The Best Uses of AI in Marketing

The widespread acceptance of artificial Intelligence (AI) was once a far-fetched idea that was only imaginable in sci-fi movies. But it is now an everyday part of our daily reality.

The AI market is expected to be worth $36.8 Billion by 2025. As this autonomous branch of digital tech continues to develop, we expect to see incredible developments in the not too distant future, especially in this age of the metaverse.

AI has been shown to improve our everyday consumer lives through the adoption of voice assistants, fitness devices and smartphones. It has also helped to improve the digital marketing efforts businesses from many industries.

AI has been shown to increase productivity in companies by as high as 40%. However, autonomous technology can be leveraged strategically to help brands:

1. To deliver more effective marketing campaigns, streamline your workflows
2. At every stage of the journey, they must meet their customers’ expectations.
3. Increase conversions and sales through a variety of channels and touchpoints

AI technology can be used creatively and tactically to connect with your audience at a deeper level, which could lead to ongoing business growth.

This article will help you to put this idea in perspective.

Sephora is the first to share one of our inspirational AI in digital marketing examples. Sephora a thriving cosmetics brand, recognized the potential of AI and began using chatbot technology in order to provide its customers with the best possible information and personalized service.

The brand did extensive consumer research and realized that Sephora’s large selection of products was overwhelming for many customers. They had to scroll through hundreds of pages in order to find the right product for them.

Sephora created an interactive quiz to guide customers through the shopping process. It was led by chatbots that offer specific tips and suggestions based upon answers. Sephora’s chatbot-powered shopping services are now available via Facebook Messenger, as the company continues to grow.

This AI-powered, ultra-personalized Messenger service features a virtual color match assistant and a reservation assistant. KitBot is an automated chatty make up tips and advice expert.

Glossier is a modern, contemporary beauty brand that offers more industry-specific marketing ideas.

Lowe’s and AI

Lowe’s is a forward-thinking brand which has successfully enhanced its in-store shopping experience. It has created its own AI development – the LoweBot – to provide its customers personalized suggestions and tailored information while they shop its massive US stores.

Its AI-driven technology not only helps to provide seamless shopping experiences for its customers, but also automatically tracks stock and inventory in real time, providing valuable insights for its marketers on consumer shopping trends.

Josh Shabtai (Director of Lab Productions at Lowe’s Innovation Labs) spoke about the brand’s technological victory. He explained that “we use our stores as living laboratories to quickly test our prototypes and get real-world feedback about the new experiences, we’re delivering, to demystify home improvements.”

Check out our essential team talk about chatbots for more information on autonomous technologies for customer communication.

Netflix is the most popular SVoD streaming service in the world and needs no introduction. It’s not common knowledge that Netflix has enjoyed unstoppable success due to its innovative approach to AI.

We all know that user experience (UX) is crucial to any business’s continued success, regardless of industry. Customers are more likely to share a positive experience with a company if they have a positive experience.

Netflix makes personalized recommendations based on the user’s past experiences and preferences. This helps to improve its UX and tailor the service to each user. Netflix also uses AI to optimize streaming quality and prevent buffering or quality issues.

Over 80 percent of the Netflix shows watch are based on its personal recommendations platform. This is a testament to its power at a time when people expect more value from brands they want to invest in.

Starbucks and AI

Voice search is used by 60 million adults every day. Additionally, 72% have a smart speaker (such as Siri or Alexa).

Voice technology is on the rise and people who embrace it can reap huge rewards. Starbucks is not an exception.

The coffee giant integrated Amazon’s Alexa technology into one of its most popular apps to give its customers an extra layer of value. Customers can now use the ‘My Starbucks Barista” service to place, modify, and confirm a pickup spot. This seamless integration of voice and chatbot innovation is what Starbucks has done.

The success of “My Starbucks Barista” app has led to the brand adding AI powered Mastrena II espresso machines to its thousands of outlets. This allows them to provide a better and more consistent coffee-making experience for their customers.

Boasting a whopping The Economist was a respected digital publication, but its readership began to decline around 2016/2017.

The publication used AI-driven programmatic marketing to its advantage by buying and selling targeted ads autonomously. The Economist used this process to collect data and analyze consumer data in depth to identify a segment it believed to be reluctant readers.

They were able to analyze web and app usage independently and found better ways to approach prospects online. The publication also found positive results by focusing on matching subscriber, cookie and additional data sets to create new segments and lookalike audiences.

This campaign was forward-thinking and encouraged 3.6 millions new readers, which resulted in a 10:1 return on investment from the initial wave revenue generated by these prospects. This is a remarkable feat in a highly competitive digital environment.

The new, data-driven, AI-centered business model has consolidated subscriber growth since 2017. This includes a rise in 9 (90,000 loyal) subscribers from 2020 to 2021. This is a remarkable feat in these difficult times.

Read our exploration of the long-lasting marketing power of customer loyalty programs for inspiration in growing your consumer base.