AI and Machine Learning for marketing briefing

Our Artificial Intelligence for marketing guide focusing on Machine Learning and predictive analytics

How will this guide to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning help me and my business?

It used to be impossible for all but the largest businesses to harness Artificial Intelligence technology to their marketing. Today, now even smaller businesses can apply publicly available algorithms or off the shelf machine learning services to generate useful insights and create prediction models based on their customer’s behaviours. Generative AI services like ChatGPT have also had a huge impact recently. Paid members should check our examples in our How to use ChatGPT for marketing Quick Win for guidance and tools.

There are many new AI and machine learning services developing which mean that these techniques are now open to every business. The purpose of this guide is to cut through the hype and noise around these powerful technologies and show what you can put in place today to boost your business results. It provides models and strategies to successfully run these projects and gives examples and case studies of how the technology is used in businesses of all sizes, so you can understand how you can use AI and machine learning for your business.

The guide aims to help businesses of all sizes to apply to their marketing, focusing on Artificial Intelligence. All businesses can now use the services we recommend to implement machine learning. The guide explains why, and how with an actionable and practical approach.

In this report we make recommendations on tools and techniques that you can apply to make more use of AI in marketing by:

Applying dedicated AI-enabled tools that use machine learning to improve return-on-investment from existing activities like advertising, email marketing and your website.
Enabling new machine learning features on existing platforms you use such as Google Ads, your email platforms or content management systems.
Configuring data-mining tools and predictive analytics tools to develop your own analysis and predictive analytics. This requires in-house skills with knowledge of the principles of machine learning which we explain in the last section of the report.

Who is this guide for?

This guide is aimed at anyone interested or responsible for learning about the techniques and technologies using the power of AI to improve results and reduce costs in marketing including:

Senior marketers including Heads and Directors of marketing and small business owners
Marketing and digital marketing managers
Brand innovation managers

How is the guide structured?

The guide is structured into the following sections:

Introduction and definitions
Artificial Intelligence applications for marketing including Chatbots
Examples of using machine learning across the RACE customer lifecycle
Machine learning for predictive analytics
The business potential of applying machine learning to predictive data analytics
The fundamental principles of machine learning – examples of theory in practice
Common mistakes when using machine learning
Planning an Artificial Intelligence or machine learning project
Case Study: Propensity modelling of Smart Insights’ leads
Resources – open source and paid tools and learning materials

Latest updates

Introduction focuses on the Gartner Hype Cycle to illustrate AI’s many potential applications in marketing
New examples of AI being used to improve marketing results, including ChatGPT, and examples of applying machine learning and AI across the customer lifecycle
10 questions marketers should be asking to generate their own use-cases for applying predictive analytics

Related member resources

ChatGPT for marketing Quick Win

Resource Details

Author: Dr. Dave Chaffey, Smart Insights
Resource format: Online hosted content with mindtools and examples

About the author

Dr. Dave Chaffey

Dave is co-founder of Smart Insights and creator of the Smart Insights RACE planning framework. For his full profile, or to connect on LinkedIn or other social networks, see the About Dave Chaffey profile page on Smart Insights. Dave is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. In 2004 he was recognized by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing.