Artificial Intelligence in Digital Marketing

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made its way into digital marketing, and in more ways than one. We can see some forms of AI impacting our agencies every day online—yes, every day. How could that be possible? Simply put, technology is constantly advancing, and the recent advances in AI have allowed us to have more data about our customers, and is transforming the way that Google looks at SEO, better known as Search Engine Optimization. Have you heard about Google’s RankBrain yet? RankBrain is one of Google’s proudest developments, and it’s a machine that creates an algorithm for SEO based on interpreting data through AI, and it’s updating Google’s search results rankings every 18 hours based on that collected data. When it comes to SEO, the old approach will no longer suffice, because SEO is evolving on its own now through the power of AI.

Okay, let’s take a step back. Some of us may be scratching our heads right about now, wondering what AI is exactly. Before we can define it, it’s important to understand that it comes in many forms. There are primarily three forms of AI. The first is Artificial Narrow Intelligence, also known as ANI, which is designed to complete one specific task. The next is Artificial General Intelligence, also known as AGI, which is essentially AI with a wide spectrum on what it’s capable of learning. Basically, once AI can behave or perform like a human, we consider it AGI. Lastly, there is Artificial Superintelligence, which is beyond capabilities and limits of a single human mind.

Generally speaking, when it comes to digital marketing, we will mostly see examples of ANI, that are specifically designed to be very strong at one specific task, such as determining how strong a website’s SEO is in search results like with RankBrain. RankBrain is an absolute professional when it comes to SEO, because it is always learning. It has the power to determine whether or not a site is credible, and there is no set formula to how it operates since it is updated every 18 hours. This means that in order for our sites to rise in Google ranking, we have to be authentic in all aspects of our website’s design and creation; there’s no cheating the system in today’s world.

RankBrain looks at SEO in a few different ways. One thing we realized more recently about it is that websites that have a niche focus can reap stronger rankings in Google search results. This means that if your agency specializes in a specific type of insurance, you should capitalize on that product or service accordingly online. For our agency, we focus heavily on classic car insurance and Fed-Ex Ground and other independent contractor insurance services, because we have a strong establishment in that niche already. The next thing Google’s development team realized about SEO is that they could teach RankBrain about what a “good” site looks like versus a “bad” site in the same niche. For example, if a user using Google looks for a nearby restaurant, RankBrain would likely look for websites that have rankings displayed, reviews from customers, menus available, and more. Some websites may have local listings and phone numbers available for restaurants in the local area, but without the other key elements to a properly SEOd website that discusses nearby food options, these websites will not show up in the top of Google’s search results. RankBrain knows what the proper “environment” and settings are for the website the user is searching for.

It goes far beyond that too, because like I said, RankBrain’s learning potential is unlimited. It can consider credible backlinks, website design, what other places on the Internet have your website backlinked, your meta-data, and so much more. As an agency owner, I know that you don’t have all day to focus on SEO or become a professional in the SEO department either, because we have policies to write and connections to establish. I wanted to give you a few tips to help simplify the process though. First of all, the competition of keywords in your writing needs to be examined on its own accord. Keywords are still heavily important and determining which ones are important and then using them naturally/frequently is crucial. The second thing to look out for: most sites should stay niche-focused in order to avoid RankBrain getting confused with credibility. This means spending more time on your niche-focused insurance policies online than your overall generalized insurance messages. For me, that means I post more about classic car insurance and independent contractors’ insurance for Fed-Ex Ground, because that’s where our agency thrives. Last but not least, each website should mimic the construction of websites in their space that are clearly high in SEO. As I mentioned earlier, RankBrain knows what sites look bad and good, so it’s important that you look similar, but not exactly alike, to companies that have successful SEO in your niche. By following these fundamentals, we’ll be able to rank higher in search results online, which will give us a stronger ROI at the end of the day.

How will the future of AI affect the insurance space?

We’ve only discussed one form of AI so far throughout this article—ANI—which is simply focused on one task. Once we see stronger forms of AI going widespread, they are bound to affect the insurance space. When you look at Google’s data, one of the most frequently run searches involves the keyword “insurance,” so when it comes to technology advancing in the Internet world, we will never be left out.

As time goes on, more AI will be developed with new objectives and features. We can expect to see AI that can help us capitalize on marketing moments. Imagine this: new AI is introduced to our space that collects data from all customers and connects it for us accordingly. This means that we can combine geo-targeted marketing (by tracking locations of mobile devices), mixed with personal relationships (via social network connections), and then produce warm leads through this data. What do I mean by this exactly? Well, AI could provide us the data we need to capitalize on marketing moments. If a piece of AI tells us that we just wrote a policy for Susie in our agency, but Susie has two kids living at home who are going to be teen drivers soon, because of the data it extracted from Facebook, we could offer to quote their insurance when the time comes around and schedule a follow-up call. We could also potentially see how much time is spent with mutual connections through Facebook and location tracking services as well. For instance, if we called Susie’s best friend Cindy to ask her if she’d like to have her insurance quoted, we could mention that we just finished quoting Susie and that would make for a warmer phone call.

The point is that the possibilities are endless when it comes to AI, and although this data tracking, monitoring, and capitalization may seem a bit unrealistic right now, it’s a very strong possibility in the near future. My suggestion is to keep a close eye on AI, and in the meantime, do everything you can to help your agency’s SEO efforts online to keep up with RankBrain. Other than that, happy marketing everyone, and keep an eye open for AI on your insurance marketing journey!