The 21st Century is full of amazing metrics that would have once been thought of as unquantifiable.
What are your customers thinking? Where did they come from? Why aren’t they buying your products? Questions with so many perceived variable answers can be mapped out logically with the help of both AI and machine learning-based solutions. They might not be able to tell you why Mr. Jones abandoned the checkout process at 4:45pm on Monday afternoon, but the technology can take a single case and instantly compare and contrast the customer behavior with other abandonments to form educated guesses as to what’s losing your business customers.
The results of a recent Salesforce ‘State of Marketing’ study found that the implementation of AI is set to grow by a seismic 257% over the next two years with adopters rising from 22% to 79% in the same time frame.
Today, there’s more data available than ever and the margins between success and failure for new businesses seem to be narrowing. The successful implementation of AI and machine learning-based solutions could pay dividends for businesses and their understanding of the markets available to tap into.
Let’s explore some of the ways in which AI and machine learning can influence the way we handle and interpret the wealth of data available to us when it comes to the analysis of conversion strategies.
Unparalleled Personalization
The way you speak to prospective customers matters. In days of yore, personalizing the experience of each individual who navigates onto your pages may have seemed fanciful. Today, it’s imperative.
Even for startups that expect to bring in relatively little traffic, the notion of collecting relevant data for the hordes of visitors who navigate onto your pages sounds extremely difficult. But thanks to AI, this process is streamlined and has the power to be scaled exponentially so that even the largest of companies have the power to cater to individuals in an effective manner.
Having the ability to cater directly to an audience of one – as opposed to different types of target customers – your website can bolster its effectiveness in a way that can offer enticing deals, call-to-actions and recommendations based on the behavior of each individual visitor.
One of the greatest examples of AI-driven personalization comes from Starbucks, which draws on unfathomable swathes of data to send customers one of 400,000 different variants of email designed to engage with them in the most effective way.
Such an approach may feel a little like going above and beyond the call of duty, but with Accenture reporting that as many as 75% of customers agree that they’re more likely to make a purchase from a brand that offers personalization.
Starbucks certainly reaped the rewards of utilizing a personalized process. By using AI to personalize each individual’s service based on their previous behavior, the coffee giants experienced a 300% increase in customer spending as a direct result.
The type of AI that Starbucks has developed works by churning out micro-copy that gathers data from cookies to study and interpret the interests of visitors before automatically crafting hyper-personalized emails to each user that mimics the type of language they use and the kind of offers that the AI has determined would be of specific interest to them individually.
While such practices may prove costly for slightly smaller-scale businesses, it’s certainly possible to build budget campaigns that focus on adapting content based on a prospective customer’s age, gender, sizing, shopping preferences and level of brand loyalty.
Lead Generation
Of course, B2B-based businesses are wholly reliant on lead generation and the recording of contact information. However, even the most adept of marketers will agree that this process is easier said than done. Longer forms will result in losses of interest, while shorter forms risk losing invaluable data collection opportunities. Luckily, AI could help to put an end to the uncertainty.
Artificial Intelligence has the ability to analyze an existing customer base and single-handedly identify vital trends and emerging themes. The quality of insight that AI can provide in this respect has the potential to optimize your entire website, but has especially significant ramifications for your lead generation strategies.
Such optimization can involve enhancing the type of language you use, your website flow, the use of imagery and call-to-actions among other significant facets of a successful page.
Perhaps most significantly, Artificial Intelligence can also be utilized to process heavy levels of big data to not only discover but recommend prospective customers, all through how each individual interacts with your business’ web pages.
Furthermore, such levels of AI and machine learning can be found in many successful analytics platforms today. Programs like Finteza and Google Analytics even generate regular interactive reports that give users the chance to sift through the wealth of data-driven by this form of technology – it’s even possible for ‘bad traffic’ to be identified and ruled out of any further analysis.
Using Finteza as an example, the platform’s AI is trained to constantly monitor traffic onto the pages of a website while checking for any prospective anomalies. This is a significant asset when considering the importance of the traffic you receive. Bad traffic could relate to DDoS bots, cookie manipulators or simple impersonation bots–all of which could provide inaccurate readings when analyzing the success of your campaigns.
Utilizing UX
Building on the individualism of personalization, another useful application of AI stems from the optimization of both website design and user experience.
Here, AI gathers hordes of behavioral data from prospective customers in real-time to create feedback that it’s possible for business owners and marketers alike to act to bolster the conversion rates of their website and beyond. If you’ve invested in more advanced AI and machine learning programs, it’s even possible for the technology to automatically tweak your processes and make changes without the need of asking permission.
AI can revolutionize the efficiency of your A/B tests, giving your business the best chance of appealing to target audiences without any drawbacks or oversights. The insights provided by user behavior and the interpretation of the data they leave behind means that you’re able to build an experience that’s likely to be enjoyed by all – or at least by everyone that it adapts to.
The beauty of AI’s influence over A/B testing is that it can leave little guesswork in the matter. Thanks to the power of insights provided by cookies, it’s possible to convert a single, specific user’s behavior into a clear digital landscape that builds appeal. In an instant, your landing page could add or subtract form fields from within Call-to-Actions depending on determined interest, change banner images, or even adjust how much text is able to be viewed–all based on how a potential customer’s scrolling habits have been interpreted online.
Building on Biometrics
Biometrics will surely be a notable checkpoint on our path to marketing absolution.
Some advanced services offered on the market have the power to interpret data in a way that would’ve been impossible for the most powerful of machines just a decade or two ago.
Certain providers use a combination of both AI and machine learning to track eye movements of visitors as well as their facial expressions and even their galvanic skin responses (GSR). This level of technology is capable of pulling the most organic and pure levels of data from target audiences in a way that can provide the most valuable insights into your website’s performance and UX models.
For example, Coast Digital prides itself on providing ‘the ultimate UX insight’ for businesses looking to optimize their campaigns. Through the use of control groups, this form of AI-driven insight determines what aspects of landing pages are appealing and which aren’t strong enough – all based on where the user is looking on a page and how they respond both physically and facially to content.
The 2020s will be the decade where machines will know more about your customers than they know of themselves–which may well seem daunting, but at least you’ll be able to take the guesswork out of your next landing page.