Marketing AI Institute | Blog

3 Ways Small Businesses Can Use Artificial Intelligence Today

Written by Emily Dowd | Oct 4, 2021 8:01:00 PM

There’s a good chance your business is already using artificial intelligence.

It’s not how we imagined it would be when we were kids, right? We thought we’d have walking, talking, sentient robots (possibly plotting to take over the world?).

That's not what we're talking about here.

What we’re talking about is smarter software that learns and improves your everyday workflow. 

AI doesn’t need to be as complicated as it might sound. As a small business owner, there might be some hesitation to jump into the unknown and trust a computer to do some of the work you’ve been doing for years.

However, improvements in technology and AI have made it so you don’t have to focus on things that can be automated. 

Think of it this way: before calculators, you’d use mental math to make calculations for your business. Then, in 1820, the first calculator was invented. Would you continue using mental math that’s prone to errors when you could use a calculator that’s right every time?

If your answer is no, why are you still analyzing data yourself when AI software can do it for you with even greater accuracy? It might be because you simply haven’t done the right research. 

The truth is, existing AI tools are easier to use than you might think, and they don’t all require a massive amount of data to work their magic. Let’s walk through three ways you can (and should) implement AI into your workflow. 

Each of the following platforms offers an AI-powered solution to a common business problem. Take a look at how artificial intelligence for small business can drastically change the way you run your business.

rasa.io

rasa.io is an email marketing platform that uses AI to send customized email newsletters. Compared to other forms of marketing, email has one of the higher returns on investment, but it’s often used incorrectly due to an oversaturated market. 

Think about the last marketing email you sent out—was it personalized to the individual by more than just including their first name? 

Chances are your inbox is cluttered with promotional emails every single day, so it’s important to send effective emails instead of boring, generic ones. 

rasa.io collects data from the engagement of your email recipients (including click-through rate, open rate, trending topics, and sources) to learn about their individual interests from behavior in your emails. Then, the platform creates personalized email newsletters customized to each person’s unique interests. 

Some of the recipients in your email list might want to see an email that’s jam-packed with technical information specifically about your industry. Others might be more likely to click on an email containing links from multiple domains about a variety of topics surrounding your industry. 

rasa.io can analyze the data and create unique newsletters catered to the individual, not just the masses. It can even pull content from your business’s social media channels and any other feeds of your choosing to ensure that every email stays relevant. 

How to Get Started with rasa.io

rasa.io offers a free demo to anyone interested in trying out the platform. Sign up for a demo here.

Grammarly

If you couldn’t guess it from the name, Grammarly is a browser extension that identifies grammar mistakes. More importantly, it offers quick and easy solutions to said mistakes.

If you’re someone who makes a lot of grammar mistakes, or maybe English isn’t your first language, Grammarly highlights mistakes in real-time. When you click on the misspelling or improper use of punctuation, you’ll see one or more options on how to improve it. 

Grammarly is an excellent tool for email and blog writing. Anyone writing content for a website should consider running their copy through Grammarly before pressing post.

According to research conducted by the company, high-level positions are held by individuals who make significantly fewer grammar mistakes than their subordinates. As a marketer for your small business, you should always be focused on maintaining a high level of professionalism. Frequent grammar mistakes, including on social media, will reduce that level of perceived professionalism. 

With the help of Grammarly, you’ll do less proofreading and have time to focus on more important business operations. The platform’s AI can identify mistakes from improper spelling to the use of passive voice, and it will help you run your business more efficiently. 

How to Get Started with Grammarly

The only data you need to start using Grammarly is written content. Whether that’s an email, a social media post, or a formal legal letter, you can download a Chrome browser extension to read and markup anything you’ve typed online.

Pattern89

Want to never guess the success of your advertising campaigns again?

Pattern89 uses AI to predict the success of advertising campaigns before they’re even launched. The platform analyzes data across Facebook and Instagram to recognize winning aspects of the current market and identify which marketing campaigns are expected to succeed. 

Pattern89 helps you understand creative performance across more than 49,000 different creative dimensions. It then recommends creative elements based on what has worked with billions of other ads. 

How to Get Started with Pattern89

Once you get set up with Pattern89, all you need to do is connect your advertising accounts, then begin uploading creative to get recommendations on how to improve your ads.