FREE AI TRICKS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES! Must-Know Tips on Using ChatGPT & More

Summary

Podcast Summary: Small Business Quick WINS w/ Jay Schwedelson Presented By Thryv
Episode: FREE AI TRICKS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES! Must-Know Tips on Using ChatGPT & More
Release Date: March 6, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of Small Business Quick WINS, host Jay Schwedelson delves into practical and accessible Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategies that small business owners can implement immediately to enhance their operations and marketing efforts. Presented by Thryv, the episode focuses on leveraging AI tools like ChatGPT to achieve quick and impactful wins without requiring extensive technical expertise.

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1. The Evolving Importance of FAQ Sections on Websites

Timestamp: [04:10]

Jay emphasizes the renewed significance of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) sections on business websites. Historically, FAQ pages were underutilized for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) due to Google's difficulty in scanning them effectively. However, with the shift of search traffic towards AI-driven tools like ChatGPT, the role of FAQs has transformed.

Jay Schwedelson [04:10]: "When users interact with AI tools, they're seeking responses in a natural language format. FAQ sections, when crafted in a conversational tone, align perfectly with what these AI systems are optimized to retrieve and present."

By updating or creating an FAQ section that addresses the most common inquiries in a natural, conversational manner, businesses can enhance their visibility and relevance in AI-generated search results. Jay advises compiling the top ten questions customers frequently ask and providing clear, human-like responses to better serve both the users and the AI algorithms.

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2. Utilizing ChatGPT for Marketing Material Analysis

Timestamp: [05:45]

Jay introduces an innovative approach to refining marketing materials using ChatGPT's image analysis capabilities. This method involves uploading screenshots of various marketing assets—such as emails, flyers, social media posts, or website pages—to ChatGPT for comprehensive feedback.

Jay Schwedelson [05:45]: "Simply take a screenshot of your marketing material, upload it to ChatGPT, and ask it to act as the world's greatest marketing consultant. The insights you receive can highlight strengths, pinpoint weaknesses, and suggest actionable improvements."

This technique allows businesses to receive detailed critiques and enhancement suggestions without the need for professional marketing consultants. By leveraging the free version of ChatGPT, small business owners can iteratively improve their marketing content, ensuring it resonates effectively with their target audience and drives better engagement and sales.

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3. Streamlining Competitor Analysis with Table Outputs

Timestamp: [07:20]

In the realm of competitive intelligence, Jay showcases how ChatGPT can simplify and organize competitor analysis by producing structured table outputs. Instead of sifting through extensive qualitative data, businesses can receive concise, comparative tables that outline key aspects of their competitors.

Jay Schwedelson [07:20]: "Ask ChatGPT to analyze your top competitors and present the findings in a table format. This visualization makes it easier to compare strengths, weaknesses, services, and other critical factors at a glance."

By providing URLs and specific requests, ChatGPT can generate tables that detail each competitor's offerings, market positioning, and other relevant metrics. This streamlined approach not only saves time but also facilitates more informed strategic decision-making, enabling businesses to identify opportunities for differentiation and growth.

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4. Maximizing the Potential of Free AI Tools

Throughout the episode, Jay underscores the accessibility and effectiveness of free AI tools in driving business success. He encourages listeners to move beyond basic AI functionalities, such as generating content, and explore more nuanced applications like image analysis and data structuring.

Jay Schwedelson [06:50]: "AI tools like ChatGPT aren't just for writing emails or blog posts. By creatively applying these technologies—like analyzing your marketing visuals or organizing competitor data—you can unlock substantial value without any financial investment."

This advocacy for innovative AI usage empowers small business owners to harness advanced capabilities without incurring additional costs, democratizing access to sophisticated business optimization tools.

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Conclusion

In wrapping up the episode, Jay reiterates the transformative potential of AI tools for small businesses. He encourages listeners to adopt these simple yet powerful AI strategies to enhance their marketing efforts, streamline operations, and gain competitive insights.

Jay Schwedelson [08:30]: "There are numerous free and easy ways to leverage AI that can significantly impact your business. Don't overlook these opportunities to stay ahead in the competitive landscape."

Listeners are invited to explore Thryv's comprehensive business management solutions at thryv.com/wins, which complement the AI strategies discussed by offering tools to manage workflows, customer interactions, and more.

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Key Takeaways:

• Revitalize Your FAQ Section: Update or create FAQ pages with conversational answers to align with AI-driven search preferences.

• Leverage AI for Marketing Feedback: Use ChatGPT's image analysis to obtain detailed feedback on marketing materials, enhancing their effectiveness.

• Simplify Competitor Analysis: Utilize ChatGPT to generate comparative tables of competitors, facilitating easier and more strategic business decisions.

• Explore Beyond Basic AI: Think creatively about AI applications to unlock additional value without financial expenditure.

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By implementing these AI-driven strategies, small business owners can achieve meaningful growth and operational efficiency, positioning themselves for sustained success in an increasingly digital marketplace.

Transcript

[A]

Just want to jump in here real quick and let you know that this podcast is exclusively presented by Thrive. Thrive is an amazing tool that small businesses, thousands of small businesses leverage to run their business in so many ways. And they have this incredible thing called Marketing Center. Now, if you're not familiar with Marketing center from Thrive, great news. For the start of the year, they're doing a special offer right here of a 25% off discount of their Thrive Marketing Center. This thing allows you to run all your ads, boost your online presence, understand all of your customer interactions, and if you want to check this out and get this discount, it is super easy. All you got to do is go to thrive.com that's t h r y v dot com wins. That's thrive th r y v dot com slash wins. And I'm telling you, your marketing is at the center of your business. It what, it's what drives your business. So check out Marketing center from Thrive [e-mail] wins.

[B]

Welcome to Small Business Quick Wins, presented by Thrive. This podcast is exclusively designed for small business leaders like you. Prepare to get invaluable insights from every episode, equipped with actionable tips made for immediate implementation in your business. Tune in as we feature firsthand lessons from fellow small business owners and thought leaders. I'm your host, Jay Schwedelson. Over the last 25 years, I've grown multiple small businesses that have generated over $300 million in revenue.

[A]

Along the way, I've learned pitfalls to.

[B]

Avoid and quick wins that can transform your business immediately. I'm excited to share it all. So if you're ready to win on Main street, let's dig into this episode.

[A]

Welcome back to Small Business Quick Wins, presented by Thrive. And today we're talking about some AI tricks for small businesses that are super easy. So often when you hear about AI, like, well, I don't have access to that platform. I'm not a computer genius. I don't know how to do that, and I don't have the time to mess around with all this stuff. Forget about that. What we're going to talk about today are some quick wins that you should not only be trying, but you need to be doing with AI that are super easy, that take no time to try, and are free. Number one, let's talk about your website you now need. It is really important to have an FAQ section on your site. A frequently asked question section on your site. Why is it so important? It used to be that for search engine rankings, FAQ sections were actually not that Good of a thing because Google had a hard time scanning them and it wasn't content that got you to move up in the rankings. So FAQ sections were kind of like put off to the side. But now so much search traffic has been Moving to the AI tools, so many people are going to ChatGPT and perplexity and Claude and all these other tools and as their primary search engine for things. And why does that matter? Because when they go to ChatGPT and they ask it a question, they're asking it more in a conversational tone than they do when they go to Google in a regular search request. And what, what the chat with the AI tools are looking for, Google included and their Gemini tool and chatgpt and all the other tools, what they're looking for is more of a natural language response. They want to give a response that's more of a natural language, similar to the way the question's being asked. And FAQs are exactly that. So on your website, what you want to do is you want to ask the most common questions about your business, about your service. How long will it take to get a new water heater installed? Right. How long will it take to get my listing up for my new home? Whatever it is, you want to put the 10 most common questions that you get about your business or your service or anything, right? And then you want to answer them in a natural language way. You want to answer them as if you were speaking to that person. Because that is what gets picked up by all these AI tools. They're looking for these FAQ sections. So if you don't have on your site, or if it's one that you haven't updated in a long time and the answers are not really in that human tone, numero uno, go there and update that now. Now, other AI things that you can do that are super easy, that I don't think people are doing enough. If you take a screenshot of any type of marketing that you're doing, let's say you have a flyer, let's say it's the homepage of your website, let's say it's an email marketing campaign that you're sending out the door, let's say it's a social media post, if you take a screenshot, you make an image of any of these different types of marketing and then you upload that to ChatGPT. You could do this on the free version. It will blow your mind. What can happen. So, for example, let's say that you have made this great new Email. You've designed this beautiful new email that you want to send out, okay? You take a screenshot of that email, literally, you make an image of it, and you save that image. Then you go to chatgpt.com and there's a little paperclip icon in the prompt bar on the bottom left of the prompt bar, and you click that paperclip icon and you upload the image of the email that you've created. Okay? And when you upload that image, you say, chatgpt, Hey, I want you to act like the greatest email consultant in the world, and I want you to tell me everything that's good and bad about this email. What can I do to improve it, to get more sales? I'm going after this audience. You say what the audience is going after. You say what your offer is, and then you say, give me every idea tip, thing I need to know to make this better. And ChatGPT will then act as the greatest email consultant on the planet and give you that feedback. You could do this for flyers that you've made, you know, print materials that you've made. You could do this for social posts. You could take screenshots of the homepage of your website, or maybe it's a pricing page on your website. Take these images, upload them to ChatGPT, the free version of ChatGPT, ask it for that feedback, tell it that you wanted to act as the top consultant in whatever the category is that you're uploading that information. And this, this is how you can really get a lot of benefit out of it. Too often people just go to the AI tools and they'll say, you know, write me an email subject line or write me a blog about blah, blah, blah. It's not just that. This idea of using the AI tools and specifically ChatGPT to analyze images takes no time. It's super easy, and it works really, really well. All right, the last one is telling ChatGPT to give you things in an output of a table. What do I mean by that? A lot of times when you go to ChatGPT, you ask it something. Hey, can you tell me what is the best Whatever, Okay? And it gives you the reply. But if you go to ChatGPT and you say something like this, I'm trying to analyze my competitors, okay? And these are the four biggest competitors I have. And you list their website addresses. What I'd like you to do, ChatGPT, is. And then this important part, I want you to respond to me and provide a table back that details out all the pros and the cons and the services and the strengths and the weaknesses, whatever else that you want, all the different columns that you want of these four companies and what are the things they have in common and provide it back in a table format. What it will then do, it will give you a chart basically of all of that information in a very easy to digest way. It's great if you're going to have a meeting with people because you can then take this table and you could all look at it. It's so simple to analyze that information. So there's a lot of free, easy things that you could be doing with these AI tools that can actually have a huge impact on your business that you may not be thinking of. Listen, I appreciate you being here. I want you to Check out thrive t h R-Y-V.com they are it if you're trying to up up your game in marketing, if your billing is annoying, if you can't handle all the reviews and you don't know how to get back to everybody, if you want to consolidate everything, Thrive is the tool. It is the tool to use for small business out there that want to up their game in every part of their business. They have thousands of customers. They're incredible. T h r y v.com and thanks for checking out Small Business Quick wins later.

[B]

Well that was fun and great news. We got way more where that came from. Subscribe. Make sure you get the latest episodes each week for more actionable tips from today's top small business leaders.

[A]

And hook us up with a five.

[B]

Star review if you've got at least one new idea you may consider using. Lastly, if you want to ensure you never miss a message from your customers Again, check out Thrive.comWin to get your free account with Command center today.