In the modern digital world, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are no longer novel concepts. Today, these advanced technologies can be found worldwide and throughout our daily lives, even in places we may not expect.One of the areas where AI and machine learning can truly make an incredible difference is the world of business-to-government or B2G marketing. Since AI technology can be used in many facets of marketing, it can be an incredibly valuable tool for marketing teams from any industry.
Here, we will examine how AI and ML technologies impact marketing today, as well as how your business can leverage them to help improve your marketing strategy.
What Is AI?
Before you can explore the effects of AI in marketing, you need to have a solid understanding of what this type of technology is. Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the reproduction of human intelligence in a machine. In other words, it is a machine’s ability to perform the same cognitive functions that a human mind does. Today, AI can be found anywhere — from customer-service chatbots to cloud-based applications for enterprise businesses.
AI’s defining characteristic is to rationalise and take efficient actions to achieve its assigned goals. The exact nature of this goal could be anything from answering a customer’s question to recognising the patterns in view or purchase history and recommending the best products or advertisements on a social media feed. Due to the variety of AI applications and technologies today, the goal AI works towards could really be anything. Keep in mind, however, that AI technology is typically most successful when offered logistical or data-driven tasks to complete.
What Is Machine Learning?
Now that you know what AI is, you may wonder where machine learning fits into the picture. Put simply, machine learning (ML) is a subset of artificial intelligence that uses historical data to predict the outcomes of a question or study. The goal of ML technology is to continuously learn from and adapt to new data without needing assistance from humans, such as constantly reprogramming or adding new parameters. This hands-off type of AI makes an excellent tool for many businesses since it can help to highlight patterns and trends in their customer data and business operations reports.
Just as ML is a subset of AI, ML is its own umbrella category that contains a few different subsections. Each of the four subsections in the greater ML umbrella of AI technology refers to a specific approach to machine learning. And each approach — supervised, unsupervised, semi-supervised, and reinforcement learning — has distinct benefits and applications.
How Do AI and Machine Learning Impact B2G Marketing?
AI and ML technologies are incredibly advanced and can fulfil many tasks. This makes them an indispensable tool for any area of business where you can improve efficiency and accuracy. For example, thinking about marketing-specific uses of these technologies, you can see an incredible opportunity to reduce time-consuming or manual tasks and gather accurate and data-driven insights about your customers. But these are only a few of the many ways that AI and ML can impact your marketing team and strategy.
With AI and machine learning, you can build successful marketing strategies Let’s take a look at seven different ways you can implement AI and machine learning efficiently.
1. Automation
The first, and typically the most talked about, benefit of AI technology is automation. By automating your team’s mundane and repetitive tasks, you can free up valuable time and resources that your team can use to improve your online presence and build innovative ad campaigns.
2. Predictive Analytics
The next way that AI and ML can improve your business’s marketing efforts is through the use of predictive analytics. This is essentially a fancy term that refers to making realistic predictions for the future based on the wealth of data you currently have.
While predictive analytics has always been a part of marketing, the rise of AI and ML technology has made the process much more reliable and exponentially faster. This means that your marketing team can use those realistic predictions more effectively to boost your B2G marketing strategy and draw in a larger audience.
3. Improved User Experience
Creating personalised customer experiences is another way your marketing team can benefit from AI. As the market becomes more and more competitive, personalisation becomes increasingly important. Hence, tailoring your business’ experience to your customers’ specific needs and preferences can make a huge difference in its success or failure.
4. Chatbots
With chatbots, you can provide better customer service, boost your reputation, and increase your chances of having satisfied customers. In addition, since chatbots are powered by AI technology, they can run 24/7 and offer your customers support around the clock — without you having to hire extra night-shift staff.
In addition to customer support, AI chatbots can also interact with people as they visit your web page to help you generate better leads for your business.
5. Content Creation and Optimisation
The fifth way that AI technologies can help your business is by speeding up your content production process. AI technologies that are equipped with natural language processing (NPL) algorithms can generate high-quality content for your business in just minutes rather than the hours it would take for a human. Your team can better spend this time by coming up with new and innovative ideas for reaching your audience.
Using AI for your content strategy can also more efficiently incorporate content optimisation practices — such as assessing and editing old content and using insights from its performance to inform future content. This is another area where ML technologies can shine in a business setting.
6. Customer Insights and Data
Another benefit of AI is its ability to easily recognise patterns. Your marketing team can leverage this ability by using AI technology to quickly and efficiently identify customer personas as well as individual preferences. Then, using the information your AI tools gather here, you can create more personalised experiences for your customers (or customer groups) that they will find most engaging.
7. Marketing Costs
The final way that your marketing team can use AI technology is to save time and costs throughout the entire marketing process. By automating tasks, utilising more efficient data analysis, and optimising your content with AI technology, your team can spend less time on all of the time-consuming tasks. This means that you do not have to accommodate seemingly endless overtime, and you can reduce your overall marketing costs, which gives you more capital to invest in your business’s future.
How to Harness the Potential of AI and ML in Your B2G Strategy
Embracing AI and ML technology can be a great way to spruce up your current B2G sales strategy or discover why your most recent marketing campaign hasn’t taken off. Because artificial intelligence can impact many areas of your business, it can help create a more effective marketing strategy holistically, rather than atomistically. Some AI tools can even help you promote early engagement, meaning proactive engagement with potential buyers before any transactions begin. This can help you to stand out from your competitors and improve your chances of doing business with an organisation or individual.
While there are endless ways to use AI for your business, there are some practices that can dramatically improve your B2G strategy quickly. These include:
- Improving your social media and email marketing processes by using AI to tailor ads to your target customer personas.
- Utilising A/B testing to optimise your marketing campaigns by assessing which versions of ads your customers prefer.
- Generating high-quality, optimised written and visual content quickly.
- Segmenting customers based on their shared preferences so you can effectively tailor your marketing efforts to suit each group.
- Using predictive analytics to create effective and targeted marketing campaigns based on customer data and insights.
- Integrating chatbots into your social media platforms or website to offer instant customer support and prompt consumer engagement.
- Automating mundane business tasks, such as sending email ads or notifying customers of incomplete transactions, to save time and resources.
Get Help Digitising Your B2G Marketing Strategy
In conclusion, artificial intelligence and machine learning technology can bring tremendous benefits to your business through a variety of methods. But, if you are just starting out with AI technology or want to adopt AI tools and platforms slowly, all of these options may be intimidating. Luckily, you can find many AI and marketing experts today who can help you determine the best way to improve your marketing strategy sustainably and simply.
If you want to learn more about what AI and machine learning can do for your marketing strategy, book a meeting with our experts and get started on your new and improved B2G marketing strategy.
