketing. High automation levels in what once used to be human job roles call for precise AI advertising strategies by brands.

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This article was originally posted on – https://www.droidmen.com/ai-advertising-9-ways-to-use-artificial-intelligence-in-marketing/

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This article was originally posted on – http://www.digitaljournal.com/business/tips-for-improving-chatbot-design-and-functionality/article/550133

 

According to BI Intelligence, about 80% of businesses will use chatbots — which are applications that engage in interactive conversation using natural voice or text – by 2020. Juniper Research also forecasts that this technology will save businesses about $8 billion annually by 2022.

“Due to advancements in AI technology, natural language processing and speech recognition, the cost of developing chatbots has come down drastically, which is fueling the explosive growth of this market,” said Jeri John Deva George, who is the Head of Zoho’s SalesIQ and Cliq.

Yet it’s customer service that chatbots will likely see much of the traction, at least in the next few years. “With chatbots able to engage customers seamlessly around the clock, this is poised to completely change the online customer experience game, while saving time and money,” said Patrick Welch, who is the president and CMO of Bigtincan. “The main goal of these chatbots is to assist customers with getting to their end goal as quickly as possible, whether it is finding out more information, or making a sale. In the end, it’s ideally to replicate the success of top performing customer agents.”

So then, what are the ways to implement chatbots in your organization? What are the best practices and, well, the gotchas? Here are some things to keep in mind:

Set Expectations: Chatbots are not silver bullets. In fact, there are many ways they can go wrong!

“For a great customer experience it is crucial to not try and ‘trick’ customers into thinking the AI chatbot is a real person – and make it clear when they have switched from a bot to a person,” said Chris Bauserman, who is the VP of Product and Segment Marketing at NICE inContact. “Start with a focused pilot covering topics that you already successfully provide self-service options for, test and learn quickly, then iterate and expand from there.”

Understand The Customer Process: Look at ways to better personalize the experience. Otherwise, a chatbot may ultimately be worse than using a traditional approach.

“Customers may get annoyed if they have to repeat all their details to a human agent after having painstakingly typed it into a chatbot interface,” said Michael D. Mills, who is the Senior Vice President of Global Sales at the Contact Center division of CGS. “Failure to centralize customer service information can lead to negative experiences.”

Focus On Data: In other words, there should be ongoing data analytics to understand trends. “This will help a brand build profiles on its customers which will then personalize the experience even more,” said Jonathan Taylor, who is the CTO of zoovu. “Collecting this insight will also help brands understand how the navigation of their site works.”

Think Different With Design: Your experience with designing websites or mobile apps may lead you down the wrong path. Consider that chatbots have their own unique requirements.

“How should your company sound?” said Gillian McCann, who is the Head of Cloud Engineering & Artificial Intelligence at Workgrid Software. “Think carefully about brand and personality and what it says about your company. Also be prepared for users to say the most unexpected things and build in conversation flows that can handle going off topic. There should also be an awareness of local or cultural differences in language.”

The Future of Chatbots

Chatbots certainly have some powerful underlying technology.  According to David Karandish, who is the founder and CEO of Jane.ai:  “Natural language processing is used to understand what the user meant. Within NLP, companies use neural networks to make inferences around matching, as well as create the right ensemble of algorithms that use a combination of classical techniques and modern neural networks to ‘vote’ on the best matching response.”

Yes, it’s enough to make your head spin.  But for the most part, chatbots allow for effective interactions at scale.

More importantly, the technology is still in the early phases.  “I must emphasize that chatbots augment humans, not replace them entirely,” said Antonio Cangiano, who is the AI Evangelist at IBM and teaches a course on chatbots. “As a result, it would be a mistake to expect so-called strong AI a la Sci-Fi movies, at this stage.”

This is critical to keep in mind.  But the future does look very promising as chatbots are likely to be impactful for your business. “There will be a shift away from chatbots being simply reactive,” said Stefan Ritter, who is the co-founder and Head of Product at Ruum by SAP. “As AI becomes more advanced and chatbots collect more data, bots will start to develop the ability to predict what a user’s next move might be, or what problem they may be experiencing, and act on it in real time.”

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This article was originally posted on – https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomtaulli/2019/04/21/what-you-need-to-know-about-chatbots/