CEO and cofounder of conversational marketing automation platform Spectrm.
In 2018, McKinsey predicted that AI has the potential to bring the greatest value to marketing departments. And we’re certainly seeing that play out.
Marketers today are looking for new tools and advances in generative AI to bring more value to their customers. AI offers the ability to scale one-to-one personalization efforts, analyze data, build predictive models and even design customer journeys. By leaving the execution to AI, marketers have more time and energy to focus on building better strategies. And 74% of organizations that adopt AI into their marketing efforts have seen their revenue increase.
But AI is still new, and while there are several great things it can do, there are several misconceptions around it as well. Where should the journey begin with using AI in your marketing efforts? As we work with marketers every day on how to do just that, here are some best practices to help you incorporate AI thoughtfully and successfully.
Five Best Practices For Integrating AI Into Your Marketing
Everyone’s going to be adding AI to their marketing strategies this year. Here are five ways you can do so successfully from the start and get ahead of your competition early.
1. Enrich it with your data.
AI doesn’t come preprogrammed knowing about your customers and brand. AI is only as good as the data it’s fed. As you begin to use AI for your marketing efforts, you’ll need to train it.
For example, using AI in your chatbot is a great way to scale your conversational marketing efforts. But as tempting as it may be to use a public AI like ChatGPT in your chatbot, public AI models are trained on an expansive amount of data from across the internet. This means it will provide answers that won’t be tailored to your customer or your brand.
Instead, create your own customized chatbot where the AI is powered by the data you feed it. Have it follow scripts that you create. Connect it to your product feeds and power it with a library of customer intents specific to your brand. The more you train your AI with your data, the more it will help in your efforts.
2. Protect your brand’s integrity.
Another reason to avoid using public AI models is that it’s important to protect your brand’s integrity. While ChatGPT can do a great job in creating content, the technology isn’t quite there yet to keep it from “hallucinating.” It can get facts or information very wrong. Because it sources from across the internet, it has the potential to give inappropriate and biased answers as well. The last thing you want is your customers getting incorrect and inappropriate responses from your chatbot.
Instead, as mentioned above, create your own customized chatbot that draws on the data you give it. Power it with scripted responses to ensure that it stays 100% accurate. You can also train it to have your brand’s voice and personality. Make it a priority to preserve your brand’s integrity in any AI-powered customer-facing channel.
3. Keep your data and your customers’ data safe.
As you begin to use AI in your marketing efforts, keep security top of mind for both your data and your customers’ data. Wiring up a public AI to your chatbot means that every time your customers chat with you, their message is shared with a third-party API to generate a response. And every time you use a public AI to help create content or to analyze data, you’re doing the same.
Sixty percent of consumers are concerned about how brands are using their personal data for AI purposes, so prioritize data privacy and security. If you’re going to have an AI interface with your customers, make sure it’s through your own chatbot. As you use AI internally for data analysis or to build predictive models, be sure to never give sensitive data to public AIs. Instead, evaluate the different ways you can bring AI into your organization while keeping your data private.
4. Choose your AI tools carefully.
With the buzz around the number of things AI can do, it may be tempting to start adopting all the cool new AI-powered tools to help with your marketing efforts. But as with any new technology, make sure that you choose your tools carefully. This includes customer-facing tools like chatbots or tools for writing copy or content. It also includes internal tools to help with data analysis, predictive modeling, customer journey orchestration and automation.
Pick the right one for your use cases and goals—and if you don’t have use cases and goals established, start there. There are many tools out there, so take the time to understand their capabilities and assess how they fit your needs and budget. Look at their product roadmap, too, and how their capabilities will evolve into the future. The space is changing quickly, so try to understand the full transformative value the right solution can offer.
5. Empower your team.
Finally, once you find tools that will work, integrate them into your workflow. Teach your team how to use them and make it clear how those tools can support (and not threaten) their roles.
Right now, AI is a tool that can help them increase their output and optimize their work—not replace them. AI can also alleviate repetitive, manual tasks to free up their time. And because it’s great with execution, they can have more oversight of their role as well.
Seeing The Potential Of AI Today
AI has the potential to bring great value to your marketing efforts. It can deliver personalized experiences to your customers, multiply your output and make your retention efforts more efficient. But since AI is new and the technology is still evolving, be thoughtful about how you’re using it and experiment to find its best use cases for your brand and your customers.
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