How to Use AI for Marketing Your Business

Type “write a post for my bakery” into any AI tool.

You’ll get something like this:

Indulge in our delicious, freshly baked goods! 🥐✨ Made with love and the finest ingredients. Visit us today and treat yourself! #bakery #yum

Nobody stops scrolling for that.

The problem isn’t the AI. It’s that you gave it nothing real to work with.

The one rule: feed it real things

AI can’t see your shop. It doesn’t know what came out of the oven this morning.

So it fills the gap with the same words every other business uses.

Give it real material, and it writes like someone who was there:

• A photo and one line: “first batch of cardamom buns, sold out by 10”
• A question a customer asked you this week
• A job you finished, with one detail that surprised you
• A date — a holiday order deadline, a new class, a closed day
• A number you can back up — how many years, how many orders, not a made-up stat

Five minutes of notes a week is enough.

The AI turns them into everything below.

1. Posts from your actual week

Here’s Tess, who runs a small bakery in Portland. Every Monday she sends her AI team a few photos and notes:

Weekly postsWorking

Photos attached. Cardamom buns sold out by 10 on Saturday. New rye loaf starts Thursday. Closed Nov 27. Write this week’s posts for Instagram and Facebook.

Read the notes and the photos6/6

Here are 4 posts. One for the buns (“sold out by 10 — Saturday we’re doubling the batch”), one introducing the rye with a photo of the crumb, one reminder about Thanksgiving pie pre-orders, one about the closed day.

I kept your voice short and dry, like your last posts. Want any changes before you approve them?

Tell your agent what to do…

Same AI. Completely different result.

Because this time it had something to say.

2. Your Google Business Profile

For a local business, this is often the first thing a new customer sees.

Most profiles go quiet after the first month.

Use AI to keep it alive:

• One post a week — the same notes, rewritten for Google
• New photos with plain descriptions of what’s in them
• A reply to every review, good or bad
• Holiday hours updated before the holiday, not after

Google’s own help pages say complete, accurate profiles are more likely to show up in local search, and that replying to reviews shows you value feedback.

The busywork is exactly what AI can keep up with.

3. Reply to every review

Reviews are marketing that customers write for you.

Your replies are marketing that everyone else reads.

AI drafts each one. You read it before it’s posted. Here’s a reply to a three-star review about a long line:

Thanks for waiting it out, Jen — Saturday mornings get wild. We’ve added a second register from 8 to 11, so it should move faster next time. The buns will be worth it, promise.

Short. Specific. Not defensive.

Never let AI post a reply you haven’t read — especially to a bad review.

4. A monthly email to people who already bought

The cheapest customer to win is one who already likes you.

A short monthly email keeps you in their inbox — if it’s worth opening:

No “newsletter.” No five sections.

Two pieces of news and one thing to do.

5. Go after the customers who order big

Posts bring in people walking by.

But some customers order 40 pastries at a time: offices with Monday meetings, real estate teams with open houses, schools with staff events.

Those don’t find you. You go to them.

Then one short note to each, with one real detail and one offer — a free box for their next meeting, say.

6. Blog posts that answer real questions

Every question a customer asks is a blog post someone else is searching for.

“Do you make gluten-free birthday cakes?” “How far ahead should I order a wedding cake?”

AI drafts the post from your answer. You check every fact.

Google’s own guidance is that it rewards helpful content however it’s made — and treats content made mainly to game rankings as spam.

So write for the customer who asked, not for Google.

The marketing rules AI doesn’t change

AI makes marketing faster. It doesn’t make shortcuts legal.

• Fake reviews — the FTC’s rule bans them, AI-written ones included
• Offering discounts or gifts in exchange for reviews on Google
• Posting anything you haven’t read
• Claims you can’t back up — “Portland’s best,” “award-winning” with no award
• Stock photos pretending to be your shop

A marketing week where you only approve

Here’s what a week looks like once it’s set up:

1. MondaySend your notes

   Photos and a few lines about the week.

2. MondayPosts drafted

   Instagram, Facebook and Google — waiting for your OK.

3. WednesdayReview replies

   Every new review answered in draft.

4. First FridayMonthly email

   One draft to your customer list.

5. FridayShort report

   What went out, what got replies, what needs you.

You’re still the voice. You just stop being the typist.

Questions