Online Marketing with AI: What Are The Pros & Cons?

The term AI (artificial intelligence) is ubiquitous now. What was once just a technological curiosity is now everywhere in areas as wide ranging as manufacturing, academia, healthcare, and yes, business. And this does include marketing. AI is not a catch-all term and there are different ways this technology can be harnessed and utilized in the digital marketing space. Today, the marketing experts here at McCauley Marketing Services wanted to get a bit more specific on the subject and discuss some pros and cons of using AI in online marketing, that anyone considering it should be aware of.

Pros of Using AI in Online Marketing

Idea Generation:

If you’re stuck and looking for a starting point for a piece of marketing content like a blog post, email marketing campaign, or a page of website copy, AI can be useful for brainstorming potential ideas, topics, or directions. The ideas won’t all be winners, but they can serve as a helpful starting point to help get your creativity going.

Saving Time on Simple Tasks:

For some businesses or medical practices, using AI can help drive efficiency by simply reducing the amount of time your staff needs to spend working on simple, repetitive tasks. This can include things like data entry, customer sorting, replying to simple queries, or analyzing simple data like the engagement numbers associated with a specific email campaign.

Cons of Using AI in Online Marketing

Quality of Output Data:

While very smart and sophisticated for what it is, AI is far from perfect. This technology pulls and aggregates information from other sources on the internet, which means it is vulnerable to issues like bias, inaccuracy, repetition, and simply making simple mistakes that can be costly. This is why it is vital to verify this information from a known reliable source and customize it to your own voice.

Privacy & Security Issues:

In order for AI to work as it is supposed to, it must take in a significant amount of lead and customer data. Unfortunately, this can create the potential for concerns regarding the privacy and security of customer data. Data transparency is a major element of gaining and maintaining trust from your consumers, so we highly recommend being fully honest and up front on your website about how this data will be collected, used, and protected.

The Lack of a Human Touch:

Whether your company is operating business-to-consumer or business-to-business, making a personal connection is critical. Being overly reliant on AI can result in an approach to marketing that feels impersonal, detached, or even inhuman. No matter what kind of work you’re doing, it’s important to make sure there is still a face, a name, and an option for customers, patients, or partners to turn to a real person who they can speak with.

AI can be helpful when used as one tool of an overall marketing effort, but not necessarily as a replacement for other more traditional forms of online marketing. Whether you’re working to tweak an existing marketing effort or help come up with a completely new approach, there is no substitute for earned expertise and experience. For more marketing insights, or for information on our full selection of professional marketing services, contact McCauley Marketing Services to schedule a marketing consultation appointment today. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram for additional marketing tips, industry news, and more.