Easy AI Marketing Tools: A Stress-Free Guide for Small Business - Part 2
AI tools that won't overwhelm - Part 2 of 2
Part 1 covered marketing automation and its business advantages. This article will explore various beginner-friendly AI tools.
Top 5 Beginner-Friendly AI Marketing Tools
1. Canva: Visual Design Made Simple
Canva is a great AI-powered graphic design app. What makes it even more incredible is that you can use many of its features for free. They offer a premium option for all their best templates, graphics, and tools. But as a beginner, you can do most of what you need with the free version. As you increase your business, you can decide to invest in the premium features by going paid.
Canva has a user-friendly interface. And though you will have a learning curve, it is not as difficult to master as similar tools.
The benefit is that you don’t need to be a graphic designer to create professional-looking graphics.
2. Mailchimp: Email Marketing Simplified
I have not used Mailchimp myself, but it is one of the more popular apps for running automated email campaigns. It uses AI for audience segmentation and personalized emails, which I mentioned in Part 1.
3. Hootsuite: Social Media Management
Hootsuite is a social media management platform that lets you handle multiple social media accounts from one dashboard. You can schedule posts ahead of time, plan your content calendar, and receive AI-powered suggestions for what to post.
The tool streamlines social media management by allowing you to monitor and engage with multiple platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram all in one place rather than switching between different apps.
4. ChatGPT: Content Generation Companion
ChatGPT is one of the most popular AI tools in the market. It is one of the best tools available to help with brainstorming ideas. For instance, if you’re stuck trying to decide what to write about, with a simple query in ChatGPT, you can get a list of ideas or topics to choose from. It also can generate outlines for your writing ideas. The more detailed and specific your query is, the better results that ChatGPT will return.
Once you have settled on your topic, created your outline, and written the article, AI is there to help you edit, too. Eliminating grammatical and spelling errors.
Ethical use of AI-generated content is a hot topic right now. Many people use it as a shortcut to producing a lot of content. And try to pass it off as their original work. But that results in very generic, soulless writing. Some tools can detect mostly AI-generated content.
It’s not advised to let AI do your writing for you. As mentioned, it is great for helping generate ideas, outlining, researching, and editing. But ultimately, the writing should be yours. Let your audience hear your voice.
5. Google Analytics with AI Insights
For analyzing market trends and website visitor behavior, Google Analytics is an excellent tool. Now, you have a way to do market research that was previously unavailable to small businesses.
Practical Implementation Strategies
So, have I convinced you yet? Are you ready to get started?
If you are, here are a few bits of advice that will save you loads of frustration and overwhelm, especially in the beginning.
Start small. Don’t try to master everything at once.
Choose one tool. Learn it thoroughly as you incorporate it into your processes.
Continuous learning. Take your time to continue to learn about new tools as you gain experience.
New AI tools seemingly come out every week. And the features and functionality are improving rapidly. But you don’t need to chase every new shiny object. Find the tools that work for you.
Overcoming Tech Anxiety
The main reason I chose IT as a profession is I love learning new tech tools and applications. But I understand that most people in our age group who didn’t grow up with it might have reservations about it.
The good news is that software has never been more user-friendly than it is today. And once you allow yourself to think of AI as an extension of your skills rather than something to fear, you’re ready to learn. Just like with anything else you’ve done throughout your career, it gets easier as you gain more experience.
The learning resources available today can get you up and running quickly. There are tons of online training platforms to choose from. Many of them are inexpensive or free. A few popular online course platforms are:
Most of the instructors actually work in the fields they teach. They are not just academics. The structure of most courses, in bite-sized modules, makes them much easier to digest. AARP offers technology training specifically geared toward people 50 and over through Seniorplanet.org.
Podcasts and YouTube videos can also offer free tutorials and product reviews that can be helpful. So there is no shortage of training. It’s just a matter of choosing the platform that suits your learning style and the app you want to learn. For me, podcasts are perfect for when I am out doing my trail walks or working out in the gym.
Once you decide to learn an AI tool, have fun with it. You can’t break anything, and the worst thing that can happen is you try something that doesn’t work. That’s okay.
Even the experts experiment with different ideas until they find what works. The more exposure you have, the closer you get to your goal. Try creating a graphic for your brand or set up a schedule for posting your content.
Sure, you’ll make mistakes. But each effort gets you more experience. Eventually, using these tools will become second nature, and you’ll wonder how you managed without them.
Keep track of what you’ve learned and the new tools you’ve implemented. And celebrate your successes.
Conclusion: Technology as an Empowerment Tool
In Part 1, we talked about how to overcome our anxiety about AI, what marketing automation is, how it can save you valuable time, and how we can embrace it and implement it in our businesses.
In Part 2, we covered a few resources available for learning this technology.
The next step is to get started.
Remember, AI serves you, not the other way around.
It’s here to stay, and it is only getting better.
Start small and learn at your own pace.
Are you ready?
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