Practical Applications of AI in Small Business Marketing

AI: Your Secret Weapon in the Marketing Arsenal

As I said in the first article in this series – An Introduction to AI in Marketing for Small Businesses – AI is becoming a key player in the marketing toolkit of savvy small business owners just like you.

There’s so many ‘secret sauce’ or ‘hacks’ on social media posts about marketing that it’s bamboozling...but forget all of them, the one thing that will dramatically enhance your marketing is AI and it’s myriad of tools.

Now, I know that for some small business owners, diving into AI might seem like navigating a maze blindfolded. It’s everywhere yet it’s hard to know where to start.

I felt like that too a couple of months ago. So let me be your guide – think hard hat, flashlight and spare batteries to hand...showing you exactly how to harness the power of AI without bumping into too many walls!

Why Use AI in Your Marketing?

Lets recap why use AI in your marketing. There are thousands of reasons and in the last article, we just talked about three – enhanced customer insights, automate routine tasks and improve ROI on marketing spend.

Likewise, in terms of practical applications, there’s thousands of ways.

However, I’d like you to keep it real. Add in elements that you are currently doing now in your marketing. If you’re not doing any Google ads, then there’s no need to get your hands on an AI tool, just because it gives you great tips on keywords. 

I’ve kept to five practical applications because I work with small business owners and all of these applications are being used by clients of mine.

1. AI and Personalised Customer Experience

Remember that one friend who always forgets your birthday? AI is the opposite. It remembers customer preferences, purchase history, and even browsing behaviour, allowing you to tailor your marketing so precisely that your customers will think you’ve read their diary (but in a non-creepy way, of course).

There are a number of CRM (customer relationship management) tools that can help you with this – perhaps even the one you use has an AI integration to it. Check it out when you go into next and see how you can personalise your customer’s experience.

If not, some tools that are useful include Hubspot with ChatSpot, Salesforce with Einstein and Freshworks with Freddy AI.

You have the data, so you might aswell analyse it, understand it and make the most of it. Test small, changes things based on data, real hard evidence. It’s easier now that it ever was.

2. AI and Smarter Social Media Management

Of course the one application that I get regularly asked about is social media. I get regularly asked about it….when it’s not even AI related!!

AI definitely helps with social media, there’s no question about it.

From what time of the day to post, to suggestions about hooks and copy; from image creation to finding out who your ideal target market, AI tools are great for social media management. It takes a lot of routine tasks and makes them easier.

From Jasper and ChatGPT for content, Canva, Lumen 5, Kajabi and Dalle-E for image and video creation, Hootsuite and Buffer for social media management and scheduling, this is an article in it’s own right.

Start looking at ways you can use AI tools to make your social media marketing life easier. That’s what the tools are there for.

3. AI and Enhanced Email Marketing

Emails can be a hit or miss, and let's be honest, nobody likes to be the person sending boring emails that get ignored. All the gurus say an email list is an asset – yet when you look at your Click through rates and open rates, it can be so deflating.

AI changes the game by optimising subject lines, suggesting emojis to use (proven to increase engagement) and even predicting the best times to send emails to increase open rates.

I know of a pet supply store that saw their engagement rates jump so high because of one change to their subject line, the owner joked that the dogs must be reading the emails too.

If you’re doing email marketing (which I encourage to start if you aren’t!), check out if your supplier has an AI tool. Most of the bigger name brands all do.

4. AI and Efficient Ad Targeting

Throwing money at ads without AI is like trying to hit a bullseye in the dark. AI illuminates the dartboard, showing you exactly where to aim to maximize ROI. It analyses data from past campaigns to improve targeting and reduce cost per acquisition.

If you are doing any type of ads – Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Google, Bing – you should be looking at AI tools to help with this.

One local gym used AI to refine their ad targeting based on member sign-up data and fitness interests, effectively doubling their conversion rates without increasing ad spend. It all came down to Resistance training (my personal fav at the moment!) and that’s made the difference!

5. AI and Streamlined Customer Support

Ever wished you could clone yourself to handle customer inquiries? With AI, you can get pretty close. AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can handle common questions and issues, providing instant support and freeing up your time for more complex tasks.

When I talk to small business owners about this, they typically say...’yeah, I’m not Amazon!’. You don’t have to be but if you sell anything on your website, you can easily configure a chatbot to answer the mundane questions.

A small e-commerce business implemented an AI chatbot on their website to answer FAQs about shipping, returns, and product details. The result? A 40% reduction in customer support emails and faster response times, leading to higher customer satisfaction.

And it doesn’t have to be on the website. So many businesses are using tools like Manychat to power their DM chats in Instagram aswell as their website...all automated but yet providing customer support.

But here’s the deal – just because you can do anything doesn’t mean that you have to! There are hundreds of AI tools out there….but you don’t have to use them, if it’s not going to help you.
Avoid the overwhelm...focus on what you do best and how you can market that. Then as you save time with AI tools, then you can embrace newer ones.

I hope you found this article useful...if you did, hit us with an email – [email protected] and tell us how you found it useful.

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If you’re ready to turn your marketing strategy into an AI-powered success story, then contact us at [email protected] for a chat about how AI tools can elevate your marketing game.