A first-month plan for AI in small business marketing

Before you start: an hour of preparation

AI works from what you give it. An hour spent gathering the following saves many corrections later.

• The facts. What you sell, prices, opening hours, address, and the booking or ordering link.
• Twenty photos. Real ones from your phone: the product, the place, the people.
• Three posts you liked. Your own, so the tool can hear how you sound.
• The month's dates. Offers, events, closures and anything seasonal.
• One number to watch. Bookings, orders, link clicks or sign-ups. Pick one now.

Week 1: posts only

Hand over the weekly posts and nothing else. Ask for a plan of three or four posts built on your real dates and photos. Read each draft as a customer would. Correct what is wrong, approve what is right and let it publish.

The aim of the week is modest: posts go out on the days planned, and they sound like you. If they do not sound like you yet, the entry on prompts shows how to correct the tone.

Week 2: add replies

Keep the posts running and add comments and direct messages. Begin with the routine ones: hours, location, prices, how to book. Have the AI draft each reply and approve it yourself, so you see how it answers before you rely on it. Anything involving a complaint or an exception stays with you.

The replies entry gives a method for sorting messages first.

Week 3: one ad or one email

Now reach beyond the people who already see your posts. Choose one of two moves. If a post from the first two weeks clearly did well, ask for an ad built on it, with a small daily budget and an end date, and read the cost before approving. If you have a customer list, ask for one email about this month's main offer instead.

Do one, not both. A single new thing is easier to judge than two.

Week 4: read the month and decide

Set aside thirty minutes. Look at the number you chose in the preparation hour, then answer the four questions below. If the answers are mostly good, add the job you skipped in week three. If they are not, change the brief or the tool before you add anything.

• Did posts go out on schedule without you writing them?
• How many drafts did you approve unchanged in week four, compared with week one?
• Which post, reply or message led to an actual booking or sale?
• What did you still do by hand, and does it matter?

Running the month with Link AI

To run this plan we would pick Link AI by Linkme, since Linkme's page lists each of the four weekly jobs among the agent's work. Week one: it plans the week and makes the images and videos. Week two: it drafts replies to comments and DMs. Week three: it drafts Meta ads marked 'Needs review' and emails your list with Campaigns. For the week-four review there are Analytics and a written report for the owner.

The four-week schedule is our suggestion, not Linkme's, and Linkme gives no setup time. Book a demo to try Link AI and ask to run week one on your own accounts.

Connected entries

Questions & answers