How to Communicate with Your Customers Effectively on All Your Distribution Channels

As a business owner, you need to communicate with many people on a daily basis.

You’re used to delegating tasks to your employees and dealing with merchants, accountants, lawyers, bankers, and everyone else who makes your operation possible.

Communication skills are also important in your personal life. You need to manage the relationships with your family and friends while running a company at the same time.

But how well are you communicating with your customers?

Effective customer communication is the backbone of your business. Your ability to communicate can make or break your marketing campaigns and determine whether you can optimize the customer experience.

You could have a great product, service, or promotion, but if you can’t communicate these things to your customers, your business could struggle.

The Internet has made it possible for brands and consumers to contact each other from virtually anywhere at any time. You need to recognize this reality and use it to your advantage.

With so many different distribution channels at your disposal, it’s imperative you apply your communication skills on all of these platforms.

I see this particular problem often when giving consultations to business owners. They know how to write a perfect email newsletter that converts, but their Facebook posts are awful. Or they have an awesome Instagram marketing strategy but struggle with blogging.

To be successful, you need to be able to communicate with your customers on all your distribution channels. I’ll explain what you need to do to make this happen.

Create an authentic voice

Your communication style and voice need to be consistent across every channel.

This helps create authenticity. The majority of consumers don’t think that brands are distributing authentic content.

Furthermore, 86% of consumers say authenticity is an important factor when determining whether they’ll support a brand.

What does this tell you?

Your customers want you to be authentic. Establishing an authentic voice will give you a huge advantage over your competitors.

All your content needs to sound as if it’s coming from the same person, even if it’s not.

For example, you might write your blogs, but someone from your staff may be in charge of email newsletters. A third person could be responsible for your social media content.

There is nothing wrong with delegating tasks this way, but it can create a discrepancy when it comes to being authentic.

The best way to overcome this hurdle is establish some ground rules. Create a writing guide that everyone who produces content can reference.

Here are some examples of things you could include in this guide:

• always spell out the word percent instead of using %
• write from the first-person perspective
• use the Oxford comma

You can even take this guide one step further. For example, you could say that every piece of content you produce, whether it’s a blog, email, or social media post, always needs to start with an inspirational quote.

If your writing is consistent, it creates authenticity.

That way when your customers engage with your brand on multiple channels, they’ll feel they’re listening to the same voice.

Monitor your comments sections

Part of having effective communication means being active on as many platforms as possible.

Your increased social media presence makes it easier for your customers to reach you. Don’t worry—this is a good thing.

But if you’re not constantly monitoring your comments, you’re failing your customers when it comes to communication.

Social media is one of the top channels for consumers to voice their complaints.

Put yourself in the shoes of your customers. You’ve got to understand their thought process and mindset.

They just experienced some sort of problem with your business. It could have been related to one of your products, services, or employees.

On top of the issue, they took time out of their busy day to let you know about it by commenting on one of your social media posts. Even though this comment might be negative, it’s still a good sign.

Why? You haven’t lost this customer yet.

Research shows that 96% of unhappy customers don’t complain. They just leave and don’t come back.

If one of your customers is complaining via social media, you still have a chance to keep their business as long as you respond in a timely fashion.

Studies show that 84% of consumers expect a business to respond to their social media comments within 24 hours of posting.

But this also depends on the platform. For instance, 72% of users on Twitter expect brands to respond within an hour.

I know what you’re thinking. How could you possibly keep track of all your social media comments each day while trying to run your company at the same time?

Those of you who don’t have a social media manager or the budget to hire one need to take advantage of my favorite time-saving social media marketing tools.

Certain tools can notify you whenever someone comments on one of your posts. You can get these notifications on one platform instead of having to monitor each social site individually.

Segment your email subscribers

For your email marketing campaigns to be successful, you need to make sure you’re delivering relevant content to your subscribers.

After all, your customers have different wants, needs, and preferences. It’s nearly impossible to create content that can appeal to all your customers.

That’s why segmenting your subscribers will improve your communication with everyone.

Here’s a staggering fact you need to take into consideration.

A person who works in an office gets on average 121 emails a day. Assuming they work five days per week, that translates to over 600 emails per week and more than 31,000 emails per year.

Now, let’s say you email your subscribers once a week, which is a reasonable assumption.

Your messages are just a fraction of a percent of the total number of emails your customers receive. If your content isn’t adding value to their lives, they won’t engage with it.

Surveys indicate that 73% of marketers say their top priority is to create more engaging content.

Segmenting your subscribers will make your communication with them more effective. Here’s why.

Let’s say you run an ecommerce clothing business. You ship products globally, but the majority of your customers are located in the United States.

Subscribers who are men living in Miami, Florida, shouldn’t be getting the same emails as women living in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Emailing a promotion for bathing suits and tank tops in December to all your customers is not an effective way to manage your communication. But if you segment your subscribers, it will help ensure your marketing emails are more relevant to each recipient.

Add live chat to your website

As a consumer, I love using live chat. It’s just so simple.

I don’t need to pick up the phone, wait on hold, and talk to someone. It also saves me a trip back to the store. Plus, I buy so many things online that it’s not even practical or realistic for me to visit businesses in-person after making a purchase.

Live chat makes things easier. As a consumer, I’m not alone in that preference.

In fact, 73% of consumers say live chat is their preferred method of customer service communication. This ranked as the top option.

Here’s a look at the reasons why people prefer live chat:

If live chat makes your customers’ lives easier and it’s their preferred method of communication, why aren’t you using it?

Some of you may just not know where to start. I get it. New technology can be intimidating.

But you need to be able to adapt and make changes if you want to survive.

Your live chat feature should be easily accessible on your website. Make sure you respond quickly to these messages. Your staff need to be knowledgeable and properly trained for this communication method to be effective.

If you need help setting this up, refer to my guide on how to provide better customer service by implementing live chat.

Use language your audience can understand

This relates to the concept of authenticity.

Your customers want to communicate with a person. It shouldn’t feel as if they’re dealing with a robot or some nameless and faceless brand.

Use language your audience can relate to.

Your content shouldn’t sound like it’s coming from a doctor or a lawyer, even if it is. Speak in terms your customers use every day.

Just make sure you keep it professional. I normally wouldn’t recommend using slang, but there are times when it’s OK if that terminology fits with your overall brand image.

For example, a company that sells surfboards might use terms such as rad, stoked, or gnarly in its marketing emails. This would resonate with its target audience as opposed to a formal greeting, like Dear Sir or Madam.

As far as the exact language you’re using, that’s a judgment call on your part. But I recommend keeping communication casual and conversational.

Make sure your brand message is clear

Why are you in business?

Outside of the obvious financial reasons, you must have other motivation for operating. You need to be able to tell your customers why you exist and how you can make their lives better.

That can be conveyed in your brand message.

But if you fail to communicate your message or if it’s too ambiguous, you won’t have a positive impact on your customers.

Here is a great example of a brand message from TOMS shoes:

Buying products from this company means you’re helping people internationally.

TOMS helps provide those less fortunate with shoes, clean water, vision needs, and safe births. The company even supports a bullying prevention campaign.

The message is clear.

TOMS has a dedicated landing page explaining what they give, and the message is on other parts of its website as well.

You don’t need to be a nonprofit organization or affiliated with certain charities to have a strong brand message.

For example, let’s say you have a meal delivery service.

Your brand message can convey something along the lines of helping busy professionals eat healthy.

Once you’re able to identify your brand message, make sure you can display it clearly on all your distribution channels.

Be consistent

Just like authenticity, consistency is also key when it comes to effective communication.

I mentioned earlier creating a guide to keep your writing style consistent on every channel. But you can take this one step further with all your promotions as well.

It all starts with your goal.

Before you run any type of marketing campaign, you need to clearly identify this goal. What do you want the result of this campaign to be?

It could be acquiring more website traffic, adding email subscribers, increasing your social media followers, or driving sales to your newest product.

Whatever your goal is, the easiest way to achieve it is by being consistent on all your channels.

If you run a promotion on Instagram, make sure your website shows the sale too. Otherwise, it can create confusion for your customers.

Take a look at this example from Jetblue:

The company posted this promotion on its Facebook page.

Its fall sale advertises flights starting at $49 one-way.

There are certain restrictions and conditions for the sale. Customers need to book their flights by a certain day and travel within a certain time frame as well. There are even a couple of blackout dates.

Either way, Jetblue clearly communicated this promotion in this Facebook post.

Now if customers navigate to its website, they’ll see the consistency:

As you can see from what I’ve highlighted, the same sale is being advertised.

All the terms and conditions are the same, and the ad uses the same phrase, “Get going, Pumpkin!”

Even though the style, placement, format, and images differ on each distribution channel, the message remains the same.

In addition to improving the way you communicate with your customers, being consistent will ultimately help you increase conversions.

Know which channels your customers prefer

You need to be able to communicate with your customers on all your distribution channels. This should go without saying.

However, it’s important for you to recognize which networks your customers are using.

Now you can prioritize this communication based on the platforms your customers prefer.

For example, let’s say you segment your target audience with generational marketing.

After doing this, you’ve discovered that the vast majority of your customers are Baby Boomers. Now you need to figure out how to reach them.

Based on this research, it wouldn’t make sense for you to focus on Instagram and Snapchat if you’re marketing to Baby Boomers.

This would obviously be much different if you were targeting Millennials or Generation X.

You should still have active profiles on as many platforms as possible, but you need to know which ones are reaching your customers.

Conclusion

Communication is an important aspect in both life and business.

As a marketer, you need to be able to effectively communicate with your customers on all your distribution channels.

Learn how to create an authentic voice.

Monitor your comments on social media and respond to those customers, especially if they’re voicing a complaint.

Segment your email subscribers to deliver the most relevant content to everyone.

Implement a live chat feature on your website.

Speak in terms your audience can understand. Make sure you clearly define and communicate your brand message across every channel.

Be consistent. Figure out which channels your customers use the most, and prioritize those means of communication.

If you follow the tips I’ve outlined in this guide, you’ll be able to improve your customer communication tactics across all your distribution channels.

How are you leveraging your distribution channels to effectively communicate with your customers?

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12 Marketing Skills You Need to Survive in the Age of AI

The time has finally arrived. We’re living in the era of artificial intelligence.

It sounds crazy, right?

To the average person, artificial intelligence doesn’t seem like a reality of our everyday lives. They associate AI with movies when robots take over the world.

While we’re not quite at that point, artificial intelligence is very real.

From a marketing perspective, we need to recognize this reality and plan accordingly.

In fact, artificial intelligence ranked high on my list of the top marketing trends to look for in 2018. As we reach the final quarter of the year, this prediction has held true.

If you are unfamiliar with AI, let me explain. By definition, artificial intelligence is the ability for computers to perform tasks that would ordinarily require human intelligence.

Some examples of these tasks include:

• language translation
• visual perception
• ability to make decisions
• speech recognition

While we may be ready for computers to translate a language, it’s the decision-making abilities that bring AI to the next level.

I know what some of you are thinking. You have a simple business operation, why should you care about AI?

When comparing companies already using artificial intelligence, the top-performing brands are more than twice as likely to use AI for marketing purposes.

Businesses are using this technology to increase sales by personalizing the customer experience.

Over the last five years, jobs requiring AI have increased by 450%.

Artificial intelligence is here to stay. It’s trending upward, and you need to be prepared to handle it if you want to be successful. I’ve identified the top 12 marketing skills you need to survive in the AI era.

1. Adaptability

Adapt or die.

If you don’t adapt now, you’ll fall behind your competitors and put your business at risk of failure. Just look at how many people are currently using AI and how many are planning to use this technology in the future:

As you can see from this graphic, AI is the fastest growing marketing technology with an anticipated year-over-year growth of 53%.

In my work with business owners, I’ve seen different personalities. Stubborn and closed-minded have a more difficult time growing their businesses.

When it comes to AI, you need to have an open mind and be willing to adapt if you want to succeed.

Don’t be stuck in your old ways. The mentality of “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” is the wrong approach to take when it comes to new technology.

If you’re not willing to adapt to the latest trends today, you won’t be able to survive tomorrow.

2. Communication

As a business owner and marketer, you know how important communication skills are for a successful business. You need to be able to communicate well with your employees, customers, and everyone else you encounter on a daily basis.

But in the age of AI, communication is more important than ever.

Here’s why. AI may eventually replace some of the human elements of your business.

For example, maybe you’re using AI to help you provide better customer service by implementing live chat on your website.

However, you don’t want your customers to feel as if they’re losing that human touch. You still need to be available to communicate with your customers.

You can’t rely on the implementation of AI to handle this for you 100% of the time.

While the technology behind AI is groundbreaking and remarkable, it can’t duplicate an actual human response.

You and your team still need to be accessible. Customers should be able to pick up the phone and talk to a real person if they want to.

3. Budget allocation

Implementing AI technology in your business won’t necessarily be the most inexpensive investment you ever make.

This could be why some of you have been hesitant to add artificial intelligence to your business. You’re not alone.

In fact, the high cost is the number one reason why brands aren’t using AI marketing solutions:

I don’t want to sound corny, but there’s a relevant age-old saying I’m sure you’ve heard before:

You’ve got to spend money to make money.

It’s the truth. Sure, the initial costs of implementing AI marketing solutions may be intimidating at first. But that’s why you need to have great budget allocation skills.

Don’t cut corners when it comes to new technology adoption. Find other ways to reduce costs so you can pay for AI solutions.

4. Ability to analyze big data

Depending on what you use AI for, there is a good chance you’ll be presented with lots of data.

Studies show 29% of brands that have adopted artificial intelligence use it to perform automated data analysis. And 26% use the technology for automated research reports and information aggregation.

An additional 26% are using AI for operational and efficiency analysis.

These applications will result in lots of data for you to analyze. You need to be comfortable doing that.

There are different layers to artificial intelligence:

Machine learning and deep learning are two concepts that are within the scope of your AI marketing strategy.

But the deeper you go, the more data there will be to analyze.

The computer is only as smart as it’s programmed to be. Decisions will ultimately be up to you, depending on how well you can analyze the information you’re presented with.

5. Coding

While coding isn’t a requirement for AI, a background in and general knowledge of coding will definitely help you.

This also helps with your budget, as discussed above. Don’t pay someone else to do something you can do yourself.

If you know how to code, you can set up the data you want to analyze. You can program the data sets, data sizes, and sources for whatever you need the AI to compute.

Many times, AI is used to identify patterns. If you have some coding background, it will be easier for you to understand that.

Those of you new to this should read through some marketing forums and learn from others in the same position as you.

View code samples and video tutorials online about basic coding.

You can even sign up for online coding classes through platforms such as Codecademy.

As you can see, this resource offers different coding options to learn.

While any of these would be helpful for your general coding knowledge, the data science coding would be the most relevant for your AI implementation.

6. Content creation

As marketers, we’ve been saying “content is king” for years now.

The basic idea behind this concept is to create content that appeals to search engines that will ultimately reach the consumers. Your entire marketing strategy lives and dies by the content you produce.

Adding AI to your business doesn’t mean you need to stop your content creation efforts.

Keep doing the things that put you in the position you are today. Don’t put all your eggs in the AI basket.

Improve your existing content production efforts through:

• blogs
• pictures
• videos
• audio
• email
• social media

Use artificial intelligence to help you make your content even better. For example, some brands are using AI software to create Facebook advertisements aimed at different audiences.

This type of process would take humans much longer to complete. Come up with other ways to leverage AI to boost your content strategy.

7. Security

Whenever you implement new technology in your business, security always needs to be a priority.

Over the past few years, many big companies had security breaches, which severely damaged their reputations. If you develop a reputation as a brand that can’t protect your customers’ information, it could put you out of business.

Consumers are concerned that AI may compromise the ability for businesses to protect their personal information.

You need to take proper measures to make sure all your data is secure.

Put everyone’s mind at ease. Run marketing campaigns and promotions advertising your secure process and your emphasis on customers’ digital safety.

8. Ethics

As I mentioned above, AI will gather lots of data for you to analyze.

But unlike humans, computers don’t have a conscience. So it’s up to you to be ethical when it comes to what you do with all the information you collect, which is relevant to my previous point about protecting customer data.

Yes, you want to protect the information from hackers and anyone looking to steal, exploit, or cause harm to others. But you also need to protect this data from yourself and other marketers as well.

Use AI to improve your marketing efforts, but don’t do anything that will cross the line when it comes to the usage of the information you collect.

9. A competitive spirit

Marketing is a competitive game.

There is always a constant battle between your company and the other players in your industry. Consumers have lots of money to spend, but you need to make sure they spend those dollars at your store and not the shop down the street.

As you add artificial intelligence technology to your business, the competition will continue to heat up.

You need a competitive spirit and mindset to survive.

Studies show 84% of marketers agree AI will help them gain or sustain a competitive advantage.

Is your competition currently using AI?

You won’t know unless you do your research. Take advantage of my favorite helpful tools to monitor your competitors.

10. Delegation and time management

When it comes to jobs involving labor, new technology and machine advancements can mean trouble for employees worried about their jobs being replaced by a machine.

But artificial intelligence doesn’t necessarily automate or replace a person’s job.

Instead, it automates specific tasks.

You need to recognize how such automation can benefit your business. Then use that information to delegate tasks to your employees accordingly.

Don’t assign a task to a person that a computer can do.

Once AI replaces a certain task, you need to find ways for that person who used to do it to spend their time wisely.

Artificial intelligence can help you increase employee productivity if you can implement it properly and find the most efficient ways to delegate new tasks.

11. Thirst for learning

To thrive in the AI era, you need to have good learning skills.

As I said earlier, there are different layers to the ways you can take advantage of this technology. There are many unique elements associated with artificial intelligence:

Conduct your own research on this technology to further your knowledge.

Attend classes. Take advice from experts. Listen to people who are teaching you how to use the software.

Don’t approach this new technology with the notion that you know it all because you probably don’t. Even if you have a high level of education, you’re new at this unless you studied AI.

Plus, it’s worth mentioning that technology is constantly evolving.

Maybe some of you have a firm grasp of AI today. However, things may change in the coming years and decades.

Those of you who have an eagerness to learn will have an advantage over everyone else.

12. Big picture mindset

In this moment, does your business need AI to survive today?

Probably not in the same way things such as Internet access, a website, social media, and the ability to process credit card payments impact your survival.

If you don’t need AI today, it may be hard for some of you to justify jumping on board with this technological advancement.

But you need to look at the big picture. As you can see, we’re trending in that direction. It’s in your best interest to get familiar with AI now and figure out how it can benefit your business in the future.

Conclusion

We’re living in the era of artificial intelligence.

Marketers need to recognize this and leverage the new technology to their advantage.

If you’re not using AI right now, it’s not too late to start. But I recommend starting this process sooner rather than later. Otherwise, you’re at risk of falling behind your competition.

There are certain skills that will give you an advantage and help you survive in the age of AI.

Refer to the list I’ve created here to help make sure you adopt these marketing skills if you haven’t done so already.

How is your business currently using or planning to use AI to improve your marketing solutions?

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10 Ways Machine Learning Is Reshaping Marketing

Advancements in technology are constantly changing our world. This is no secret.

As a marketer, you need to have a better understanding of this technology that goes far beyond the latest smartphone release. If you recall, artificial intelligence made my list of the top marketing trends to look for in 2018.

While artificial intelligence and machine learning are often used interchangeably, they are not the same.

Basically, artificial intelligence has a broader meaning. It’s the idea that machines and computers can complete tasks normally requiring human intelligence.

Machine learning is a branch of AI, and it automates model building for data analysis.

The concept behind machine learning is that a computer can learn from the data it analyzes by identifying patterns. Ultimately, this technology can make decisions without humans.

What does this mean for marketers?

I know some of you might be thinking you’re not currently using this technology, so the information isn’t relevant to you. That couldn’t be farther from the truth.

The reality is, marketers are already using this technology to help improve their marketing campaigns and increase revenue by optimizing the customer experience.

If you don’t have your finger on the pulse, you could fall behind your competitors. Even if you’re not ready to implement machine learning today, you should be prepared to do so in the future.

I’ll explain the top 10 ways machine learning is reshaping marketing.

1. Improved lead scoring accuracy

Lead scoring helps rank prospective customers on a scale representing their value to your company. Improving your lead scoring accuracy will help you prioritize your lead generation strategies.

Right now, marketing professionals don’t have the highest confidence levels in their lead scoring methods:

But as they embrace machine learning, I believe their confidence levels will increase.

That’s because many factors go into these calculations, and machine learning can help you make them.

Marketers use machine learning to monitor customer behavior. They write algorithms to track:

• websites visited
• emails opened
• downloads
• clicks

A consumer’s social score is a factor as well. It monitors and analyzes how a user behaves on social networks, e.g.:

• accounts they follow
• posts they like
• ads they engage with

Using machine learning to qualify prospects is helping businesses create more accurate customer profiles, improving their marketing.

2. Easier to predict customer churn

Customer churn is also known as customer turnover. It measures the number of customers who ended their relationship with a business.

For a SaaS business, it occurs when a customer cancels its service or unsubscribes from its membership.

Churn rates are calculated by the percentage of customers or subscribers who leave a business within a specified period of time. For a company to grow, the number of new customers must be higher than the churn rate.

You need to know what your churn rate is to know how satisfied your customers are with your product or service. And you also need to be able to predict your churn rate so you can minimize it.

How can you predict the churn? You need to monitor customer behavior.

Here’s a machine learning discovery model that can make predictions based on certain behaviors:

Examples of behaviors that get monitored include how customers engage with a product or mobile app.

When was the last time they signed into their profile? When was their last purchase?

For example, let’s say one customer visits your website twice per month. On the first visit, they research products, and on the second visit, they buy something.

This pattern goes on for a year. But after a year, the customer visits your site only once per month and doesn’t buy anything. You could predict they’ll stop using your business altogether soon.

Machine learning helps analyze this data on a much larger scale.

The technology gives marketers information to predict the churn so that it can be prevented. Now these brands can do something to make sure they don’t lose the customer before it’s too late.

3. Profitable dynamic pricing models

A dynamic pricing strategy allows businesses to offer flexible prices for the products and services they offer.

It’s a common model in hospitality, travel, and entertainment industries. With machine learning and AI, the dynamic pricing strategy is penetrating the retail industry as well.

Basically, this strategy helps you segment prices based on customer choices.

Dynamic pricing is also related to real-time pricing, which is when the value of goods is based on certain market conditions.

Purchasing an airline ticket is a great example of this. The price of the ticket depends on how far in advance you purchase it, the number of tickets already purchased, and the location of the seat.

This isn’t a new pricing strategy. But machine learning makes it easier for companies to implement and improve their dynamic pricing models.

Setting the right prices is critical to the success of your business. You can generate more profits by focusing on your pricing strategy.

Machine learning helps you use regression techniques to make market predictions.

It’s also used for sales forecasting to optimize the pricing structure based on market spending habits.

4. Sentiment analysis

When you’re having a conversation with someone face-to-face, it’s easy to understand how they’re feeling.

You can make judgments based on their facial expression, tone, and body language.

This helps you determine if their satisfied, excited, or unhappy. But this can sometimes be lost with digital communication—the current trend.

We’re not having as many face-to-face interactions with consumers because they’re reaching us online.

When a customer sends you an email or direct message, you need to know how they’re feeling in order to properly respond. Machine learning can do this for you.

AI technology can analyze text to determine whether the sentiment there is positive or negative.

Sentiment analysis is being used by marketers to better understand their online reputation.

Computers read through social media comments and alert the marketers to negative content. The company can then address the problem raised.

AI can also identify people happy with your products to help you find social influencers and brand ambassadors.

You can use machine learning to help you read the emotions of consumers online.

5. Improve website experiments

Are you currently running tests on your website? A/B testing is a great way to improve the features of your site, mobile app, and email marketing content.

I’m a big advocate of using this strategy.

While A/B tests ultimately give you results to optimize your website, there is some downside to this method.

Yes, the end results of your testing will help you maximize conversions in the future. However, to get there, you miss some opportunities.

Let me illustrate. Let’s say you’re testing the CTA button on a landing page. By design, you’ll send 50% of your site traffic to a page generating fewer conversions than the other.

That’s how you test your hypothesis.

But what about the missed opportunity to convert those directed to the underperforming page?

Machine learning will help you solve this problem by improving your bandit testing.

With bandit testing, the solution with the highest value gets prioritized.

The algorithms of such tests will minimize missed opportunities and make your experiments more profitable.

6. Prioritize ad targeting and customer personalization

AI and machine learning are helping marketers target their ads more effectively.

Right now, your ads might be great, but they can’t be effective if they aren’t being seen by the right audiences. With the help of AI, you can make sure your target audience is reached.

In addition to improving the way your ads get targeted, machine learning can help personalize the customer experience on your platforms.

Algorithms can predict which type of content would be the most popular with each unique visitor. You and I could both visit the same website and see different content:

Let me give you an example. Delta Faucet used AI and machine learning to improve its website.

A case study was conducted on this technology and the new strategy.

After implementing machine learning, Delta Faucet saw a 49% increase in page views per visitor. Further, 45% of the traffic that came from paid ads resulted in visitors spending at least 40 seconds reading the content.

The clicks on the CTA buttons quadrupled.

And 37% of the visitors viewed multiple pages in a single session.

Machine learning made it possible to run personalized and targeted ads that led to higher visitor engagement.

7. Computer vision for product recognition

You might not be familiar with this technology. However, it’s increasing in popularity, and marketers are using it to their advantage.

Machine learning for computer vision helps brands recognize their products in images and videos online. Software such as GumGum can accomplish this.

Miller Lite used machine learning technology to scan through user-generated content on social media.

The algorithm looked for images without any relevant text to find posts related to the brand. It also tracked information about competing brands and influencers.

The software collected data about users who posted on social media about Miller Lite. These were the results:

As you can see, machine learning helped this company find over 1 million posts associated with the brand.

It would be nearly impossible for a human to complete this task.

8. Relevant recommendation systems

Recommendations can go a long way.

If a friend or family member tells you about a restaurant you’d like or a book you’d enjoy reading, chances are, you’d actually like it.

That’s because these people know you. They won’t recommend a sushi restaurant to you if they know you have a seafood allergy.

They won’t recommend a historical non-fiction book to you if you’re a fan of science fiction novels.

Machine learning can identify your preferences as well and probably even better than the people who know you best.

Here’s an example to show you what I mean.

If you have multiple profiles on your Netflix account, you know that each time you launch the platform, it asks you “who is watching?”

Then it has “recommendations for you,” based on shows, movies, and documentaries you have already watched.

These recommendations improve the customer experience. The same concept can be applied to your marketing efforts.

Machine learning helps marketers discover which types of products consumers want based on their browsing histories and shopping behaviors. Relevant product suggestions increase conversions.

9. Chatbots

Live chat has a 92% customer satisfaction rating. Studies show 63% of customers are more likely to return to a website if it offers a live chat feature.

You can learn how to provide better customer service by implementing live chat.

These are the top reasons why consumers prefer live chat:

Chatbots can help you improve your live chat features.

That’s because they use some of the machine learning elements I’ve previously talked about.

Machine learning improves how chatbots operate by using sentiment analysis to judge the mood of a message from a customer. When paired with social media, machine learning can gather more information about customers when it receives a new message.

As a result, this will improve your targeting and product recommendations. Basically, machine learning helps chatbots further personalize the customer experience.

Chatbots keep your customers on pages for longer and also decrease the wait times for customers waiting to connect with customer service representatives.

10. Improved audience insights

I see business owners make the mistake of grouping their customers into one category all the time.

Just because all these people buy from your brand doesn’t mean they are the same.

You need to segment your customers into groups. This can help improve engagement when you target them.

Software that uses machine learning, like Affinio, can help you with this.

With machine learning, you can learn valuable information about your customers.

This information will give you more accurate data to use when you’re building a customer persona to help you improve personalization and target people accordingly.

Affinio helps you discover various aspects of your customers’ behaviors, e.g., how many of your customers are foodies, how many watch a certain TV show, and which customers have traveled to similar places.

Now you can segment these customers into different clusters to improve their experience and increase the likelihood of them converting.

Conclusion

Artificial intelligence is here, and it’s not going anywhere.

Marketers are already using machine learning technology to change the way they operate.

Even if your company isn’t ready to implement this methodology today, you need to keep up to date with the latest trends. Otherwise, you could fall behind your competitors.

If you know how to use it to your advantage, machine learning can be a valuable tool for your business.

When you’re ready to move forward with this technology, refer to this list to help you determine the best ways to improve your marketing strategy.

How is your company planning to use AI and machine learning to optimize your marketing efforts?

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How to Become Profitable with Instagram Ads

I’m sure by now you recognize the importance of staying active on social media to promote your business.

Your Instagram marketing campaigns need to be a priority.

If you’re not using Instagram to reach your customers, there is a good chance your competitors are doing so. In fact, more than 70% of businesses in the United States are using Instagram.

Furthermore, 70% of hashtags on this platform are branded.

That’s why it’s so important for you to leverage your Instagram profile to connect with your current customers and target prospective consumers as well.

Believe it or not, consumers want to interact with brands on social media. We know that 80% of Instagram accounts follow at least one business profile.

If you’re getting lots of followers, that’s great. However, you need to learn how to convert your social media followers into customers, or your efforts won’t pay off.

But what about the consumers who don’t follow your business on Instagram?

They might be interested in your products, services, and content, but they won’t see any of your promotions if they’re not following your profile.

That’s where Instagram ads come into play.

Buying ads on Instagram will help give you a huge advantage over your competitors who aren’t willing to spend the money.

That said, any time you’re spending valuable marketing dollars, it’s important to make sure those efforts yield a high ROI. You don’t want to blindly buy ads without making sure they’re profitable.

If you’re new to Instagram ads or if your current ones need improvement, you’ll benefit tremendously from this guide.

I’ll explain how to drive sales with your Instagram marketing strategy, get more followers, and expand your reach. Here’s what you need to know.

Determine your marketing objective

Instagram is owned by Facebook. You’ll be using the same platform you used to generate leads with Facebook ads.

The first thing you’ll need to do is select your marketing objective:

The goals are broken down into three main categories:

• awareness
• consideration
• conversion

Truthfully, there is no right or wrong answer here when it comes to making this selection.

Any choice can lead to profits. For example, if your goal is to generate website traffic, that traffic can eventually lead to conversions.

If you are trying to increase your brand awareness, extend your reach or generate leads, those campaigns can end up creating sales in the future.

But if you’re trying to get instant sales, you’ll want to select conversions, catalog sales, or store visits as your marketing objective.

These types of ads will have actionable CTAs to drive sales. But we’ll discuss that in greater detail shortly.

Again, your ads will be effective no matter what you choose. Everyone’s brand is different. Don’t expect your goals to mirror those of other companies.

If you have the budget, you can even run multiple campaigns with different goals to see which ones are the most beneficial for your business.

Then, you can continue running the most successful ones.

Identify your target audience

Next, you’ll need to determine the audience you want to target.

There are different approaches to this step, depending on the overall marketing goals of your company and each campaign.

You’re able to select your audience based on factors such as:

• location
• age
• gender
• language

Again, this will change based on each campaign. For example, let’s say your brand sells sports equipment to consumers in the United States.

That doesn’t mean all your ads will be relevant to every location.

An ad that promotes a sale on surfboards won’t appeal to someone who lives in Colorado. Ads for women’s golf clubs should be seen only by, you guessed it, women.

I know this sounds basic, but you’d be surprised how often I see businesses make such simple mistakes. They try to target as many people as possible, which isn’t a profitable strategy.

Another cool feature you should keep in mind when you’re selecting your target market is the ability to create a custom audience.

This allows you to set your ads to reach users who have interacted with you before.

For example, a person who doesn’t follow you can still see one of your posts on the Instagram “explore” page, also known as the “popular page.” That’s a custom audience you could target.

You can also set a custom lookalike audience. These ads will target users similar to your current followers.

Set a budget

I don’t recommend spending every dollar in your marketing budget on Instagram ads, especially if this is your first time using this strategy.

Get your feet wet before you dive in head first.

Everyone’s budget is different. But let’s keep things simple for now and say that your company has allocated $5,000 to spend on Instagram ads.

That’s great.

However, it doesn’t mean you should dump all $5,000 into one campaign. Mix it up.

As I said before, you’ll want to experiment to see which types of ads benefit your brand the most based on your goals.

Try running five campaigns at $1,000 each.

Don’t run them all simultaneously. Not everyone who sees your advertisements will convert. But if they see three ads over the course of a couple of months, it might get the job done.

While it’s important for you to spend within your means, it’s worth noting that even small business owners are planning to increase their Instagram marketing budgets.

As you can see, Instagram is second only to Facebook in the list of all social media networks small businesses plan to spend more money on in the coming years.

If you don’t have the funds to spend much money on Instagram ads right now, you should budget accordingly for the future.

The last thing you want is to let your competitors beat you to new leads. Or even worse, lose your current customers to the competition because they ran ads and you didn’t.

Choose which types of ads you want to run

There are a bunch of different types of ads you can run on Instagram. That’s because the platform is versatile. These are all the options for you to consider:

• photos
• videos
• carousel
• stories

One of the best parts about Instagram ads is that your content appears naturally within the rest of the content seen by users.

Such posts are clearly labeled as sponsored ads, but they still look like any other content from any other account an Instagram user might follow.

For example, let’s say a user is browsing through the stories of the accounts they follow. If you run a story ad, your story will be presented between two stories posted by profiles they follow.

Sure, a user may recognize they’re seeing an ad. But that won’t necessarily stop them from consuming your content.

In fact, 60% of users say they use Instagram to discover new products. And 75% of that group follow through with an action after that discovery.

The action may not be a purchase—it could be a click to find out more. But that should give you a chance to get these users to convert.

Use an actionable CTA

Your CTA will have a big impact on how users react to the sponsored content they’re presented with.

Let’s assume you accurately selected your target market and your ad is being displayed to those interested in your product and willing to buy. How can you get them to convert?

Invite them to buy with action verbs. Get right to the point.

Check out this CTA example from a MeUndies advertisement on Instagram:

Shop now.

There is nothing ambiguous about this CTA. It’s much more actionable than something like “find out more information here.”

That type of CTA won’t drive sales.

But with a call-to-action such as “shop now,” users who see this advertisement will know exactly what to expect when they click on the button.

As expected, this CTA brings you directly to the brand’s ecommerce shop.

Take a look at this landing page to see how MeUndies is able to drive sales with its advertisement.

It’s very simple.

Since people are viewing these ads on their mobile devices, don’t try to cram too many products onto the screen at the same time.

Here, when users scroll, they see only two products at a time.

Now, take a minute to scroll back up to the original post. It featured a model wearing sweatpants.

Naturally, the first two products displayed on the landing page are sweatpants. It makes sense and should promote conversions.

Let’s say your Instagram advertisement is promoting a new backpack, but your CTA brings them to a page selling water bottles.

Sure, the users might be interested in that product as well. However, they clicked on your CTA because they wanted to see the product in your original ad. Make sure the two match.

We’ll discuss your landing page in greater detail shortly.

Showcase your top benefits

You need to realize how people use Instagram.

They’re scrolling through posts at a fairly rapid rate. Don’t expect people to stop to analyze your ad if it’s overly complicated.

If your benefits can’t be identified right away, the user has no reason to click your CTA button.

You’ve got to come up with ads that are easy to recognize at a quick glance. Here’s a great example of how State and Liberty is able to accomplish this with its advertisement:

It’s very clear what the carousel ad is trying to convey.

Same model, two different shirts.

The shirt on the left looks messy, coming untucked. Many guys can relate to that.

But the shirt on the right looks great. It fits the model perfectly, which makes him look sharp.

Combining two images in one picture is much more effective than showing one shirt without anything to compare it to.

Once a user sees this, they may be interested enough to keep swiping through the rest of the carousel ad.

The next image of the ad uses the same strategy.

One shirt is neat, fits properly, and doesn’t cause the model to sweat. While the other shirt is messy, loose, coming untucked, and covered in sweat.

Even if the differences are embellished, that’s okay. It’s still an extremely effective way to promote the brand.

In just two pictures, this company is able to showcase how it differs from the competition by highlighting the top benefits of its product.

This campaign paired with an actionable CTA is a great way to drive sales.

Create a landing page that drives conversions

Your advertisement might be great.

You were able to pick the right marketing objective and target the perfect audience, and the content of your ad is getting people to click on your CTA.

However, all of this is useless if your landing page isn’t set up to drive conversions.

When a user clicks a CTA that says something like “shop now,” they shouldn’t land on your blog or homepage. You want to bring them directly to your ecommerce shop.

Make it easy for them to complete the checkout process with just a few clicks.

However, depending on your marketing goal, you can set up other types of landing pages to drive conversions, even if those conversions aren’t sales.

Check out this example of a landing page from Olivers Apparel:

The company encourages users to recommend its brand to other people.

By sending $25 to a friend, they’ll get $25 in return. It’s a very enticing offer for a user exposed to a new brand for the first time.

You might be hesitant to spend money on a product you’ve never used before.

But $25 off your order may be a good enough reason for you to buy.

This strategy is a great example of a customer referral program that drives sales.

Let’s look at another landing page strategy from Buffy. You might want to consider using it in your marketing:

Instead of turning its prospective customers away with expensive prices, the brand’s landing page gives them an offer they can’t refuse.

You can try this product for 30 days at no cost.

They’ll ship it to you free, and if you’re not happy with it after a month, you can send it back—free too.

Instead of a CTA that says “buy,” the company used “try.”

Further, 30 days is plenty of time for prospective customers to decide whether they like the product or not.

Since Buffy offers such an enticing deal, I’m assuming the team is confident in the quality of its product, expecting the customers to be satisfied.

Sending Instagram users directly to your ecommerce shop is a great way to drive sales. But as you can see from these last two examples, you can use other types of landing pages that convert.

Highlight what makes your brand unique

This concept is similar to the idea of showing off your top benefits.

However, you and other brands may have similar benefits. If you can explain what makes your brand unique, you can have a competitive advantage.

For example, let’s say you sell athletic footwear. Some of its top benefits may be related to comfort, durability, style, and performance.

But does that really separate you from the crowd?

Something that makes your brand unique may be that a portion of your sales goes to a particular charity. That’s unique.

Here’s a more specific example from a Felix Gray Instagram ad:

The company sells different types of glasses.

But does that make them unique? Not really.

However, this advertisement says that its frames are crafted by hand. That’s worth mentioning as part of a differentiation strategy.

Conclusion

Your company needs to have an Instagram marketing strategy.

While you can use Instagram free, running ads can give you the competitive advantage you’ve been looking for. This will help you target new customers outside of your existing followers.

Start by identifying your marketing objectives. Then, decide what audience you want to target with each campaign.

Choose which type of ad you want to run. Budget your ads accordingly.

Make sure your CTA is actionable.

Create an ad that showcases the top benefits of your products. Explain what makes your brand unique.

Design a landing page that drives conversions.

If you’re able to accomplish everything I’ve explained in this guide, your Instagram ads will be effective and profitable.

What types of ads is your brand using to drive sales on Instagram?

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