Many before us have tried to predict what the world will look like in the future.
From the dystopian landscapes of Cormac Mccarthy’s The Road, to the humanoid robots of Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence, to the people of Pixar’s WALL-E, who live their entire lives on floating chairs, staring at screens with content exclusively controlled and created by one corporation named BnL; portrayals of the future vary drastically.
We will never know for sure what the future holds, but there is one constant that keeps popping up in science fiction: the presence of artificial intelligence, and its potential to completely transform society.
Artificial intelligence, in fact, is not just the stuff of science fiction. It permeates many industries today, including the marketing industry.
When it comes to inbound marketing, in particular, AI has the potential to utterly reshape this dynamic marketing approach.
This article will explore some current inbound marketing trends as context, and then speculate as to AI’s potential impact on the field in the near future.
Before doing this, however, let us review what exactly artificial intelligence and inbound marketing are defined as, to be as informed as possible on the topic.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology that utilises applications to perform complex tasks that once required human input. It can analyse data and develop algorithms, automate certain actions, make autonomous decisions, optimise strategies and campaigns and rewrite software.
There are several branches to AI, including machine learning (ML), speech recognition, natural language processing (NLP), and computer vision.
Some concrete examples of AI-technology that we quite often come across online include conversational AI such as NLP chatbots, ChatGPT (machine learning), and search engine optimisation (SEO).
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is a methodology that primarily uses content creation to attract audiences and lead them through the sales funnel.
While outbound marketing pushes ads to a broader audience and utilises TV advertising, pop-up ads, banners and billboards, inbound marketing develops more specified content to pull in enthusiasts and knowledgeable people that are seeking expertise.
Inbound marketing utilises blog posts, short articles, video content, email, newsletters, podcasts, social media content, case studies and more to attract leads and ultimately convert them into loyal customers.
Although there are various theoretical models floating around, the process of inbound marketing traditionally features 4 main steps: attract, convert, close and delight, as shown in the image below:
Because inbound marketing attracts potential customers by addressing their pain points and needs, it has become more personalised and customer-centric, fostering deeper connections between businesses and their audiences.
Current Inbound Marketing Trends
Now that we’ve caught up with these two crucial definitions, we can explore current inbound marketing trends as a way to contextualise the possibilities AI tech can bring to the table.
Short-form Video Content
Did you know that short-form videos have the best ROI of all social media strategies?
Video marketing is a key part of any inbound marketing strategy, but recently, short-form videos are gaining popularity, and appear on several different platforms including Tik Tok, Youtube Shorts, and IG Reels.
In fact, landing pages with video content convert 86% more often. In this day and age, the general public has become accustomed to quick and speedy information, hence the growing popularity of such content.
Conversational Marketing
Conversational marketing includes the use of chatbots and messaging apps.
Adding a chat feature to your website gives customers a chance to get personalised and speedy answers to their most pressing questions.
They also provide access to pre-sale information, booking services, schedule calls and meetings and allow customers to directly pay for products and services.
Businesses are utilising AI-driven chatbots to increase their customer service and stay competitive in a world where customers expect instant gratification and personalised attention.
Evergreen Content
Evergreen content refers to “timeless” content, or content that continues to provide value over time, without the need for updates.
Such content includes in-depth articles, podcasts or videos on specific topics that display expertise on the subject.
Evergreen content has a huge ROI. Although it takes time and effort to produce, over time it is extremely cost effective.
Predictive Analytics
These days, marketers are using data-driven insights to predict consumer-behaviour, identify trends and distinguish important patterns.
Machine learning enables marketers to identify important customer information, identify strong leads and analyse timeframes of high customer engagement.
AI’s Impact on Inbound Marketing
Now that we’ve identified current inbound marketing trends, we can start to analyse how AI plays a role in the industry, and how it will shape the field in the future.
First and foremost, AI-driven technology is making it easier for inbound marketers to attract and retain more customers by personalising content as well as the customer journey.
AI-driven algorithms can process vast amounts of data to understand individual customer preferences, behaviours, and needs better.
In the near future, this data-driven approach will lead to even more hyper-personalised content recommendations, product suggestions, and targeted marketing campaigns, enhancing the overall customer experience. Especially in the realm of evergreen content, AI-tools are making it easier than ever to determine the most relevant topics to focus on, and the most impactful content to produce.
Marketers are also using conversational AI to further improve customer service. In fact, the global conversational AI market is projected to reach 32.62 billion by 2030.
These days, customers have high standards when it comes to getting their needs met. 82% of customers switch brands if unsatisfied with the customer’s service department.
Chatbots are changing the way customer service is administered, and are astonishingly human-like. They use NLP, NLU and NLG technologies to deliver a compelling service to customers and are only expected to get more innovative in the future.
Finally, inbound marketers are starting to rely heavily on automation to create content. In fact, presently, 78% of media planners use automation.
AI can assist content creators by generating data-driven insights, suggesting topic ideas, and even optimising headlines and meta descriptions for improved search engine rankings.
This will free up marketers to focus on more strategic tasks, such as crafting compelling narratives and building brand identity.
Final Thoughts
AI is poised to reshape the future of inbound marketing.
Personalisation, chatbots, automated content creation and predictive analytics are just some of the trends that are taking centre stage, and almost all are driven by AI-driven technology.
In order to stay competitive in this rapidly changing industry, marketers need to embrace the transformative power of AI, and use it to better prioritise their customers.
In the near future, we can expect inbound marketing to become even more customer-centric and hyper-personalised.
The industry is increasingly relying on AI to keep up and function up to standard. If you haven’t jumped on the AI-bandwagon, your time is now.
Book a free 30-minute phone consultation today.