Artificial Intelligence has been all over the news lately. With the launch of ChatGPT and Google’s massive failure in the launch of Bard, AI is a booming topic of conversation. It’s led to conversations about the ethics behind the use of artificial intelligence in education, religious institutions, and businesses. It’s also led to many people asking the question, “how can I use AI in marketing my business”
Of course, we at Dogwood have been pondering this same question because we are always looking for new and innovative ways to serve our customers. The artificial intelligence market is expected to grow exponentially over the next 7 years, so we should begin thinking about how it will impact our businesses and how to integrate it. However, before we jump into some of the simple ways to begin integrating AI into your marketing strategy, let’s first talk about what AI is in the first place.
What is AI
Encyclopedia Britannica defines AI as the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. When we think of AI we tend to jump to extremes and image worlds like that of Pixar’s Wall-E or perhaps the more sinister movie M3GAN, about an AI companion gone wrong. However, you likely already interact with artificial intelligence on a regular basis without even realizing it.
Raise your hand if you’ve Googled something today. Then you’ve used AI. If you have ever asked Alexa to turn your lights on or asked Siri to pull up directions to your friend’s house; you’ve used AI. Other commonplace examples of artificial intelligence include facial recognition and autocorrect on your phone or computer. As a matter of fact, I’m using AI as I write this article by taking advantage of Grammarly, a tool that helps check your grammar and makes suggestions for more concise sentence structure.
AI is not a big scary upcoming technology. It’s already here and it helps you in your daily life in a million different ways. So, why not take advantage of it and make it work for your business? We’ve compiled a short list of four simple ways to use AI in marketing your business.
4 Ways to Use AI in Marketing Now
Take Advantage of Chatbots
Chatbots are a very simple way of utilizing AI in a way that helps your business. Marketing doesn’t just consist of ads and social media. It also includes your reputation management and one of the best ways to maintain a positive reputation is to give potential customers quick answers to their questions.
In the past, the only way to have 24/7 customer service was to have a team with multiple shifts to cover all hours of the day. With AI, that’s no longer the case! Chatbots function around the clock and can answer common questions, collect contact information for ease of follow-up, and in some cases even collect date about the likelihood of a person making a purchase.
Chatbots can be very simple and be built out simply from a script of your FAQs. However, there are more complex options that use machine learning (ML) to learn different ways people might ask questions and anticipate follow-up questions. These types of Chatbots are more conversational and typically more enjoyable to use. Some examples of chatbot integrations include LivePerson, Genesys DX, and Facebook Messenger Chatbot.
Use AI to Write Alternative Captions for Social Media
When you’re promoting an event, sale, or other ongoing campaigns, sometimes the captions begin to feel stale. There are only so many ways to say the same thing. AI programs like ChatGPT and Jasper can be beneficial in times like this.
Both systems have a wide variety of uses, but the most popular at the moment is content generation. You can easily give details about an event or campaign, specify a platform, and ask for a certain number of captions and these AI systems will write them for you. Of course, whenever we’re talking about AI writing things for us, there still needs to be a human involved. After all, it is just a computer. Make sure you check captions thoroughly before posting.
This specific use of AI is so useful that many of the popular social media management platforms such as Sprout and Cloud Campaign are in the process of building and rolling out integrations with these systems already. For example, while in the post composer, you’ll be able to select a button and have auto-generated captions to choose from to give you a push in the right direction when creating content.
Generate Relevant Blog Topics for Any Niche
On a similar note, AI can also generate content ideas for you. If you’re ever feeling a little stuck and not sure of what to post or write about, you can ask for suggestions. For example, I recently went to ChatGPT and asked it for writing prompts for blogs on digital marketing. It returned with a list of 10 topics including the role of influencer marketing in today’s digital landscape and the impact of mobile optimization on your website’s search engine ranking.
This hack is incredibly helpful for when you’re in need of some new content but are feeling uninspired or if you just need some assistance thinking outside of the box. When you’ve written as many blogs on marketing and websites as we have it’s nice to have a tool to help expand your topics or take a topic from a new angle.
For long-form writing in particular there is a lot of talk about how to ethically use these tools. How much AI-generated content is too much? How much of a blog needs to be your words to be considered your own? Should we give credit to AI programs when the content comes solely from them? These are all great questions that need to be considered. Personally, I fall more in line with the idea that AI is meant to be a springboard. AI shouldn’t write entire articles for you, but can definitely help you get your ideas off the ground.
Market Research and Competitor Analysis
Lastly, artificial intelligence can be an excellent tool to help you do market research and compile competitor analysis. Tools like Levity exist to help you automate business tasks. Some of those tasks include being able to quickly look for trends based on customer responses and feedback so that you can make more informed decisions.
Another use case for Levity is competitor analysis. This AI tool allows you to look at competitors and what they’re doing so that you can see areas that you might be missing out on. It also helps you to be aware of trends your competitors are seeing and taking advantage of so that you can jump on the trend and get your cut of the pie.
AI makes it easier than ever to stay up to date with what’s happening in your industry and among your customers.
Where to Begin Implementing AI
Perhaps these suggestions all sound great to you, but you’re still unsure of where to start. Here is a quick guide for how to determine where to start on your AI journey.
Step 1: Get Familiar with AI
Do some research on the kinds of programs and systems that are out there for you to take advantage of. Very rarely will a business have the means to fund its own AI but there are tons are people out there already doing it. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Use what is already out there. While you’re doing this research, begin thinking about what kind of budget you’re willing to spend. This will greatly impact what types of tools you’re able to use.
Step 2: Identify a Pain Point
Next, identify a pain point that you would like AI solutions to help you with. There’s no point in aimlessly testing out artificial intelligence products with no purpose or goal in mind. Meet with your team and determine what parts of your business or marketing strategy could benefit from AI. Once you know what problem you’re trying to solve then you can begin finding the right solution.
Step 3: Determine Your Solution
Once you’ve figured out the problem you can begin finding a solution. Determine what tool makes the most sense for your business and the issue you’re trying to resolve. Consider budget as well as accessibility. No point in having a tool that no one knows how to use.
Step 4: Lather, Rinse, Repeat
Now is the fun part. Start experimenting! If you test a solution and it doesn’t actually benefit you or your business then go back to the drawing board and try again. Make adjustments as needed. If you find a solution that you love, then you can go back and identify a secondary pain point and start sourcing tools to help with the next thing.
If I were to ask ChatGPT to write a concluding paragraph for a blog on the importance of implementing AI into their business it would look a little something like this:
In conclusion, implementing AI into a business has become essential for organizations that want to remain competitive in today’s market. The benefits of AI are numerous, including increased efficiency, improved accuracy, and better decision-making capabilities. AI can also help businesses identify patterns and trends that would be difficult or impossible for humans to detect, leading to new insights and opportunities. While there are challenges associated with implementing AI, the potential rewards are significant. As AI technology continues to advance, it is clear that organizations that embrace it will be better positioned to succeed in the future.**
**Written by ChatGPT
