Jay Kulkarni, CEO and Founder of Theorem, explores the benefits to marketers of implementing AI-powered automation technology as they continue to compete in this increasingly digital world.
As the digital revolution continues to skyrocket alongside the increased cost of living and uncertain economic climate, there has been a seismic shift in buyer behaviour that has left many businesses at a loss to balance the growing need to attract more customers with an ever-decreasing budget with which to do so.
The events of the last few years have fuelled an explosion in digital communication, with social media users increasing by 4.2% in 2022 and digital commerce sales expected to account for 25% of all retail sales in 2023, it seems there is an ever-increasing number of ways to reach your customers.
And yet, with the average person exposed to 4,000-10,000 ads per day, businesses are struggling to cut through the noise and make their voice heard.
As part of this global digital transformation, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has seen a similar if not even bigger surge in popularity as businesses strive to automate their business processes, resulting in lower labour costs, increased output, and higher profit margins.
When it comes to promoting your business specifically, AI-driven analytics have made it possible for organisations to make more informed and effective marketing decisions based on high-level data insights.
In this piece, we look at the benefits to marketers of implementing AI-powered automation technology as they strive to remain competitive in this increasingly digital world.
Improving efficiency and marketing segmentation strategies
With 87% of consumers now beginning their product searches online, it is essential that businesses take an agile approach to swiftly changing buyer behaviour and respond at scale if they are to capitalise on this trend. This is where adopting automation tools is crucial, as they can help manage high volumes of data and continuous, real-time analysis at scale, across all devices and platforms.
These tools can also help businesses scale their first-party data collection and analysis to drive deeper personalisation strategies, meeting marketing and customer experience demands in real-time.
Automation improves efficiency by running pre-programmed campaigns across multiple channels. With more digital channels being used today like social media, email, display advertising, retail media networks, and more, automation can help marketers keep campaigns on track through robust, high-quality multichannel monitoring.
Automation offers marketers the upper hand and the ability to strategically improve efforts on a consistent basis.
Similarly, it improves marketing segmentation strategies that group users based on demographics, location, and device type. Modern segmentation strategies can also gauge a user’s proximity to physical stores, granting marketers an advantage to understand their customer’s wants and needs and provide solutions when and where they need them.
Providing real-time analytics
With the ever-increasing number of channels, platforms, and devices available to consumers, it is unsurprising that advertising campaign performance data is largely fragmented, unreliable, and difficult to decipher.
With global data creation expected to surpass 180 zettabytes by 2025, it’s become increasingly necessary for organisations to effectively process this abundance of data.
Establishing real-time data and analytics strategies to boost campaign performance, increase operational efficiency, and enhance customer understanding are now business critical for companies needing to attract and retain customers for business resilience.
Automation plays a fundamental role in managing the flow of real-time data, which significantly decreases the time and effort it takes to collect, analyse, respond, and action it.
Automated data collection and analysis creates the opportunity to make informed decisions and optimisations based on accurate consumer actions. For example, businesses targeting mobile commerce are able to identify trends and adjust dynamic aspects of their campaigns in real-time.
The automation of data collection and implementation strategies also enables businesses to be proactive in their customer retention efforts and improve customer experience by reacting to the freshest, most up-to-date insights and leveraging real-time data to proactively plan for future trends in buyer behaviour.
Personalisation: The biggest benefit of automation technology
Personalisation at scale is perhaps the biggest benefit derived from automation technology. Consumers today don’t just want a seamless, ‘always on’ communications experience with their brands of choice, but they also want that engagement to be on the channels they prefer and at the time most convenient to them.
Marketers not only need to be one step ahead, but they also have to increasingly have a 360-degree data-driven view and in-depth understanding of their customers.
For example, implementing dynamic creative optimisation (DCO) is one way in which marketers can automate the creation of personalised messaging and creatives for their audience. Utilising DCO can not only increase the scale of personalisation strategies but can also improve the overall customer journey by providing highly relevant content.
Not only does automating personalisation lessen the manual lift on marketers it also creates a positive brand experience and increases customer loyalty and trust by demonstrating a consciousness of their preferences and the intention to ensure that consumers feel valued.
Delivering quality customer experience
From AI-powered chatbots that actually sound and behave like real people, to dynamic marketing strategies, highly personalised content and product recommendations, automation technology is essential for delivering quality customer experience.
The technology allows 360-degree support for customer acquisition at every step of the journey and can be a powerful tool for reducing churn by identifying customer pain points so they can be addressed pre-emptively. They can also determine which types of offers or rewards are most appealing to specific customers.
Businesses that embrace automation technology will be better equipped to meet ever-evolving customer demands and the ability to deliver a seamless, superior customer experience will sustain customer relationships and drive loyalty at a time when businesses will need it most.
