Artificial intelligence (AI) helps marketers automate activities and campaigns at scale in a way we've never seen before.
According to our recent survey with DMI members, the primary benefits of integrating AI into marketing efforts are automation of routine tasks (68%), improved customer experience (46%), improved targeting and segmentation (45%), enhanced personalisation (44%) and predictive analysis (39%).
So there are many applications for AI in marketing, but there are also lots of AI tools and they're coming at us fast!
This can make it overwhelming for marketers to know where to start with AI and see that there are many tools out there (not just ChatGPT) that can help gain customer insights, drive personalization, and boost efficiency.
To help you pick the right AI tool for your goal, we've compiled a list of the best ones available for a number of digital marketing activities:
But first, let’s look at what an AI tool is and how to use them for digital marketing.
An AI marketing tool is a platform or application that uses AI technology to enhance marketing activities and make data-driven decisions.
These tools leverage AI algorithms, natural language processing, machine learning, and data analytics to automate processes, analyze data, and provide insights to optimize marketing strategies and campaigns.
Examples of AI marketing tools include chatbots, predictive analytics platforms, recommendation engines, and content generation systems.
The use of AI tools is becoming more widespread across industries. Grand View Research projects that AI will have an annual growth rate of 37% between 2023 and 2030 - no small feat in just seven years.
There’s a reason for this prediction - AI has huge benefits for marketers and marketing departments which are:
Ultimately, AI tools empower businesses to make better decisions, work smarter and deliver more value to their business and stakeholders.
“There's still a huge need for human writers, for human creativity, for human thought and strategy and to come to these tools with our own objectives and our own ideas.” Kerry Harrison, AI Educator and copywriter
With so many AI tools out there, it’s no surprise that marketers are wondering which one is the best. While lots of AI tools are still in the early stages or evolving based on what they learn through interactions and prompts, there is one that stands out right now!
Just to make sure, we asked our LinkedIn community of marketers to tell us what they were using and found most effective. By an overwhelming majority of 86%, people responded that ChatGPT was the frontrunner.
While ChatGPT is on top for now, bear in mind that other AI tools will emerge and evolve. Plus it’s all about what you need to use the tool for. If it’s SEO or customer journey mapping, then look below to see what tools might suit better.
There are a number of great AI tools that can help enhance your digital marketing activities. The tool that’s ‘best’ for you depends on the company, industry, budget and goals.
Here are some great all-in-one AI tools for digital marketing which will be followed by ones for specific functions.
As a marketer, it’s crucial to understand the interests, needs and pain points of your audience. Without that, you’ll create content that doesn’t talk to the people you want to attract and engage.
Here are some useful AI tools for audience research:
Answer Socrates provides insights into the types of questions that people are searching about.
SparkToro is a powerful audience research tool that gathers data about potential customers.
Google Trends helps you discover content that is currently resonating with audiences.
Do you know what your customers are doing when they are on your website? Do you know where your prospects and customers come from?
If not, you need to understand the journey of your customer so you know the channel and campaign where they first encountered your brand to the touchpoint where they converted. Here are some AI tools to help you:
Kissmetrics analyzes customer data to gain insights on customer behavior and brand interactions.
Mixpanel enables you to better understand your customers by analyzing their behavior and interactions.
Amplitude analyzes the customer journey to unearth friction on the path to conversions and identify what works well in the campaign.
Semrush Persona enables you to build buyer personas using AI-powered persona templates.
One of the hardest things as a marketer is to come up with fresh and exciting content ideas.
Even when you know your buyer personas and have data to give you insight from previous campaigns, sometimes you just get stuck.
Here are some great AI tools for generating ideas and researching content.
Keywords enable the perfect marriage between SEO and content. They help you tap into what people are searching for online and help search engines like Google rank your content.
Knowing and using the right keywords can give a company the edge. Here are some tools that can help:
Trend analysis and forecasting in marketing is the examination of data (past and present) and market conditions to identify patterns, trends, and potential outcomes.
The aim is to help marketers anticipate market trends, predict future outcomes, and make informed strategic decisions that drive business growth and help stay ahead of competitors.
Here are some AI tools to help you with trend analysis and forecasting:
Competition can help drive innovation and spark creativity, but it can also be a challenge if you’re losing customers to another brand.
That’s why it’s important to do a competitive analysis so you know where you stand in comparison to other companies in the sector, but also understand your strengths and weaknesses.
Here are some AI tools that can help you monitor competitors:
Working with influencers can greatly increase the reach of your content. However, you need to ensure that the influencer aligns with your brand values and business goals.
Here are some AI tools you can use for influencer research:
Sales automation software is a convenient and cost-effective way for markers to generate highly personalized email campaigns that build loyalty and communications with ease (and at scale).
In addition to email campaigns, sales automation software is also effective for scheduling prospect appointments, prioritizing leads, and gathering valuable data.
Let’s take a look at some of the best tools for AI marketing sales right now.
Social media is one of the most popular channels that marketers use. But with so many networks available and so many content and ad formats to choose from, it can be tricky to deliver a good ROI - especially for organic content.
Luckily there are some AI tools at your disposal that can help make social media management and advertising less time consuming and more effective.
For social listening and monitoring brand sentiment, consider using the following tools:
As you no doubt know, content is one of the most vital components of any successful digital marketing strategy. Without rock-solid content, you’ll never establish a strong brand voice or establish authority in your niche.
AI writing tools exist to help create valuable content with minimal human intervention. Let’s take a look at some of them by category.
Content generation
If you need help with structuring your content, you might consider using Yoast, TextOptimizer, or Frase.or email content, try out Automizy or Mailchimp.
Note: Always consider these AI tools as content assistants. You should carefully check any content generated by AI to ensure it aligns with your content objectives and brand tone.
Other content types
Of course, you're likely to generate more than just text content. Let's now consider some other content types that AI can help you to create.
For image content, you could consider the following:
You can choose from a number of tools for video content:
And what about audio content? Here are some useful AI-powered solutions:
Of course, you're likely to generate more than just text content. Let's now consider some other content types that AI can help you to create.
For image content, you could consider the following:
You can choose from a number of tools for video content:
And what about audio content? Here are some useful AI-powered solutions:
Having created your content, you'll want to optimize it to maximize its impact. You can choose from several AI-driven tools to enhance your content for SEO and ensure it ranks highly on SERPs:
Specifically for local SEO, you could use tools such as BrightLocal, Whitespark, or Advice Local.
You might also want to carry out A/B testing on your content:
For email content, the following tools are available:
For translation and localization of content, Google Translate uses AI to translate and localize marketing content. Be aware of the limitations of machine-only translation, however!
For ad optimization , ForePlay can use AI-powered insights to optimize your ad content and campaigns.
And finally, if you want to optimize your content based on search intent, BrightEdge helps you to figure out the intent behind search queries. You can then optimize your content in a targeted way.
Now that you have honed your content, you'll want to ensure that you post it at the optimum time to maximize its impact. Both Hootsuite and Buffer use AI-driven tools to suggest the best times for you to post your content.
Of course, the hard work doesn't end when you post your content. You then need to monitor its performance. How can AI tools help you with this?
Google Analytics 4 provides real-time content analytics, enabling effective decision-making and informing strategy decisions.
ChatGPT can generate insights based on the data you feed it, and present insights in a clear, user-friendly format.
FanPage Karma helps you to analyze the performance of your social media content.
Managing your marketing budget is a key task for any digital marketer. Tracking your spend ensures that you know where funds are going and what budget you have left on a weekly or monthly basis.
Then you can optimize your marketing budget to get the most out of it. For ad bidding, you could consider the following tools:
When if comes to dynamic pricing, the following tools are available:
And for PPC optimization, you could use these AI-powered tools:
Digital marketers can use AI tools to help them communicate with customers more efficiently. For example, you could use chatbots to streamline communications with customers. Here are some great examples:
You can also use AI tools to help retain customers:
AI tools can also help digital marketers to enhance their workflows, leading to greater efficiencies and reduced costs.
Among the tools available are the following:
You may also want to use simulatio scenario planning to look at ways of improving your workflows. AI can help here too:
“The playing field is poised to become a lot more competitive, and businesses that don't deploy AI and data to help them innovate in everything they do will be at a disadvantage.” —Paul Daugherty, Accenture
There are many inspiring uses of AI in digital marketing. As autonomous technologies become increasingly accessible (and powerful), an increasing number of renowned brands are joining the party.
Big-hitting publications like Bloomberg, the Washington Post, and Forbes, for example, are currently using AI tools to create content—which you can find out all about by listening to our recent ‘Art of Copywriting’ podcast.
To help you get the most from your AI marketing efforts, here are a few quick dos and don’ts for your reading pleasure.
Do
Don’t
Artificial intelligence is a game changer for marketers as it helps personalize, optimize and automate many key marketing activities. Our new short interactive AI course (with practical walkthroughs) will help you understand the fundamentals of AI and use key AI tools for research, content development, data-driven decision-making, and creative design. Reserve your spot today!