While AI is forecast to revolutionise many areas of life and society over the coming years, it’s already able to enhance marketing for small businesses and startups in areas such as customer insights, campaign optimisation, automation and personalisation, content creation, and predictive analytics. In this article, I’ll first outline the impact AI has made on small business marketing, and then how you can benefit from it.

The impact of AI on marketing

Unlocking customer insights

With its ability to analyse vast amounts of data, AI tools can reveal trends and correlations in customer preferences and behaviours. These then allow you to create better, data-driven marketing strategies and to better target and personalise your campaigns, improving customer engagement and fostering loyalty.

Harnessing the power of predictive analytics

AI-powered predictive analytics enable you to anticipate customer behaviour based on historical data. By leveraging machine learning algorithms, AI analyses identifies patterns to predict what customers might do and want, again allowing you to personalise and better target communications and advertising.

Automating and streamlining marketing processes

AI tools can automate and streamline repetitive tasks, freeing up business owners’ time and budgets. ChatGPT, among other tools, can assist in content creation, while AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can help to automate customer interactions, provide real-time support, and deliver personalised recommendations to customers. AI can also help optimise processes such as email marketing and social media management.

How to utilise AI in your small business marketing

While AI can increase marketing automation and efficiency, don’t forget though that it's essential to retain human perspective and creativity. AI is a powerful tool, but it can lack empathy and a sense of context, and retaining the balancing factor of your experience and your understanding of your customers will ensure that your marketing campaigns resonate with your audience.

Content marketing

Incorporating AI can revolutionise your content creation and distribution. AI tools can automate content generation, optimise content for search engines, and personalise content based on past user preferences. This will enhance the quality, relevance, and reach of your content, and result in improved engagement and conversion rates.

Optimised content creation AI tools:

For article creation: Growthbar, Surfer, Article Forge, ChatGPT.

Image generators: Bing Image Generator, Craiyon, NightCafe.

Video generators: Synthesia, DeepBrain AI.

Email marketing

AI can greatly enhance your email marketing campaigns by improving targeting and personalisation. AI algorithms can analyse customer data, segment your audience, and provide recommendations for personalised product or service offers or upselling. Additionally, AI tools can optimise email send times, subject lines, and email content to maximise open and click-through rates.

Email marketing AI tools: SmartWriter, Instantly, Brevo.

Advertising

AI has transformed the advertising landscape by providing advanced targeting capabilities and improved ad relevance. AI tools allow you to better identify and target your ideal audience, ensuring that your ads are shown to the right people at the right time. Programmatic AI advertising meanwhile enables automated ad buying and optimization, resulting in better ad placements and higher return on ad spend.

Advertising AI tools: Albert, Opteo, GumGum.

CX

AI can play a crucial role in improving CX, helping you understand customer preferences and improve customer support. AI-driven analysis of customer data and feedback can provide valuable insights into customer behaviour and preferences, enabling you to refine your customer journeys and messaging. AI algorithms can also analyse market dynamics to help you optimise pricing strategies and ensure competitiveness. Additionally, AI chatbots can provide personalised recommendations and customer support.

AI CX tools: Churn 360, Custify, HappyFox.

AI chatbot builders: Kommunicate, Botsify, Watson Assistant.

SEO

 AI can improve SEO by identifying relevant keywords, analysing website traffic, and learning about audience preferences. AI-powered tools can also automate keyword research and analysis, allowing you to target high-performing keywords aligned with user search intent.

AI SEO tools: Alli AI, Diib, Semrush.

Social media

Social media listening is an essential marketing strategy, and AI-powered tools let businesses monitor and analyse social media data in real-time, capturing valuable insights about customer sentiment and preferences. AI algorithms can analyse and interpret emotions expressed in social media posts, providing a deeper understanding of customer sentiment, along with helping you to track mentions of your brand, identify influencers, and better understand the impact of your social media campaigns. This data can then help you create better optimised, more engaging social media content and ads.

AI social media tools: Brandwatch, Acrolinx, Lately, Flick, Emplifi.

While AI is transforming the marketing landscape, offering valuable benefits and opportunities, it's important to remember that AI is just a tool and it requires oversight and contextualising. AI automates processes and generates insights, but the human touch remains vital for understanding customer motivations, interpreting cultural nuances, and ensuring coherence and quality. By recognising and embracing AI as a powerful tool and combining it with human expertise, marketers can make better decisions based on better data, increase the potential and potency of their marketing campaigns, and deliver highly relevant experiences for their audience.