How Leading Multi-Location Marketers Are Winning With AI Today

Artificial intelligence (AI) is at the top of every marketer’s mind. A recent SOCi study found that 82% of marketers are already familiar with generative AI tools, and 95% believe AI is a transformative technology that will significantly impact marketing. The data speaks for itself. As a multi-location marketer, now is the time to leverage AI. 

In a previous blog, we shared how major brands leverage AI. If you haven’t already, we recommend reviewing  these case studies! 

Now, let’s look at what top brands are doing to achieve their success and share how your multi-location brand can start using AI to improve your localized marketing efforts. 

Leverage AI for Review Response 

Every multi-location marketer must understand the impact responding to reviews has on their online reputation.

For instance, 98% of consumers feel that reviews are an essential resource when making purchase decisions. Additionally, our State of Google Reviews research report found that for every 25%of reviews responded to, the conversion of Google profiles improves by 4.1%. 

One of the most straightforward ways brands are already winning with AI is through review response. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Jasper can help businesses automate review responses, a previously time-consuming task, particularly for businesses with numerous locations. 

There is also marketing technology (MarTech) software like SOCi that have incorporated AI into review response tools, streamlining the process further. 

For instance, the example below shows SOCi’s Genius Reviews, which allows multi-location marketers to automatically aggregate and respond to all reviews at scale in an authentic and on-brand voice, increasing reputation and brand visibility. 

Verlo Mattress implemented SOCi Genius Reviews and saw an immediate impact on their mattress stores. They decreased their review response by 29 hours and saw a 97% review response rate across all locations. 

Consider AI for Ad Development 

Multi-location brands can also leverage AI for ad development. From ideating the ad to producing creative assets and developing the script or copy, AI can help with nearly every step. There are several platforms your brand can leverage to create ads through AI. You can also use free tools to help with certain parts of the process. 

For instance, Meta announced they’re rolling out generative AI features that all advertisers can utilize. Currently, Meta has three new generative AI features: image expansion, background generation, and text variations, all of which can be seen below. 

According to a survey Meta conducted with those participating in early testing, most expect that the tool will save them time, and half of them estimate that generative AI will save them five or more hours a week. If your multi-location brand is already executing a localized ad strategy, it’s worth exploring how AI can help. 

Get Creative With Generative AI 

Generative AI is one of the most frequently talked about types of AI marketers use today. As mentioned, tools like Jasper and ChatGPT are examples of generative AI. Currently, 65% of marketers have already incorporated some form of generative AI into their MarTech stack. 

You can use generative AI for review responses, but what else? Many leading multi-location marketers are using generative AI to help create content, whether it’s blog content, social media posts, email subject lines, and beyond. These generative AI tools can help you uplevel your content, all while saving your team time and effort.

For instance, are you stuck on a social post about an upcoming event? Ask ChatGPT! What about refining a blog introduction you’ve been working on? Generative AI can help you quickly modify the copy! To maximize current digital marketing efforts, it’s essential to start using generative AI as your co-marketer.

For additional insight into how your brand can use generative AI to stand out from competitors, check out our blog on the topic. 

Incorporate AI Into the Customer Experience 

While there are numerous ways to start experimenting with AI, keeping customers happy should be at the top of every marketer’s mind. Marketers are finding that AI can help streamline and improve the customer experience while simultaneously making their lives easier. 

For instance, in the blog mentioned earlier, we highlighted brands like Amazon, Walmart, and Starbucks, all of which are using AI to make their customer experiences better. Starbucks has leveraged AI as a part of its rewards program, recommending new drinks based on past orders, while Amazon has a “recommended for you” page on each user’s account. 

Are there ways your multi-location brand can leverage AI to do the same? Do you have an online rewards program that can be up-leveled with the help of AI? What about using AI to track purchase history and make recommendations based on a customer’s interests? These are all things to consider when determining where to use AI. 

Once you have an idea, you can research, look at other use cases, and understand how to implement AI to help you reach these goals. 

Start Your Brand’s AI Transformation 

As you can see, the common theme with AI is that it helps you build and boost your current efforts while freeing up time for your marketers to focus efforts elsewhere. 

While adopting AI can seem daunting, especially for businesses with 100s or 1,000s of locations, it’s no longer something marketers can ignore. AI isn’t just an idea or concept; it’s here for good. Marketers must start using it, or you risk falling behind.

There are numerous resources available that marketers can use to stay on top of the latest AI developments, SOCi’s Local Memo being one of them. Additionally, MarTech software like SOCi are starting to build AI into their tech stack. The added benefit of SOCi? Its ability to scale marketing efforts across locations.

SOCi is the CoMarketing Cloud for multi-location enterprises and provides one central place for marketers to scale their localized marketing efforts. Furthermore, SOCi Genius leverages advanced data science, best-in-class generative AI, “on-brand” training models, and leading localization and automation tools to make data-driven decisions that fuel more innovative marketing strategies and increase ROI.

For a more in-depth look at how SOCi can help your brand win more customers and stand out from competitors with the help of AI, request a demo today!