Artificial intelligence (AI) is having a big moment. As this technology continues to evolve at lightning speed, many firm owners are left wondering: how can this help my digital marketing efforts? 

There’s no question that the future of search and SEO will be changing, along with virtually every other aspect of digital marketing. Understanding the potential implications and the benefits of embracing AI can help your firm stay one step ahead of the competition.

How AI May Affect Digital Marketing  

Artificial intelligence has been reshaping the digital marketing landscape for many years now. AI isn’t a new thing in this industry, but the release of tools like ChatGPT, Bard and Bing to the general public have accelerated the move towards time-saving and productivity-enhancing tools in the online marketing space.

What are the implications? 

While it’s difficult to make predictions, there are a few key areas of digital marketing that have already been impacted by AI, including:

• Customer engagement
• Data analysis
• Content creation

AI has the potential to streamline many of these aspects of digital marketing, but we’re still not at a point where you can just “set and forget” your marketing while AI does it for you. Humans still need to be involved in the ideation, creation, and execution.

While AI can help with your workflow, great content stems from human ideas.

Many of the AI tools that are making a big splash are still in their infancy. No one knows for sure how far they’ll go, what regulations may come into play or whether the public will fully embrace AI.

Still, firms should consider implementing AI and automation now to stay one step ahead. In fact, Google recently announced the addition of Perspectives and generative AI into their search, which will change digital marketing strategies in the future. Adopting AI early on will make it much easier to adapt as things change.

The Benefits of AI and Automation for Accounting Firm Marketing

AI and automation can benefit your firm’s marketing strategy in many ways. Here’s are just a few:

Improved Productivity and Efficiency

AI and automation tools are designed to save you valuable time. By automating mundane tasks, you’re free to focus on more critical aspects of your digital marketing strategy and running your firm.

When you incorporate automation and AI into the mix, you improve productivity and may even speed up SEO in the process. Streamlining your content creation, outreach, and social media marketing can help you get more done faster and build a solid foundation for your SEO.

Better Client Engagement and Targeting

AI can also help improve customer engagement and targeting by making it easier to:

• Analyze client behavior and data
• Target the right people

Artificial intelligence can help you track your campaigns with greater precision, giving you insight into which client segments perform best. The right tools will empower you to:

• Compare old and new clients, and use those insights to improve the client experience
• Learn more about your audience, what they want, and how to target them
• See what your clients are talking about on social media to learn about their desires and behaviors

AI tools can help you get to know your clients on a much deeper level, so you can create more relevant content and marketing campaigns. 

Whether you’re trying to build a community or an audience, AI tools can help you foster meaningful relationships from the start simply by helping you understand your clients’ needs.

Automation and AI Applications for Accounting Firm Marketing

You understand the potential implications of AI and the benefits it offers, but how can you start incorporating this technology into your marketing strategy? 

Here are a few of the ways accounting firms can use AI and automation in their marketing.

Predictive Analytics

Accounting firms can use predictive analytics to help identify opportunities and risks with greater precision. These tools support data-driven decision-making, helping you make smarter digital marketing choices that maximize each channel’s impact on lead generation and sales.

How does it work?

Predictive analytics uses a variety of sources to predict future outcomes, including:

• Historical data
• Data mining
• Statistical modeling
• Machine learning

Firms can take advantage of this technology to predict the outcomes of their digital marketing campaigns. 

Predictive analytics can also provide insight into customer responses, which can help firms find opportunities for cross-selling. 

AI-Driven Content Support Tools

Content is still at the heart of digital marketing, but AI can help support, improve and streamline the creation process. 

Firms can use a wide range of tools to support content creation, including:

• Text to image generators
• Video generators
• Blog and social media post generators

These tools are best used as helpers to inspire and streamline repetitive tasks that can slow down the creation process without eliminating the human touch.

Email Campaign Automation

For every dollar spent on email marketing, businesses get an average of $36 in return. Firms can boost that return by incorporating automation into the mix. Automating your email campaigns will save you valuable time that you can spend on core tasks.

There are many ways to streamline your campaigns, such as:

• Setting triggers along the client journey to send personalized emails.
• Segmenting your list based on behaviors and interests, and sending targeted messages to these groups.
• Scheduling messages for future delivery.

You can also leverage content creation support tools to help you craft more compelling and engaging emails that your clients will find value in.

AI Challenges and Ethical Concerns

AI and automation have the potential to save firms time while creating more effective marketing campaigns.

However, there are still challenges and ethical concerns that must be considered.

AI is Not a Set-it-and-Forget-It Solution

Artificial intelligence can be a helpful tool, but it’s not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. There still needs to be human intervention. 

Tools like ChatGPT can help you get ideas for content and even generate outlines, but it cannot automate the entire process. These tools don’t always generate accurate information and many rely on outdated data to provide answers. They can save time, but their information must be fact-checked 

Let’s not forget the value of adding in the human experience. Incorporating your team’s own experiences and storytelling will make your content truly unique.

Even the automation of email scheduling should be overseen by a human to ensure quality and accuracy.

Because many AI-driven tools are still in their early development phases, there are concerns about:

• Data privacy
• Security

Firms also face the challenge of having to stay up-to-date with rapidly evolving advancements in artificial intelligence.

Conclusion

AI and automation present new and exciting opportunities for accounting firms to streamline and improve their digital marketing campaigns. From data analysis to content creation and email marketing, there are so many ways to make your marketing efforts more effective and to improve your ROI. That being said, it’s important to take a responsible approach to artificial intelligence and understand the challenges that lie ahead in this ever-changing sector of the tech space.

Ready to take your firm’s marketing to new heights? Contact us today to schedule a consultation.