The Bold Truth About AI in Marketing: Protecting Your Brand

Unveiling the Dark Side of AI in Digital Marketing

With all the potential benefits, AI does have a dark side. Failing to acknowledge it in the open could lead AI marketing strategies down the wrong path.

As AI becomes more prevalent, it becomes more cost-effective and accessible to large and small businesses. This means more people are using it. They're continually raising the bar, forcing faster marketing evolution.

It may be hard for a lot of businesses to keep up.

AI use can also lead to a lack of personalization rather than an increase in it. AI-driven automation makes it easier to blast out unpersonalized marketing messages relatively cheaply. AI-empowered marketing could become the new "robocall", along with all the negative experiences.

Ultimately, AI follows the instructions humans give it. So, personalization isn’t automatic. It’s important to configure tools to enhance personalization through strategies like:

• Audience segmentation based on behavioral, demographic, company position, and other factors
• Translating to the language the recipient reads best
• Aligning content with where an individual is in their buyer’s journey

AI can bring about privacy concerns. You must track customer behaviors to personalize their experiences. 79% of consumers say they appreciate this personalization. They feel loyal to brands that can deliver it. And 81% say they will trade behavioral data to receive it.

But tracking can feel intrusive. That's especially true when personalization isn't done in a CX-focused way.

Faux pas like these can damage your brand's reputation.

The darker side of AI in digital marketing often happens because of disconnected systems and siloed teams. They aren't working off the same information. You're at a loss for how to discover the source of truth. Each system is telling you (and your AI) something different. It's like trying to improve on-time flight departures when everyone's clock is off by 5 to 10 minutes.

If you add AI to this mix, it only makes the problems with untrustworthy data more evident.

Artificial Intelligence in Real-World Scenarios

Early Hurdles in AI-Driven Marketing and How They Were Overcome

According to a New York Times story, this is an early use of AI in a digital marketing campaign. The marketing team at the retailer Target used AI to track customer buying. They wanted to predict if a person was pregnant. If they could do this, they could send personalized offers to the expecting parent.

Personalization at its finest. Or so it seemed.

That was until they began sending relevant offers to teenagers whose parents did not yet know they were pregnant. This became national news, prompting scrutiny of Target's lack of concern for customer privacy or what it marketed to minors.

Generative AI Makes Up Court Cases in Airline Injury Lawsuit

Generative AI is far from perfect. It often misunderstands the sources it's using and generates grossly inaccurate content. Or it misunderstands what the human wants it to do.

Two airline injury lawyers found this out the hard way when they allegedly asked a leading generative AI tool to provide them with court cases to support their case against the airline.

The tool spit out compelling well-written summaries with convincing case names. The lawyers used these made-up stories verbatim. The lawyers initially tried to deny that they trusted AI and didn't do due diligence. But they were later forced to acknowledge what they’d done. They were fined and embarrassed on a national level. This may impact their ability to attract new clients.

Social Media Companies Struggling to Get AI to Recognize Harmful and Illegal Content

AI can flag potentially hateful content for humans to review. But social media leadership wants to predict and stop harmful content before it's posted.

It isn't proving easy. As a result, content that should be stopped isn't. At the same time, people trying to post harmless content may be stopped because AI misunderstands the content's essence or intent.

AI has advanced by lightyears over the past several years. But it still needs strict human oversight. Failing to watch what your AI is doing could lead to similarly embarrassing situations detrimental to your brand. Using AI without understanding the risks can cause real and lasting damage. It's dangerous!

AI Content Reveals Google Search Discrepancy

In another example of AI delivering content the company did not expect, someone discovered a problem with Google search results. It's since been fixed. If you searched "three black teenagers," it pulled up criminal activity, and "three white teenagers" pulled up non-criminal activities. This led people to question, "Is Google racist?"

Why AI Alone Can't Replace the Human  Connection in Marketing

If we haven't already made this clear, we'll say it again: don't think you can replace people with AI.

You can indeed do more with less when you use AI. But customer expectations have also increased. For now, AI cannot learn the "human experience" behind what we say and do. It doesn't understand "why" only "what" we do. And people can be very inconsistent in the space between their thoughts/feelings and actions. You need people and AI working together efficiently so your brand doesn't lose its humanity.

To connect with humans, we must maintain a human touch. So how do we do this?

First of all, AI is only as good as the data you give it to learn from. Give it a trusted source of truth.

You need humans who understand the data you need to collect and analyze. But they also must understand the technology so they can configure HubSpot to collect and analyze the right data and present it in the most useful way to you.

Additionally, AI can miss certain trends and insights precisely because it doesn't have a "human experience".

Second, you won't be able to run successful marketing campaigns with even the most advanced AI if you don't know what you want it to do. AI only works for you when humans and AI are working together effectively.

Set goals and ethical standards for AI use. Once again, humans need to select, define, and refine your goals. Otherwise, AI may misunderstand your goals as it did with the airline injury lawyers. It could confidently take your marketing on a one-way flight in a direction you did not want to go.

Third, only human experts understand its capabilities. It's easy to think small because you don't know what you don't know about what AI can do for you. You have to know the right questions to ask and guidance to provide AI to get the results you want.

You need a marketing agency that knows what AI can do when configured to meet your business goals. You need one that knows how humans and AI can work best together to meet goals.

Take a course to understand its capabilities better. Collaborate with experts who understand AI in content marketing. Talk with Diaz & Cooper about data-driven B2B business growth through AI.

Fourth, it's also important to realize AI is a work in progress. We encourage you to come along for the ride so you don't get left behind, but it can't work independently and may never be able to. AI marketing Services give you access to humans who can help you get the most out of this technology. They can help you learn its capabilities, limitations, and how to work with it.

Invest in AI ethics and usage training for your team.

The people who want around you, supporting your efforts to enhance your use of AI in digital marketing, include internal employees and those at your inbound marketing agency with the expertise you need to get demonstrable ROI from your AI in digital marketing. Here are 7 Signs You Should Hire an Inbound Marketing Agency.

Next Steps

The sky is quite possibly the limit with AI. But let's stay grounded in what it can and can't do right now. AI in digital marketing requires responsible AI exploration with the help of expert guidance. It's important to balance AI with proper human oversight from people who understand the pitfalls and potential AI offers.

Don't let negligent AI usage damage your brand.

It's time to learn more about the AI solutions and assistance you get from HubSpot Platinum Partner experts at Diaz & Cooper. As performance marketers, we're hyper-focused on results and proving ROI to your CEO. We walk you through responsible and effective AI integration. Talk with Diaz & Cooper about data-driven B2B business growth.