Using AI in Marketing: The Financial Implications

Marketing

The integration of Generative AI or GenAI is noticeable in every industry as it can help to save a lot of time and money for. Let’s find out its financial implications. 

Image Credit: Toptal

The influence of artificial intelligence or AI is widely visible in every other industry and it is helping every business to run their operations within a minimum budget and time. Starting from SEO, and client outreach to marketing strategies; AI is overwhelming every sector. It is the digital age where thousands of startup companies are developing around the world and everyone is struggling to stand out in the competition.

Since startup funding is mainly tight, spending for marketing seems like a luxury to many, however it is not. Fortunately, it is now possible to handle complex marketing strategies even with a small marketing team with the help and advancement of AI. According to a recent survey by Bain & Company, more than 600 companies in 11 industries are already using or willing to use generative AI to run their operations which significantly boost sales and productivity even with a compact workforce. Global industry leaders are using AI-powered marketing tools already and within the next two years, there will be a rapid adoption of these tools in the market.

One of the main reasons behind this quick adoption is the convergence of creative and data-driven tasks which is extremely well handled by the generative AIs. It can perform the tasks of digital marketing specialists such as expanding reach, growing sales, encouraging customers, and so on. It helps startups perform marketing activities with more ease and convenience while significantly reducing the time and cost of the tasks. One of the major challenges of integrating AI tools into marketing solutions is finding the right solution for a specific company. Today’s AI offerings are wildly varied and keeping up with the modern updates is not always an easy task as even tech-savvy companies can struggle.

Consider the growth of ChatGPT and its wide influence in the market. This open AI has been available in the market for less than a year and it has already gained more than 1.7 billion users around the world and this is just one Generative AI. The market is filled with such newly launched AIs which are empowering different businesses and industries based on their unique needs and purpose. One thing must be clear for the users AI changes the goals that are required to be achieved but can change the process of achieving it. AI-powered tools lack emotions, cultural sensitivities, empathy, and intuition and therefore, it should be handled with care to reflect a brand’s core message.

How Generative AI can help companies meet five crucial marketing objectives?

  1. Understanding Customer Preferences

A good marketing strategy is built on the interests of the customers. It requires understanding their behaviors and preferences to make the marketing campaign successful. Such effort in marketing can make the customers feel more special and valued and it improves their connection with the brand. As a result, the business can witness more interaction and engagement which gradually leads to more sales. The execution of such strategies needs data analysis, content creation, and implementation of it effectively. While it can take a lot of time and effort to analyze such huge volumes of data, an AI can perform the tasks easily and quickly, without any error.

  1. Improving Customer Targeting

In order to retain customers, you need to focus on their behaviors and find a medium to attract and retain customers on the website. Without having a robust marketing function, a startup company might have to purchase third-party data and insights and then hire a company to implement marketing opportunities based on the data. This can cost a lot of time and money which is greatly reduced while using a generative AI. The cost of such services can range from very low to very high but AI can do it within your budget for the task. For better customer targeting and reach; here are some AIs that you can use,

  • Adobe Experience Platform
  • Salesforce Einstein
  • Google Analytics 4
  1. Customer Support Automation

Email Bots and AI-driven Chatbots have been already introduced in the market and now it has become an integral part of businesses. It helped to improve customer support with more personalization, scalability, and resource optimization. These tools are always available whenever a customer needs help. Therefore, customer services have greatly improved and it is 24*7 active for most companies’ rights now. With the help of AI, the need for support staff can be reduced by up to 30% without hampering customer service. It is the best and most affordable idea for small to medium scale companies.

  1. Engaging with Social Media

Establishing a strong social media presence and maintaining it is one of the most crucial tasks these days which requires constant monitoring and creative ideas to engage with the online users who are active on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and many others. AI can offer a strong assist here by creating a cohesive visual aesthetic for your business. It helps to improve your business’s online presence, popularity, and brand awareness which easily captivates people.

  1. Effective Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing is perhaps old school to many but it is still one of the most effective marketing strategies that works the best in the marketing. However, it can be greatly time-consuming as a successful email marketing strategy requires coordination between content writers, designers, marketing managers, and people from IT. Instead of involving everyone, a company can simply proceed with an AI-driven tool that helps to improve email marketing campaigns with better quality emails and approaches.

Concluding Thoughts 

No matter how powerful and creative Artificial Intelligence is, it still requires commands or prompts from Humans to generate content. Without humans guiding an AI, desired results cannot be achieved. Therefore, it is not just AI but AI-operators that are also required for the growth of a business that is integrating generative AI in their business operation. A combination of Human effort and AI’s magic helps a business stand out with success.