In the recent CommerceNow’23 virtual event, we spoke with Sam Hanni, CEO of SwissMadeMarketing, Türker Yiğitalp, Marketing Manager at Prisync, and Kasim Aslam, Founder and CEO at Solutions 8. Each discussed unique insights on how businesses can level up their online presence in 2023.
These speakers got us excited about:
- Using AI tools & strategies for online marketing
- The game-changing power of using AI in paid media, and
- How data-driven pricing can turn an online store into a profit-generating powerhouse
Continuing with their insights, they emphasized how AI could be as crucial to your business as a morning cup of coffee is to productivity. They also underscored the importance of understanding your customers, likening it to the vital knowledge of not putting all your investments in one stock.
Below, we have highlighted key takeaways which will be super valuable for enhancing your 2023 eCommerce game plan.
Using AI to Understand and Engage Customers in Online Marketing
In the last 7 months, online marketing has dramatically shifted with the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), equipping business owners with a suite of new AI tools to help with marketing, sales, and customer service.
Yet, while marketers need to understand how to employ AI technology best, it’s even more crucial to remember that real people exist behind the data. Tracking metrics and hitting KPIs isn’t possible without thoroughly understanding the problems, questions, and requests your customers face.
In his session, Sam Hanni utilizes a Harry Potter analogy through The Mirror of Erised, to illustrate how AI can boost customer satisfaction and business performance. Like the mirror revealing desires, AI analyzes customer behaviour, preferences, and trends to uncover underlying needs and wants.
This capability allows businesses to tailor their marketing strategies to better align with these desires, offering products, services, and experiences that truly resonate with their customers.
In other words, AI can help “reflect” your customers’ real-time preferences and behaviors, allowing your business to create personalized messaging that appeals to your target audience.
Make sure to watch Sam’s full session to better understand how to use AI to hyperboost your marketing strategies.
Google’s Role in Transforming the Future of Paid Media
In his talk, Kasim Aslam navigated and explored the challenges and unprecedented changes impacting advertisers.
The world went digital during COVID-19, showing unprecedented digital adoption and increased reliance on AI-driven mechanisms like Google and Meta. This has further expanded the scope of data collection done by big companies and enhanced their ability to analyze and predict human behavior.
Consider the time Google predicted a woman’s pregnancy before she even knew about it.
If AI innovation keeps up at its current rate, a future where robot butlers serve as personal assistants is within the realm of possibility… In line with this vision, Google is already offering an array of tools to assist businesses with marketing across its entire platform, including:
Google Cloud Vision
Google Cloud Vision is an AI-powered tool that can enhance your current marketing strategy. By using powerful machine-learning models, this tool can analyze the content of an uploaded image, extracting key insights based on your specific business goals.
For example, it can:
- Identify landmarks in images and determine the location of where the photo was captured
- Analyze user-generated content for trend detection
- Create product descriptions based on past examples
With data being the new oil of the digital economy, the ability to extract and interpret data from various content sources will allow your business to create more precise and impactful campaigns without the need to blow through your ad budget or spend months Q/A testing.
Performance Max
Performance Max is a new campaign type designed to complement your keyword-based Search campaigns to help find more converting customers. By gaining access to all your Google Ads inventory from a single campaign, you can drive performance based on specified conversion goals across channels.
Benefits include:
- Attracting new audiences across Google’s channels & networks
- Driving better performance against your goals
- Transparent insights
- Automated campaign set-up
- Ad campaign optimization
Unlocking the Potential of AI-Driven Ad Campaigns
The traditional model of seven touches before a user purchase is cliché and outdated. It was initially developed in the 1930s by a movie studio that tried to reach prospects multiple times in short periods through repeated advertising.
However, the “rule of 7” isn’t a hard fact, and doesn’t translate well in today’s complex digital landscape. Based on a study by Google, it now takes somewhere between 20-500 touches to get someone to make a purchase, depending on the complexity of the product.
This makes rethinking the customer journey a top priority for eCommerce businesses.
In fact, Aslam stresses that businesses that want to compete in the 21st-century media landscape need to focus their attention on creating content for the customers in the middle of the funnel.
This “messy middle” is one of the best places to position your business from an algorithmic perspective due to the number of purchase paths any one customer can take.
The more avenues to capture a customer’s attention, the greater the chance of converting and earning a sale.
That being said, the task of analyzing the distinct purchasing journey of every customer and subsequently fine-tuning an advertising campaign for each one can be quite challenging.
Fortunately, AI-powered marketing has the answer, as robots step in to assist.
Get access to more of Kasim’s insights by watching his entire CommerceNow 2023 session.
Maximizing Online Store Profitability with Data-Driven Pricing
Businesses can boost their online store’s profitability through intelligent, data-driven pricing decisions, as shared by Türker Yiğitalp, Marketing Manager at Prisync. It becomes even more crucial during times of inflation when businesses must be flexible and adjust to shifts in customer shopping behavior and buying choices.
The following are some of the highlighted key strategies and considerations to help you price accordingly.
Pricing Strategy Tips
One of the biggest mistakes eCommerce businesses make is adopting a cost-based pricing approach. Relying solely on cost-based pricing could have you leaving money on the table.
In addition to analyzing your costs, ensure you consider market conditions and competitor pricing when setting product prices. Continuously monitor every pricing decision to boost your business’s bottom line.
Here are things to consider:
- Leverage tools to track and map competitors’ pricing or uncover more insights into your niche’s market dynamics.
- How are your non-AI components set up? Shipping, customer service, and return policies all greatly influence a customer’s perception of value and their willingness to pay.
- Make informed pricing decisions by segmenting your products into different price points based on past performance and customer preferences. Check current market conditions and keep an eye on your competitors to optimize profitability and gain a competitive edge.
- Use product bundling to increase average order value and incentivize purchases without relying on discounting.
Don’t miss out on Türker’s full session for even more tips on how make to intelligent pricing decisions.
It’s clear by now that AI is not just a buzzword but a tool with vast potential to solve your everyday business problems.
From breaking down complex tasks into simple processes to managing your entire marketing and sales, AI enables small teams and individuals to accomplish more with less.
Today is the time to embrace AI tools and leverage them to get ahead of your competition. Make better pricing decisions, pay less for your ads while generating more reach, and stay informed on what your competitors are doing, all with the power of artificial intelligence.
For more valuable insights, be sure to watch the CommerceNow’23 virtual event.
