Every day, marketing AI becomes more of a viable option for enrollment marketers. See how you could start using marketing AI to improve your enrollment… and how not to.
When we talk about artificial intelligence, we normally think of a technology of the future.
But the truth is, you are interacting with intelligent machines daily.
Each time you jump into your Amazon account and you see the recommended products they tease you with, that’s produced by artificial intelligence (AI).
Ever wait to purchase something in your Amazon cart and the price changed before you could buy it?
More than likely, a computer decided to increase or decrease the price of your item based on current supply and demand.
No human being involved.
When you talk to Siri, Cortana, Alexa, or Google Assistant, they use an artificial intelligence technology called voice recognition software. Facebook’s algorithm that decides what you see in your news feed is — you guessed it — AI.
Using Marketing AI for Enrollment Marketing
While marketing AI is relatively new, it has been a thing for several years now.
There are many ways enrollment marketers can take advantage of marketing AI to improve their marketing efforts.
Here are some ways I would recommend to anyone just starting to implement marketing AI into their marketing mix.
Speech to Text
You might not have thought about this one, but speech-to-text software is an easy way to start using AI in your marketing workflow.
Using speech-to-text, you can write simply by speaking.
For many people, this will increase the amount of content they can produce. Talking is a much more natural activity that will help you avoid the dreaded blank page in your word processor.
Actually, you’re probably already using your mobile device to speak your texts into the phone.
So this one shouldn’t be a large jump to make.
While you can buy premium voice-to-text software like Dragon Speech Recognition by Nuance, I recommend the native speech recognition software on Windows or Mac OS.
IP Retargeting
IP Retargeting uses a variety of marketing AI technologies (mainly what’s called cookies) to remember web visitors who’ve come to your website before.
Later, as they browse the Internet or their social media sites, they will see digital advertisements for your private school, college, or university.
IP retargeting is how enrollment marketers can continue to target website visitors (thus, “retargeting”) for their digital advertising campaigns.
This is a powerful way to keep your school top-of-mind as prospects consider their education decision.
Marketing Automation
Marketing AI is all about allowing computers to do what you would normally have to do yourself.
Marketing automation allows you to do this at a big-picture level by creating communication flows based on your prospect’s behavior.
For example, if your prospect downloads your latest white paper, your marketing automation software can trigger a series of emails to cultivate further down the funnel.
There are many tools out there you can choose for marketing automation.
Watch out for overpriced marketing AI tools. I recommend Sharpspring as an economic option with almost all the options you’d ever need.
Content Curation
Another huge time saver for enrollment marketers is to use marketing AI to curate content.
Content curation is when you find and share content from other brands that reasonably tie in with the regular questions you are answering for your audience. While not original content, it’s still relevant and useful to your audience.
Normally, you or one of your staff would have to sit down for several hours to search for content related to what your audience is interested in.
But now, there are many tools available that recommend content from around the Internet that are related to the keywords you put in earlier or that match content you’ve read before.
Like everything in this marketing AI list of tools, there are free and paid options.
If content curation is a key strategy that you’re dedicated to every week, I recommend making room in your budget for premium tools like Curata.
If you’re just starting in curation, use free but powerful options like:
Search Engine Optimization
One of my favorite marketing AI tools is Yoast’s SEO plugin in WordPress.
Each time I write a new post, Yoast scans my content and determines if it’s optimized for search engines to find it based on the keyword phrase I choose.
Yoast then gives me solid steps I can take to improve my search engine rankings.
It also analyzes the content to make sure that it is easily readable. Why is that important?
The more readable my content is, the more likely you are to read it!
Marketing AI like Yoast makes my writing better and more visible – all within minutes.
Analytics
Finally, I highly recommend that all enrollment marketers use marketing AI to analyze the vast amounts of data that they will collect about their prospects.
For example, use Google Analytics to track your website visitors’ behaviors.
Email service providers like MailChimp, Aweber, and Emma all offer excellent analytics on the way your prospects interact with your emails showing you who opened your emails or who responded to your call to action.
A Cautionary Tale for Marketing AI
There are many ways enrollment marketers can take advantage of marketing AI. But here’s where I’ve got to give a big warning.
Marketing AI, like all forms of artificial intelligence, works best when the user doesn’t notice it.
When you scroll through the shows that Netflix recommends for you, do you ever think of the algorithms Netflix uses to recommend shows that you like?
That’s the way marketing AI needs to work for you.
If you decide to use new forms of marketing AI like chatbots, for example, make sure that the interaction it has with your prospects isn’t mechanical or robotic.
No one wants to feel like they can’t talk to a real human being.
We’re all used to interacting with marketing AI like chatbots, but we get frustrated if we feel as though they are blocking us from speaking to a real person.
High touch marketing always has the best conversion rates.
So use marketing AI to make human-to-human interactions more frequent and more impactful.
For more ways to use marketing AI to enhance your marketing efforts, contact us today!
Ebook: Redesigning Your Education Website
Feel like your education website could do better in generating more leads for your enrollment cycle? Getting ready for a website overhaul?
Then, I highly recommend you download our free ebook resource Redesigning Your Education Website. Inside, you’ll find the following aspects of planning your redesign:
- An Introduction to the Process
- Focusing Your Efforts
- Telling Your Story
- Planning for Mobile
- Scannable & Simple Copywriting
- Show & Tell: Rich Media
- Call-To-Action
- Driving Traffic
- Automation
- Big Data
Get the insights you need to give your website the makeover it really needs. Download your free ebook today!
Featured image by THANANIT via Adobe Stock
