For marketers, AI is perhaps the most intimidating abbreviation flying around the boardroom, the event hall, and the company Slack channel.
But it doesn't have to be.
Just as complex software deployments have become streamlined and marketer-friendly through software as a- service (SaaS), artificial intelligence will be going the same way much sooner than we all think.
Marketing and AI: Bridging the Gap
Before we talk AI, let's first talk personalization—a term marketers are far more comfortable with. Today, many brands face troubles when attempting effective personalization at scale. Either they lack the quantity of content required or they are unable to match all their content with the right customer, at the right point, at the right time in the customer journey.
According to research from The Harris Poll, nearly three-quarters of consumers in North America think brands struggle to create personalized and individual experiences, in large part because of rising expectations.
Solving thiat industry-agnostic problem is where AI comes in. With AI, marketers can offload the time-consuming and cost-intensive tasks of high-grade personalization by relying on AI to offer predictive insights and content insights that result in an automated personalized experience.
The problem? Although 86% of executives say AI and machine-learning are necessities for the organization, 79% have yet to adopt these technologies. The disconnect comes from the following question: "How exactly can AI and marketing merge on the frontlines?"
At Sitecore, we envision that the digital experience platform (DXP) and customer experience industry's first AI solution is on the horizon: i.e., a marketer-friendly AI that automatically identifies visitor trends, creates customer segments, and modifies page elements to deliver personalized experiences.
With such accessible AI at hand, marketers can benefit from...
- Automatically identified visitor trends
- Automatically generated customer segments
- Automatic page and content modifications to deliver personalized experiences
- Rapid analysis of each customer's behavior to understand their interests and intent, enabling marketers to learn about where each person is in their journey—without the guesswork—and determine the best content for each customer while continuously optimizing their experience, nurturing them toward conversion
Why marketers and AI need each other
Why Marketers need AI
Mid-market and enterprise brands are struggling to reach the level of personalization maturity that the likes of Amazon and Netflix are training consumers to expect as standard. AI can help:
- Increase ROI from content investments: With automated personalization and segmentation, increase the ROI on your content investments by always displaying the most relevant content to your customers.
- Increase productivity of your marketing team: Time spent away from defining personalization rules and customer segments can be used to create more effective content.
- Gain deeper insights into customer behavior: AI can assist in analyzing visitor interactions with every piece of content, helping you further refine your content creation.
- Deliver real-time personalization at scale: Make adjustments without worrying about updating segmentation and personalization rules as your business grows.
Why AI needs Marketers
AI brings the power of automation; it adds speed and precision where humans would typically require more time and would be able to make only educated guesses.
What AI doesn't do is empathize with your audience's evolving emotional needs. Brands need to show empathy. AI allows marketers to skip the mundane tasks so they have the freedom to do what AI can't do: be human.
Adding that human element to digital marketing has taken on a whole new level of importance: for example, in understanding and engaging appropriately to popular culture, political sensitivities, public celebrations, and even social unrest.
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With all of the above benefits in mind, CMOs and other executives should look forward to an AI-enabled personalization strategy—but also be mindful of an AI-centric one.
As we move toward AI-powered automation of some of the most grueling elements of contemporary marketing and content authoring at scale, it's vital to remember that, as time and cost-saving as it may be, AI alone won't be enough to turn any ailing marketing strategy around.
To learn more, download Sitecore's practical guide, which will help you to fundamentals in place to augment and empower human intelligence, leverage AI to drive digital customer experiences, and get buy-in from the C-suite.
