AI and the Future of Digital Marketing
Wondering about the future of digital marketing and how this fits into the rise of AI? From personalisation right through to enhanced productivity, explore the benefits and drawbacks of artificial intelligence.
Table of Contents
Over the past few years, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has taken many industries by storm, and one of those is digital marketing, which is set to become even bigger in the next few years. In fact, 50% of marketers in a recent WebFX survey are already using AI for their marketing strategies. But is this a good thing? Or is digital marketing going to turn into a pool of AI-generated content? Let’s find out…
The Benefits of Using AI in Digital Marketing
Let’s start with some of the benefits of using AI for digital marketing strategies. Using AI tools such as Chat GPT can help marketers spend time on tasks that matter, such as strategy and overall account management. 61% of employees already claim that AI helps improve their productivity showing its impact in this area. By using AI to generate campaign ideas, marketers can spend less time thinking about concepts, and more time strategising these.
AI tools can also help with tasks such as SEO and keyword research. Asking chatbots such as questions that customers may have about a certain topic can help to create content around your audience’s needs, therefore increasing overall engagement. Further to this, AI can also help to reword content, and make your points more concise (maybe something we should’ve done in this article!)
AI and its influence on personalisation
Personalisation has been on the rise in the marketing space of the past few years, and AI can also support this with 88% of marketers working with AI saying that the technology has helped them personalise the customer journey across different channels. A recent study of Jopwell found that the automation-powered company’s open rate was nearly 30% versus the recruiting and staffing sector average of just over 21%.
Still unsure about AI’s influence on personalisation? 85% of marketers using artificial intelligence believe it will drive double-digit revenue growth within two years so it will be interesting to see how far this grows.
However, 45% of marketers use generative AI for content creation so the question is whether this will create a pool of duplicate content. And it looks like Google are already doing their bit to combat this trend (because no one wants to read the same AI-generated article over and over!)
Google's Stance on AI
Google recently updated their guidance on using AI-generated content in its September 2023 Helpful Content rollout, which softened its initial take on its preference for human-created content. However, this softening doesn’t mean you should use AI for all content. By using the same tone of voice as everyone else in your sector, you may see a drop in engagement which can have an impact on Google’s ranking signals – specifically looking at their E-E-A-T concept.
Google has also stated that they have existing systems to determine the helpfulness of content. Other systems work to elevate original news reporting and their systems continue to be improved. So, if you’re using AI-generated content, make sure your content is still engaging and unique.
The Replication of Humans
And finally, one big drawback of AI is that it’s hard to replicate humans. No matter how advanced AI gets, it will still lack the depth, feelings and knowledge of a real human that may have more of a strategic approach. While AI can help mould this approach, it shouldn’t be used to replicate humans. We have also found that it lacks information when using marketing services such as user experience, so it’s best to get a human to look at something as unique as UX.
AI in Digital Marketing FAQs
AI can be used to support and enhance marketing efforts rather than replace human marketers completely. By using AI to support tactics such as personalisation and campaign ideas, marketers can utilise their time for other strategic methods of marketing that AI lacks depth in.
AI can improve customer engagement by analysing customer data and behaviour to create personalised content, offers, and recommendations. Chatbots and virtual assistants powered by AI provide 24/7 support, enhancing user experience. AI also enables automated email marketing and social media interactions, ensuring consistent engagement with customers.
Using AI can save time, increase productivity and help spark ideas as well as helping with data analysis and customer segmentation. Using features such as chatbots can also help support with customer service efforts.
AI lacks depth and the emotion that you would get from an experienced, human marketer. This can especially become difficult when creating an emotive campaign, for instance. The knowledge of AI is also limited and it struggles to support with services such as user experience.
AI has a profound impact on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) by helping marketers understand search engine algorithms and user search behaviour. AI tools assist in keyword research, content optimisation, and link-building strategies, improving a website’s search engine rankings and visibility.
Yes, ethical concerns can arise with AI in digital marketing, particularly related to data privacy, transparency, and the potential for AI to manipulate consumer behaviour. It’s important for businesses to use AI responsibly and in compliance with data protection regulations.
In short, no. Google has softened their stance on AI-generated content as of their September 2023 Helpful Content update. While this moderation is important, it’s not advisable to apply AI to all content. Using a generic tone like others in your industry may lead to reduced engagement, affecting Google’s ranking signals, particularly its emphasis on E-E-A-T.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the role of AI in marketing can’t be discounted, but it shouldn’t be used to replicate or replace actual humans. While AI can help generate ideas, help with personalisation and save time on tasks that used to be manual and take a lot longer, it lacks the depth and emotion that you would get from an actual human.
Ps. This article was not generated by AI 😉
