AI and Your Business: 4 Ways This Combo Can Encourage Growth

Once a futuristic idea, AI is becoming a widely used asset in many businesses. As companies become more familiar with AI’s capabilities, its potential uses stand an even greater chance to multiply. Most leaders aren’t going to take a second glance at a potential asset unless it can help their businesses expand. When implemented well, AI can fuel any company’s growth.  

The technology’s enhancements range from increasing efficiency to improving customer service. And the ways you’re seeing AI being used today are, of course, only the beginning. But for now, here are four means by which a once far-off concept can propel your business forward.  

1. Support Content Marketing Initiatives

Marketing is essential for growth, and your content plays a huge role in expanding your audience. Maybe your blog posts and videos attract leads while your in-depth guides convert them. Whatever the strategy behind your various pieces of content, it’s to ensure those materials are moving the needle.

But designing and executing a high-performing strategy isn’t always easy. Luckily, AI tools and platforms can help develop your content strategy, making it more robust and simpler to fine-tune. Functions like topic generators come from AI’s ability to analyze data about your audience. You’ll have an instant array of content ideas without spending the entire morning brainstorming with the crew. You can take the most promising ones, leveraging AI’s content creation capabilities to flesh them out.

Within minutes, you’ll have outlines and first drafts. Your content team, whether big or small, will be more productive. They’ll get some of the lighter tasks, such as writing product descriptions or creating content clusters, out of the way. Plus, the team will be able to spot more opportunities for improving your content’s connection with the market. AI content creation tools can serve your objectives by ensuring the materials you put out inspire, engage, and convert.

2. Automate Customer Communications

Some business leaders may have concerns about automating all customer communications, and rightfully so. You probably don’t want a bot attempting to serve a client with a complex issue, such as credit card fraud. However, routine communications are game. These touchpoints are often repetitive, taking up too much of your staff’s time.

Consequently, they can’t get to all the fires and serve client needs efficiently. Survey data shows that 46% of customers expect businesses to respond in less than four hours. And if this statistic isn’t eye-opening enough, 12% of clients expect a response time of 15 minutes or less. When customers’ support expectations aren’t met, they get irritated and look for alternatives. This doesn’t bode well for business growth.

In fact, it does the opposite. Nonetheless, you’d have to rely on a lot of employees to ensure you’re meeting the needs of today’s impatient consumer. And for most businesses, this approach isn’t cost-effective. But AI can automate communications like confirmation emails, answers to basic support questions, and links to self-serve resources. You can juggle more customer needs, reserving your employees’ efforts for what truly requires a human touch.   

3. Personalize Marketing Campaigns

Say you’ve been a policyholder with the same insurance company for years. As your lifestyle has changed, you’ve placed calls to your agent to discuss your new needs. What if, instead, you received policy recommendations ahead of time? As your age bracket, income level, claim history, and assets change, you receive suggestions on what products might work best.

For example, your driving history suggests you’d benefit from a new program that rewards safe drivers. It involves installing a monitoring device in your car but offers premium discounts. You might jump on the opportunity, especially if you’re a price-sensitive consumer.

Well, AI has the ability to analyze consumer data like this and reach out to customers with personalized marketing campaigns. Because these messages are super targeted, they’re more likely to be successful. Clients who continue to add on services, features, and products tend to produce more growth for a company. In fact, research from McKinsey & Company shows that 80% of value creation in successful growth businesses comes from core products.    

Plus, acquiring new clients is expensive. While your company does need new business, retaining and upselling to current clients is where most growth occurs. Using AI to deliver personalized marketing messages can help your business grow sales from its existing base.

4. Improve Decision Making

Decisions are usually made by the head or heart. You might debate between going with your gut versus thinking logically. And in some cases, you could try to balance the two competing voices. While a few choices may not have long-lasting consequences, business ones typically do. Yet leaders can struggle with knowing which path will yield the best results for the company.

It often comes down to not analyzing the right data or synthesizing all the information you do have. AI can help with these shortcomings. Analytics streamline multiple data sources to identify what’s most critical. You can pinpoint what you need to focus on, rather than search for needles in a haystack.

You can see missed sales opportunities, where customer service is falling short, and ways to up your marketing game. AI can also help determine whether expanding a product line is better than letting the current one ride. With the technology’s assistance, you can improve how you make decisions and the choices themselves.

Advertisement

Using AI To Encourage Growth  

In business, growth is essential for sustainability. With the amount of competition there is today, it’s crucial for companies to continuously innovate and adapt in order to stay relevant and maintain a competitive edge. Your decisions and strategies significantly impact whether activity stagnates or takes off. AI can ensure the choices you make can take your business to the next level.