As marketing budgets increase, CMOs face more pressure than ever to show results. Artificial intelligence can help, according to a new guide from Cortex. The company should know: its artificial intelligence platform helps marketers make the right decisions about content creation, deployment and promotion for companies such as Heineken, Marriott and Jack Daniels.
The full guide, The CMO Guide to Artificial Intelligence, walks executives through artificial intelligence, its use cases in marketing and how to get started with this exciting technology. Here’s a sneak peek at what you’ll find inside.
What Is Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial intelligence is the science of making machines smart. The term applies to a suite of technologies at varying maturity levels, including machine learning, natural language generation and deep learning. Chances are you’ve already used artificial intelligence, says Cortex:
“If you have ever typed a word into Google to find its proper spelling, you have used machine learning (invented in 1959 as a step towards artificial intelligence). Product recommendations, like Amazon or Netflix; virtual assistants, like Siri, Cortana, and Alexa; connected devices, like the Nest thermostat; and so much more, use artificial intelligence to make our lives easier.”
In marketing, AI “automates, optimizes, and measures the repetitive marketing activities, saving time for more strategic, creative work.” In short, AI is a marketer’s best friend, enabling teams to drive productivity and performance in unprecedented ways.
What Can Artificial Intelligence Be Used for in Marketing?
The guide dives into several practical use cases for AI in marketing. These include:
- Data Collection and Cleansing — Artificial intelligence does the “cleansing, consolidating, and, most importantly, analyzing” of large standardized datasets your business may have available.
- Data Analysis — AI systems “use machine learning to comb data for patterns between marketing KPIs and inputs,” surfacing insights humans can’t find themselves.
- Consumer Insights — Artificial intelligence “can uncover minute patterns in data that would take a person several months, at least, to find.” These insights can then drive marketing performance.
- Account Based Marketing and Personalized Messaging — Thanks to AI, marketers can begin to “serve the exact messaging”—one-on-one to consumers depending on where they are in the marketing funnel—“that will drive them to the next step.”
- Programmatic Advertising — Brands, says Cortex, can “use artificial intelligence to serve more relevant, targeted messages in the right places, at the right times.”
- Customer Communication — AI in the form of chatbots is creating “a more natural, frictionless way of performing an action and interacting with brands.”
- Content Creation — One of the top challenges for marketers, AI technologies like natural language processing and machine learning are able to help “predict what messages and images will drive desired consumer actions.”
However, Cortex rightly points out that AI has limitations within marketing applications.
“As with human analysis, you have to ask the right questions (or program the right instructions) to get the answers you’re looking for.”
This is just the beginning. The full report, The CMO Guide to Artificial Intelligence, dives much deeper into the concepts discussed above, as well as how to implement and leverage AI in your business.
Download the full report today. While you’re at it, be sure to subscribe to the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute for more insights into how marketers can use AI to benefit their businesses.
Mike Kaput
As Chief Content Officer, Mike Kaput uses content marketing, marketing strategy, and marketing technology to grow and scale traffic, leads, and revenue for Marketing AI Institute. Mike is the co-author of Marketing Artificial Intelligence: AI, Marketing and the Future of Business (Matt Holt Books, 2022). See Mike's full bio.