Growth & Marketing

How to apply AI in marketing 2024

Jan 19, 2024

Written by Marco Tortike

It is crucial to design a strategy around how to apply artificial intelligence to your marketing strategy. From personalised content creation to automated AI marketing programmes, when used correctly, AI can boost your business to exponential growth!

In this article, we'll dive into the powers behind artificial intelligence and how to apply this to your marketing in 2024!

What is AI marketing?
Why AI marketing?
Prepare your business for the future of AI
Examples of marketing teams using AI
AI tools for marketing teams
AI marketing trends for 2024

What is AI marketing?

In the digital realm, where time is the ultimate currency, Artificial Intelligence (AI) marketing is your ace in the hole. Say goodbye to sifting through heaps of data and hello to instant insights. AI tools leverage programmed algorithms to decode consumer behaviour in real-time – from online interactions to social media engagements.

No more guesswork, no more delays.

AI marketing doesn't just sit idly with the data. It springs into action, reaching out to customers exhibiting specific behaviours. A hyper-personalised customer support manager for each customer, catering to their needs with customer-centric messages, boosting customer satisfaction.

AI marketing is when marketing teams make use of artificial intelligence to improve productivity, analyse data, and provide an improved customer experience.

In 2017, we recorded this video on the future of work and today, most of those fantasies have become reality if they weren't already.

According to Statista, the Generative AI market is projected to reach a total size of US$66.2bn in 2024. Moreover, the market is expected to show an annual growth of ≈ 21%, resulting in a total market size of US$207bn by 2030.

When we look at AI in marketing, Avaus breaks it down into 3 subcategories

1. Experience optimisation and personalisation

In the vast landscape of marketing strategies, we're talking about the heavy hitters: general marketing, customer engagement, personalisation, digital advertising, sales, and the wizardry of customer care management and automation.

These power-packed marketing tools don't just emerge out of thin air – they seamlessly integrate into your existing data platforms, customer databases, DMPs, or even the trusty Google Analytics.

It's like giving your current setup a turbo boost, enhancing it with the latest tools to conquer the ever-evolving realms of customer journeys and business success.

2. Process efficiency and automation

Here we talk about marketing tools designed for sales, content development, seamless management, and support with data-driven decision-making.

These aren't just add-ons; they're the secret sauce to elevate your strategy, ensuring that every move is not just strategic but practically flawless.

3. Data Management

These are AI tools that capture valuable data and handle them with finesse. Think of voice recognition, social listening, Data management, ML, frameworks tools libraries, transparency and compliance.

Throughout these categories, personalisation seems to be the #1 goal of AI in marketing.

Whether it is used in advertising, content generation, social media posts, blog posts, boost conversion rates on your website, marketing efforts seem to be much more personalised with AI.

We've already touched upon it shortly, but let's further dive into the why behind AI in marketing.

AI-for-marketing

Why use AI in marketing?

AI in marketing is not just a buzzword; it's a strategic imperative that has reshaped the digital marketing landscape.

But why should we care about this new technology?

Well, let's take a first look at the immense efficiency boost and increased return on investment (ROI).

AI marketing tools, armed with machine learning capabilities, tackle repetitive marketing tasks with unparalleled efficiency.

Whether it's generating content for blogs, email marketing, or social media marketing, these tools analyse vast datasets to understand patterns and preferences.

By automating such tasks, businesses can operate more efficiently, reducing manual effort and increasing the return on investment (ROI).

The bottom line?

AI makes your marketing processes smoother and more cost-effective.

the-future-of-ai-marketing

Personalisation for enhanced customer experience

One of the key strengths of using AI in marketing is its ability to create a personalised customer interaction for each individual.

By analysing customer data, AI marketing tools can tailor content to match individual preferences.

This boosts the conversion rate by delivering relevant content and significantly enhances overall customer satisfaction.

According to Everstring, 71% of marketers are interested in AI for their marketing mainly because of personalisation.

It's like having a virtual assistant who understands your customers on a personal level and serves them exactly what they're looking for.

(image source: ExpressAnalytics)

Reduced Human Error, Streamlined Campaigns
AI acts as a safeguard against human error, particularly in areas like predictive analytics, and digital marketing.

While the human touch is irreplaceable for aspects like compassion, empathy, and storytelling, AI excels in handling data-intensive tasks and making precise predictions.

This reduces the risk of errors in marketing campaigns, ensuring that your strategies are data-driven, targeted, and effective.

pexels-tara-winstead-8849295

Strategic Decision-Making with Predictive Analytics
The power of AI in marketing becomes evident when it comes to understanding customer needs and predicting their behaviour. Through predictive analytics, AI analyzes historical data to forecast future trends, enabling businesses to align their strategies with customer expectations.

This forward-looking approach empowers marketers to make informed decisions, staying ahead of the curve and adapting to evolving market demands.

pexels-pavel-danilyuk-8438918-1

Competitive Edge and Business Outcomes
The adoption of AI in marketing is not just a trend; it's a business imperative.

A McKinsey survey highlighted the widespread adoption of AI in marketing and sales, with some organizations attributing a significant portion of their earnings to AI-driven strategies.

As the use of AI in marketing continues to grow, not incorporating these technologies into your strategy could mean falling behind the competition.

(image source: ClearPointStrategy)

Prepare your business for the future of AI

With new disruptive technologies arising almost every day, it's important to be antifragile.

Now is the time to prepare your business for the future of AI, don't fool yourself by thinking you can catch up in a few years, you won't!

The transformative power of AI extends beyond being a mere tool; it's a strategic imperative that can redefine how businesses operate, innovate, and stay ahead in an increasingly competitive world.

Curious about how your business can not only adapt but thrive in the era of AI?

To prepare your business for the future of AI, consider these strategies:

👉 In this article we're diving deeper into the practical steps and strategic considerations.

Want to Learn More About AI for Business?

You’re in the right place! AI is a fascinating field and one that is building tremendous traction across the business landscape.

As technology advances, artificial intelligence applications for business are becoming more plausible in everyday practice.

AI is being used to save time and increase productivity outputs over many different roles and sectors.

It’s no longer a far cry into the future, it’s here, available, and ready to be implemented.

So how can you learn more about using AI in business?

As a leading educational course provider, we created the most effective AI for business course you can find!

This course will help you and your team boost productivity with AI solutions and make data-driven decisions for the future.

6 Modules | 24 lessons | 24 videos | 6 tests | 6 exercises

Module 1: AI and Machine Learning Fundamentals
Module 2: AI business strategy
Module 3: GenAI for text: ChatGPT and prompt engineering
Module 4: GenAI for design: text prompts and visual communication
Module 5: AI for productivity
Module 6: AI-powered predictive insights

👉 Check out our course here

3 examples of marketing teams using AI

Alright, to be honest, this is not all just fun and games.

There are some great examples out there of big media companies using AI in their marketing efforts.

Netflix

Netflix is a true frontrunner in adopting artificial intelligence in its marketing messages. They're using the previous viewing history of their subscribers to determine the artwork for recommended movies or TV shows.

Here's a full article on this Artificial Intelligence Technology.

Picture this; you're a big fan of Leonardo DiCaprio, and you've seen a lot of his movies in the past 90 days.

With this intelligence, Netflix can now recommend another movie with Leonardo DiCaprio.

But ...

The original artwork didn't add Leonardo to the cover. Not anymore!

The new AI technology will now recommend this movie, accompanied by an artwork showcasing your true hero; Leonardo DiCaprio.

In another scenario, one might prefer comedies over romances. In this case, Netflix will recommend a movie with artwork containing a more comedic style.

Here's an example of how Netflix would recommend the movie Good Will Hunting in this scenario.

(image source: NetflixTechBlog)

Alibaba

Alibaba stands as the unparalleled leader in global e-commerce, boasting the highest Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) worldwide – a figure that surpasses Amazon's GMV by more than double.

They are committed to elevating revenue streams through the enhancement of the virtual shopping experience and strategic product recommendations.

To ensure an optimised shopping experience for users, Alibaba leverages the formidable capabilities of AI, specifically harnessing the prowess of machine learning and cloud AI functions.

At the core of Alibaba's strategy is the ingenious Recommendation System Framework (RSF), a concept that resonates with simplicity yet yields powerful results.

The primary goal is clear: streamline traffic flow while dynamically updating and presenting relevant products to TMall consumers – products aligned with their desires.

Furthermore, the real-time execution of these operations serves a dual purpose: elevating customer satisfaction, and clickthrough rates, and, in the larger picture, bolstering company revenue.

Alibaba's RSF is not just a technological framework; it's the engine driving a seamless, responsive, and ultimately rewarding shopping journey for its vast user base.

Spotify

Similar to Netflix, Spotify has built an AI system to understand a user's music interests, podcast favourites, purchase history, location, brand interactions, etc.

Based on these insights, they can provide customised playlists and recommendations for each user.

Tailoring content to individual preferences has propelled leading media giants, such as Spotify, to the summit of streaming platforms. However, the realm of personalisation extends far beyond content curation.

Spotify takes personalisation a step further by deploying automated email marketing campaigns adorned with personalised recommendations.

The underlying objective is clear: craft automated marketing messages and assets that resonate uniquely with each user.

The aim is to enhance conversion rates by delivering messages so precisely aligned with a customer's preferences that the impact is not just noteworthy but conversion-inducing.

5 AI tools for marketing teams

We're not mentioning ChatGPT, you should know that one by now ;)

1. Jasper (Copywriting)

Looking for a tool to simplify the content creation process?

Jasper is here to assist you every step of the way! ✨

Jasper is known for generating high-quality content written according to your brand guidelines. The tool is relatively affordable and easy to use, making it an excellent option for businesses of all sizes.

Why are we such big fans of Jasper?

Jasper is a one-stop-shop for creating an end-to-end marketing campaign with ad copy, images, press releases, landing page copy, blog posts, google text, etc. All in your brand voice.

Jasper AI homepage

👉 Click here to go to their website.

2. Grammarly (error-free content)

Honestly, everyone should be using Grammarly.

It is by far the best tool to create error-free content. Whether you're a native English speaker or not, everyone makes mistakes in their writing.

Grammarly is here to help you get rid of all your grammar mistakes!

👉 Click here to go to their website.

3. Fireflies (note-taking)

Meet Fred, the friendly AI meeting assistant from Fireflies.

With Fred on board, your conversations become effortlessly organised.

Simply invite Fred (fred@fireflies.ai) to your Google Meet, and let the automatic note-taking magic begin.

Fireflies homepage

👉 Here's the website of Fireflies

4. Midjouney (image creation)

We were truly amazed by the quality of Midjourney once we started using it.

Whether you want to play around with it to gather some inspiration or are actively searching for images to use for your marketing purposes, you'll probably find yourself generating hundreds of images within less than an hour.

To show you the power of Midjourney, we submitted the prompt

"Spaceship landing in New York City, make it cinematic".

Here's the result:

Midjourney output

📎 Here's a beginner's guide to get started with Midjourney.

5. OptiMonk (CRO)

Automate your A/B testing with Optimink!

This AI tool is designed to maximise ROI and boost your CRO.

Every marketer out there looking for new, data-driven ways to improve their marketing efforts, take a look at this awesome tool!

Key features

👉 Click here to go to their website.

Curious about more AI tools to boost your productivity?

Check out this article on the 12 best generative AI tools to boost productivity.

We believe that 2024 is going to be a very exciting year when it comes to Artificial Intelligence!

Let's take a look at some trends we predict for the upcoming year. 👇

AI marketing trends for 2024

Artificial intelligence and related technologies are still developing, and there is a lot of room for growth.

More companies are investing and upgrading their IT resources and capabilities—and AI is part of the grand scheme of things.

It is predicted that AI will take a huge chunk in marketing data analysis and data science tasks.

Marketing teams will continue to leverage AI solutions in driving their profitability targets.

More relevant marketing metrics will be available to help marketers put value on their campaigns more accurately. These insights will continue to spur business growth owing to more responsive solutions and more strategic marketing initiatives.

Among the trends that are seen to emerge in 2024 are:

1. Custom GPTs

We probably all remember that 30th of November, 2022.

Right?

Well, if you've come this far in this article, I bet you probably know that ChatGPT was released on that day and took the world by storm! 🌪️

Well, just under a year later, on 6 November 2023, CustomGPTs were released. A simple and yet powerful tool to create your own version of ChatGPT, named GPTs.

Today, there are 22.500+ custom GPTs available, that's a staggering 300+ new custom GPTs released every day! 🫨

2. Voice-based shopping experience

Voice-commerce has been making some proper impact in the eCommerce sector!

In only 2 years, voice-commerce growth has increased by ≈ 322% (2021 - 2023).

Over 45 million US consumers used voice technology during their online shopping experience in 2021, a 120% increase from 2018.

We expect that the adoption of voice-based shopping will only further increase in 2024.

It may even become the expected norm!

(Image: online dasher)

3. Multimodal AI

Moving from single-modal artificial Intelligence, multimodal AI will combine conversational AI models with visual modalities.

You've probably seen the big release of Google Gemini, a perfect example of Multimodal AI.

2024 is set to see many more of these examples, boosting the AI game to a whole new level!

(Image: Google)

4. Search Engine Optimisation

Or should we say Search Generative Experience?

To date, Google is still the most dominant search engine. To keep up with the latest developments in AI, Google is working on integrating AI into its result pages.

Shortly, AI will answer your search queries, on Google.

If you haven't seen it already, request access here.

(Image source: searchengineland)

5. Responsibility around AI systems

As AI adoption becomes widespread, the call for its responsible deployment is set to grow.

Anticipated to be a defining trend in 2024, responsible AI addresses concerns related to privacy and data control, arising from issues such as facial recognition and access to confidential information.

The current challenge for marketers lies in finding a way to utilise data for service personalisation and upholding ethical standards in its usage.

The commitment to responsible AI involves a pledge by businesses to leverage sensitive data judiciously – employing it only when necessary and to the clear benefit of their customers.

Wrapping up

As we look to the future of AI in marketing for 2024, one thing is abundantly clear –

the transformative power of artificial intelligence is not just a technological advancement; it's a strategic imperative that can redefine how businesses operate, innovate, and stay ahead in an increasingly competitive world.

AI is more than just a buzzword – it's a key player reshaping the digital marketing landscape.

As we step into the future, businesses need to prepare for the era of AI, acknowledging that its adoption is not a fleeting trend but a business imperative.

As we look ahead to 2024, exciting trends are on the horizon! Yet, with these advancements comes a call for responsibility.

The ethical deployment of AI is paramount, emphasising the need for businesses to navigate the evolving landscape while upholding privacy, data control, and ethical standards.

So, to all the forward-thinking businesses out there, embrace the future with curiosity and strategic vision.