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As technology in email marketing advances, more and more agencies, firms, and marketers have begun embracing AI and machine learning tools to improve their results. While Site Impact is still investigating these functions, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that the future of email will lie at least partly in sophisticated tools that allow digital systems to manage the tedium of building and deploying campaigns. A recent study has shown, in fact, that use of AI in digital marketing in general--and email in particular--leads to higher engagement and improved ROI. Today we’re going to dive into that study and talk about what it means.
A study by Blueshift, titled "ROI Of AI Marketing: 4 Levers For Cross-Channel Success," found very strong indications that use of AI in digital marketing can contribute strongly to important factors of campaign success. Blueshift found that AI algorithms helped firms that used them to achieve an average of 28% increase in average orders, subscription upgrades, and form completions, for example; they also found that AI-based time optimization leads to a 3.1x revenue lift for email from 1.7%to 5.3%, while content recommendations by AI led to a 2x increase.
The study used 3.8 billion data points over a period from December 2017 to September 2018, making it a fairly comprehensive comparison. While other studies have indicated that many firms aren’t adopting new tools as quickly as they can, this study shows that there are definite gains to be had from those marketers and agencies that do dip their toes into the newly available technology. Of course, AI is only as effective as the people guiding it. One of the biggest hurdles to implementing AI and machine learning has long been the fact that many marketers simply don’t know how to put the tools to use properly.
The evidence is quickly coming in that brands and marketers alike will need to embrace the future of marketing tools if they want to remain competitive in the digital space, especially in email. “AI gives marketers the tool to scale personalized, multi-touch programs that deliver relevancy and impact across the customer journey without heavy IT involvement or data-science resources,” Blueshift’s study concludes, and theirs is not the only study to come to similar conclusions; several recent profiles in the newly-available tech show that while there have been hiccups in AI and machine learning capabilities, the tools are becoming more and more sophisticated.
As the tools themselves become more user-friendly and foolproof, marketers will have to adopt these tools if they want to remain competitive--it’s just basic math. AI and machine learning capabilities allow brands to offer a personalized approach that consumers are increasingly demanding, while not requiring the kind of heavy lifting that it would otherwise. In coming years, AI will be too important to ignore, as segmentation and other core features of email campaign development become more and more crucial. Site Impact is developing our own takes on AI and machine learning capabilities, to incorporate them into our existing client tools--and in the meantime we’re keeping our eyes on the field, to find the best possible uses and the friendliest interfaces. Contact us today to discover how we can help you make the most of your campaigns, and develop the tools you already have at your disposal.
