Most small and mid-size business (SMBs) owners aren’t marketers by trade. Taking on marketing tasks while simultaneously running your business can be scary, overwhelming, expensive, and often ineffective. The good news is that AI can carry some of the load. These are the top five ways we see business owners using AI to streamline their marketing today.
1. Assess Brand Messaging
Having a consistent brand voice and positioning is critical to setting your business apart. Use ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI solutions to analyze your brand positioning and competitive strengths, assess the AEO optimization of your website, and the strength of your ads and emails. If you’re falling short in specific marketing channels, AI can help you edit your messaging so it’s on-brand.
2. Personalize Customer Communications
With an AI-powered customer relationship management system (CRM), you can easily segment your customer audiences based on their purchase history or website interactions, send personalized emails and tailored offers, and make recommendations on new products or services. This level of detail makes customers feel seen and appreciated.
3. Content Creation
When you battle writer’s block as you prepare your holiday promotional emails or create your latest Instagram posts, save yourself time and turn to ChatGPT or Gemini to create a first draft that you can edit and finalize. If you’re worried it won’t sound like you or reflect your brand, include details on your brand voice and tone in your prompt. You can also use AI design tools like Adobe Firefly and Canva’s Magic Design to generate branded graphics and resize and repurpose content for different platforms.
4. Channel Optimization
AI can make recommendations to optimize channel buys across media by surfacing patterns such as which channels or campaigns are under-performing or where your spend should be optimized. Predictive analytics and advanced modeling can help you optimize for cost per new customer based on historical spend.
5. Review Management
Keeping up with reviews is essential not only for your company’s reputation but also for your searchability. AI search engines prioritize user-generated content. Use marketing software that integrates AI into the review management process, automatically triggering customer review requests after a purchase and AI-generated response options to customer reviews. The LLMs consider the number and quality of reviews to present your brand in search results!
Tami Cannizzaro is the CMO of Thryv, a leading small business marketing and sales platform.
Photo courtesy Tara Winstead, via pexels
