The digital marketing profession is undergoing a tremendous shift. Machine learning is altering the dynamic between advertisers and customers in countless ways. A study by Gartner found that 30% of companies will use AI in their sales by the end of next year.
A stunning 97% of marketing managers believe that machine learning is the future of their profession. Social media marketing, PPC advertising, native ads, and media buying are just some of the disciplines that are evolving with machine learning.
A number of industry influencers have discussed the ways machine learning is changing the profession. Here are some factors keep in mind.
Segmenting customer groups more effectively
When I first entered the digital marketing profession, I believed that the success of my campaigns began and ended with my ads. I was confident that my ROI would be stellar, as long as I used great graphics and copy. This is a common mistake that new marketers make.
Over time, all marketers will discover the importance of customer targeting. All customers respond differently to any set of online ads. Targeting arguably has a larger impact on the ROI of a marketing campaign than the ads and landing pages.
One of the biggest challenges that any marketer faces is trying to fine-tune their targeting. This is complicated because the customer segments that you initially thought would convert well might not be the most profitable. As this Amazon PPC case study showed, the difference in performance between various keywords can be incredible.
Mariya Yao, the CTO of the firm Metamaven, wrote an article on Forbes describing the benefits of machine learning for customer segmentation.
Machine learning is helping solve this challenge. New machine learning algorithms are able to identify the customer groups that convert the best. This data can be used to identify the best keywords for an SEM campaign, as well as the customer demographics that correlate with the highest conversion rate.
Smart automation and talented marketers will both be vital
In a series of interviews by QuanticMind, several experts all said the same thing: the future of marketing lies in the intersection between smart people and smart automation. Joe Martin of Adobe, Serena Ehrlich of BusinessWire and Travis Wright of Digital Sense all echoed the same view.
Many people fear that automation is going to make almost every career obsolete. These experts argue this is far from the case.
Machine learning is offering new insights and solutions. However, it is not a substitute for the creative problem-solving skills that human decision-makers bring to the table. Machine learning is giving them more leverage to handle complex problems. AI is also helping them automate more mundane tasks, which helps them conserve their cognitive resources to focus on more important challenges.
User-generated content is improving the ROI of machine learning
The CEO of Upwork stated that machine learning and user-generated content are a match made in heaven. His company has started using AI to analyze lots of user-generated content. This helps them optimize their email marketing and SEM campaigns.
Improving user personalization
Personalization used to be a handy feature to stand out from the competition. Today, it has become essential in many industries. Customers expect personalized content when interacting with their favorite brands online.
Machine learning is essential for creating personalized content. Here are some ways brands are starting to use machine learning for personalization:
- They are using tools like to monitor customer feedback on various platforms under the company’s own control. This content helps them determine the mood and personal perspective of the customers. Machine learning algorithms can create content to change the perspective of customers with negative sentiments about the brand. They can also use more aggressive marketing copy for customers that have highly favorable perspectives.
- Machine learning technology can look at various customer segments to see how they respond to different content. They can create custom content for users depending on their location, age, and income thresholds.
- Content can be personalized based on events users have previously taken.
Personalization is one of the most powerful ways to get more value from content marketing. Machine learning is the foundation of it.
Machine learning is the future of digital marketing
The digital marketing profession is constantly evolving into new technology. Machine learning is one of the biggest breakthroughs in the industry. Savvy marketers will invest more heavily in machine learning in the years to come.
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