Similar to how electricity altered the world, artificial intelligence (AI) is now the primary driver of innovation and growth in today’s commercial environment.
This also applies to marketing. By automating monotonous processes, improving campaign performance, facilitating deeper personalization, facilitating data-driven decision-making, and accurately forecasting client behavior, artificial intelligence is revolutionizing team operations.
According to our 2024 Global Digital Skills & Training Report: Insights from Corporate Leaders, 60% of CMOs have already included AI into their marketing plans. These leaders also think AI will have a big impact on innovation (38%), efficiency (45%), and productivity (50%).
Digital marketing is undoubtedly changing due to artificial intelligence. It’s transforming not just how marketers operate but also how successful strategies are developed, implemented, and scaled.
In this blog we’ll explore these questions:
- What is an AI digital marketing strategy?
- What AI digital marketing tools should you use?
- How can you create an AI digital marketing strategy?
- How can you use AI to implement a digital marketing strategy?
What is an AI digital marketing strategy?
Even while AI is being used by many companies, it’s not simply about producing fast content or automating tedious activities. Organizations must have a defined AI strategy that improves marketing performance, increases campaign efficacy, and fortifies client engagement if they are to fully realize AI’s potential.
This means that marketing teams should consider how to acquire AI skills and knowledge so they can apply AI across the customer experience, rather than limiting themselves to specific duties like programmatic advertising or content creation.This is why an AI strategy is crucial since it gives marketers a roadmap for utilizing the technology to meet KPIs and accomplish corporate goals.
What AI digital marketing tools should you use?
The ability of AI to help and improve a wide range of jobs is one of its biggest benefits in marketing.
Our most recent business report lists the following five advantages of using AI in marketing strategies:
- Automating daily chores (68%)
- Improving the client experience (46%).
- Enhancing segmentation and targeting (45%)
- Providing more individualized encounters (44%).
- Predictive analysis made possible (39%)
The part that’s exciting? With the increasing number of AI-powered tools available to marketers, marketing initiatives are now more effective and impactful than ever before. These tools range from automation and data analysis to content production and copywriting.
AI tools to automate routine tasks
Your unique marketing objectives will determine the kind of AI tool you select, but the good news is that many of the most well-known platforms already incorporate AI into their features.
Here are a few popular tools and how AI is applied in them:
With tools like segmentation, scheduling, and A/B testing to enhance performance, Mailchimp automates email marketing campaigns.
Google Ads: AI-powered automated targeting, bidding, and budget optimization to increase ad effectiveness and return on investment.
HubSpot is a powerful CRM that uses AI-powered automation to simplify lead management and email marketing.
Drift is an AI-powered chatbot that instantaneously engages website visitors to provide real-time customer service and lead nurturing.
Canva: Provides AI-powered design tools to assist in producing visually appealing presentations, advertisements, and social media visuals.
Zapier reduces tedious activities like data input, lead tracking, and more by connecting your favorite apps and automating workflows.
With the aid of these tools, marketers may increase accuracy, save time, and concentrate more on strategy and creativity.
AI tools to improve customer experience
The importance of the customer experience has never been higher because modern consumers demand quick, easy, and customized online experiences.
Delivering those experiences can be greatly aided by AI solutions, which can increase engagement, streamline support, and retain consumers. The following are some excellent resources for improving the customer experience:
Zendesk is a robust customer support platform that increases assistance efficiency with AI-powered chatbots, ticketing systems, and automated responses.
Intercom is an AI-powered messaging platform that uses intelligent chatbots and targeted messaging to automate customer service, onboarding, and engagement.
Kissmetrics uses artificial intelligence (AI) to evaluate consumer data and find useful information about user behavior and brand interactions.
Zoho Desk is an AI-powered help desk that integrates social media, live chat, email, and phone calls into a one, easy-to-use interface.
Businesses can provide faster, more intelligent, and more individualized service at every point of the customer journey by integrating these tools.
AI tools for targeting and segmentation
Customers of today demand that brands understand them in addition to providing a positive experience.
For this reason, marketing teams now place a high premium on customisation. Brands can create stronger bonds, start discussions, and increase retention by providing offers and information that are specifically customized to each individual.
The following potent AI tools improve segmentation and targeting:
Salesforce Marketing Cloud: Segments audiences, analyzes customer behavior, and sends tailored communications across various touchpoints using artificial intelligence.
Blueshift uses AI and real-time data to create dynamic segments, forecast consumer behavior, and support focused multichannel marketing.
Optimove: Uses AI and predictive analytics to boost customer loyalty and automate highly customized marketing campaigns.
With the use of these tools, marketers can transcend basic messaging and produce experiences that genuinely connect with their target audience.
AI tools for predictive analysis
Finding valuable insights from the vast amount of data coming in from many sources can be difficult and time-consuming.
AI can help with it. Large datasets may be processed by these tools at breakneck speed, revealing precise insights and new trends long before people could.
The following notable AI tools can assist with trend prediction and data analysis:
RapidMiner is an AI-powered platform for creating predictive models that focuses heavily on business forecasts and consumer insights.
From financial forecasts to churn prediction, H2O.ai is an open-source machine learning platform that specializes in predictive analytics.
Talkwalker: This AI-powered tool tracks discussions and identifies emerging patterns across social and digital platforms.
TrendKite: This technology, which is intended for marketers, forecasts trends and analyzes media effect using artificial intelligence.
IBM Watson provides sophisticated predictive analytics that forecast business outcomes and customer behavior by utilizing machine learning.
And that’s only the very beginning. Additionally, AI solutions can help with audience analysis, influencer research, sales automation, customer journey mapping, and content production.
Pro Tip: The quality of tools such as Perplexity and ChatGPT depends on the suggestions you provide. Do you want to improve your results? To discover how to create prompts that yield insightful information, download our ChatGPT Prompt Guide.
How can you create an AI digital marketing strategy?
The same guidelines that apply to other corporate strategies should also apply when developing an AI plan.
It need to be based on the objectives of your business and intended to improve team performance, productivity, and efficiency.
An AI plan should fundamentally describe how the technology may improve and elevate your marketing initiatives across all platforms.
So, how does one go about creating a successful digital marketing plan powered by AI?
Step 1: Assess your current strategy
It’s crucial to reevaluate your digital marketing approach, regardless of whether you’re just beginning to investigate AI, have started incorporating it, or are already utilizing it frequently.
How recently was it reviewed by your team? Does it accurately represent your present or future use of AI?
For example, does your content marketing approach include the use of tools like Claude or Jasper for content production and ideation?
Step 2: Define your goals
Establishing your goals is essential before incorporating AI into your company.
Begin by questioning yourself:
What difficulties are you currently dealing with?
What particular objectives are you pursuing?
Perhaps you want to automate data input and other repetitive operations to relieve your marketing team of some of their workload. Or maybe you want to respond to client inquiries more quickly.
Additionally, you may be working to increase conversion rates, particularly if some web pages are receiving a lot of traffic but not producing the desired outcomes.
In any event, setting defined goals early on can help you select the best AI tools and tactics to achieve them.
Step 3: Look at your data
You must feed AI the appropriate kind of data because it feeds on it.
By “right” data, we mean current, pertinent, and accurate information that AI can efficiently evaluate.
Examine your current data sources first, including social media interaction statistics, email performance indicators, client purchase history, and website analytics using GA4.
AI technologies can advance your analysis, even if you’ve already discovered certain insights. They can help you find hidden trends, patterns, and new possibilities to improve your marketing plan.
Step 4: Select your AI tools
Your marketing objectives and the desired results should be directly supported by the AI tools you use.
Since there are many different tools accessible, as was previously demonstrated, it is crucial to be deliberate and take the time to find the applications that best suit your needs.
A Harvard Business Review article claims that classifying AI products according to their degree of intelligence and structure is a useful strategy. This approach can assist you in strategically planning your AI integration and prioritizing which tools to use.
Try to combine more complex AI platforms or ones that can easily interact with your current systems (like your CRM) with more straightforward, stand-alone technologies like chatbots (like HubSpot) for the most possible impact. You can create a more powerful and effective AI-powered marketing engine with this combination.
Step 5: Segment your audience
By 2026, the market for customer experience optimization and personalization software and services is projected to reach $11.6 billion, according to Statista.
This demonstrates how crucial targeting and segmentation have become for companies looking to establish a strong connection with their target market.
By examining consumer behavior, demographics, and engagement patterns, AI systems improve this process. Marketers can create accurate buyer personas and customized messaging that genuinely connects with each audience segment by using these insights.
Step 6: Automate campaigns and workflows
It’s time to begin automating now that you have established your objectives, selected the appropriate AI technologies, and comprehended your target audience.
Start with simple responsibilities like scheduling, reporting, data entry, and lead nurturing. Your marketing staff may concentrate on more impactful, strategic work by automating these procedures.
AI may, for instance, manage automatic email sequences, optimize ad placements, and schedule social media posts in marketing campaigns, selecting the best channels and time based on consumer data.
In order to improve engagement and outcomes, AI can also dynamically segment your audience and provide customized content based on each person’s unique tastes and behaviors.
Step 7: Test and optimize
Every marketer is aware that there is always room for improvement, even in the most expertly planned, customized campaigns.
This is where optimization and testing are useful, and AI elevates both. AI can continuously evaluate and improve your efforts for greater outcomes if it has access to real-time data.
Use AI-powered A/B testing to test different CTAs, ad creatives, subject lines, and other elements. You can make quicker, more intelligent decisions that improve engagement and return on investment by employing AI-generated insights and continuously monitoring performance.
Step 8: Measure performance
AI-powered or not, every marketing campaign must be measured to determine its efficacy and impact.
To measure performance, establish definite KPIs like as ROI, conversion rates, and client lifetime value.
Track outcomes in real time by utilizing AI-enabled platforms such as Google Analytics and Salesforce. These systems give you useful insights and optimization recommendations to help you maintain refining your approach in addition to assisting you in measuring results.
Step 9: Refine and scale
AI is meant to develop; the more data it consumes, the smarter it gets. You may improve your marketing approach over time by modifying your messaging, honing audience groups, and choosing the best channels based on real-time insights thanks to this ongoing learning.
You’ll be able to scale your efforts more successfully and apply what you’ve learned to future campaigns, channels, and platforms as your AI technologies collect more intelligence. This will lead to smarter, more effective marketing as your firm grows.
How can you use AI to implement a digital marketing strategy?
When shaping your digital marketing strategy, AI tools can play a pivotal role in streamlining the process and boosting performance.
Here are the key areas where AI can make a significant impact:
Strategic Planning – Use AI to analyze data, identify trends, and inform long-term marketing goals.
Boosting Efficiency & Productivity – Automate repetitive tasks and free up your team’s time for high-impact work.
Maximizing ROI – Leverage AI insights to make smarter budget decisions and improve campaign effectiveness.
Executing Omnichannel Campaigns – Create consistent, personalized experiences across multiple touchpoints.
Driving Innovation – Stay ahead of the curve with AI-driven experimentation and predictive analytics.
What are the risks and ethical implications of AI?
Although AI has enormous potential, it also poses significant hazards, especially for enterprises. Being a rapidly developing and generative technology, it necessitates a methodical, well-thought-out approach that incorporates a well-defined plan, robust governance, and a dedication to moral and responsible usage.
When implementing AI, businesses should be mindful of the following five common risks:
1. Bias in Decision-Making: AI systems learn from data, and their results will be biased if the data contains bias. For example, a research found that a medical AI system caused significant gaps in care by giving preference to white patients over Black patients. Data sets must be routinely audited by businesses to guarantee equity and eliminate unfair trends.
2. Insufficient Transparency: AI has the potential to be a “black box,” generating discoveries without revealing how they were arrived at. Trust may be damaged by this inability to be explained. Companies should make transparency a top priority by utilizing models and methods that let stakeholders know how decisions are made.
3. Loss of Employment:
Automation driven by AI may result in job losses, particularly in positions requiring repeated duties. Businesses should invest in reskilling and upskilling their staff to assist them move into new strategic jobs or those supported by AI in order to reduce disruption.
4. Privacy Issues: AI systems collect and analyze vast amounts of behavioral and personal data. To protect consumer information, businesses must create explicit internal rules, adhere to privacy regulations like the GDPR, and maintain stringent data protection standards.
5. Misinformation Spread:
Artificial intelligence has the potential to produce false information, like deepfakes and fake news. Phishing attempts and scams have already made use of these technologies; in one recent instance, scammers utilized a deepfake video chat to pose as a CFO and take $25 million. Businesses must maintain vigilance and use protections to identify and stop manipulation.
In the end, businesses need to be aware of these dangers and create a strong AI risk management strategy that prioritizes customer safety, ethics, and openness.
Having a clear strategy in place is crucial, regardless of where you are in your AI journey—whether you are just starting out or have already begun incorporating tools into your marketing.
Your usage of tools and platforms to improve, optimize, and scale your marketing operations will be guided by a clearly defined AI strategy. Additionally, it prepares your staff for the rapid evolution of AI technology.
AI is becoming a crucial element for companies looking to increase productivity, make wiser decisions, and maintain their competitiveness in a world that prioritizes digitalization. It is no longer merely a “nice-to-have.”
Use AI to implement a digital marketing strategy
Artificial intelligence is transforming the way marketers work—enabling smarter personalization, greater efficiency, and seamless automation across campaigns. Our new short, interactive AI course gives you hands-on experience with essential tools and teaches you the core principles of AI. Learn how to harness AI for research, content creation, data analysis, and creative design. Start your learning journey today!