What is machine learning?

Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of digital marketing. It’s a field that focuses on using data to automate tasks, increase productivity, and provide valuable insights into existing customer segments (e.g., marketing, content marketing, and sales). To better understand what makes machine learning tick, it’s important to understand a little bit about the technology.

Machine learning is a broad field of study, so, to better understand what it’s all about, we’ve put together a few resources to help get you started.

How machine learning is used in digital marketing

To begin a discussion about how machine learning is being used in digital marketing, it helps if you know a little bit about the field. Machine learning is a popular name for the technology that powers all digital marketing. However, it’s a technology that's been around for quite some time, and it’s only recently being utilized in a meaningful way. To better understand what makes machine learning tick, it’s important to understand a little bit about the technology.

Machine learning (ML) and data are often lumped together, making it difficult to define exactly what the two are. But, if you're looking to understand what machine learning is and how it can help you in your digital marketing role, you should definitely begin your research with a little background.

To learn more about what machine learning is and isn't, and how it can help your digital marketing, check out our machine learning course.

Machine learning is a relatively new technology, and it’s only recently that we've begun to see its most immediate benefits in digital marketing. But, it’s already being used in some areas of digital marketing, helping improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

So, how exactly is machine learning used in digital marketing?

Machine learning is used in a variety of digital marketing fields to automate tasks, increase productivity, and provide valuable insights into existing customer segments (e.g., marketing automation, content marketing automation, digital marketing automation, web analytics, data science, and more). For example, companies using machine learning to automate customer churn prediction can save customers’ money and improve their bottom lines. Machine learning can help digital marketers reduce costs by analyzing data more efficiently and provide better customer experiences.

How is machine learning being used in digital marketing communications?

For example, machine learning might be used for effective marketing communications. One of the main challenges for marketing managers is to communicate effectively with their customers. According to recent insights from a survey, a lot of managers felt that the most challenging part of their job was communicating with their customers.

To deliver the best possible customer experience, your business or organization should strive to:

• Create content that inspires and motivates your customers to make the best decisions for themselves.

• Provide compelling ways for your customers to interact with your business, and develop effective communication strategies to engage and inspire them.

To make your marketing more effective, you should consider not only the content you include in your marketing materials, but also how you structure your content around key customer segments.

Research suggests that content marketing can have a significant impact on your ROI (more on ROI later in this article). However, because research findings are often based on small samples, they're hard to generalize. That said, there's evidence that shows that content can have an impact on your own ROI as well as on the performance of your competitors. In other words, if you put together the right mix of data, content, and channels, you can increase your expected ROI (and even improve your ROI without spending a lot of money) by using your existing customer data to drive your business' digital strategy.

To make your content more effective, you should consider how it will be received by your target. You should also consider their expectations of your product or service, and how that compares to other offerings on your shelves. Your content team should consider how your existing customers and prospects are likely to react to the content, and how this will impact their behaviors. And finally, you should be sure that the content you create appeals to your core audience.

Machine learning can help you in achieving these things in a more efficient and structured way.

Our lecturers in marketing management at WU University are authors of high tier journal papers in marketing and management with research interests including the marketing and digital marketing industries.

To learn more about how machine learning is transforming digital marketing, visit our courses and get the latest digital marketing trends and information from us.