With more enterprise-level AI-driven marketing platforms today, it does not hurt to ask: are these helpful for small businesses? The answer is yes, with a few significant caveats.
This post shares the pros and cons of artificial intelligence in small business marketing.
To AI or Not: The Best Arguments for Small Biz Marketing
To use AI for small businesses is a matter of when, not if. In fact, resisting the technology will do more harm than good in the long run.
- The software you are using right now will eventually adapt to it if it wants to remain relevant.
- Search engines, such as Google and Bing, are heavily investing in AI to improve their products and services, including search.
- Your competitors will or are likely already using AI to optimize their marketing efforts, leaving you behind if you do not.
But it is not the end-all, be-all marketing solution for small businesses. To understand this point, let us talk about the benefits and limitations of AI SEO.
Why Should You Use AI for Marketing?
Marina Turea of Digital Authority Partners (DAP) has illustrated the various strategies you can integrate AI into almost every aspect of small business marketing. In summary, this tech can:
1. Streamline Several Processes to Increase Efficiency
Many small businesses are run by a one-man team, making it challenging to scale and even achieve a work-life balance. AI can automate mundane tasks and allow you to work on more impactful activities.
These can include:
- Segmenting customers into groups for targeted ads
- Tracking customer behavior data
- Producing SEO-friendly copy for webpages and blogs
- Analyzing the strategies of competitors
- Scheduling social media posts
- Identifying user intent from search engine queries
- Suggesting alternative keywords and phrases
2. Produce Accurate Predictions to Make Fruitful Decisions
AI allows businesses of all sizes to tap into data that yields valuable and accurate predictions about their customers’ approach to the market. With it, you can:
- Predict how customers will react to various marketing techniques, including targeted advertising and customized content
- Ensure accurate forecasting through success-and-failure scenarios
- Make more informed decisions about how to use their limited resources to maximize impact and profits
- Optimize budgeting strategies so businesses know exactly where it will benefit them most
3. Scale SEO to Drive Traffic and Increase Your Reach
One of the biggest advantages of AI for small business marketing is that it simplifies and scales search engine optimization (SEO) strategies.
Here is a good comparison between traditional and AI-driven optimization tactics:
| Category | Traditional SEO | AI SEO |
| Keyword research | Use linear keyword research, where you depend heavily on search volume and popularity instead of user intent | Adapt natural language processing (NLP), which can assess customer sentiment, identify certain topics, and extract specific phrases from data. It enables marketers to quickly identify the words their target audience often uses and optimize content accordingly |
| Content marketing | Manually create keyword maps and topic clusters | Implement machine learning to quickly identify trends and better understand your target audiences. In turn, you can tailor your messaging in real-time and quickly adjust it as needed. |
| Image optimization | Adjust photos by yourself to meet search engines’ and your content management system’s guidelines. | Compress several images in one go to speed up page load and run an image-recognition and enhancement technology to make them stand out |
4. Leverage AI’s Powers To Build Your Customer Database
Even small businesses like yours are inundated with a double-whammy problem called big data. Not only do you have to process lots of information, but it also changes rapidly. You end up sitting on insights that could have been useful if you could see and interpret them in real time.
This is where AI comes in. It helps you:
- Segment customers into more targeted groups based on their behavior and interests
- Identify trends in customer information through predictive analytics
- Uncover hidden insights and opportunities for brand awareness by applying sophisticated algorithms
- Gather and analyze customer data from multiple sources to create a 360-degree view of customers
- Store and evaluate past information on purchases, preferences, interests, and more to develop detailed and accurate customer profiles
5. Save Marketing Costs to Increase Profit Margin
From a small business standpoint, AI can increase your profit margin. It achieves this in two ways:
- Scale fast. Whether the market is good or bad, AI allows you to adjust your marketing activities quickly and cost-effectively because of automation and predictive analytics.
- Spend less on marketing. AI-driven marketing can help you reduce spending on campaigns, as it allows you to identify the most effective strategies and target customers accurately. You can also use the technology to discover new opportunities you can dominate.
What Are the Limitations of Small Business AI?
Although AI can help small businesses capitalize on their limited resources and maximize profits, it is not without limitations.
1. AI Platforms Can Be Expensive
These types of software currently come with a hefty price tag for many reasons, including:
- It requires huge amounts of data to improve accuracy, which can be expensive to gather, store, and process.
- AI tools have significant computational requirements because of their need for high-performance software and hardware components.
- Depending on how the vendor wishes to deploy its AI platform, whether through edge systems or back-end service models, it may need extra licensing or maintenance fees.
2. AI Models Are Not Always Accurate
AI models are far from perfect. Often, they lack the context and deeper understanding of a situation that a person might have when deciding between two or more options.
AI’s main flaw is its reliance on data: if it does not have enough relevant information or if its use is imperfect, any resulting output is likely to be inaccurate too.
3. It Is Vulnerable to Security Risks
With their ability to store and process an immense amount of data, AI systems are attractive to malicious actors seeking personal or financial information. Moreover, since many of these systems are automated, hackers can easily manipulate them, making it harder for victims to detect the breach until long after it is too late.
AI networks also often rely heavily on external sources to stay functioning. Those third-party systems may not have the same level of security as the AI company itself. Thus, they become ideal backdoors for attackers.
Summing Up
AI and small businesses can be a powerful combination. The tech helps growing companies access valuable insights to make better decisions, increase their marketing efficiency through automation, and save costs.
However, as with all technology, it comes with limitations. The best approach right now is to work with a digital marketing firm with AI expertise that can provide customized services to meet your business needs. This way, you get the most out of the platforms while minimizing their risks.