Listen to this episode if you have been wanting to dive into using AI for your small business, but you just don't know where to start, what softwares to use, and what that really looks like.
Today, we're really going to dive deep into AI, and we're not talking about how to write blog posts, how to write emails.No, no, no.We're getting a lot deeper into it.How to use AI to save you time, as well as to keep the connection in your brand.
myth that I hear a lot is people are like, I don't really want to dive into AI because I want my brand to feel very authentic to me.I want it to feel very community focused.How can I use AI and still keep that?AI is not going anywhere.
Artificial intelligence is only growing.Every single software you use from Canva to Shopify to Etsy to all of these things are starting to have AI-generated softwares inside.
And so the more that you can utilize it, the more resourceful you will be, the more on top of things, and the more that honestly you won't get left behind.
If you are late to adopt AI and you are too resistant to it, people are really starting to understand just how much work they can get done if they can utilize AI.And it is only going to allow you to grow your business quicker.
It is going to allow you to save your own time and do it more effectively.I literally taught one of my friends
The other day, how to utilize AI for something, and she was like, honestly, Maddie, I feel like I could take on way more work at my job now that I know how to do this, because it can do so much of what she needs to do and what she is really trying.
She's like, wow, now I understand why people are afraid of this taking jobs away, because it can do so much for you. And it doesn't have to be where you feel like it is cheesy or it's just not what you're looking for.
Of course, you can always take everything with a grain of salt.I really don't like using AI for full copy, saying write me an email, write me a blog post, write my website.
I think there's bits and pieces we can utilize, but I have a whole list here of 11 other ways that you can utilize AI.
I actually used ChatGPT, which is the AI software that I probably use the most, and I asked it to give me softwares for each of these, AI softwares for each of these ways to use AI that I can share with you guys as well.
Basically, ChatGPT is like glorified Google.You can ask it to do anything for you.But it's not just like, hey, what's the answer to this question?You can say, hey, can you write me a whole document on this thing?
There are so many ways that you can utilize AI today.I just want to give you some.I recommend starting with ChatGPT and just kind of playing around on it.
And don't allow your brain to hold you back, because honestly, it probably does way more than you think.And we're going to dive in to what you can utilize it for today.
If you want to use it, you literally can say, hey, write me a blog post all about this, and just start exploring and seeing what it can do for you.
The number one tip that I have for you to utilizing AI for the first time or trying to really understand it is giving it more context than you think it needs, as much context as possible, and that will allow for it to be much more customized to you.
that will allow it to be much more customized to your brand.So don't just say, please help me name my Halloween collection.Say, I am a small business.I sell soy-based candles.My brand is very organic and natural and sustainable.
I use a lot of verbiage like X, Y, and Z. can you help me come up with a collection name for my Halloween collection?The candles inside are named, you know, whatever, Candy Cane, you know, whatever, Ghost McGee and Skeleton whatever.What is the name?
What is a good idea for the name of the full collection?And it will populate a bunch of different names.And so just give it as much context more context than you think.
And a lot of times I actually just have the context that I give it saved in my notes app that says, hi, like basically act as a social media specialist.I am a small business consultant.
Um, you know, I help product based businesses do X, Y, and Z. I basically outline my ideal customer.This is what I sell.Can you help me do X, Y, and Z?
So I basically just have my context copied into a notes app and paste it in there when I want to use it. So I hope I haven't lost you already.Let's dive in to how to use AI for your small business that still keeps the connection.
Number one is naming your products, your programs, and your slogans.I think that this is one of the best ways to utilize AI and not just
to give you the exact name, because sometimes it can be really cheesy and they're not very good, but it at least gets your brain going, where you can say, again, you're naming your collection, again, you're trying to name a bar of soap that you just created, and trying to come up with new creative names and saying, giving all of the context, can you help me name this?
And it'll populate 20, 30 ideas, and then you can kind of mix and match them.You can see, okay, I really like this word, and it kind of just gets the ball rolling,
If you struggle to name things, which I know is a very common struggle with a lot of business owners, is like, you know, how do I constantly keep naming things?ChatGPT or AI in general is a really great way to do this.
Some of the tools that you can utilize for this is called NameLix, N-A-M-E-L-I-X.It literally is an AI powered product name generator based on keywords and brand vibe.You basically upload keywords that you utilize a lot in your product.
So words that you utilize different keywords of your brand, so again, sustainable, organic, things like that, and then you put in your brand vibe, and it will give you product names.It is literally a product name generator.
It will pop out and populate product names for you.And so, ChatGPT is an overarching Basically, again, it's like a glorified Google.It's a little bit more broad.It's a little bit less specific.
And now there's all of these different AI softwares for very specific needs.Namelix is a great one.Copy.ai is basically another copywriting software that is better at copywriting than just a chat GPT in general.I've utilized this one.
Again, I don't really use AI to generate copy for me, but it is saying that that's a good idea when you're asking it to help you name your products, your programs, your slogans, things like that.
But ChatGPT says, when launching a new product or rebranding, AI can generate creative and catchy names or slogans that fit your brand identity.Number two is keyword research.Keyword research is one of my favorite ways to utilize AI.
Some softwares are better than others.You can try it on ChatGPT, which is the software I would recommend you just play around with.First, it's free.It connects to a Google account.
But there are more in-depth softwares that you can utilize, and ChatGPT a lot of times only goes back to like 2021.
So if you are trying to find keywords for your Etsy listings, your Amazon listings, keywords for Pinterest, keywords for YouTube, keywords for any software that needs keywords, or like a blog post or anything like that.
or trying to find search results where people are like, what people are looking for when they're looking for your product, you can utilize these different softwares.I love it.
You literally say, you know, I'm trying to rank highly in soy-based candles for people like X, Y, and Z. What are some of their search results that I can, or what are some of the keywords that they use when searching that I could try to utilize to rank highly for that piece?
Again, giving it as much context as possible. SEMrush is now an AI-driven keyword research tool that suggests high-volume keywords.I used SEMrush when I was back in my blogging days, and I used to utilize it before it was AI-generated.
Now they've added an AI-generated software in it that just makes it more robust, and I think SEMrush is awesome.It helps identify keywords that will improve your product visibility on search engines and marketplaces.
So you can talk about keywords just for your website SEO in general as well.So now we've said naming your products as well as keyword research.The next one is problem solving for software issues.AI is
wonderful for problem-solving because you basically can say, these are all of the problems that I've had.How can I fix it?What are some different possible solutions?I've done this for car maintenance.
I've done this for just playing around with my hormone stuff.Again, it's not a doctor, but what it's doing is it's looking at journals, it's looking at Reddit, it's looking at forums, and it's looking at blog posts.
It's basically saying, these are some possible solutions for your problem. I've done this with Excel, saying, I want it to create something very specific in Excel for me.Can you write the formula for it?
I've also utilized AI to help me with Shopify issues.If my clients come to me and they say, Maddie, I'm having this problem on Shopify.Can you help me figure out what it is?I said, have you used AI?Just put in there.What's the error code?
What's happening?And a lot of times it sends out a bunch of different ways in order to fix it.My Nespresso coffee machine I was blinking orange the other morning and I couldn't get it to go.And I said, hey, this is what's going on.I have this unit.
How can I solve it?And it literally gave me a bunch of ideas.And let me say, it did work as well.So that one, I think, is great just to chat GPT.Again, it's a little bit more broad.I think that one is really great. The next one is market research.
When I am talking about ideal customers to you, one of your number one questions is, Maddie, this is great, but how do I actually learn to be this person?How do I actually learn more about this person?
How do I actually get into the mind of the consumer, like you're always saying?And a lot of that is with market research.And now there are AI softwares that help you understand this.Again, start on ChatGPT and say, this is my person.
What are their pain points?What are their motivations? when I'm selling this product, when they're buying this product, what are some important factors to them?But there's also some tools that you can utilize out there to get to know them better.
Crimson Hexagon is not one that I've utilized, but it sounds really awesome.I need to look into it.It's an AI social listening tool for understanding market trends.
Social listening basically just means that it's analyzing consumer behavior and then putting pre-populating it out into your trend.So it's literally made for market research.Crimson hexagon, C-R-I-M-S-O-N, hexagon, like the shape.
It's made for that, as well as Answer the Public.I've told you guys about Answer the Public before.This is, it uses AI to analyze what questions and concerns people have in your industry.
So you can put in there, like, just going off of the soy candles as just like, you know, non-toxic candles, and it will pop up with all of these questions that, people search for non-toxic candles.
It can help you analyze your competitors, understand consumer behavior, and identify market gaps for product launches.So again, you can say, hey, can you analyze this market for me?What is missing in this market?
Or what areas are the most saturated in these different markets?And it literally will populate this stuff out for you.So it's great for market research.The next one is product descriptions.
If you ever feel kind of just like halted with what to put in your product descriptions, you want to improve them, you want to make them rank higher on Google, you want to make them just better, you absolutely can utilize AI for product descriptions.
Again, I would always make sure that it feels like your voice when you're reading it.You don't want it to just be like, you don't want it to feel really cheesy.
It is okay to utilize AI for product descriptions because it does utilize a lot of keywords.So you can say, I made this product.These are all of the things about the products.
Can you write me product descriptions that have both benefits and imagery in them about this product?Write me a high-ranking product description for these.That's the prompt that I would utilize.
This says, Jasper is an AI-powered content generation tool that writes product descriptions, is a great AI software, as well as WriteSonic.AI helps create compelling product descriptions based on a few inputs.That's WriteSonic, W-R-I-T-E, Sonic.
That sounds great.It sounds like it's pretty product description-focused.It can generate optimized and engaging product descriptions that appeal to your target audience, saving time on copywriting.
Again, anytime you have it do copywriting that you are literally copy and pasting and putting out there, I highly recommend adding some personality to it and making sure it feels like your brand voice.We don't want it to feel robotic.
We don't want it to feel cheesy.We don't want it to feel like you want to read it and be like, dang, that is really good. So those top five are my top five ways to use AI.
What I did is I went in the chat, GPT, and I said, what are the top five best ways to utilize AI?And that's what I will cover next.And then I said, these are my favorite ways to utilize AI.Can you make this into a podcast episode for me?
And then tell me softwares for each of them.And that is what we're covering today.So my top five favorite ways to utilize AI is for product descriptions.
market research, problem solving for software issues, keyword research, and naming products, programs, and slogans.So now let's dive in to what ChatGPT says is the best way to utilize AI for products.One is the creation of product photos.
I do really love this one as well.It just didn't come to mind right away.You can do this right in Canva.The Canva photo is not great.There are some other ones.Remove background is like, you know, I guess that's easy enough in Canva.The other one is
D-A-L-L-E is an AI power-rated tool to create or enhance product images.There are so many of these out there for my art people out there.You can basically put your art in beautiful homes using AI.I would just search it up on Google.
chat GPT it if you want, but basically what you can say is if you're looking for a very specific product photo, you know, here's my skincare.Can you please put this bottle and put oranges like really juicy oranges behind it?
It will create it for you.So you don't always have to take those product photos anymore.A lot of product photos that you see are AI generated.There is still purpose, there is still intention behind getting real product images.
There is still strength in having real product images, but I do think you can fill gaps with AI, especially on your website.
If you're like, man, I just wish I could find a photo that looks like this, like you have a very specific vision in your mind, AI can help you create it.You can play around with the Canva AI features. Again, they're a little goofy.
If you're trying to put a human in it, their AI is not perfect with people quite yet.
It says, AI can generate or edit high quality product images, removing backgrounds, adding branding elements, or create visually compelling content without needing professional photography skills.I think this is great.
And so definitely creating product photos or different photos out there.There's a lot of different softwares.The next one that AI says is personalized marketing.
It says that you can automate and personalize marketing campaigns based on customer data, improving engagement and conversion rates.
I don't know if I love it for a personalized marketing, but what you can do is you can basically say, you know, what are some content ideas?What are some highly engaged content ideas for this
for my style of business that would perform well on Instagram.I've asked it before, what are some viral content ideas?And it gives you some ideas.
Again, I think it's nice to play with it and maybe get some ideas from it, but take it with a grain of salt because again, AI is just utilizing what's out there.It doesn't have creative thinking.
It's just utilizing what is already out there, which is why I don't love it for copy and I don't love it for creating content calendars for you.
It says, AI can help businesses create personalized marketing campaigns based on customer behavior, preferences, and purchase history.
With AI-driven tools like chatbots, product recommendations, and targeted email marketing, businesses can increase customer engagement and boost sales.I do think the chatbots is a good idea for AI where it's like asking
If you ask a question, AI will basically answer it, but that is under customer support, and we'll get there.So looking at some personalized marketing campaigns, I would play with it, but I would be careful with it as well.
Next one is inventory management.I thought this was interesting.Supposedly, QuickBooks has a really great inventory management tool that is AI-focused.
AI-powered systems can predict demands based on historical data, seasonal trends, and external factors like market shifts or economic changes.
This helps optimize stock levels, reducing overstock and stock outs, ultimately saving costs and improving efficiency.
I would think Shopify has a software like this, as well as it's saying QuickBooks does, that it will help you predict how much inventory you need for different times of the year.
you know, how much inventory should I make this holiday season based on last year and based on my demands in these last couple of months, it should be able to help you with that as well.
Again, that's in QuickBooks or just right in Shopify should have that as well.One that I do really like is customer service.I wouldn't make
all of your customer service AI, but you can add an AI chatbot onto your website that when somebody asks a question, AI will answer it based on what's on your website.
And it can basically be like a 24-7 FAQ conversation that you can have with people.I don't think that that is the only type of customer service I would offer.Again, we want to keep that connection there.
And I feel like that can kind of lack some connection.But I would probably say in that automated conversation is saying, you know, this is AI generated.We will get back to you in the morning.But here is some way that you can support there.
And there's a bunch of apps on Shopify or other websites there as well. The next one is automating administrative tasks.AI tools can automate repetitive tasks like data entry, bookkeeping, invoicing, and scheduling.
By streamlining these operations, business owners can save time and focus on high-level strategies, blah, blah, blah.Basically, you can ask it to do something if it's very repetitive. Again, QuickBooks, I think that's a good idea.
If you've never heard of Zapier, Z-A-P-I-E-R, it's something that I do.I utilize a little bit that I link softwares that don't always link, and it allows to basically do a bunch of stuff behind the scenes for you.
You're streamlining data entry, invoicing, scheduling, anything that you're saying, if somebody submits this, send them that, you can utilize it in that sense.
The next one is Product Development Insights, taking reviews and helping gather and analyze data to inform your product development, ensuring you're creating items customers truly want.
So saying, this is what I'm making, what are people really wanting that has all of this?So I might be a little biased, but I think my list is a little bit more helpful.
AI is wonderful, but when I ask, and when I ask ChatGPT, you know, what are the five best ways to utilize AI for small businesses, it's only looking at other blog posts, other things that are out there.
These are ways that I really love, and it's naming your products, your programs, and your slogans, keyword research, problem solving for software issues, market research, and product descriptions, because all of those things are not things that take creativity.
They are things that take, you know, data.They take research. Anything that you need to be resourceful in order to find, ChatGPT is wonderful.It basically is the resourcefulness for you.
If you are feeling friction to adapting into ChatGPT, or adapting AI into your business, I challenge you tonight, tomorrow, anything like that, to really just start trying it.Poke around on ChatGPT.I utilize it in my life.
The other day, I really was craving sloppy joes, and I said, you know what?I don't have sloppy joe sauce, but I have ketchup, I have barbecue sauce, I have vinegar, I have garlic, I have all of these ingredients.
What's a good recipe to make a sloppy joe-like sauce?And it gave me a recipe.I have said I've been struggling with hormonal issues.These are my blood levels, blah, blah, blah.These are the symptoms that I have.What are some deficiencies that
can go, what are some supplements that I could take in order to plug some of these deficiencies?And it gives some different ideas in that sense.If I have a general mechanic question, I can ask it.If it's a software question, I've asked it.
Again, my Nespresso, there's so many ways that you can utilize AI. Like I said, when I've introduced this to my clients, to my friends, they literally are like, wow, I feel like I can take on more work at my job.
If you have something that feels like busy work in your business other than, you know, whatever, creating product or certain things, there's probably an AI software out there that is going to help it.The best thing about AI is it cannot be creative.
So you get to have your own creative genius.And this is doing a lot of the SEO, the keyword research, the blah, blah, blah things that I know a lot of my clients don't really love doing.
If you are a creative soul, but you know you need more strategy, it can at least help you get a baseline information of keywords to utilize that can kind of help you in some of those ways.It can give you some ideas for product names.
It can give you some ideas for different things and just kind of get the ball rolling.
I don't utilize AI to do anything top to bottom because I always do feel like there should be some editing from an actual person in order to allow for the connection there.
The person that originally asked me this question actually asked it to me for about many chats.Many chats, I don't know if I would really call it AI.I think it's more automation than anything. This is like the comment link to be sent our links.
I do really love ManyChats.I teach it to my clients to help people sign into their email list, to send bestsellers links, things like that.I think ManyChats is great.
But basically, anything that feels like it's almost busy work for you, it's overly repetitive, try to utilize AI for it.It's never going to be unique.It's never going to be creative, at least right now.
Let's hope not ever, because it could take over the world. We have to at least be open to AI.
If you are too resistant to it, the people that are utilizing it have this resource at their fingertips that's saving them time and making them more efficient.Why would we not at least try?I recommend at least playing
with it this week to see how you can utilize it and just ask some questions saying, Hey, I'm creating this, you know, marketing campaign for the holidays for my business.Can you help me name the campaign?Can you help me name this?
And just see what comes up.You have so many resources at your fingertips.You might as well see how they can benefit you and how you can utilize them. Some of the softwares that we talked about today answer the public.I really love Crimson Hexagon.
I'm excited to check out.I use ChatGPT the most, SEMrush, S-E-M, Rush, I know that that one's great, and NameLix.I'm excited to check that one out as well, N-A-M-E-L-I-X.Just
go poke around and don't have any expectation of what you think you're going to get out of it.Give it more context than you think and just try it.You always cannot utilize what pops out of it, but it is something that can absolutely help you.
It can give you ideas.It can just kind of spurt some different things going on as well as Honestly, I've utilized it a lot for my podcast, for tags, things like that in my podcast episodes.It's helped me get more visibility there as well.
There are so many ways that we can utilize it.Just see which ones work for you.It doesn't have to take away from the community focus, the small business feel of your business.It can only help you get out to more people.
Of course, if you just start copy and pasting, captions and emails and blogs, that's gonna feel a little icky, but there are a lot of different ways that you can utilize it.
I would still keep your copy on your website, keep your captions, keep yourself writing your own emails.All of those are things that need a person behind it, but your keywords on your website don't need a person behind it.
Your product descriptions, and giving it as much context and direction as possible, you can add some different personality to, but those things all help with keywords and research.
So things that needs data, things that need structure, things that need research, I would utilize AI for.Things that need creativity, AI isn't quite great at yet.I hope you enjoyed this episode.I hope this was helpful for you.
Again, your action item is just getting out there.Play around on ChatGPT first, because I think it's the easiest, most straightforward to utilize.And then you can always go in to some of those other softwares.
As always, let me know if this is a topic that you really love.I can kind of dive deeper into certain different areas. please let me know.I love hearing from you.Come on over to my Instagram at thisismadisonpage.I would love to hear from you there.
Send this over to one of your biz besties, and you guys can try to experiment with this together.
If this is a topic that you are talking about, put it into your Facebook groups, into your group chats, and see how other people are utilizing AI, because some of my clients are pretty dang savvy with it.
Some people are getting very creative, and it is really cool. If you like this episode, make sure you subscribe.We put out new episodes every Tuesday and Friday.I hope you have a wonderful day.I will talk to you very soon.
Sign in
