Your business operates under a rock on an isolated island in the South Pacific. So you know artificial intelligence (AI) is the big thing today. AI assists consumers in their day-to-day activities with or without their knowledge. Consider services like voice assistance, online shopping, content streaming, and even texting.
Machine learning (ML) is an application of AI. It gives machines the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience. And this happens without the need for previous programming. This makes AI and ML services very lucrative. And many reputable certifications and learning materials exist to get you started.
Over 50 years have passed since the term “Machine Learning” was first coined. And today businesses big and small get crack at the technology. Early adopters of AI reap appreciable results. Benefits include increased efficiency, cost reduction, revenue growth and more.
And yet, less than 30% of businesses and organizations incorporate AI in their business model. You’ll find many potential upsides of the AI revolution. So don’t let your business fall behind.
Machine Learning Benefits
Start to appreciate just how big a boon machine learning can be for your business. Check out three key benefits of ML for you to chew over.
Improves User Experience
It doesn’t matter whether you run an e-commerce store, a SaaS startup, or a design/marketing agency. User experience (UX) remains one of the most crucial factors to success. Do visitors are finding it difficult to navigate your virtual property? They won’t hesitate for an instant to leave and head elsewhere.
Netflix found customers give up after searching for a movie for more than 90 seconds. So the company uses machine learning to improve search results. And Netflix averts user frustration and customer churn. The company also saves $1 billion a year in potential lost revenue.
Amazon uses machine learning to provide highly relevant product recommendations based on the user’s purchase history, ultimately resulting in a pleasant and personalized online shopping experience.
So, basically, while users are browsing your website, you can use machine learning to provide them with personalized purchase recommendations based on their browsing history and previous orders. Furthermore, you can also offer discounts and special offers to returning customers to build loyalty and positive word of mouth.
Apart from personalization, machine learning also serves as the most efficient way to build chatbots – which are becoming more of a necessity for serious businesses than a mere good-to-have feature. Why? More than 53% of customers prefer to use online chat when they need assistance over calling.
Having a chatbot on your website can assist your customer service team by being the first responder to your customer’s inquiries. Chatbots can also help your customer service team by pointing users to various parts of your website, saving time and allowing your team to deal with more important tasks required to move users further down the conversion funnel.
Chatbots built using machine learning are far superior to rule-based ones, and serve to enrich the user experience and make a lasting good impression.
Automates Routine Tasks
For small businesses, every hour saved is a big win. Streamlining operations to make them more time-efficient is a big challenge for businesses.
Automating mundane tasks is the first step to streamlining your business operations. It would free up a lot of time for you and your team to focus on core, productive tasks instead of routine drudgery.
So, tedious tasks such as creating appointment reminders, responding to email, and sending invoices can all be automated effectively using machine learning.
Facilitates Smart Marketing
Marketing has gone fully digital. As discussed, website personalization and chatbots play a big role in determining your business’s user experience.
Now, when you consider the bigger picture of digital marketing for establishing your brand value, many constituents come into play.
For example, email marketing is still huge — it has one of the highest return-on-investment (ROI) at $38 for every $1 spent. Automating email marketing using tools like MailChimp is a great way to make AI work for you. Such automation allows you to create emails get sent automatically when triggered by a subscriber’s activity, inactivity, or a specific date like birthday or anniversary.
Essentially, if a subscriber takes a certain action, a machine-learned response is triggered, and so on down the line until the customer (hopefully) converts.
Next, you can also use machine learning to monitor and manage your business’s social media profiles quite effectively.
Machine learning actually plays a momentous role in modern digital marketing campaigns, from sentiment analysis and split testing to customer retargeting and predicting customer churn. Read this fantastic post to learn more about how machine learning is revamping digital marketing.
Final Words
Of course, implementing machine learning for your business is not exactly going to be a walk in the park. Sure, there are plenty of plug-and-play solutions to website personalization, automation, chatbots, and email marketing. But you’ll either need to hire a bunch of developers or learn how to do it yourself if you truly want to develop a customized solution tailored perfectly for your brand.
In the end, whether you like it or not, AI is here to shake things up in the business world, and it’s better to hop on board sooner rather than later.
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