AI in Marketing - 6 useful tools which really work

Artificial Intelligence is moving into more areas than ever, including marketing. Although AI is not expected to replace humans in marketing, it can help to make marketing activities more efficient. In this article, AI, Chatbot and Marketing Specialist Sophie Hundertmark, organizer of the first AI in Marketing Conference, presents some of her favorite tools using AI to support your marketing activities.

One of my favorite tools is SocializerHub. This tool helps you to find new followers on many social media platforms. How does it work? You fill out a short questionnaire, inserting your marketing goals, your target groups and some other specific details concerning your marketing intentions. Afterwards you combine the tool with the social media account you want to use. From then on, SocializerHub searches for suitable content in the internet, which will be automatically posted with your preferred hashtags. The only thing you should do, is check from time to time that the tool posts the right content.

Why do I like this tool so much? First, it really works! The content is, in most cases, really useful. And second, it is affordable for everyone. It starts with CHF 150 per month for private use. I highly recommend this tool for every startup that wants to increase their followers in a short period of time without investing too much manpower.

Second, I recommend chatbots based on AI. You can use chatbots on your website or on your Facebook account for several reasons. For example, you can use them to inform your target groups about your products and services. The potential customers who visit your website or Facebook channel might have a lot of questions concerning your company, your products or your services, so start connecting them with your AI based bot and they can ask questions around the clock. So, why chatbots based on AI? These kind of chatbots learn by themselves. They are based on Machine Learning algorithms and get better day by day. In contrast to rule-based (non-AI) chatbots, they are much more clever and really support your customer service.

Try out the open-source software by Rasa. For this, you might need a bit of knowledge in coding – or ask a coder for support. Otherwise, you can also try out Drift (see below).

As mentioned above, when it comes to chatbots and you don’t have any coding skills , you can use a chatbot-building software that supports you. In many cases Drift is a good option. Their chatbots can connect with calendars, route leads based on rules, and interact with website users. And it sends emails. It's a light form of AI, but it's still very powerful.

Drift also uses Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing to review replies to sales emails and automatically opt out people. For instance, if someone replies "I don't want any more emails," Drift is intelligent enough to pull them out of future emails.

Most Drift customers are seeing success generating new leads through real-time messaging, booking more qualified meetings for their sales team with chatbots, and closing deals faster. The software is not that expensive, so any company can afford using Drift and putting their intelligent assistant on the website.

I met Acrolinx during my first AI in Marketing Meetup in Berlin and I was really impressed by their technology. Acrolinx is an AI-based platform that uses a unique linguistic analytics engine to “read” all your content and provide immediate guidance to improve it. Acrolinx uses a variety of techniques in its multilingual Natural Language Processing (NLP) engine, including Machine Learning and knowledge-based approaches to ensure the best combination of scalability and precision demanded from customers.

For example, if you work in a a team with different content creators, Acrolinx compares all their content – and highlights the good and bad aspects of it. So in the end, you have a very clear and structured report on how to improve your content step by step, so that your audience is doing the conversion you're aiming at.

Unfortunately this tool is a bit expensive, that’s why in mostly larger companies that use it.

OneSpot builds content marketing for your website, email and paid display, mobile and social. They use Machine Learning algorithms to personalize content and match individual user preferences based on their behavior and characteristics. That kind of cross-channel personalization generates rich datasets that OneSpot’s algorithms use to better target users with the right content again and again, helping brands create deep relationships with users through repeated, sustained engagement. Additionally, OneSpot’s solutions use all the data learned from consumer preferences to supercharge content strategy, identify gaps in editorial strategy and make recommendations about which topics work best.

If you want to use OneSpot you need a certain amount of content. In contrast to SocializerHub which uses content from the internet, OneSpot only uses your content and decides which content fits to which audience. Since the tool is more expensive I would only recommend it for bigger companies with a marketing budget.

Evergage is another tool that I got to know during one of my AI in Marketing Meetups. The American company was just opening their first offices in DACH region when I got to know the Sales Manager. The tool uses machine learning to understand and interact with each customer and prospect – one at a time, "in the moment" and at scale – and deliver maximally relevant, 1-to-1 experiences across channels. For example, the tool finds out in which moment your website user is just about to leave your site. In this moment, the tools offers an incentive – such as a voucher – to make your visitor more likely to stay.

In order to use this tool, you need traffic on your website. Also, Evergage is not quite cheap. However, if you can allocate the budget, I highly recommend this tool!

Want to find out more about AI in Marketing? On March 27, the first AI in Marketing Conference will take place at Kraftwerk, with experienced AI & marketing specialists sharing their insights. Find out more and register for the conference here.

Sophie Hundertmark had her first contacts and conversations with chatbots during her online business and marketing studies: she wrote her master thesis about chatbots in public transport. As a founder and partner of h-square GmbH she now advises companies on Chatbot implementation and optimization. As a founder of AI Zuerich she is planning the first “AI in Marketing Conference” in Zurich in March 2019.