Artificial Intelligence: An Aid in Marketing

With advanced technology becoming increasingly less expensive and more capable, artificial intelligence is no longer just a convenience in the workplace; it is now a necessity. It is the hot thing right now. Every business is finding ways to incorporate it into their work environment. One such way is through the way we are marketing. It may come as a surprise that AI can actually work extremely well in a marketing environment. Here are a couple of advantages to working with an artificial intelligence company and getting it set up for your marketing department.

More time for real employees

If you have technology taking over all your most mundane tasks such as sending emails, communicating with customers, and running statistic reports, you can save your real employees for more complex thinking situations. Your advertising team will end up getting more information to use in making decisions while also having more time in their day to actually think about and come up with marketing plans. More time for humans means more creativity and better work.

AI becoming more normal for consumers

As more AI is being used in communicating through customers, whether through text, email, social media, and chats, consumers are getting more used to it. Rather than searching out specific companies or products that they want, they much prefer to be advertising that is specific to their particular situation. At first, we saw some resistance from people who were worried about their privacy, but the more people have had AI determining their advertising, the more they are used to it and happy with the results.

In turn, you are able to advertise to specific customers at specific times and with specific needs. Instead of having to send one piece of advertising out to all customers hoping it will reach them all in the same way, you can advertise to each one differently. A family advertisement is sent to families while dog lovers get one directed towards them. It is more effective for your company, and the customer prefers it too.

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Source: forbes.com/sites/andrewstephen/2017/10/30/ai-is-changing-marketing-as-we-know-it-and-thats-a-good-thing/#7ca46138dc40

The Current State of Chatbots and Why Now is the Time to Invest in Them

Much of the artificial intelligence research being done today is purely academic. But in at least one area, we’re seeing an intersection between artificial intelligence research and real life. Consumer-facing chatbots are computer programs developed by companies to converse with their customers for any number of reasons. There are shopping assistant chatbots, financial planning chatbots, personal coach chatbots, customer service chatbots, and many other kinds of consumer-facing chatbots and 2017 seems to be their big year.

Chatbots have a lot to offer businesses who invest in them. They can provide customers with 24/7 support without the high cost associated with maintaining a 24/7 support team. For businesses on the fence about chatbots, here are a few good things to know.

Two kinds of chatbots

There are essentially two different kinds of chatbots. One operates on a rules engine while the other uses machine learning and natural language processing. Rules engine chatbots are not so very different from the automated phone answering systems that have been around for years. They are programmed to recognize a number of preset commands and questions and to respond from a bank of prewritten responses. Rules engine chatbots are easier and less expensive to program but they’re also more limited in what they can offer for brands and customers. They work best in highly regulated industries where customers will mostly be using the chatbot for a limited number of functions.

More advanced chatbots use subsets of artificial intelligence such as natural language processing and machine learning. Through natural language processing, chatbots can understand more open-ended queries even if they haven’t been specifically programmed to recognize those specific queries. Through machine learning, chatbots can improve the more interactions they have with customers as they learn to recognize patterns and incorporate information gained from past failures. These are more expensive and difficult to create but they also have a lot more to offer.

Which kind of chatbot you develop for your brand will depend on your particular circumstances and goals. Many choose to start with simpler rules engine chatbots before investing in more advanced AI chatbots.

Do they really work?

Many business owners wonder if chatbots live up to all they hype–and there has been a lot of hype surrounding chatbots. The answer is both yes and no. The artificial intelligence necessary to create a program that can really think and converse like a human simply doesn’t exist yet and there are drawbacks to using chatbots. For one, they will make more mistakes than humans. For whatever reason, the simplest questions can sometimes throw off a chatbot and can result in an inappropriate response. Furthermore, some people are just hesitant about the whole idea of conversing with chatbots in large part thanks to negative portrayals of AI in pop culture.

On the other hand, discounting chatbots because humans can differentiate between them and real humans is a lot like throwing out the baby with the bath water. Chatbots are expected to save businesses more than $8 billion this year alone and many customers will appreciate the option to avoid waiting on hold on the phone by speaking to a chatbot instead.

Why now is the time to invest

Chatbot technology is far enough along to have become affordable and practical for the average small business and the growing popularity of open-source chatbot projects and chatbot building software has made it easier than ever for businesses to design one without spending a fortune. On the other hand, it’s still new enough to be novel and innovative and give brands a head start over ones that are still stuck on the fence.

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Source: businessnewsdaily.com/10295-chatbot-ai-customer-service.html

Six Helpful Tips for Retaining Your SMS Subscribers

With a 98% open rate (90% within the first three minutes), SMS is the most effective marketing channel when you need to get a message out to your customers. But for all its effectiveness, it can be hard to get SMS subscribers and even harder to retain them. The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) regulations on text message marketing set forth in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) require businesses to obtain consumers’ express permission before sending a single text and they require that consumers be allowed to opt out at any point. Most bulk SMS services include instructions for cancelling in every text message and are programmed to recognize words like “STOP”, “UNSUBSCRIBE”, “CANCEL,” and others and automatically unsubscribe recipients who reply with any of these words.

Because it’s so easy to unsubscribe, and because SMS is a rather intimate channel where consumers are more aware of unwanted communications, the unsubscribe rate for SMS is approximately seven times higher than email’s (3.7% compared to email’s .5%). Limiting opt-outs and retaining SMS subscribers should be a primary objective for mobile marketers. The following six tips can help.

Don’t make the introductory too good

Making an introductory offer for first-time SMS subscribers is a standard and commonly used practice. But if the introductory is too good, it sets an expectation for future offs that businesses simply can’t afford to live up to and people opt out when future offers don’t measure up. Promising a coupon or deal to subscribers is a fine tactic, but make sure that the introductory offer is in line with offers you will be texting out to your subscriber list in the future.

Let subscribers know who’s texting them

The average consumer who subscribes to your SMS list will probably subscribe to at least several others. Since many won’t bother to save your short code into their phone as a contact, their inbox will just have a number of text conversations from random strings of numbers and you run the risk of being deleted along with all the rest when the person cleans out their inbox. You can encourage them to save the number as a contact under your name but you shouldn’t assume they will. Include your name towards the beginning of each text so that at the very least, they can see from the message preview who is texting.

Send relevant offers

Customers need to perceive value in being an SMS subscriber of your business. If they find that they’re ignoring 90% of your texts or more because they aren’t relevant, it’s just a matter of time before they unsubscribe. You can avoid this by segmenting your SMS audience according to their preferences and interests so that the messages you’re sending is more likely to be relevant to each recipient.

Be mindful of timing and frequency

People unsubscribe when they feel the intrusion isn’t worth the occasional offer. The major disadvantage of text messaging is also its primary advantage: it’s intrusive. Open rates are high because most phones are set to give an auditory or tactile notification to their users when a message is received but opt out rates are high for the same reason. To limit opt outs for this reason, make sure you’re not texting too often or at inconvenient times. It may be wise to segment your audience according to their preferred contact time as well.

Give them the option to resubscribe

Include in the automated response to opt-outs instructions for opting back in. Some customers may make a spur-of-the-moment decision to opt out during a particularly stressful time or when they’re trying to cut down on digital interference but may reconsider later. They may unsubscribe but not delete the text conversation and decide to come back to it later and resubscribe.

Don’t lose sleep over opt-outs

Just come to terms with the fact that you won’t retain every SMS subscriber. Some will opt out and never come back. Try not to lose any sleep over it; they’re not your ideal customers anyways. Instead think of the money you save when the unreceptive subscribers remove themselves from your list and focus on providing value for the subscribers who remain.

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