ChatGPT becomes popular, how will artificial intelligence empower marketing?

Recently, ChatGPT has set off a new wave of enthusiasm for artificial intelligence in the technology circle. The birth of this chatbot model has made people see unlimited possibilities. In the field of marketing, what changes will ChatGPT bring to intelligent customer service and customer service? This article uses ChatGPT as a guide to analyze the various possibilities of artificial intelligence empowering marketing, hoping to inspire you who are concerned about artificial intelligence and brand marketing.

With the rapid development of 5G, big data, and cloud computing technologies, artificial intelligence is the most well-known representative information technology that has been applied in various industries. A few days ago, ChatGPT set off a wave of enthusiasm in the technology circle, which became popular and attracted heated discussions.

ChatGPT is a new AI-driven chatbot model released on November 30, 2022 by artificial intelligence research lab OpenAI.

There is nothing new about chatbots themselves. Whether in academia or business, research on chatbots and the application of intelligent customer service are in full swing in all walks of life. But why is ChatGPT so popular?

It is said that ChatGPT can not only answer various questions and requests raised by humans, such as writing manuscripts, editing novels, telling stories, and even writing poems, lyrics, drawing pictures, and proposing improvement experiences for codes, and directly writing code; it can also become an emotional mentor, teach people how to socialize, find girlfriends, solve problems for people, resolve mental health problems, and has "learning ability."

Doesn't it sound like a real person? And it's a perfect all-rounder. Even the best person probably can't meet so many needs at the same time. It shows that artificial intelligence technology is advancing at a speed you can't imagine.

As artificial intelligence technology makes further breakthroughs, the marketing industry, which used to be more "emotional" in management, must also begin to embrace the latest technology. If we use one sentence to summarize the current status of the marketing industry, it is:

Data driven, human centric, technology enabled.

Digital marketing has also developed rapidly in the past decade. One of the most prominent manifestations is that technological development has driven further changes in marketing.

The earliest digital marketing started with building a website.

From the architectural design behind the website to search engine marketing with SEO and SEM as the main means, search engines use algorithms to drive the ranking of keyword display results, and later to AR and VR immersive consumer interactive experiences, to the current metaverse virtual field, virtual people and digital collections with blockchain as the underlying architecture, the iteration of technology has made ever-changing marketing methods possible.

The real driving factor behind this is the change in consumer behavior and the demand for upgraded consumer experience. From the perspective of Internet platforms, new consumption, and industrial fields in recent years, the development of marketing technology is consistent with them.

The earliest Internet was portal websites, then search engines represented by Baidu and Google, with the emergence of social media Weibo and WeChat, and now TikTok, Bilibili, and Pinduoduo. Consumer behavior has also changed from viewing information on portal websites, to discovering and purchasing products through searches, to today's interest-based e-commerce, where people socialize and shop at the same time.

A core change has occurred here. Consumers' trust in brands is not only built from advertisements, media news, brand events, product reviews and actual use, but is more likely to be built from the comprehensive experience provided by the brand .

What does it mean?

In other words, consumers' spiritual demands for brands have further increased. Their previous purchasing point of view was that as long as it was useful and practical, it was fine. But now, the value that a brand gives me is not only determined by material value on one hand, but also by the overall experience the brand gives me on the other.

In the early stage of my decision-making process, the scene experience created, whether the spokesperson found by the brand is consistent with my values, and whether the after-sales service satisfies me become part of my decision-making. This happens naturally with the development of the times and the continuous optimization of technology.

A while ago, I was chatting with the founder of an advertising company. She said that she had smelled the opportunity of e-commerce in 1997. She tried it at that time, but did not succeed. It was not too early and the opportunity was not right.

At that time, user behavior habits had not yet been formed, and supply chains, logistics, and network trust mechanisms had not yet been established. Now, we see major brands constantly innovating in the fields of metaverse, scene marketing, immersive experience, and Martec. This is because the overall concepts, attitudes, and technological developments of consumers have reached a certain level of maturity, which has spawned the soil for the development of new marketing methods.

Regarding the application of artificial intelligence technology in the field of digital marketing, I believe that it will develop further and faster in the next 5-10 years, which will be reflected in the following aspects:

1. Smart advertising reduces marketing costs

Through big data and user portraits of existing consumers, advertising technology can match the brand's potential user target portrait with the platform user portrait, and then accurately select potential users and divide them into different circles.

For example, cosmetics are generally launched in different specifications and prices. What kind of products are pushed to high-end people, what kind are pushed to ordinary consumers, and what kind are pushed to lower-end audiences can be further refined and scientifically judged to save marketing costs, increase return on investment, and actually improve marketing efficiency and drive business growth.

As the number of deliveries increases, artificial intelligence has the ability to self-learn, summarizing experiences and rules from each delivery, so that the delivery efficiency can be continuously optimized, further reducing the delivery cost.

Advertising is a marketing method, and the carrier behind it is content. The delivery method can be different for different people, and the same content can be different for different people according to different selected groups, starting from the end. The goal is to deliver more accurate content to the right target customers in the right scenario, so that when users see the advertisement, they will not be disgusted, but will be further interested and even buy it directly.

2. Digital technology improves user experience

Let’s take intelligent customer service, one of the application areas of digital technology, as an example, which is the chatbot model, just like ChatGPT mentioned at the beginning of this article.

Regarding customer service, the intelligent customer service currently used in the commercial field is more about solving practical problems, such as what is delivery, what are the product parameters, what are the advantages of the product, etc., and it is not yet able to achieve emotional communication with customers.

But just as consumers choose a brand not only for practical purposes, identification with the brand's values ​​and companion services are also important parts of their decision-making, and from the perspective of brand premium, the latter has a more significant effect.

The intelligent customer service of the future may not only answer customers’ basic questions about product quality, logistics, after-sales, etc., but it may also provide a humanized experience like "my little friend", meet users' needs in all aspects and make users inseparable. This is what the brand has been pursuing, that is, "maximizing the value of the entire life cycle" and "increasing customer stickiness."

In terms of scene creation, one of the outstanding manifestations of digital technology is the virtual space freedom and aesthetic feeling given to users by immersive interactive experiences such as AR and VR. In the perfect switch between reality and fantasy, users are immersed in it, and brand advertisements are especially beautiful works of aesthetics, presented to the audience, bringing excellent visual, auditory and other sensory experiences (artificial intelligence technology is also making research and development breakthroughs in smell and taste).

What users buy is not just the product, but the comprehensive experience that the brand gives them, and they are willing to pay for it. This experience combines the practical value of the product itself, the consumer's shopping experience, brand value recognition and pursuit of beauty.

In the future, brands will need to work hard in these areas.

3. Automation technology accelerates user decision making

Marketing automation technology and tools have been widely used in the marketing field. Foreign tools such as Marketo, Eloqua, and Salesforce marketing cloud. In the future, with the development of artificial intelligence technology, marketing automation technology will further deepen "personalized" marketing, that is to say:

Brands can infer AI-driven consumer decision-making algorithm models based on historical user tags, purchases, behaviors and other data, analyze and summarize what kind of users are more likely to buy products in the future and have greater purchase value, and classify users based on this. They can adopt different marketing promotion methods according to different types of users, and then implement marketing automation technology based on the judgment results of the algorithm model to improve the efficiency of marketing operations internally and accelerate user decision-making externally.

Automation technology is not about sending the same email or several different emails to all or some of the users to tell them about new products, events, or major events. In the future, real automation technology must be driven by data and artificial intelligence technology. That is, user data must be applied correctly, legally, and in compliance with regulations. Then, the capabilities of the tools must be used to place the data model in the correct business scenario to accelerate user decision-making and enable growth.

The application of data and the implementation of automation technology have certain prerequisites, namely the construction of the database, the accumulation of user data and the deployment of tools. The core difficulty lies in the accumulation of user data, and then the application of data.

Generally speaking, it takes at least 2 years to accumulate enough sample data, or even longer, depending on the market potential and number of potential consumers in different industries and product categories.

User data does not come out of thin air. It can be accumulated through various advertising, marketing activities such as sales discounts, e-commerce transactions and other scenarios. However, if the data is obtained legally and authorized by the customer and can be used by the brand, the amount will be reduced.

Therefore , the accumulation of high-quality customer data and the construction of a customer tag system are prerequisites for artificial intelligence technology to empower digital marketing. Enterprises need to start now, start with the details, and begin small-scale data marketing practices, and then there will be the possibility of refined operations in the later stage.

To sum up, the application of artificial intelligence technology in the field of digital marketing is promising in the future, and its development speed may exceed expectations. Artificial intelligence technology will play a huge role in improving consumer experience, reducing costs and increasing efficiency through intelligent advertising, and accelerating user decision-making, enabling long-term growth of enterprises.

Author: Zhu Jingyu

Source: WeChat official account "Jade Digital Marketing (ID: Jade_Digital)