How Will AI Shape Marketing?

There is one truth in marketing, and it’s that everything will change. It’s what makes marketing so dynamic and interesting. Marketers have been dealing with dramatic changes in their industry for more than a century. The challenge is that the speed of change is growing.

Think about this. It took 100 years to go from the phone (not commercialized until Bell in 1876) to radio (1897) to television (1927), to email in 1971.

Then it took only 20 years to go from the internet (1983) to search engines (1990) to social media (early 2000s).

What will come next will surprise, excite, and no doubt shake things up. The point is that there will always be some new technology, platform, solution, or channel, and we need to understand how to evaluate these changes.

This is why I chose the name “WISE” Digital Partners. In a world of constant change, businesses need a sage partner to help them navigate the waters (their strategies) and the skies (their competition).

As a business owner, you need to carefully research the partner you choose to lead your marketing efforts–just as you would any other important partner you want to work with, such as an accountant or lawyer.

That partner should show you how to evaluate new things, determine if they pose an opportunity or threat and if they support or distract you from your goals. That’s exactly what WISE Digital does, and it’s why I’m writing about the newest rage in digital marketing—artificial intelligence.

What AI (ChatGPT) Says About AI and Marketing

Sometimes what everyone is talking about is just noise. I thought this way about MySpace but not about Facebook. I thought, and continue to think this way, about TikTok. Should we ignore that new thing or harness its power?

So what do we do about artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT, DALL-E, and more? Will they add value, supplement some of our efforts, give us ideas, or help us discover and test more?

Queue the machine—I asked ChatGPT to share its thoughts on this by posing the following question to the artificial intelligence chatbot:

“how should marketers be thinking about AI and what implications does it have on digital marketing specifically?”

And here’s the answer ChatGPT gave me:

Marketers should be thinking about AI as a powerful tool that can help them to improve their digital marketing efforts in a number of ways. AI can be used to automate and streamline many aspects of digital marketing, including data analysis, audience targeting, ad optimization, and content creation. This can help marketers to work more efficiently and effectively, while also delivering better results for their clients or businesses.

One of the key implications of AI on digital marketing is that it enables marketers to better understand their target audiences. By analyzing large amounts of data about consumer behavior and preferences, AI can help marketers to identify patterns and trends that can inform their marketing strategies. This can lead to more personalized and relevant marketing messages that resonate with consumers and drive engagement.

Another important implication of AI on digital marketing is that it can help marketers to optimize their ad campaigns in real-time. AI algorithms can analyze a variety of factors, including audience demographics, ad placement, and ad content, to identify the most effective ad combinations. This can help marketers to achieve better results from their ad campaigns and improve their return on investment.

Finally, AI can be used to create more engaging and effective content. For example, AI algorithms can analyze consumer behavior and preferences to identify the types of content that are most likely to be successful. This can help marketers to create more targeted and relevant content that resonates with their target audiences, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.

Overall, marketers should be thinking about AI as a powerful tool that can help them to work more efficiently and effectively, while also delivering better results for their clients or businesses. By leveraging AI in their digital marketing efforts, marketers can gain a competitive edge and stay ahead of the curve in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.

While you ponder AI’s response to my question, I’ll share what I think from a digital marketer’s perspective.

My Thoughts

AI is real, and it’s an opportunity, but it also poses some threats. So how do we measure friend vs. foe with a robot?

WISE Digital started working with tools that you could consider AI in early 2020. The first was our chat service, which is partially powered by AI. The conversation you can start with this website begins with AI but switches to a human once you start asking material questions and give the bot your information to be contacted (in case it’s disconnected). It’s a fabulous service and a good example of how to combine AI with a traditional approach. The hybrid partnership works nearly seamlessly.

There are a lot of implications for AI in copy and SEO. Probably more so than design and development right now. We already see that AI can help get ideas started for copy. It can help with website copy, blog posts, emails, ad copy, chat, and more. But a human needs to direct, review, edit, and optimize it. I think about it as a tool to (a) help with writer’s block and (b) help come up with alternative ideas and new variations. 

I’m concerned about Google, and currently, we do not know how the search engine will respond to AI. From the platform’s historical stance and actions, we can assume that it may punish automated content delivered en masse by AI.

We are advising our clients to steer away from inflating any website with unedited AI-written content. Some have asked, “what if we create a bunch of content and hide it from Google.” If this content were hidden (i.e., set to “noindex” so it can’t be found within Google search results), it would be of little benefit to most businesses. That is unless you already get massive organic traffic and page views to your website, and most businesses don’t. If these pages were crawlable, the effect could be quite counterproductive, even harmful.

There are many folks already trying these strategies, but there are other ways we’ll be able to leverage AI for our benefit that will be less risky in the long run and more impactful. For now, we think that thoughtlessly-added content could do more harm than good.

More to come on this.