How to use AI in marketing is certainly a question with an ever-evolving answer. We already published the dozens of AI tools that have been recommended to us and that we use here and there. AI has an impact on SEO strategy – no doubt. But what else? Let’s take a look.
Realistically, it all starts with understanding AI’s role in marketing, then moves into key applications and then finally we want to balance AI and human creativity.
Understanding AI’s role in marketing
Top B2B marketer Sheri Otto emphasized on “Marketing, Demystified” that AI in marketing goes beyond content creation. Its true power lies in data synthesis and analysis. She suggests thinking of AI as a junior data analyst assistant, capable of processing vast amounts of information to uncover insights that would take humans significantly longer to identify.
“What AI is most powerful for is being able to synthesize and assess data for the marketer,” she said. “The marketer can now understand groups of segments that are most correlated to action, most correlated to the sale.”
Key applications of AI in marketing
1. Data analysis and insights
AI excels at synthesizing and assessing marketing data, identifying correlations and patterns in customer behavior. For example, AI can analyze web page visits to inform content strategy, revealing which topics or formats resonate most with your audience.
“These types of people are looking at this particular web page. So as a marketer, I’ll be like, ‘Well, what is it about this web page that these groups of folks, maybe it’s just directors from these types of companies, from this country, they’re all going to this particular web page’… What is it about this particular web page that is appealing to them?”
2. Predictive analytics
Sheri highlights AI’s ability to forecast customer actions by analyzing historical data. This enables marketers to reverse-engineer successful customer journeys, identifying key touchpoints that lead to conversions. These insights can then be applied to future marketing campaigns.
“We were able to use our own data internally to understand, like from the last 10 customers, what do they all have in common when it comes to the journey, whether it’s touch points or do they all look at a certain ad? So we’re understanding what creates a customer to reverse engineer the marketing campaign to then do that again for the next ideal customer.”
3. Content optimization
AI can analyze top-performing content, helping marketers understand what resonates with their audience. By identifying common themes or topics that drive engagement, AI can generate ideas for future content that’s more likely to succeed.
Sheri provides an example of how this might work with podcast content:
“You can download all of the episodes in the last year to date, let’s just say, and then you see the engagement. So maybe you have the names of the titles of the podcast topics, and then you have how long folks have viewed it, or whatever the metric is for popularity… You feed that into ChatGPT or an AI model, and you say, ‘Okay, out of all of these podcast episodes, can you pull out the most popular topics for me, so I can see it clearly?'”
4. Campaign optimization
Sheri mentions that AI can significantly enhance the effectiveness of marketing campaigns by identifying the most impactful channels and optimizing strategies based on data-driven insights. This allows marketers to make more informed decisions about where to allocate resources and how to structure their campaigns.
Implementing AI in your marketing strategy
Sheri suggests starting small with open-source tools like ChatGPT to get familiar with AI’s capabilities. As you become more comfortable, consider building internal AI models that can work with your company-specific data for more tailored insights.
She emphasizes the importance of clean, high-quality data for successful AI implementation. The quality of your data will directly impact the effectiveness of your AI initiatives.
Sheri also notes the growing importance of having dedicated AI expertise within marketing teams.
“If you work for a company that has these resources… building out functionality teams, even bringing on someone who’s like an AI Director, or I’m starting to see roles like this pop up more, because this is an internal function I think is going to grow.”
Balancing AI and human creativity
While AI is a powerful tool, Sheri stresses that it’s meant to inform strategy, not replace human creativity. She advises using AI-generated insights as a foundation for marketing efforts, but applying human creativity and intuition to develop truly innovative campaigns.
“Data should really inform your strategy, not limit it, and then creatively is where we pick off,” she said. “So I feel like it’s a relay… Data drives the decision, data informs your steps. Data is the inputs for the strategy. Once you have that, then you go into like, well, how to creatively execute that?”
The future of AI in marketing
Sheri emphasizes that leveraging AI effectively in marketing requires collaboration across different departments.
“Marketers now have to collaborate more with customer success, with product and with sales, so that we can pass along insights and tackle them from a very sort of comprehensive, cross-functional pathway,” Sheri said.
Sheri believes that AI will play an increasingly important role in marketing. She mentions emerging roles like AI Director, indicating that companies are recognizing the need for dedicated AI expertise in their marketing teams.
She also highlights the potential of AI to help marketers build relationships at scale.
“Like, that’s the big goal… how do I build relationships with as many people in my target audience, and do that at scale in a way that feels really good and authentic?”
Sheri’s insights highlight the transformative potential of AI in marketing. By embracing AI technologies, marketers can gain deeper customer insights, create more targeted strategies, and optimize their campaigns for better results.
The key takeaway is to start now and learn as you go. Begin with small-scale implementations, measure your results, and gradually expand your use of AI as you become more comfortable with its capabilities. Remember, the goal is not to replace human marketers but to empower them with tools that enhance their ability to connect with customers and drive business results.
“This is the future, this is the present. And building out functionality teams, even bringing on someone who’s an AI Director,” she said. “I think is very needed. The people who could do this are going to get ahead of the curve when it comes to getting more market share.”
What questions do you have about AI in marketing?