The pitfalls of marketers’ assumptions: The effects of AI in marketing automation
By Pauline Buil, Marketing Director of Deployteq
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has sparked excitement and apprehension across various industries, especially the marketing realm.
While headlines have often portrayed AI as a threat, capable of replacing human jobs, plotting mass destruction, and taking over entire industries, the reality is far more nuanced. When handled correctly, AI has the potential to contribute positively to many marketing efforts, particularly in the field of marketing automation.
This article explores the pitfalls of marketers’ assumptions, the effects of AI in marketing automation, and how AI can improve omnichannel marketing campaigns without taking control away from marketers.
Understanding the role of artificial intelligence in creative marketing
AI can play a crucial role in creative marketing automation by leveraging millions of available data points and algorithms to revolutionise the game with improved email segmentation, personalised product recommendations, relevant communications, quick A/B testing, magnetic subject lines, as well an array of other mind-blowing tasks.
However, the marketer should view AI as a trusted advisor, like a compass on a journey. AI provides guidance and insights, helping marketers navigate, but the marketer ultimately sets the course and leads the way. What are some of the many great things that AI can accomplish?
Sending highly relevant campaigns
Personalisation holds immense importance in engaging modern consumers. With the help of AI algorithms, user data and behaviour can be analysed to automate content and timing in omnichannel campaigns. Marketers can create highly personalised communications with tailored subject lines, body copy, imagery, promoted products, and calls to action. It enables marketers to achieve a level of relevance that would be nearly impossible to attain manually.
Optimising content
Digging through massive amounts of data to unearth the golden nuggets of campaign success is arduous. AI is here to lend a helping hand. With its analytical skill, AI can effortlessly sift through campaign data, unveil the content types that wield the most influence in driving remarkable results, and tailor those messages to your intended audience. Marketers can unleash maximum impact with minimal manual effort by optimising future campaigns based on audience preferences.
Predictive analytics
Picture this: Predictive analytics, the savvy sidekick of data-driven marketers. Armed with the power of historical consumer data, predictive analytics algorithms detect patterns, uncover trends, and reveal correlations that mere mortals might miss. With this knowledge, you can precisely segment your audiences, targeting them based on specific attributes. Plus, you’ll unlock invaluable insights into the perfect timing, frequency, and content of your emails. It’s like having a crystal ball for predicting consumer behaviour and preferences, supercharging your campaigns and ensuring their effectiveness.
Automated testing
The unsung hero of marketing automation: testing. With AI at its side, automated testing swoops in to simulate real-life scenarios and conduct A/B testing faster. No element is untested, from email templates to subject lines, layouts to rendering, and functionality across various platforms and environments.
This dynamic duo helps you unveil the winning combinations that skyrocket engagement and conversion rates. Not only that, but they also ensure flawless execution of your personalisation, dynamic content, and conditional logic within emails.
The benefits of AI in marketing automation
Embracing AI offers several benefits to marketers’ efficiency, engagement, and continuous campaign optimisation. To name a few:
Boosting efficiency
AI saves marketers time and resources by automating repetitive tasks like list segmentation, email scheduling, A/B testing, deciphering statistics, and copywriting. This efficiency enables marketers to focus on strategic elements of their campaigns, fostering productivity and effectiveness.
Improving engagement
AI helps marketers build more engaging emails that resonate with their audience and provide personalised, one-to-one experiences. Subject line generators, fuelled by AI’s capabilities, compel clicks and spark curiosity. And within those emails, app messages and texts, dynamic content takes centre stage, delivering a tailored experience to each recipient, showering them with products ideally suited to them. This level of personalisation takes engagement to new heights and weaves loyal, valuable customer relationships.
Continuous optimisation
Algorithms identify trends and patterns from campaign data, enabling marketers to refine messaging, targeting, timing, and content. Automating data crunching and analysis ensures ongoing optimisation without burdening marketers with excessive manual work. Continuous optimisation enhances overall campaign performance and ultimately maximises results.
The limitations of AI
While AI brings significant advancements and benefits to the industry, it is essential to recognise its limitations and pitfalls.
Building genuine relationships
AI cannot truly understand human emotions, intentions, and context, which is crucial for building genuine relationships. The human touch, characterised by empathy, emotional intelligence, and adaptability to individual needs and preferences, remains essential for authentic connections.
Producing unique and creative content
While AI can generate content based on learned patterns and examples, it struggles to produce original and creative content. Creativity involves intuition, inspiration, and the ability to think outside the box, qualities that are challenging for AI to replicate. Human creativity remains vital in producing unique work.
Managing and understanding qualitative data
Qualitative data, such as surveys, require a deep understanding of language, culture, and context, which can be challenging for AI. AI often struggles to capture the subtle inferences, tone, and sentiment expressed in qualitative data, leading to misinterpretation or oversimplification. Human expertise is necessary to manage and derive meaningful insights from qualitative data.
As we said, AI is the compass, not the one walking the track.
What does the future hold for AI?
While AI’s future remains uncertain, promising developments are on the horizon. Advancements in hyper-personalisation and natural language processing will contribute to better customer understanding and communication.
With these advancements, we can hope that one day AI won’t simply follow blindly (confidently even); we need it to challenge and fuel our imagination. It would be great to ask AI for feedback on our copy or our campaigns, and it could foster new unimagined paths.
We know that we can expect stricter regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), to continue protecting individual privacy rights and ensuring responsible data handling. Ethical considerations, such as algorithmic bias and fairness in decision-making, will gain increased attention as AI continues to evolve.
We asked Sjuul van der Leeuw, CEO of Deployteq, his thoughts on AI: “Outside of AI, people are beginning to embrace such emerging tech daily. This is because it has ultimately been brought in to empower workforces, and as it evolves, it should become increasingly higher on the agendas of businesses to educate their staff on how to use it appropriately and most efficiently.”
To sum up
Artificial Intelligence has the potential to revolutionise marketing automation by improving efficiency, engagement, and campaign optimisation. Marketers can leverage AI to deliver highly relevant campaigns, optimise content, utilise predictive analytics, and conduct automated testing. However, it is essential to acknowledge the limitations of AI, as it cannot replace the human touch in building genuine relationships, producing unique and creative content, and understanding qualitative data.
AI’s future holds promise; marketers should embrace AI to enhance their efforts rather than fear its potential, and managers should guide their employees on the most strategic ways AI can be harnessed. By understanding the pitfalls of assumptions and leveraging AI effectively, marketers can harness its power to create innovative and impactful campaigns while remaining in control of their marketing strategies.
Author Bio
Pauline Buil is a highly skilled and dedicated professional who has worked for the last ten years as a Marketing Director for leading marketing automation platform, Deployteq. With a passion for innovation, Pauline has a varied background in marketing for leading retailer Macintosh Group in the Netherlands and hotel chain Bilderberg. Due to her decades of experience in the field, Pauline has emerged as a pivotal contributor to the success of Deployteq. Beyond her technical prowess, Pauline is known for her dedication to personal growth and staying up to date with the latest advancements in the industry. As a member of the DDMA, she participates and contributes to furthering data and email in the world of MarTech, ensuring that she remains at the forefront of emerging technologies and industry best practices. With her expertise and passion for technology, she continues to play a pivotal role in driving the company’s success and delivering cutting-edge solutions to clients worldwide.
