A month of ideas
Ask for 20 post ideas tied to your services, the season and common customer questions. Keep the eight you like.
AI for business · Part 5 of 7
AI for marketing content: posts, images and video
Never start from a blank page again. Plan a week of content in one sitting, then spend your time on the photos and details only you have.
What AI changes
The blank page goes away. The judgement stays.
Most small businesses do not post regularly for one reason: nobody has time to think of something to say. AI is very good at that part. Give it your business, your customers and what is happening this month, and it will produce more ideas in a minute than you would in an afternoon.
What it cannot supply is the thing that makes people trust a local business: real photos, real customers, real opinions. So use AI for planning, drafting and reformatting, and keep the raw material your own.
Jobs to hand over
Six that pay back quickly.
Captions
Describe the photo and the point. Ask for three versions, then edit the best one until it sounds like you.
Repurposing
One blog post becomes a LinkedIn post, three captions, an email and a short video script.
Images and graphics
Offers, announcements and quote cards from a template, in your colours.
Short video
Automatic captions, cuts and resizing for each platform.
Replies to reviews
A polite first draft for each review. You add the personal detail and post it.
The tools
Writing, design, video and scheduling.
Links go to each provider. Free plans exist for most of these.
Writing and ideasChatGPTIdeas, captions and scripts. Can also create images.chatgpt.com ↗Writing and ideasClaudeGood at matching a tone of voice from examples.claude.ai ↗DesignCanvaTemplates for posts, flyers and menus, with built-in AI tools for text, images and resizing.canva.com ↗ImagesAdobe FireflyCreates and edits images from a description. Part of Adobe's creative tools.firefly.adobe.com ↗VideoCapCutPhone and desktop video editor with automatic captions and templates.capcut.com ↗SchedulingBufferPlan and schedule posts across several platforms from one place.buffer.com ↗SchedulingMeta Business SuiteFree scheduling for Facebook and Instagram from Meta.business.facebook.com ↗ImagesGeminiGoogle's assistant creates and edits images as well as text.gemini.google.com ↗Local searchGoogle Business ProfilePost updates and reply to reviews where local customers find you.business.google.com ↗
Try it
Five posts, planned in a minute.
Plan a week of posts
Choose your kind of business and the platform. You get five post ideas and a prompt for each.
Prompt for the day you clicked
Click a day above to get its prompt.
Keep it yours
How to avoid sounding like everyone else.
Write down your voice once
Paste five posts you liked into the assistant and ask: “Describe how this business writes, in six bullet points.” Save the result. Start every content prompt with it. The prompt guide shows how to store it so you never paste it again.
Use your own photos
A slightly imperfect photo of your team, your food or your finished job outperforms a flawless generated picture, because people can tell it is real. Use AI images for graphics, backgrounds and offers, not as a stand-in for your actual work.
One idea, five formats
Batch it. Take one topic, such as a customer question you answer every week, and ask for a long post, a short caption, an email paragraph, a 30-second video script and a Google Business update. That is a week of content from one idea.
Edit the tells
Delete the opening line that says nothing, the three adjectives in a row, and the question at the end that nobody would answer. Add one specific detail only you would know.
Stay honest
Three lines not to cross.
- No invented reviews or testimonials. Fake reviews are banned under UK consumer law, and platforms remove them.
- No pictures that mislead. Do not present a generated image as your premises, your product or your work.
- No claims you cannot support. AI will happily write “award-winning” and “number one”. If it is not true, take it out.
Marketing that people can check builds more business than marketing that sounds impressive.
Keep going
More in this series.
Part 6 of 7Research and documentsGet answers with sources, question long documents and tidy spreadsheets, then check the result.Part 7 of 7Automate repetitive workConnect your apps so routine jobs run themselves, with AI doing the reading and drafting.Part 1 of 7A daily AI routineWhere to start, which assistant to pick, and a routine that fits a normal working day.
All seven guides: AI for business, the full series.
FAQ
Questions we get asked.
Short answers, in plain English.
Can AI write my social media posts?
It can draft them. Give it your business, your audience and an example of your tone, then edit the result and add a real photo or detail.
Are AI-generated images safe to use for a business?
For graphics, backgrounds and illustrations, generally yes; check the licence terms of the tool you use. Do not use them to represent your real products, premises or people.
Does Google penalise AI-written content?
Google says it rewards content that is helpful and original, however it is produced. Thin, generic pages perform badly whether a person or a program wrote them.
How often should a small business post?
Regularly enough to keep going. Two or three good posts a week that you can sustain beat a daily schedule you abandon after a fortnight.
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