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Have you started your small or medium-sized business (SMB), but you may not be a writer? Or while running your business, you learned how to write blogs but don’t have time? Whatever your journey, artificial intelligence (AI) can help. And, this is coming from a team of content marketers.

Our research shows that these AI tools for small businesses deliver results: In fact, our Small and Medium Business Trends Report showed that 90% of SMBs using AI report more efficient operations. So let’s get efficient with your content marketing. We’ll explore how AI can help your small business content strategy so you can focus on scaling. Let’s go.

What you’ll learn:

• Understanding AI in content marketing
• Benefits of AI in content marketing
• Key AI applications in content marketing for SMBs
• How to implement AI in your content marketing strategy
• Future trends in AI and content marketing

Understanding AI in content marketing

Content marketing is a solid approach to sharing information on a blog or online to a clearly defined audience. Effective content marketing shares your story and creates brand awareness, positions you as a thought leader, and builds trust with customers. If you create marketing content for your business, you probably already use some form of content marketing tool. 

How AI is shaping online content 

AI is now creating blogs, social media updates, and email campaigns in just minutes. With the help of your parameters and training wheels, it can also analyze user behavior, preferences, and demographics to deliver personalized content to customers. Even with limited resources, SMBs can leverage AI to create impressive, data-driven content marketing strategies that stand out against competitors.

As a content creator, you can save time by automating repetitive tasks like generating outlines, filling in meta data, and drafting product descriptions. But even if AI takes the production load off, the human touch remains non-negotiable for emotional connection and storytelling. We are the humans behind the story, and that will shine through in content, the AI is there to assist this process so it goes smoother. 

Benefits of AI in content marketing

Using AI for your small business content strategy can pay off in many ways, including:

• Time and cost efficient: Automates repetitive tasks, freeing up time for you and your team to tackle strategic planning and creative work.With AI handling tasks that traditionally required large teams or outside agencies, you can achieve professional-looking results without the professional price tag.
• Enhances search engine optimization (SEO) performance: By suggesting keywords, analyzing competition, and tracking rankings, AI helps improve search engine visibility and attract organic traffic.
• Increases engagement: AI agents interact with your customers in real time, providing instant value and enhancing user experiences.
• Helps you grow organically: AI allows small businesses to scale their content marketing efforts efficiently, producing large volumes of content without sacrificing quality.
• Improves social media strategies: AI optimizes social media campaigns by suggesting the best posting times, formats, and strategies for maximum engagement.

AI applications for content marketing

AI has stepped up to take care of many tasks that previously dragged down entrepreneurs. Here are some AI tools that excel at a wide variety of applications:

Content creation

Countless generative AI tools are available that — with a few simple prompts — can draft blog posts, create social media captions, and craft product and service descriptions. You can analyze industry trends, competitor strategies, and audience behavior to generate content ideas that resonate with your target markets. And if you’re trying to reach an international audience, AI-powered translation tools make it easier to create content in multiple languages.

Content optimization with search

AI-powered content optimization can improve your website rankings on search engines. Marketing AI can suggest keywords, meta descriptions, and formatting changes for your content. 

And, AI can automate A/B testing for headlines, create images, and draft calls to action (CTAs) that resonate with your target customer. These tools can then analyze performance data to optimize content for better results. AI-powered platforms also can predict the best times to post content on social media for maximum visibility.

AI-powered platforms optimize content for search engines by suggesting keywords, refining meta descriptions, and analyzing performance metrics. These tools can also analyze search trends and rework content to rank higher in search engine results, helping SMBs improve their online visibility and attract more organic traffic.

Content curation

AI can be your content curator. It can scour the internet for you, gathering timely and relevant information that resonates with your target audience. You can even guide AI to draw from trusted sources. This way, you can confidently provide your audience with high-quality material that keeps them informed and interested.

Content insights and forecasting

You can feed information and  instruct AI to track industry trends and then predict what topics will be popular with your customers. AI can also help understand what types of content marketing perform well by analyzing user interactions. The algorithm suggestions to tweak messaging by gauging sentiment from your customers’ comments, reviews, or social media interactions.

Scriptwriting and editing

Simplify video production with AI by automating scriptwriting, captioning, and even editing. AI can turn blog posts into short videos, transcribing the script and helping to market it out in different formats. It can summarize key points and pair them with audio and visuals. This can help repurposing content for video-driven social media channels. It can enhance images, create templates, or generate video content. And, AI can create personalized video ads or infographics based on user data.

Content for customer experience

AI can facilitate real-time engagement with potential customers through chatbots or dynamic content recommendations. They can also enlist AI agents, like Agentforce, that can help engage with potential and current customers, 24/7.

Content amplification on social

AI can also help create, schedule, and optimize posts for maximum engagement. With the right prompts, they can suggest relevant topics for content that will resonate with your customers. These tools can also analyze social media metrics and offer suggestions to improve engagement. With the right keywords and hashtags, you can reach the right audience, and AI can help. 

How to implement AI in your content marketing strategy

You’ve done the research, and now you’re ready to dive in with AI to help with your content marketing strategy. But where to start? Here is a seven-step process you can employ to implement AI in your content marketing strategy:

Step 1: Set goals and key performance indicators (KPIs)
Define your business needs and marketing goals that you want to achieve with AI (like increase engagement or automating content creation). Set measurable KPIs so you can track progress and success.

Step 2: Pinpoint opportunities for AI
Analyze your current content marketing workflow to spot repetitive tasks or bottlenecks that AI can address, such as content research, creation, personalization, or analytics.

Step 3: Select the right AI tools
Research and choose AI tools that match your needs, budget, and technical comfort level. Look for solutions that integrate smoothly with your existing customer relationship management (CRM) solution or content management solution (CMS).

Step 4: Integrate and test
Start small by implementing AI in one area (like automated content generation or audience analysis). Test the tool’s outputs and adjust your workflow as needed to ensure quality and relevance.

Step 5: Personalize and optimize
Use AI to analyze audience data, personalize content, and more. Leverage AI-driven insights to refine your content strategy and improve targeting.

Step 6: Train your team
Provide basic training to ensure everyone understands how to use the new AI tools effectively and can interpret AI-driven insights.

Step 7: Monitor and iterate
Regularly review performance data to see how AI is impacting your goals. Optimize your use of AI tools based on results and feedback, scaling up as you gain confidence.

A good CMS — like Salesforce — is a single content hub that allows users to create, edit, organize, publish, and update content digitally. And all this can be accomplished without coding. Integrating AI with your CRM transforms how you manage customer relationships and content by enabling:

• Automated personalized content creation within the CRM
• Predictive analytics and lead scoring to prioritize high-value prospects
• Deeper customer insights from data analysis
• Workflow automation for routine tasks
• Real-time content personalization based on customer behavior

Future trends in AI and content marketing

AI already does so much for content marketing, but there’s more to come. Trends on the horizon include:

• Hyper-personalization of content: AI will create content that is audience-specific and personalized to individual customers, offering custom product recommendations, promotions, and discounts based on real-time data.
• Advanced predictive analytics: With improved forecasting, you can make more accurate data-driven decisions, focus on high-performing strategies, and stay ahead of the competition.
• AI-driven content generation: Generative AI tools will become more creative and nuanced, capable of producing high-quality multimedia content like videos, animations, and interactive assets. 
• Interactive content: AI chatbots will continue to become more human-like. These bots will be embedded into all forms of content and will be trained to provide personalized interactions with customers and partners. (Back to top.)

Integrate AI into your SMB content strategy with Salesforce

Salesforce is designed to empower growing businesses with powerful marketing tools at an affordable price, particularly in the realm of content marketing. By integrating AI capabilities, you can streamline your content marketing processes and enhance customer engagement.

Start your journey with Starter Suite today. Looking for more customization? Explore Pro Suite. Already a Salesforce customer? Activate Foundations today to try out Agentforce.

AI supported the writers and editors who created this article.