Analyzing customer behavior and choosing marketing strategies based on reinforcement learning

In today's competitive market, companies face the challenge of choosing optimal marketing strategies that maximize customer engagement, retention, and revenue. Traditional methods such as rule-based approaches or A/B testing are often not flexible enough to adapt to dynamic customer behavior and long-term trends. Reinforcement Learning (RL) offers a promising solution, allowing you to make adaptive decisions through continuous interaction with the environment. This article explores the use of RL in marketing, demonstrating how customer data – such as purchase history, campaign interactions, demographic characteristics, and loyalty metrics – can be used to train an RL agent. The agent learns to choose personalized marketing actions, such as sending discounts or customized offers, in order to maximize metrics such as increased revenue or reduced customer churn. The article provides a step-by-step guide to implementing an RL-based marketing strategy using MATLAB. The creation of a user environment, the design of an RL agent and the learning process are considered, as well as practical recommendations for interpreting agent decisions. By simulating customer interactions and evaluating agent performance, we demonstrate the potential of RL to transform marketing strategies. The aim of the work is to bridge the gap between advanced machine learning methods and their practical application in marketing by offering a roadmap for companies seeking to use the capabilities of RL for decision making.

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