Write Smarter, Not Harder: AI-Powered Blogging for Small Businesses

Establishing a compelling online presence is paramount for small businesses, especially mine. While most of my competitors turn to social media platforms to market their products and services, I’ve always recognized that relying solely on social media has huge limitations.  While you may be sitting at home wondering how to harness the power of that “algorithm” which is something that you cannot control (no matter how much you try), I have been successful in my business for over a decade thanks to focusing my marketing on google searches and targeted keywords. I’m here to provide myself as a prime example of why small business owners should not solely depend on social media for their marketing needs and instead prioritize the power of Google SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to enhance their online visibility and reach. And now – there’s a tool in your pocket to make this a no-brainer. AI-powered blog writing now plays a pivotal role in bolstering my SEO strategy and I’m here to give you my secrets!  If you’ve ever felt the drudge of keeping up with blogging, I promise that AI-Powered Blog Writing can assist you and other small business owners in blogging more efficiently and effectively.

The Content Creation Challenge for Small Businesses

Small businesses often face unique challenges when it comes to content creation. As a small business owner, you’re often wearing many hats: you’re the CEO, sometimes a manager, the customer service frontline, the sales person, the marketing specialist, the accountant, the IT support, the researcher, the legal compliance person, the administrative assistant, the content creator, the networker, the planner, the researcher, AND the risk manager.  Are you exhausted just reading this?  I am.  You might understand the IMPORTANCE of maintaining a blog, but with all of these things on your to-do list, time constraints make it difficult to produce content consistently. Yet, the only way to engage new clients online consistently and in a targeted way is creating high-quality content that 1) makes google trust you and 2) targets the keywords and audience you are looking to engage and convert.

The Role of AI-Powered Blog Writing for Small Business Owners

AI has made significant advancements in recent years, and one of its most useful applications for me as a small business owner is in generating written content.  That doesn’t mean that I have AI write my entire blog posts and just simply copy and paste though.  It means, specifically, that I utilize AI-powered blog writing prompts to allow me to enhance my writing, explore new topics, and enhance my creativity in a way that saves time and helps me target keywords in the most effective way.

Benefits of AI-Powered Blog Writing for Small Businesses

AI allows you to SAVE TIME. As a small business owner, I often find myself juggling multiple responsibilities. By using AI to automate the content creation process, it saves me hours of work so that I can effectively market my business but without the stress of shirking other responsibilities (like gallery delivery to clients).

AI allows me OPTIMIZE SEO by helping me identify keywords to target, suggest long tail keyword blog post titles, write outlines, and create basic copy that allows me to edit, alter, and make sound like me in a short amount of time (rather than hours).

AI allows me to create engaging content that I can cross promote on a variety of platforms.  Armed with a content calendar, a weekly blog post and a targeted audience, I can channel my social media marketing to supplement my posts, driving additional traffic to my site and as such, allowing google to find me even more trustworthy.

Practical Implementation

So, what exactly is my process and how can you implement AI-powered blog writing for your small business? Here are some steps to get you started:

Choose the Right AI Tool: There are several AI-powered writing tools and platforms available. I personally simply use Chat GPT and since it’s arrival it’s worked great for my needs.

Customization is Key: While AI can assist in content generation, it’s important to customize the output to maintain your unique voice and brand identity.  I never use AI written content as it starts – I use it as a foundation to help me flesh out ideas. In addition, AI generation is a great way to aggregate research into one place in a time saving way.  A great example of this would be the prompt I used to detail all the different “hats” a small business owner wears.  I asked AI to “give me the types of roles that a small business owner plays in running a solo business.”  In addition, you need to make sure that what AI has generated is accurate and coherent. One might think this could go without saying but ….. maybe not.

Learn how to prompt it: This is probably the most useful and essential step I can help guide you on. Prompting google and AI is a little bit of an art (and one that I’ve always taken pride in doing well).  Although you should certainly experiment with your process, this is mine:

1. I have AI suggest relevant keywords for a blog post.  For this post specifically I asked AI to give me “10 keyword ideas to target by a professional commercial photographer in regards to how small business owners can use AI to their advantage.”

2. I then will sometimes refine the options with additional information. In this case, I asked it to suggest a keyword for a post that specifically “involves using AI to write your blog posts.”

3.  I then ask it to suggest blog post titles. These titles should align with your content strategy and engage your target audience. Remember, the AI can generate content more effectively when it has a clear focus.  In this case, I asked it to suggest 10 blog post titles for a professional commercial photographer looking to target the keyword “AI-Powered Blog Writing for Photographers.”

4.  I then ask it to create an outline. Before asking it to generate a blog post, I ask for an outline that will give me key headlines, subheadings, and structure.  It will give me a road map and allow me to make additional tweaks to the intent when I ask it to flesh out the ideas with a written post.

5.  I then ask it to write and review the post.  Once the content is generated, I take what I find useful, trash what I don’t, and then completely re-write it. By editing and customizing the content as needed allows me to maintain your unique brand voice, accuracy, and quality, but in a way that requires a far shorter time commitment in my every week.

Armed with these steps, you should be able to more effectively harness the power of AI for your small business blog while maintaining control over the content’s quality and relevance like I do. Learning how to prompt AI effectively is an ongoing process – don’t hesitate to experiment, refine your approach, and continuously seek out new tips that will make your process more efficient and more effective.

Y’all – don’t be scared and work smarter, not harder!  AI-powered blog writing for small business owners is the most powerful tool I have at my disposal to help me with my marketing efforts since it arrived!  It saves me time, it ensures consistency, it enhances my SEO efforts, and helps me effectively engage my audience and ALL the social media outlets that I have at my fingertips. It’s a win-win that helps my blog, and subsequently, my business thrive.

Ready to get started? Research AI writing tools, try them out, and see how they can transform your blogging efforts. Your small business and your audience will thank you for it. Looking for more tips for creatives and small business owners? I got you boo.