Artificial Intelligence isn’t a new concept.
The first notions about machines that can think can be spotted back in ancient mythology. The invention of the first programmable digital computer based on mathematical reasoning was in 1940. The foundations for this new technology were laid.
Finally, an AI workshop took place at Dartmouth College in the summer of 1956. This marked the actual birth of artificial intelligence.
Fast forward some 70 years, and we’re living in a world of autonomous cars. As well as intelligent robots performing all sorts of manual and intellectual tasks, exist.
AI has become indispensable in marketing, too. Thanks to its capability to analyze large amounts of data and provide marketers with valuable insights about their customers.
But how exactly will this advanced technology change the field of content marketing?
Create Content at Scale
Although artificial general intelligence, that is, machines capable of performing any task just like a human does, is still not happening in the near future, existing AI systems have the capacity to create short-form content. In other words, we’re still to see a fiction novel or a short story entirely written by AI.
Even though it’s supported by machine learning and natural language processing, AI currently lacks the most important factors for creating unique, meaningful content by itself: Critical thinking, imagination, and creativity.
However, the current attempts to create content are still impressive.
Companies Using Artificial Intelligence
Gmail has recently introduced an interesting and pretty helpful feature called Smart Compose. It suggests complete phrases and sentences based on the context of your email as you type.
It also comes up with ideas for subject lines. Since many people need time to find the right words when drafting emails, this feature comes in handy and speeds up the process.
Leading media portals such as ESPN, the Washington Post, and Associated Press have been using AI to generate content for a couple of years now.
For example, the Washington Post streamlined the creation of short news during its Rio Olympics coverage. This was using AI to churn out a number of short news and reports. And what’s even more important, these items appeared entirely without human intervention.
The purpose of including AI in content creation isn’t replacing human writers but optimizing and scaling this process. This way, AI can pick up the slack when it comes to simple, generic news and reports, while human writers can focus on more complex stories.
Personalized Content
Long gone are the days when marketers could send the same offer to all their prospects. Today, this is considered lazy and spammy, resulting in a lot of unsubscribes and poor conversion rates.
Consumers don’t want to receive emails and other types of content that aren’t tailored to their needs and preferences. Which means that marketers who want to generate new sales leads have to research their audiences and reach out to them with personalized content.
However, for 60% of marketers, this isn’t an easy feat.
Data and Content Creation
That’s why they resort to big data analytics to learn as much as possible about their target audience. This powerful technology can be used to collect, store, analyze, and interpret massive amounts of customer data.
With its help, it’s possible for content marketers to identify the needs of a particular target audience. They can also make informed decisions regarding their content strategy.
These insights provided by big data analytics are then used for content personalization.
For example, by leveraging customers’ demographic information such as gender, location, or income level, marketers can create audience segments and create content for each of them.
So, if there’s a product promotion in London, only people who live in the area will be notified. Sending an invitation to someone living in Paris would miss the mark.
There are even more sophisticated and innovative ways of using this technology. Uber, for example, takes advantage of algorithmic pricing.
In other words, different factors are taken into consideration when the price is calculated. people from more affluent neighborhoods will be charged more.
The same goes for those who hail a ride from an iPhone or pay with prestigious cards, as they’re considered to be wealthier.
The Rise of Chatbots
Customer experience is about to overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.
This means that brands that want to stay competitive need to amplify their customer support efforts and offer superb service. A while ago, this would require them to hire additional agents, a move that demanded a significant investment.
But in the world of AI, smart chatbots can be implemented to improve customer experience and satisfaction.
Differences With Humans
Unlike human agents, these smart algorithms are available at all times – at 3 a.m., during the weekend, or on Christmas, and they’re capable of handling multiple queries simultaneously.
What this means is that chatbots enable customers to get the answers to their product-related questions, fix potential issues, as well as find the content they need. All of this without having to click back and forth through the help section.
The effectiveness of these machines relies on the fact that they no longer rely solely on pre-scripted sentences and canned phrases. AI-powered chatbots will talk to people in a conversational and meaningful manner.
Future of Chatbots
In the near future, it will be virtually impossible to tell whether you’re talking to a chatbot or a human. This will result in improving conversion rates and reducing customer churn.
Besides, chatbots are patient, and they’re never distracted, nervous, or tired. All of which can be crucial for providing an exceptional customer experience.
This is extremely important. Getting the right answer about a product in a timely manner is the final nudge. It can make a potential customer go through with their purchase.
Finally, chatbots collect all the information obtained from customers, as well as store and analyze it, so that they can use it for future reference.
This means that they will personalize every subsequent interaction with a particular customer. Based on the insights they obtained earlier.
Conclusion
Despite being very helpful in automating numerous content marketing tasks and providing a superb customer experience, AI still hasn’t reached its full potential.
We can expect that it will relatively soon move on from automating different tasks. Also helping content marketers with low-level tasks to creating high-quality, long-form content using critical thinking.
About the author
Leslie has been running websites since 2006. He built a website that did not rank and thus began his journey in SEO and content marketing. He is the managing director of Cube Digital, a company that works with small businesses helping to grow traffic and revenue.
