Leveraging AI for Small Business Success: ChatGPT, Gemini, and More

Over the past year or so, AI has really taken the world by storm. Initially, there was a lot of skepticism about the moral usage of AI when it comes to things like business and art. There were a lot of discussions surrounding artists and graphic designers whose work was getting taken and basically knocked off. Those conversations certainly do still exist, but it seems like if you aren’t adopting the use of AI in some capacity, that you’re getting outpaced by others who are adopting it.

My Initial Reaction to AI

Let’s rewind back to the first conversation I had surrounding AI. That conversation was with my friend and business partner, Kassie. She and I co-founded the ESC Conference for Creative Entrepreneurs together. I’ve gotten to know her really well throughout our partnership and Kassie is one of those people who is an early adopter of many things. So she was all for incorporating AI from the jump. She immediately saw how many ways that this could make us more efficient. I, on the other hand, saw the use of AI problematic. I erred more on the side of caution. My logic was: AI takes from what others have already created and makes a “hybrid product” that plagiarizes or steals portions of what others have already created. This is directly in opposition to everything inside of me as an English teacher. In fact, I used to run software to see if my students had plagiarized their papers. Overall, I just despise when other people steal others’ intellectual property. So I immediately wrote off AI as if it wasn’t for me…but then I realized I was really only seeing the negative side of AI.

Of course it can be used in that way. Of course it can be used to hurt people. Any technology can be used to hurt people. I thought for sure that there was no way around it being harmful to the creative process. However, when it’s used in what I would argue would be the correct way, it’s no longer harmful. Rather, it’s just expediting the creative process.

Now I use it almost every single day when I’m creating things either for my own business or for my clients’ businesses. Any time I’m ready to do some sort of brainstorming session, ChatGPT is always in an open tab on my laptop. In my line of work (branding and marketing), the whole job is basically one long brainstorming session because we’re always trying to find different solutions or different strategies to approach a target audience. So ChatGPT has really become a huge asset to my business.

Learning About AI with the Duo Collective

After that conversation with Kassie, she was excited about the idea of having someone who was experienced with AI to come and speak at the ESC Conference on how to incorporate AI into your business. We found two women, Abbey and Courtney, they are the founders of the Duo Collective, which is another branding and marketing agency. They showed up and showed out for the AI master class that we had at the ESC Conference. They taught us all about different AI tools and how to incorporate them into our businesses. One of the lines that really stuck with me from their lesson was: “AI is not meant to be your CMO. Instead, think of it as your marketing intern that you can then bounce ideas off of.” ChatGPT is not going to create your whole marketing strategy for you. But ChatGPT absolutely can help you put together a marketing plan that specifically targets your ideal client or your target audience. So use it as if it were an intern rather than somebody in your C-suite making major strategy-driven decisions for your business.

Since then, I have been doing just that. Now that I have come around to the idea of allowing AI to make my life easier – let me tell you about some of my favorite AI tools.

ChatGPT

First and probably the easiest “gateway” AI tool is ChatGPT. One barrier to AI is that many people think it’s hard to learn to use when it absolutely is not. It may sound a little intimidating at first, like it’s some high tech thing…and on the back end, I am sure it is. But from a user’s perspective, it is really so simple.

If you are JUST beginning with ChatGPT, you can access it by simply Googling it. You’ll find a website called OpenAI. You just need to create an account to get started. There is a free version and a paid version. From my research, it seems like MOST AI software has some sort of free version and an upgraded paid version. For ChatGPT, I am personally on the free account and have never had any major issues, other than the occasional slow load time.

Once you’ve created that account, you can get started. The way I have my ChatGPT set up is that I have different chats – one for my own business, one for ESC Conference, and one for each of my clients. As a branding and marketing agency owner, I go in and establish the basis for each business prior to proceeding with any brainstorming questions. The reason I do this is because whatever is inside that chat, the AI will remember and take into consideration when answering future questions. You can use AI for content brainstorms, marketing ideas, branding insights, target audience research, copywriting, content calendars, scripts for calls or templates for emails. The possibilities are endless! 

Let me use my own business as an example as I explain how I set up my chats. When I set up the chat for Ali Rae Haney, the current brand for my branding and marketing agency, I explain to the AI which services I offer, who my ideal client is, what my business’s values are, and anything else I think it needs to know in order to help me in the future. In fact, you can even input something like, “This chat will be designated for my business. I would love to grow my business and enlist your help to do so. In order to completely understand my business, which questions can I answer to clarify?” From there, the AI will give you a list of questions to answer. In my experience, it can sometimes be up to 20 questions!

Here is the key though: Your output is only going to be as good as your input.

So if you give it vague instructions, you’re going to get vague results. Remember, AI is not a mind reader…it ONLY has the information that you give it, so make sure that information is thorough. Otherwise, you’re likely going to be left feeling a little underwhelmed.

This next thing is one of my favorite uses for ChatGPT. For one of my clients, we were working on portions of their brand strategy. We had a very preliminary description of their target audience, but I wanted to get to know that target audience even better. So I brain dumped everything I knew about that target audience into the chat, then asked the AI to help me go deeper in certain aspects of that target audience. I asked it to tell me their psychographics, more about their needs and pain points, where they shopped, what the predictions were for their consumer behavior. I want to particularly touch on the needs, pain points, and the symptoms that a target audience may feel due to these pain points. I find a lot of marketers stop at the demographic portion of identifying an ideal client. For example, they may know the ideal client is female and in her 30s, likely a newlywed without any kids yet. But that’s where it stops…it doesn’t dive any deeper than that. But with the help of ChatGPT, I am able to do that extra layer of research that can differentiate my clients messaging from every other person out there that’s offering the same thing as them.

Once I have all of that demographic and psychographic information, I take that valuable information and turn it into a content brainstorm for my clients. This content brainstorm will be the basis for all their content marketing that is speaking directly to their target audience…and to think I was against this technology at first! It makes me job so much more streamlined, and not to mention, reliable because it is gathering information and research that would take me HOURS or DAYS even in just the matter of minutes.

If we really want to get a little meta – I use AI all the time for my podcast. ChatGPT helps me brainstorm content topics based off of current industry trends. In fact, that is how I landed on recording an episode all about AI. Crazy, right?!

Often times, I will type out word for word my podcast script. I do this for a couple of reasons. First, I use the podcast script as a blog post because typically they are naturally keyword-rich, so it makes for great SEO on my blog. Second, I can then input the entire script into ChatGPT and ask it to create show notes for me for the episode. My typical prompt is:
“I am going to give you the script for my most recent podcast episode. Please take the main points of this episode and condense them into show notes that are no more than 200 words.”

Once those show notes are complete and the AI has the content of the episode, we then go about naming the episode. My prompt for that is:
“Based off the main points of this episode, please give me 10 options for a keyword-rich podcast episode title.”

While I don’t always use those suggestions, it usually sparks something in my own brain or I use a combination of some of the suggestions it gave me.

Let me give you a bit of a warning when it comes to using ChatGPT though. Because I have used it so much at this point, I have noticed that it consistently uses some specific words and phrases over and over again. This has given me a really keen eye for spotting ChatGPT social media captions or email marketing newsletters out in the wild. So I warn you not to simply copy and paste what ChatGPT spits out. There are two ways around this. The first is to make sure that ChatGPT knows which tone you want a specific piece of copy to be in. So if you get something that feels a little generic, ask it to revise with a specific tone – it could be a more professional tone or a more sarcastic tone or a more playful tone – whatever fits your brand and the specific piece of copy you’re trying to write. The second is to old school (lol) edit it. Take out pieces and replace them with your own words or copy. To me, AI should provide be a starting point, but not be the final product.

Gemini

The other big contender in open chat AI is Gemini. This is Google’s version. ChatGPT was where I started, so I haven’t dabbled much in Gemini except for maybe once or twice. I found that I didn’t have as much patience setting up the groundwork a second time for something that was already completed in a different platform. However, when I gave Gemini minimal detail and input, it gave a more clear output than ChatGPT would have given with that same information. So I do see myself setting aside some time to play with it a bit more. 

Perplexity

Perplexity is yet another type of AI that is similar to ChatGPT and Gemini; however, there is one major difference. Perplexity is best if you are looking for specific data and places to cite the data findings. It is my understanding that it can scan the internet for up-to-date information in real time, which is not a capability that ChatGPT has. So when it comes to certain industries (like the medical industry, for example), this type of AI is more useful in those contexts.

TurboScribe

If you are like the rest of the podcasts hosts in the world and don’t type out scripts word for word, you are able to use an AI called TurboScribe. You are able to upload the recording and it transcribes it for you! In fact, you are able to transcribe up to three 30-minute recordings for free each day, which is incredible! The thing I love about TurboScribe is that it also gives timestamps of when certain things are mentioned, so you can use this to make your show notes even more precise if you’d like to.

Canva

Canva is a graphic design tool that has exponentially grown over the last few years. They have very quickly and adeptly adopted AI in their software that I use often!

One of the main ways I use AI within Canva is with the image creation capability. Some of my social media management clients have not had branding sessions, so they may not have images that they can use for their social media, email marketing, etc. If/When this is the case, I use Canva’s AI tools to produce images when necessary. Similar to ChatGPT, the more specific input of what you need in the image, the more specific and accurate image is produced. It is wild to see how accurate some of the images are; some of them look extremely real, which is wild to me!! However, as always, it is a best practice to take a look over the final product to ensure there aren’t any issues. I have seen a floating head in a family picture more than once, which is not so great!

Conclusion

Please note – throughout this episode, I am looking at AI through a very specific lens of branding and marketing and how it can help small business owners with those specific parts of their business. AI has capabilities outside of that as well – including, creating images, calendars, lists, meal plans, kids’ activities, or trip itineraries. When my husband was searching for a job, he had ChatGPT help him write his resume and his LinkedIn bio.

AI truly has so many uses that can be used to make your life easier, so I encourage you to check it out. Begin with something that has a low barrier to entry, like ChatGPT or Gemini. I challenge you to start your first chat TODAY! If you do, screenshot this episode and tag me on IG @aliraehaney so I can see how you’re using AI!

Don’t be like me and let the fear of trying something new be the reason you don’t do it. Embrace it so you can ride the new wave in today’s world.