It’s hard to go anywhere these days without hearing about AI. (Sorry if you’re sick of it, but we’re jumping in on it too!)
We’re all definitely still wrapping our heads around it as the landscape continues to evolve. What can we do with it? How should we be using it? Is there a way it can help me? Where does it make sense to work it into my business?
As much as we know that AI is going to keep changing (and faster than we can all keep up with), it’s important to know how you can use it right now as a way of setting yourself up to use it in the future, without feeling like the learning curve is impossible.
So today, we wanted to answer the question, “How can small businesses use AI?” We initially wrote about this topic two whole years ago, which is just a testament to how important it is to keep up. As things continue to evolve, we want to continue to help small businesses stay ahead of the curve!
We’re talking about:
- The impact of AI on small business owners
- 5 ways small business owners can use AI
- The limitations of AI for small businesses
- How to get started with AI
How AI Impacts and Improves Small Businesses
Let’s be honest—when something new shows up (like AI), it can feel like just one more thing you’re supposed to figure out. And when you’re focused on keeping your business running, learning a whole new system can easily fall to the bottom of the list.
But here’s what we want you to know: AI doesn’t have to be intimidating. It doesn’t have to be flashy or overwhelming. And it definitely doesn’t have to feel like a threat. In fact, it might be exactly what helps things feel a little more manageable.
Because at its core, AI is an accelerant. It helps you do certain tasks faster. A lot faster. And we’re guessing you already have a list of things that eat up your time but still need to get done. We’re talking about things like:
- Writing. All. The. Things
- Sifting through data and figuring out what it means
- Repetitive admin tasks
- Things you’d like to outsource but can’t afford to (yet)
And while there are so many ways for you to think about using this technology to your benefit (like your grocery list?!), let’s focus on using AI for small business marketing.
How to Use AI for Marketing
Ah, marketing. You know it’s important—but most days, it feels like a running to-do list that never quite gets crossed off. And while we wouldn’t personally call it a chore (we kinda love it), we get why you might.
The truth is, marketing takes time. Time to plan. Time to write. Time to post, analyze, and tweak. Which is exactly why it’s a smart place to bring in a little tech support.
AI can help you take some of that work off your plate—without taking your voice out of the process. In fact, even here at Enji (yep, a company built around marketing), we use AI tools to help us show up more consistently and spend less time spinning our wheels.
Because when used well, AI isn’t a shortcut—it’s a support system.
When it comes down to it (and as we see it), there are five big ways you can use AI for your marketing:
- Customer insights
- Copywriting
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Strategy
- Social media
Customer Insights
This is really a fancy way of saying “understanding your customers”. Because when you get past the jargon, a better understanding of who your customers are is one of the pieces to a strong marketing foundation.
Remember (moment of truth here): You are not marketing your business for yourself, you’re marketing your business for them. Which means you have to know what is motivating them to come to you in the first place.
Whether you offer services, sell products, or a little of both, you’re likely sitting on a goldmine of customer insights. We’re talking about your inquiry emails, customer reviews, and support requests—the everyday stuff that holds valuable clues about what your audience needs and how they talk about it.
If you’ve never thought about digging into that info, or you’ve thought about it and immediately moved on (because…who has the time?), we don’t blame you. Sorting through all of that manually is a big lift.
But now? AI makes that kind of analysis actually doable. You can use it to scan and summarize large amounts of customer feedback, pull out common themes, and help answer questions you’ve been wondering about—like what your customers are confused by, what they love, or what keeps coming up again and again.
Copywriting
We’re not saying we can read minds… but we are guessing you’ll do just about anything to avoid writing content. And hey, if you’re only drafting what’s absolutely necessary (hi, client emails), there’s a good chance some pretty important marketing tasks are getting pushed to the side.
Things like blog posts, social captions, and product descriptions—they’re not just nice-to-haves. They help people find you, trust you, and buy from you. But yeah, they can be a lot. And this is definitely a place where small businesses can and should use AI.
That’s exactly why we built our AI copywriter. Because like it or not, writing is a huge part of showing up online—and we know it’s one of the biggest barriers for small business owners.
Now, instead of staring at a blinking cursor, you can let our tools get you 80% of the way there. Your job? Just review, tweak, and make it sound like you. (Way easier than starting from scratch.)
And once you’ve got that content? You can use Enji as an AI social media manager to help you schedule posts and repurpose what you’ve already created—so you’re not spending your precious time copying, pasting, and posting on repeat.
SEO
Not gonna lie, search engine optimization (SEO) might be the most underrated marketing tactic in a small business owner's toolkit.
While we’ve already talked about how using an AI copywriter can help you create the content you need, there is also the research and optimization part of the puzzle. AI can help you get the wheels spinning with keyword ideas as well as help you complete all those SEO settings you always skip over.
On top of that, our AI copywriter can instantly write meta descriptions and suggest a URL as well!
Lead Generation
Collecting leads is a huge part of your marketing funnel. As a small business owner, there are a variety of tools you can use–free tools, templates, and especially quizzes.
Quizzes aren’t just fun for your audience—they’re a smart way to collect what’s called zero-party data (aka information your customers actually want to share with you).
But the real win? Quiz lead magnets help you learn more about your audience, too. What they’re working toward. What they care about. Where they’re getting stuck.
Instead of just collecting a name and email address, you’re gathering real insights based on their quiz answers—giving you a much clearer picture of who you're talking to.
With that kind of information in hand, you can create emails, offers, and content that actually feel relevant to them—not just another thing in their inbox.
Quizzes also drive SEO traffic to your pages. Especially for small businesses, they’re one of the best lead magnets out there, but they can be hard to develop and take time to write.
Enter InteractAI, where—you guessed it—you can use AI to create an entire quiz lead magnet in minutes!
Strategy
Last but certainly not least, one of the best ways to use AI for marketing is to help create your overall strategy. Because not all of us are expert marketers—in fact, you likely went into business because of an entirely different skill set (unless you are a marketer!).
Setting your strategy is so important, but it doesn’t come naturally for everyone. That’s why we created our AI marketing strategy generator. Our founder, Tayler, was originally a marketing consultant, so it’s like you can get her marketing brain to use for your business in minutes!
All you have to do is answer a few questions about your business, and the strategy generator will tell you exactly what channels to focus on as well as what your marketing calendar should look like. Simple, easy, and fast!
All in all, using these tools together gives you a powerful AI marketing assistant that nearly cuts your work in half.
Using an AI Social Media Manager for Small Business
The ideas we’ve covered so far are solid ways to start using AI in your small business—but we also want to flag what we see as the next big opportunity: using AI for social media management.
Imagine not having to stress about coming up with content ideas, filming videos, designing graphics, writing captions, engaging with followers...and everything else that goes into showing up online. Even better? You wouldn’t have to stretch your budget to hire a full-time social media manager.
Here’s the reality: social media has gotten a lot more demanding. A quick photo and a caption every now and then isn’t enough anymore. Building a presence now takes a real strategy, strong visuals, smart copywriting, and a lot of consistency.
And honestly? Social media managers deserve every penny they charge for that work. But we know not every small business owner has the budget to make that kind of hire.
That’s where AI can really make a difference. Enji’s AI tools can help with everything from content creation and post scheduling to strategy and analytics.
What Can’t AI Do (Yet)?
Let’s be clear—AI can take so much work off your plate and save time, but it can’t fully replace the human touch, and thank goodness for that. You still need to inject your story, your personality, and your passion. AI can get really close to imitating your brand voice, but it’s up to you to add in your personal expertise, anecdotes, jokes, and more.
Think of AI as a support system, not a full replacement for you. As a good rule of thumb, think of AI being able to complete about 80% of your work, but you still need to come in and layer in your human touch for the final 20%.
How to Get Started With AI for Small Business
Our main goal is always making marketing easier for small businesses, and we were early to realize that AI was going to be one of the best ways to do that. Because of that, we’ve made it a priority to incorporate AI throughout our product.
That means that you can start using AI easily. With multiple tools in one place, it’s less overwhelming (you don’t have to figure out five different tools), and we also made our platform as accessible as possible for small businesses (you don’t need a huge budget to get started).
To see how it all works, start a free trial today!
