What You Should Know About AI for Small Business Marketing

You can’t read about small business marketing without hearing about AI. And right now, everyone’s telling you it should be at the top of your list.

You may be feeling peer pressure to use it or FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) if you don’t use it, but don’t worry. 

There are ways to evaluate it and ease into AI without getting overwhelmed.

Because while AI may help, it’s still just another tool in the toolbox. Granted, it’s a smart tool, but still a tool. Its use doesn’t change our overall marketing strategies.

With that in mind, let’s go over what you should know about AI as a small business owner and how it might help your small business marketing.

AI in simple terms

Artificial Intelligence is simply computer software that can learn and make decisions.

Yes, it’s advanced, but we’re not talking about self-aware robots or science fiction. (Not yet, anyway.) It’s software that looks for patterns, so it can adapt and improve over time. Just like we get better as we gain experience.

For your purposes, AI is a practical tool that can handle repetitive work, help you with consistency, or help scale up your marketing output.

But it can’t replace your skill, creativity or personal touch.

What AI can’t do

AI can’t:

• Understand your customers like you do
• Build personal relationships with clients
• Make strategic business decisions
• Use your business expertise and understanding
• Replace your creativity or brand personality

In other words, AI can’t be you. Your business can still succeed in an AI world, whether you use AI or not, because people would rather do business with people, not algorithms.

But it can help with efficiency, so if you do want to dive in, here’s how to dip your toes in first.

The beginner’s approach to AI

Here’s our advice for easing into the world of AI:

1. Explore AI features in your current tools. What’s better than exploring tools you’re already familiar with? Most online tools have added AI features. QuickBooks, for example, now has an AI Assistant. Look for these AI options in tools you already use and see if they’ll help your process.
2. Start with just one tool. Pick the area where you feel stretched thin, whether that’s email marketing, content distribution, social media or elsewhere, and try one AI tool in that space.
3. Remember it’s OK to take beginner steps. You don’t need to know how the whole system works or use all of it’s functions. You just need to know enough to use it for your specific needs.
4. Don’t forget to add your human touch. AI can usually handle about 80% of the work, leaving you to add the 20% that makes it fit your brand and personality.
5. Limit your expectations. AI tools will make mistakes. They’ll misunderstand or take your instructions too literally. They’ll also produce bland, generic content. That’s normal. Consider AI output as a starting point that needs your direction.
6. Ask yourself: “Is this really saving me time?” Give it a fair chance. Even non-AI tools take time to set up and become comfortable to use. But if it still takes too long or overcomplicates things, it might not be the best option.

AI tools that make sense for small business

As we said before, AI is best at handling repetitive work, helping you with consistent follow up, and scaling your marketing output.

Here are a few AI tools that might help:

1. For client relationship management and email: Keap

Use this CRM platform with AI features to automatically follow up and nurture leads while you’re busy. It can:

• Automatically categorize and tag your contacts based on their behavior on your site
• Predict which leads are most likely to convert
• Automate your email marketing with smart timing

2. For brainstorming or writing help: ChatGPT, Grammarly

Need help brainstorming ideas for your blog/newsletter or help with grammar? Use these to:

• Generate ideas for your newsletter or blog
• Check grammar and get suggestions to improve your writing
• Draft customer emails (You’ll still have to personalize them before sending)
• Summarize long articles or reports

3. For customer service and messaging: Tidio, Manychat or Freshchat

These tools are chatbots that can answer simple questions on your website, or respond to social media comments, freeing up your time. They can:

• Answer common customer questions automatically (based on the data you give it)
• Point more complex questions to the right person
• Respond to social media comments with an automatic direct message
• Collect customer information for human follow-up

4. For social media scheduling: Buffer, Socialbee or Later

Want to post messages quickly on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok? These platforms can:

• Schedule posts on multiple platforms
• Help you customize captions for each platform
• Suggest the best posting times based on your audience
• Analyze which content performs best

5. For video and audio content: Lumen5, Murf AI Voice

Transform your blog posts into videos for websites or social media. These tools can:

• Create video or images to cover the key points of your blog post
• Create text overlays or video captions
• Generate realistic voiceovers from text for videos
• Build video content for ad campaigns

While AI is a powerful tool, it’s not a magic wand. It works best when it’s paired with your strategic thinking and know-how. As marketers, we’d never suggest handing off an entire marketing strategy to an AI tool, but we can see the value in creating a master plan and using AI tools to help with execution.

So don’t worry about becoming an AI expert. Just find one or two tools that help you solve a problem and free up some time. Because the end goals are still the same: to serve your customers well and grow your small business.

If you need help getting started, let us know by getting in touch.