6 Ways Small Businesses Are Leveraging AI

Every day, artificial intelligence or “ai” gets smarter and easier to work with. And it’s no longer just for the large businesses and corporations. AI is accessible to small businesses today more than ever before.

The power of AI lies within its ability to gather and interpret large amounts of data very quickly. Using AI, you can automate and personalize your marketing. You can save time and money spent analyzing data and creating strategies, giving you time to focus on what’s most important to you.

Exciting advances in AI are shaping and reshaping marketing operations. In fact, more than 60% of marketers not only use AI, they say it’s the most important aspect of their data strategy.

Here are 6 easy ways you can leverage AI for your business.

1. Market Intelligence

We have probably all experienced something similar: you’re shopping online for a pair of running shoes. You compare a few styles and exit out of the site. Next thing you know, every website you visit has advertisements featuring running shoes. You can thank the power of AI. It knows you’re looking for a pair of running shoes, so it’s going to pop in wherever you go to remind you of those shoes you still need to buy.

Using AI to gather market intelligence and data like this means your business can target the right people. You can have a great marketing campaign. Great visuals, great copy, a great hook. But if the right people aren’t seeing it, it won’t matter. AI can help you reach the right people.

By recording the demographics of your current audience as well as whoever interacts with your company online, AI tools can optimize your target audience. You can then use AI to create customer profiles and curate marketing that targets each person uniquely. Efficient targeting means a great return of sales.

2. Customer Service

People talk to computers all the time. We ask Google and Alex questions daily. A chat bot is the same concept. Most people ask the same service-based questions over and over. Instead of paying an employee to sit and answer repetitive customer service requests all day, you can utilize a chat box for these simpler inquiries.

Customers are becoming more open to accepting help from chatbots. A recent survey discovered 40% of people will accept help from a chatbot immediately. This frees up customer service agents from dealing with repetitive small issues, allowing them to only work with the larger and more urgent issues.

3. Bookings

Whether you’re meeting with a paying customer or running through a sales demonstration with a potential client, getting an accurate appointment booked is important. And you want to make it as easy as possible for them to book with you.

AI systems have auto-scheduling features every business should be taking advantage of. You can tell the system who is scheduled that day and how much time there needs to be in between appointments, among other rules. From there, the system can walk a visitor through scheduling their appointment automatically, all without the use of an admin to manually schedule an appointment.

4. Talent Acquisition

Good businesses are run by good people. But finding good people can be exhausting. And if you’re a small business, you don’t have enough resources to dedicate a whole department just to finding good people. You need good people and you need them now.

Bet you guessed the answer here: there’s an AI tool for that! Several dozen AI tools, actually, all specializing in recruiting. These tools simplify your talent acquisition process by screening, assessing, and even interviewing candidates.

5. Strategic Ads

What time of day should you post on social media, send an email, or run an advertisement? How do you find your ideal audience? You guessed it: through the power of AI.

AI tools can run tests for what time of day is best to make an action. They are also responsible for your ability to target exactly who you want to send your advertisement to online. This optimizes your ad budget so you’re not wasting money advertising to the wrong people or at the wrong time.

6. Email Marketing

Do you have a marketing email to send out but are torn between two designs? You don’t have to just guess which is better. With AI, you can run an A/B test.

With an A/B test you tell your system to send a fraction of your email list Email Design A and another fraction Email Design B. If Email Design A was opened and engaged with more, the remainder of your email list receives that design. No more guessing which design is better!

The Future is AI

When you’re a new business, you are constantly creating, developing, and testing new strategies. And that’s fine while you are new. But the one thing every business needs to scale sustainably is a clear and organized process.

After you create a process, you can pass it on to an AI system that can run it for you. This frees up your hands to grow another part of your business. And the cycle repeats, until your business is a large and efficient operation, with the assistance of AI.

And it’s more than the small tasks. AI can also take on large compilations of data and run formulas to make decisions for your marketing strategies. You can use AI to automate, personalize, and optimize your marketing process every step of the way.

As technology continues to get smarter, every business will be relying on AI in some way. No more spending long hours manually completing simple marketing tasks. They are essential to the marketing process but can now be handed off to a computer. Run your business efficiently and make more money with the help of AI and easy solutions like these.