How Conversational AI Benefits Digital Marketing

Innovations in conversational AI are revolutionizing the way businesses interact with customers and market to prospects. With the rise of chatbots, voice assistants, and other AI technologies, digital marketers can leverage AI algorithms in a number of ways to connect with audiences and improve overall performance.

Through personalization, automation, and 24/7 availability, conversational AI can:

• Improve customer service, experience, and engagement. 
• Enhance marketing’s effectiveness.
• Increase marketing’s efficiency.

We’ll take a closer look at how conversational AI can accomplish these goals, but first…

What is Conversational AI?

Conversational AI applications are designed to engage in natural-sounding communication with human users. While this technology has been around for a while in the form of chatbots and virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, the latest iterations, propelled by the recent launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, utilize algorithms like natural language processing (NLP) and large language models (LLM). 

These algorithms are able to recognize, summarize, translate, predict, and generate content— such as text, code, and even graphics— based on knowledge gained from massive data sets. LLMs can teach AI programs human languages, and even how to express tones of voice and show empathy. The output of these algorithms (and what sets AI apart from regular search engines) is a high level of result personalization and the feeling that users are interacting with a "real person".

Improved Customer Service, Experience, and Engagement

AI-powered chatbots can comprehend complex commands and unique user intents, then respond in a way that makes customers feel like they are talking to a human. This means chatbots can be a great option for providing customers with personalized and efficient service, such as answering FAQs, making product recommendations, and resolving one-off issues quickly— all without requiring customers to navigate complicated and frustrating phone systems or wait on hold for a representative. Through NLP, conversational AI applications also have the ability to refine responses based on context and prior interactions, meaning customer service is always learning and improving every time they assist a customer.

Another benefit of conversational AI is its 24/7 availability. When customers can engage with a brand at any time, businesses can provide assistance around the clock without requiring customer service employees to be available at all times. Prompt and personalized interactions reduce the need for human intervention and workload for customer service teams— freeing up human resources for more complex tasks.

This level of personalization and availability makes the overall interaction more enjoyable and memorable. Customers who receive prompt responses and resolutions to their queries are more likely to feel valued and supported by the business and see the brand in a more positive light. And meaningful, effective interactions with your brand can lead to increased customer engagement, heightened marketing message resonance, loyalty, and, ultimately, repeat business— a win for your marketing department, and business as a whole.

Enhanced Marketing Effectiveness

Data collection and analysis is a huge benefit of conversational AI to marketers in improving ad campaigns and lead generation efforts. By analyzing customer conversations and through predictive analysis, businesses can gain insights into customer behavior, preferences, and pain points, as well as identify patterns and trends to better anticipate customer needs. This information, in turn, enables marketers to make better decisions about audience targeting, resonant messaging, and future-forward product development. 

Digital marketers can use AI to personalize content and advertising at the individual level, thus improving ad engagement. By analyzing real-time data about a customer’s behavior, preferences, browsing history, and previous purchases, AI can provide highly relevant and targeted messaging that is more likely to resonate with current, or future, customers. Conversational AI can also use contextual data such as location, weather, and time-of-day to provide product or service recommendations, providing yet another layer of personalization that can enhance customer experience and heighten brand loyalty.

Conversational AI can also be used to qualify leads. Chatbots can ask targeted questions and collect valuable customer information that can then be used to create personalized content and offers that are more likely to convert leads into customers. Like improving customer service, this high level of individualization can improve engagement and conversion volume, ultimately increasing ROI.

These AI tools are also capable of analyzing images and recognizing voices, allowing marketers to create more immersive experiences for their audiences, such as interactive ads that allow users to ask questions and receive personalized responses or recommendations.

Increased Efficiency

AI-powered automation can streamline marketing tasks such ad scheduling, email marketing cadences, and general content creation. This gives marketers the ability to automate and streamline engagement with customers at every stage of the sales funnel— from providing product recommendations and offering discounts, to helping customers make actual ecommerce purchases— all while freeing up human marketers’ time for strategic tasks that can't be replaced by technology.

AI can also be used to handle multiple customer interactions at the same time without compromising output quality. Chatbots can answer repetitive and routine marketing-related queries, like “what services do you offer?” and “how do I get in contact with your brand?”. By automating repetitive tasks and delivering personalized marketing messages to inquiring users, marketers are free to focus on higher-level strategy and creative projects, making their work more efficient, and potentially increasing their department's output without the need for additional FTEs.

Digital marketing is rapidly evolving alongside advancements in conversational AI. Rise’s partnerships with leaders in AI technologies uniquely position our agency to help you stay up-to-date on changing technology, and most importantly, ahead of your competition.

Contact Rise to learn how we can help your business harness conversational AI to drive better business outcomes for your brand.