5 ways we are using AI in e-commerce and marketing right now
Machine learning has been part of our marketing tool kit for a long-time, but AI has become the 2023 buzzword in e-commerce and marketing industries - from copywriting to image generation. But how can we use the AI apps and software emerging to help us further personalise and learn from customers interactions with our brand? To use a robot to help us improve our human interactions? Rather than put skilled marketers and designers out of a job. Here are just some of the ways in which you could be using AI in your own marketing practices in 2024:
Predictive analysis email marketing
This can help those brand owners who manage their own email marketing strategy to predict the best time to send a campaign based on their platform's learned algorythm, without the need for skilled analysis. AI can also be used strategically to create dynamic segments based on your customer's predicted future actions. We know personalisation is a key strategy for 2024 when it comes to communicating with our audiences, so any insight into how best to target different groups within our database could lead to higher engagement and conversions.
Chatbots for customer services
We have been using chatbots as a customer service tool for clients for years and we are seeing more and more that customers are valuing the efficiency of a '24-hour' help desk over waiting for a human response. Chatbots, when built right (by humans!) can be 'taught' to give highly nuanced responses, tailored to your business for a highly efficient customer experience. They can also read your inventory to direct your customers to relevant products, both enhancing customer satisfaction and conversions. They can also help to take away some of the repetitive questions and give customers' instant answers to FAQs, saving an already overstretched team valuable time.
Image editing
Photoshop and Canva have both released new AI-editing tools that can help us to touch-up product shots, remove busy backgrounds and even extend backgrounds to give more space to add text, or convert a portrait shot into a banner. Clever, quick, everyday tools to enhance your brand imagery that are accessible for all skill levels. Will AI replace the need to travel to exotic locations to shoot a brand campaign with a beautiful backdrop when they can be added in with the click of a button? Time will tell, as CGI has become commonplace in film, will AI become the norm for brand creatives and if so, at what point will the customer need to be made aware that the images they are being sold aren't 'real'?
Machine learning in dynamic performance ads and on-site promotions
On-site product recommendations can now learn which items to recommend based on previous site visitors views, helping you to tailor the products put infront of your customer to enhance your chance of cross-selling. We also use dynamic ad learning to show customers the products in our ad creatives that they are most likely to buy, with double-digit return on investment results for our clients, it is a perfect example of a tailored, learned customer experience driven by AI that is already demonstrating the power of AI. Meta has also introduced multiple AI-generated text options for ad copy to A/B test.
AI-content creation for SEO
AI-generated SEO copy is already being offered by a number of website platforms including Wix, however intital keyword volume and competitive research must be carried out by an SEO expert to ensure you are targeting the right words to begin with but once you have your keyword target list, getting inspiration for meta title and description data can save a novice SEO-er valuable time.
Will AI be replacing the marketer any time soon?
You'll be pleased to know we are still sleeping soundly in our beds! From a brand tone and content perspective, honing copy that speaks to your audience and delivers nuanced, emotive messaging cannot be crafted by AI, nor can it replace the creative skills and experience that talented marketers and designers can bring to a brand's visual and written identity.
That said, there are plenty of shortcuts and analytical tools that we can all be using to help us work smarter in 2024.