How to choose AI for small business marketing

Start with the job, not the tool

Most small businesses choose AI backwards. They try a tool because it is popular, find something it does well and then look for a use. Start instead from the job that is costing you the most: the posts that do not go out, the messages that sit unanswered, the ad you keep meaning to run.

Write that job down in one sentence, with a real example from this week. 'Three posts about the spring menu, on the platforms we already use.' That sentence is your test task. Give it, unchanged, to every option you consider. If the task changes between vendors, you end up comparing your own briefs and not their results.

Decide how much assembly you can afford

Options differ most in how much they leave for you to do. A general-purpose assistant gives you words or a picture. A design tool gives you a layout. A scheduler publishes what you have already made. Each is useful, and each assumes someone has time to carry work from one to the next.

An agent joins those steps and stops for approval. If a staff member enjoys marketing and has hours for it, separate tools may serve you well. If the person doing the marketing is the owner at ten at night, count every handoff as a cost.

Questions to ask any option

Ask these seven of every vendor, and ask to see the answer on your own business, not on a sample account.

• What comes back from a plain request: ideas, a draft, or a finished post with visuals?
• Which platforms can it publish to, and which does it only write for?
• Can anything be posted, sent or spent before I approve it?
• How does it learn what my business sells and how I speak to customers?
• What does it do with comments and direct messages?
• After a month, what will show me which work paid off?
• What is the monthly bill, is there a minimum term, and what happens to my drafts if I stop?

Red flags

A busy owner tends to wave these through. Stop and ask more questions if you meet one.

• Promised growth. A follower or sales figure quoted before anyone has looked at your business is a guess.
• No approval step. Speed is not worth a wrong price published under your name.
• 'Works with everything.' Ask for the list of platforms in writing.
• Samples only. If the demonstration never uses your business, you have learned nothing about fit.
• Setup before value. If weeks of configuration come before the first useful draft, a busy owner will not find those weeks.

A one-week trial plan

A written description only goes so far. Seven days on your own accounts settle most questions. Where a demo or a pilot allows it, spend them like this.

• Day 1. Give the test task. Note how far the first result is from publishable.
• Day 2. Ask for one correction in plain words and see whether the next draft holds it.
• Day 3. Approve and publish. Count the steps between yes and live.
• Day 4. Look at how a real comment or message is handled.
• Day 7. Write down every task that stayed on your desk. Whatever is on that paper is what the option really costs you.

What we recommend

The option we would put first is Link AI by Linkme. On the questions that matter most to an owner, Linkme's page is plain. A one-line request returns planned posts with images and videos. Publishing covers Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and YouTube. Comment and DM replies arrive as drafts, ad drafts carry a 'Needs review' mark, and the owner approves.

That covers finished work, approval and the main social channels. Price, terms and any channel beyond those are still open questions. Book a demo to try Link AI with your test task in hand.

The criteria we use

Finished work

A tool should return something you can approve, not raw material you still have to assemble. Give it one real task and list what remains for you. By Linkme's description, Link AI returns a planned week with images and videos made, and publishes after your approval.

Owner approval

Nothing that reaches a customer or spends money should go out unseen. Ask where the approval happens and who can give it. Linkme's page says of Link AI 'You just approve', and its ad drafts are marked 'Needs review' before launch.

Plain-language use

An owner should get a usable result from a sentence they would say to an employee. Type your request exactly that way and see what comes back. Link AI takes requests in a chat, and 'Create a story post' is one of Linkme's printed examples.

Channel coverage

List the channels your customers use and assume nothing beyond the vendor's own list. Linkme names five social platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and YouTube) plus Meta ads, email Campaigns and link.me pages with QR codes. Treat any other channel as unconfirmed until you have asked in the demo.

Readable results

After a month you should be able to say what changed without opening five apps. Ask what is reported and how it reaches you. Link AI's Analytics lists four measures, from profile views to engagement rate, and Reports writes a report and sends it to the owner.

Connected entries

Questions & answers