Beyond the Hype: What AI Means for Small Business Marketing
By now, you’ve probably realized that with the widespread adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and tools like ChatGPT, the world is changing even more rapidly than before.
Artificial intelligence and especially generative AI is transforming the digital marketing landscape, and as a small business owner, you might be wondering how to navigate this emerging era.
Here’s a brief guide:
Where do we stand with AI today?
AI tools are making waves, with new tools released everyday promising automation and instant results, rapidly changing the business landscape as we know it.
We’re currently in what’s known as Gartner’s “hype cycle” that typically starts with high expectations, often leading to disillusionment, then finally stabilizing out into a productive phase.
After the initial hype and excitement, the market is now settling into a phase of real productivity, making it a perfect time to explore how AI can benefit your business.
How to Use AI to Create Value In Your Business
AI is a tool, not a replacement. It’s powerful in handling tasks but falls short in creating a comprehensive marketing strategy. This is where your human insights shine, and AI can complement them:
- Streamline Your Marketing:
Use AI to create personalized messaging in your marketing. You can also use artificial intelligence to recommend and create SEO-optimized content, while AI-powered chatbots garner leads from your website. - Boost Your Productivity:
AI can help you automate your processes and workflows like responding to reviews and emails, and creating social media content. Save your time and energy for creativity and higher-level strategic thinking in your business. - Expand Your Revenue Streams:
AI enables you easily analyze market data, customer preferences, and audience messages to identify trends and insights, allowing you to create new offers or services to reach more customers.
Practical Ways to Leverage AI In Your Business
From research and task automation to content generation and predictive analysis, AI offers ways to increase efficiency.
- Research & Analysis:
AI can improve efficiency and accuracy in data analysis and interpretation, helping to spot trends and make strategic decisions. - Task Automation:
Automate repetitive tasks to increase productivity and reduce errors while saving time and cutting costs. - Ideation & Content Creation:
Break through creative blocks by using AI to generate ideas and all types of content faster than ever before. - Virtual Assistance:
Enhance your customer service and staff training with AI-driven chatbots on your website to act as virtual assistants.
When is the Right Time to Invest in AI Solutions?
Early adopters of new technology are often the ones who gain a competitive advantage by being the first to discover new opportunities and solutions.
So if you haven’t yet been experimenting with AI tools and learning how they work, now is the time to get started!
If you’re on the fence or if you’ve had doubts or hesitations about the reliability or accuracy of AI tools, or even it’s ethical concerns, that’s totally understandable.
Now that the initial hype and excitement has stabilized, there are more reliable tools being made available, you’ll be poised to find innovative solutions tailored to your specific needs and goals.
Examples of Businesses Leveraging AI
Here are some examples of how some of the more well-known businesses are integrating artificial intelligence into their systems.
- White Castle plans to implement AI-enabled voice assistance at over 100 drive-thrus by 2024 with speech recognition from SoundHound.
- Uber is developing an AI chatbot to integrate into its app.
- Shopify is developing Sidekick, an AI assistant to help entrepreneurs and shop owners with their business.
These are just a few examples, but they require a lot of capital and custom development to get off the ground. So, how can small and medium-sized businesses leverage AI?
While these behemoth companies wade through the bureaucracy of board meetings, small business owners are well-positioned to use a variety of AI tools that are already on the market (see resources below).
Leverage AI In Your Business
Are you ready to streamline your processes and integrate AI into your business strategy, but not sure where to start?
You’re not alone, and I’m here to help. I’ve been experimenting with generative AI tools in my business to optimize my website, create custom chatbots, improve productivity, and more.
If you’d like to learn more, just reply to this email or click here to schedule a quick call, and let’s create a personalized strategy for your business so you can begin leveraging the power of AI!
Additional AI Resources
In case you’re hungry for more resources and tools that you can begin using right away, below is a curated list of tools I’ve personally used and feel confident recommending:
Have you been using any of these resources? Are any of them new to you? I’d love to hear more about which tools you’ve found to be the most helpful in your business and how you’re leveraging them to optimize your results.
Aricle by
Josiah Jones
Josiah is the founder and creative director of AZ Web Design Studios, creating websites and marketing strategies for small businesses and entrepreneurs all around the world.
Let's Create Results For Your Business!
Unlock the full potential of your business by joining forces with us in a partnership designed for your success.
