Adapting Your Marketing in an AI World

Just as a species must constantly adapt within its environment to survive, so too must marketing evolve to accommodate the ever-changing advertising landscape.

For marketers, new technologies should be seen as new opportunities for growth, rather than new roadblocks to overcome. 

There are many reasons why some marketing mediums fall out of fashion or become unsustainable. When this happens, businesses must strategically course-correct to keep up with brand recognition. 

Today, generative AI is disrupting all business aspects, from account managers to corporate. 

The marketing industry is no different, as many departments and agencies are constantly looking for new ways to connect and engage with their audiences in a personalized manner without sacrificing productivity.

But oftentimes gen AI produces the opposite effect, creating more untrustworthy spam for customers and more bloated, untargeted campaigns for marketers. 

Some marketing channels are feeling the brunt of these issues more than others. While there should always be a push for a bigger and brighter tomorrow, marketing channels that uphold essential marketing fundamentals are often the mediums that stand the test of time.  

1.) Telemarketing in an AI World – INCREASING DISTRUST

Telemarketing (and subsequently text message marketing) has received a lot more pushback from audiences and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in recent years.

One major factor is the rise of AI phone scams and robocalls that continue to plague American citizens every day. 

From June 2021 to June 2022, Americans lost an estimated $29.8 billion to scam calls, an increase of over 50% in only a year. With an estimated 52.8 billion total robocalls in 2024, it is no wonder why Americans hesitate to answer unknown numbers. 

These alarming metrics are likely to increase over the next few years, and despite FCC regulation, the problems still persist. Customer trust in telemarketing is at an all-time low, as even the FCC advises against answering calls from unknown numbers. 

What does this mean for telemarketers? 

The rise of these persistent calls has led many Americans to send all unknown calls to voicemail. One National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) report notes that 70% of Americans no longer answer the phone for unknown numbers as a result of these robocalls and AI phone scammers. 

Regardless of current FCC regulations on AI calls, there will always be a risk of something slipping through the cracks. If an AI can listen and respond to prospects in a realistic manner, people are less likely to pick up their phone if there is any risk of a scam. 

Younger generations like Gen Z are already ignoring calls from unknown numbers, and that trend is only likely to grow with more and more suspicious phone line activity brought on by AI. 

If the AI implementation trends continue as they have over the past few years, telemarketing will need some serious adaptations to be considered a trustworthy source for customers and a viable strategy for a business.

2.) Email Marketing in an AI World – INCREASING SPAM

Email marketing, while much more accessible in recent times, is also feeling the brunt of audience apathy – likely due to its overabundance. 

Similar to telemarketing, the FCC has taken steps to regulate commercial email messages to protect American users. For instance, the CAN-SPAM Act requires certain guidelines, such as an email opt-out link, ad disclosures, and non-deceptive subject lines.

As an even bigger hit to email marketing, a lot of agencies are shifting their focus to AI messaging and targeting. With new AI email writers and email assistants hitting the market every day, users are receiving spam at astronomical rates. 

And with every company using this type of software to improve their email marketing productivity, a business must send out more and more emails to stand out among competitors in a customer’s inbox. 

While the average American has over 1,600 unread emails sitting in their accounts, this number is only expected to grow over time, along with customer apathy.

As companies continue using generative AI to plan, write, and send out email campaigns, so too will customers elect to ignore them. 

3.) Direct Mail in an AI World – INCREASING EFFECTIVENESS

Direct mail marketing has also experienced its share of ups and downs in popularity over the decades. However, its adaptability and audience targeting advantage within the AI landscape shows just how impactful this marketing medium remains in modern times. 

With technology such as Informed Delivery, the direct mail strategy has become much more nuanced in recent years. The emergence of AI has not shaken the direct mail industry as much as its digital counterparts – and for good reason. 

This marketing medium’s advantage comes directly from its physical presence within the home, and its targeting capabilities rely on physical addresses that cannot be falsified by generative AI or other users. 

Instead of advertising to bot or empty accounts, your campaigns can reach actual prospects from verifiable locations within your sales district.

And every response, call, form fill, or QR code scan is guaranteed to come from the prospects your campaign delivers to – and not an AI bot account masking as a human. 

And because direct mail has a higher cost of entry for businesses, there is less competition in the mailbox – meaning every personalized mailer has a stronger chance to make an impact with the right prospects. 

Even among new technology and AI development, the future of direct mail remains bright.

As new sustainable solutions are made every day, so too is direct mail improving in terms of infrastructure, efficiency, and audience targeting.