The year is 2033; velour
tracksuits have made an unfortunate comeback, easyJet can send you to Mars for
just over a fiver and Artificial
Intelligence (AI) has officially
taken over the world. Although we may
have another 14 years before the robot revolution, AI is already dominating the
multi-media sectors. With 72 per cent of businesses hailing droids as a
marketing advantage, is it time for humans to step aside and leave Alexa to it?
Stone Junction’s
marketing executive, Tasha Bodger, discusses the pros and cons of leaving PR purely
to the bots.
Well-oiled machine
One of AI’s biggest benefits is the
connection it establishes between a business and its customer. Thanks to intelligence software, corporations
no longer need to make costly assumptions about their client base. Whether it’s
targeting
a specific ad or recommending a tv show — that Netflix
match-rating to Ru Pauls Drag Race is no coincidence — AI knows exactly what to
market to who and when, without any of the human error.
Speaking of error, AI will also evolve
your marketing campaign by monitoring past mistakes, audience engagement and
customer insight, without you having to post a single thing first. Machine learning
allows intelligence software to alter its programme based upon patterns and
inference rather than explicit instructions; meaning you don’t need to risk a
post being ghosted to figure out exactly what your audience wants.
According to Forbes, companies who use
Artificial Intelligence as part of their marketing strategy see a 52 per cent
sales lift in comparison to those still relying on non-bot marketers. Although
it seems easy enough to analyse sales data without AI, the simple fact is it
takes humans so much longer to do so — and bots don’t need to check the group
WhatsApp every few hours for memes. Unfortunately for us, taking just a little
longer than average could make all the difference when trying to produce
relevant online content.
Ro-NOT
Using AI to respond to your customer
insights seems like a no-brainer, but do your customers actually respond
positively to AI?
The answer? Unfortunately, not.
In a survey conducted by the Business
Insider, 52 per cent of customers indicated they would abandon a brand if the
communications they received via chat, telephone or DM were impersonal or
‘canned’. Although it’s extremely cost-effective to have complaint channels or
customer service lines manned by robots, it ruins the experience for the people
potentially buying your products. We can probably all think of a time we’ve
internally — and sometimes audibly — groaned when we’ve realised we’re dealing
with a ‘help bot’ and not a human being. As of 2019, automated bots don’t have
all the tools needed to reply to customer queries correctly, and sometimes than
can be more frustrating than the initial complaint.
Although customer service isn’t directly
part of a marketer’s job, without great client satisfaction it can be extremely
difficult to promote your brand effectively.
What is part of a marketer’s job, however,
is being creative; something which AI hasn’t quite yet mastered — listen
to one of Alexa’s jokes and you’ll see what I mean! Without a crazy idea or a
kooky PR stunt, marketing campaigns tend to get lost in the sea of social media.
AI can tell you when to post, where to post and if you’re beating the algorithm, but
it can’t write your content for you … yet.
Prefer a more human approach to your PR
campaigns? Get in touch with Stone Junction today by calling +44 (0) 1785 225
416 or email natasha@stonejunction.co.uk.
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