If you haven’t noticed already, email marketing platforms are going through an evolution. From just providing a platform to blast your list to driving subscriber behaviour through a workflow with automation sequences, these platforms are now moving into using bots and AI to deliver a whole new level of experience to your subscriber list. Now, not everyone is heading down the AI road full throttle. There are some platforms sticking to what they know best. But it got us thinking about how much of an impact AI will have on Email Marketing. Let’s have a look at 4 ways AI will make Email Marketing smarter.
The power of AI
First let’s look what AI really does in a marketing context. Now, (this oversimplifying it) using Artificial Intelligence technology, businesses have the capability to quickly and efficiently scan databases of information. Using the countless AI and data platforms, businesses then create visual representations and reports. This provides powerful insights that empowers businesses to take action straightaway. Businesses can leverage the power AI with email marketing to increase their KPIs and drive better results.
1. Smarter Send Times and Frequency
In today’s marketing world, people expect to receive a better, more personalised experience with your brand. If you’re not delivering that experience, you could find your customers switching to someone who can. So, in order to help retention and/or woo new customers, you have to delight your customers at as many touch points as possible. One way AI helps you do just that is by determining the best time to send your emails. Yes, there are a lot of ways of determining the best times and days to send but AI relieves this complex and time consuming exercise from you, does a better job at it which frees you up to work on content and strategy. Some email platforms can monitor the performance of your emails and individually customise the sending times. This also means you can get smarter with your email frequency, especially as your emails start to convert better. Your customers wont feel annoyed about how many emails you send them if they are delivered smarter.
2. Effective Content With Smarter Personalisation
With a simple script, you can see on a granular level what content and promotions your customers like best. With the help of AI, you can predict how your audience will interact with future content and promotions. Artificial intelligence and natural language processing can filter the content that is irrelevant to each user and send only the valuable, targeted content to your customers. AI can filter and deliver discounts to those customers that are interested in discounts, and deliver content to those who are only here for the blogs. This boosts customer loyalty and trust.
3. Better A/B Testing
A/B testing is a great method to determine what subject line, content and call to action work best with your audience. With AI, this will only get better. Not only will you be able to determine what works in an A/B test, using real-time data, the AI will be able to see patterns, adjust and repeat until the optimal combination is determined. Essentially, it will become A/B/C/D… and beyond testing. AIs can handle large amounts of data very quickly and the machine learning algorithms have the capacity to craft personalized emails that can outperform human-controlled ones.
4. Data and Analytics Empowerment
One thing is for sure, in today’s world, data powers sales and marketing. We see it with the rise of platforms such as Salesforce, Hubspot etc. Those with the data and the skills to act on the data are winning the sales and marketing game. We talked about customers expecting the Brand to know them and serve them in a personalized way and modern sales and marketing technology can address that. Coupled with AI and you have the power to do great things.
Using AI, businesses can track behavioral patterns to predict potential churn in leads or prospects, the potential to improve value through content, upselling or cross-selling and even the potential of someone to refer. Companies today are even using AI to listen to phone calls and let them know, by the tone of the voice and sentiment of the conversation, the potential of losing a customer. All this data that is being capture and presented is empowering decision makers to be more agile and make a bigger impact, faster.
Conclusion
With the rise of AI, traditional customer segmentation is no longer as effective as it once was. Through deep learning, businesses can truly be in control shaping the customer journey and experience. The key is to giving your audience what it wants when they want it, and how they want it. Artificial Intelligence can help you implement the elements of such a campaign to make your brand the most successful it can be.
