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Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automation in Digital Marketing

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automation in Digital Marketing

Artificial Intelligence and automation in digital marketing are like witnessing the magic of technology and creativity. As per the data, a whopping $94 billion was invested in AI-powered marketing automation in 2021.

A survey by Statista in February 2022 revealed a mind-blowing 32% boost in AI-based marketing automation.

The excitement doesn’t stop here!

Reports say that AI-based marketing automation is projected to surge to a powerful $107.5 billion by 2028.

It’s truly fascinating to see how AI-based marketing automation bridges the gap between cutting-edge technology and human connection. This guide reveals the secrets of this majestic collaboration where the future of marketing teams up with a tool that provides unlimited possibilities.

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Importance of AI automation in marketing

AI automation in marketing is a streamlined marketing process that feels smooth. It’s a personal assistant who understands the needs of the audience. It makes personalised content speak directly to each potential customer. With AI, you can create memorable campaigns while saving precious resources and money. Imagine the possibilities when your marketing efforts are not only more effective but also more cost-efficient.

Accenture reveals that companies embracing AI have witnessed a 30% rise in their ROI. That’s the kind of growth that dreams are made of. So, marketers should use marketing automation tools because it’s like adding a touch of smart technology to transform your efforts into extraordinary results.

Understanding AI in marketing automation

AI in marketing automation is like having a sidekick that combines tech with human skills, turning marketing strategies into masterpieces. Let’s take a look at some interesting insights:

Cracking the AI code:

Most professionals feel that AI is speaking in a different language. For 41.7% of businesses, the main hurdle to embracing AI marketing is simply not fully understanding it. It’s fascinating to witness endless possibilities that can transform your marketing strategies.

Creating content magic:

Content creation plays the lead role in the AI journey. AI can easily bring your ideas to life, uplifting your content with a creative touch to attract more customers. 44% of businesses have already harnessed AI to craft content that resonates with their audiences.

AI vs. Humans:

This is a rivalry where things get interesting. 71% believe that AI can shine in certain areas, like crunching numbers and data, but many still believe that humans will stay more powerful. AI still can’t deal with making tough decisions, striking up emotional chords and even conjuring creative masterpieces.

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A glimpse of brighter horizons:

55% of professionals have already embraced the potential of AI to turbocharge their marketing efforts. AI is not just about uplifting marketing strategies; it also helps save big bucks. AI has helped businesses down their marketing budget for campaigns by 10%.

Navigating the plot twist:

About 35% still think AI might steal their jobs, like an unexpected plot twist. It’s a global concern as technology continues to evolve.

Executing marketing automation using AI

Personalisation with heart:

Imagine a marketing message that feels like it was crafted just for you. That’s the level of personalisation that can be achieved with the help of AI. It’s like having a close friend who understands the likes and dislikes of both you and your audience, making every interaction genuine and special.

Emails that sparkle:

With the help of AI, email automation becomes seamless, easy and smart. It ensures that your messages reach the right people at the perfect time.

Sorted and nurtured leads:

AI turns into a perfect matchmaker as it helps businesses identify the most promising leads through lead scoring.  And when it comes to nurturing these leads, AI’s nurturing game is on point. It provides each lead with the attention and care it deserves.

Gazing into the future with predictive analysis analytics:

AI is like a crystal ball that can give a sneak peek into what’s coming next. AI’s predictive analytics strolls past data to forecast future trends, giving businesses the edge they need to stay ahead of the curve.

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Channel brilliance:

From social media to websites, AI becomes the ultimate guide, placing your content exactly where it will shine the brightest. It can help you know all the marketing secret spots for maximum impact.

All day long customer service:

AI allows you to provide customer service 24/7. AI-powered customer service is always ready to assist and ensure the customer’s needs are met.

Memorable communication:

AI transforms communication into an art form. Lightning-fast chatbots or perfectly timed automated follow-ups, AI can make communication more crisp and to the point while being creative. It ensures that every interaction leaves a lasting impression on the customers.

Industry-specific AI marketing automation

Each industry writes its own story with AI marketing automation, creating experiences that go beyond transactions. With the help of AI, it becomes easy to paint a future where industries thrive, businesses flourish, and customers find themselves at the heart of experiences that feel truly bespoke. Let’s take a look at how AI can be used in marketing automation in multiple industries:

E-commerce magic:

AI marketing automation becomes a personal shopping assistant in the competitive virtual marketplace. It’s like a friend who keeps suggesting products that feel like they were made just for the specific customer looking for them. It can help you with dynamic pricing that adjusts like a chameleon, ensuring you always get the best deal.

Healthcare’s healing touch:

AI marketing automation in healthcare is more about care. It is like a nurse who keeps reminding you of appointments and ensures you never miss your medicines. AI can be utilized extremely well in healthcare with automated medical tools.

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Wanderlust and warmth:

AI marketing automation can become the perfect travel partner guiding travelers through bookings, suggestions and even experiences. AI automation in hospitality can ensure seamless check-ins, housekeeping, operations, guest experiences, etc. It can help in making the journey of every traveler an unforgettable one with unique experiences.

Financial wisdom:

AI marketing is like a money-savvy expert. It turns into a wise mentor who interprets market trends and offers insights for smart investments. It’s like a financial confidant who helps your money thrive and grow intelligently.

Conclusion:

This is not an ordinary ending; it’s the beginning of something exciting. It’s about a world where technology and human creativity join hands, where campaigns are tailor-made, and time is no longer a constraint but a canvas for strategic brilliance. As we move ahead, remember that the story of AI and automation is far from over. Get ready to shine in a future where the fusion of AI and marketing turn businesses into empires!

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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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