How Startups Are Leveraging AI To Scale Their Digital Marketing Efforts

Artificial intelligence is a tech-savvy process that allows computerised machines to align with human thinking by imitating, capturing, analysing and evolving the thought process and behaviour. In 1956, John McCarthy first coined the term artificial intelligence defining it as the science and engineering of making intelligent machines. James Cameron’s fictional blockbuster series of Terminator and Ironman’s smart suit are no more entertainment gratification in this world. Machine learning is now a reality and AI is already helping businesses analyse their customers, forecast demand and supply, solve linguistic barriers and store data. 

Today many industries like healthcare, logistics, social media and entertainment, FMCG, real estate, D2C, and automobile among others are banking on AI. There are specialised expert teams dedicated to harnessing the power of AI to sync their business and leverage revenues. 

As per a PwC report, the global AI market is predicted to be $15.7 Tn by the end of this decade. Of this, $6.6 Tn is anticipated from rising productivity and $9.1 Tn is anticipated from consumption. Accenture Research report reveals that AI could double annual economic growth rates by 2035 by evolving the nature of work and creating a new relationship between Man and Machines, increasing by 40% workforce productivity.

As per a PwC India whitepaper released in 2020, post the pandemic, AI-enabled use cases like contactless selling and delivery have earned popularity due to changes in buying behaviour. It is helping manufacturing businesses with health and safety measures to create a healthy work environment. The remote manpower is banking more on AI-enabled digital assistants to do their work without hampering productivity. Organisations’ decision-making is highly based on current data using AI-enabled predictive and prescriptive tools to reduce operating costs, combat disruption and be futuristic.

AI Marketing

Multiple reports from authentic organisations and institutes have a common denominator of the growth of the AI industry in the coming years. The past decade has seen exponential growth in digital marketing and social commerce. For productivity enhancement, many public and private organisations are embracing AI. Now is the time for communication professionals from backgrounds in advertising, marketing, public relations, influencer marketing and digital marketing to adapt to the growing use of AI for their content, plans, campaigns and strategies. 

Chatbots, predictive and targeted content, content creation, and image recognition technology are already in use for the last few years of digital marketing. ChatGPT which solves linguistic barriers through 

AI software is the current hot trending topic. AI marketing is a recently evolved sub-segment. Communications professionals should know the basics of AI marketing in this decade to grow and survive as it is a basic necessity and not a luxury. Machine learning, big data and analytics use data analysis, natural language processing, media buying, automated decision-making, content generation and real-time personalisation to come up with AI marketing solutions. Organisations across the world are raising their budgets to integrate AI in their processes. 

Data Privacy

Data privacy is a threat arising out of AI. Organisations are developing policies with a promise to consumers to protect the data. Government agencies across the globe as well are developing legal frameworks to safeguard the privacy of individuals. Data safety and privacy are the major factors that will lead to trust among stakeholders and consumers of any organisation in this era. To be authentic to consumers you need to be loyal to their data.

The advantages of integrating AI in marketing plans are increased ROI on campaigns, better customer relationships and engagement, real-time personalised solutions, a comprehensive view of marketing yardsticks and quick decision-making thereby enhancing the output results. AI helps in selecting the right medium to place ads, selecting the right messaging content for the message, personalisation for end-users, predictive marketing analytics, conversational experiences, automating marketing operations and dynamic pricing which enhances the sales and productivity of the business. 

PR & Corporate Communication

For public relations and corporate communications professionals, AI has the potential to enhance SEO-friendly content, calculate target audience responses, analyse past behaviour of journalists, media monitoring, predict the success and results of the campaign and suggest improvements in press releases. 

Speech-to-text tools can enhance press conferences, media interviews, podcasts and presentations. AI helps in suggesting custom story pegs for journalists based on their interests, past coverage and trends. PR professionals can leverage AI for influencer identification and opinion makers’ identification for their particular messaging, collaborations, campaigns and plans. 

Translation of audio and text files into multiple languages for wider distribution is possible with NLP. For those agencies who work for international markets or the ones in India which has so many regional languages with millions of viewers and readers, NLP is a boon. The tone and sentiment of the media presence can be accurately evaluated and tracked with AI. AI is here to enhance the PR landscape and complement the media landscape.

The Advertising Potential

Advertising professionals are too embracing AI, especially global giant Ad agencies. For social media marketing, digital marketing and copywriting, advertising professionals are interacting with AI to improve productivity. The research reports, presentation decks, market forecasting and consumer behaviour predictions can be enhanced and analysed with the help of AI. 

The keywords, terminologies and lingo of the target audience are easy to predict through AI tools. AI can also help in allocating and improving cross-channel advertising budgets. Hyper-personalisation of the visuals, messages and ad taglines on online platforms is possible thanks to AI. The advertising world has witnessed the success of conversion rates of AI majorly for online and social media users. Being in a D2C space, we use AI for connecting to our end-users and customising their needs. ML helps us in connecting with our customers and analyse their preferences. 

India has witnessed a rising number of AI startups in 2022. Many IT graduates are now opting for AI as their specialisation. The government is looking forward to making India a global hub for AI. With the help of think tanks like NITI Aayog, government summits, business summits and industry bodies, the government has been encouraging the use of AI in recent years.

In the Web 3.0 world, AI has solutions for your advertising, public relations, publicity, marketing and promotions needs. The reasons to adopt AI for business purposes are plenty but the prime one is to improve productivity. 

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