How can AI help you draft posts and emails?
The blank page is the slow part of marketing. AI is good at getting you past it.
Give an assistant such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini the facts and ask for a draft. For example: Write three short Facebook posts for a family bakery announcing hot cross buns from 1 March. Friendly, no hype, under 50 words each. Do not mention prices.
Pick one, fix it so it sounds like you, and check every fact. The same works for a monthly email from your own notes.
Two cautions for email. Do not paste your customer list into a public AI tool. And the Spam Act still applies however the email was written. The ACMA says you need consent before sending marketing messages, and each message must identify you and make it easy to unsubscribe.
How do you use AI for Google Ads and Facebook or Instagram ads?
Ads need many short variations, which suits AI well.
Google's responsive search ads let you enter up to 15 headlines of 30 characters and up to 4 descriptions of 90 characters. Google then mixes and tests the combinations. An assistant can draft those quickly. Ask for 15 headlines under 30 characters for your service and suburb, using only facts you supply. Then delete any you cannot stand behind. Because Google mixes them, every headline has to be true on its own.
On Facebook and Instagram, Meta's Advantage+ creative can adjust your images, video and text, including AI text generation and background generation. Meta says some enhancements may be turned on by default and can be turned off at any time. Before you publish, look through which ones are on and preview the result. Otherwise your ad may say something you did not write.
For help running campaigns, see our Google Ads and Meta ads services.
What image help is safe to use?
AI image tools are useful for tidying, and risky for inventing.
Safe, everyday uses:
- Removing a cluttered background from a product photo
- Resizing or cropping one image for different platforms
- Fixing lighting on a real photo of your real work
- Creating a simple, clearly decorative graphic for a post
Be careful with:
- Generated photos of finished jobs, food, products or premises that are not yours. The ACCC says images and descriptions of what is offered must be accurate and truthful
- Generated people presented as staff or customers
- Before and after images that have been altered
The National AI Centre's guide on being clear about AI-generated content suggests thinking about impact. Low-impact content with limited AI use may need little or no disclosure. Content that could influence decisions deserves a clear label.
How do you reuse one piece of content?
Take one solid piece you have written yourself, such as a page answering a question customers always ask. Then ask an assistant to reshape it.
- Three social posts, each making one point
- A short email to past customers
- A list of questions and answers for your FAQ page
- A script for a 30-second video you film on your phone
- A short description for your Google Business Profile post
Because the source is your own work, the facts are already yours. Your job is to check that nothing changed in the rewrite. Small edits can change meaning. A 'we do not charge call-out fees' can lose its 'not'.
Keep the original on your website as the main version. Our SEO service and AI visibility service cover being found in search and AI answers. Nobody can promise rankings or AI mentions.
Can AI summarise your marketing reports?
Yes. Reports from Google Ads, Meta and your email tool are long, and most owners do not have time to read them.
Export the report, remove anything that identifies a customer, and ask: Summarise this in five plain sentences. What went up, what went down, and what should I ask my marketing person about?
Use the summary as a starting point for questions, not as the answer.
- Check any number it quotes against the original report. AI can misread tables
- Ask it what it cannot tell from the data
- Do not let it explain why something happened without evidence. It will guess
A summary tells you what changed. It does not tell you whether the leads were any good. Keep your own count of real enquiries and jobs, and compare.
Why must a person approve every claim?
AI writes persuasive copy by pattern. It will add 'award-winning', 'guaranteed' or 'Australia's most trusted' because ads often say that. It does not know if it is true for you.
The law does not care who wrote it. The ACCC says any information or claim a business provides must be accurate, truthful and based on reasonable grounds, and it makes no difference whether the business intended to mislead. The rule covers advertising, social media, testimonials and websites. As one example of the stakes for a large company, the same ACCC page reports that Samsung was ordered to pay $14 million in penalties in 2022 for misleading water resistance claims.
Reviews matter too. The ACCC says it is against the law to create fake or misleading reviews. Never ask AI to write a testimonial.
Before anything is published, one person who knows the business checks:
- Prices, dates and offer terms
- Words like best, cheapest, fastest, guaranteed
- Claims about results, savings or health
- Anything about a competitor
A worked example: a landscaper's autumn campaign
For example, a landscaper wants more garden clean-up bookings in autumn. Here is how AI could help. This is an illustration, not a client result.
The owner writes the facts: the suburbs covered, the service, a real offer of a free green waste removal with any booking in April, and two real photos from last year.
The assistant drafts three social posts, a short email to past customers who agreed to receive emails, and 15 Google Ads headlines.
The owner reviews. One headline says 'Sydney's Best Landscaper'. It cannot be proven, so it goes. One post says 'same-week service guaranteed'. That is not always true, so it becomes 'ask about our next available day'. The offer terms are checked against what the owner actually decided.
The posts are scheduled across four weeks. The email goes out with an unsubscribe link.
At the end of April the owner counts real bookings that mentioned the offer. That number, not likes, decides whether to do it again.
When should you not use AI for marketing?
Leave AI out, or keep it on a short lead, when:
- You have not decided what you are offering or who it is for. AI will fill the gap with generic copy
- The content is about health, finance, legal matters or safety, unless a qualified person checks it
- You are replying to a complaint or a sensitive customer story
- You are tempted to publish many near-identical posts just to have more
- Nobody has time to review. Unreviewed AI marketing is a risk, not a saving
AI will not fix a weak offer or an unanswered phone. If enquiries arrive and nobody replies, start with replying to customers faster.
A sensible first step is one channel, one month, one person approving. For a hand, get in touch.
Common questions
Can I use AI to write my ads?
Yes, as drafts. Give it only true facts about your business, then check every headline and description yourself. You are responsible for the claims, whoever or whatever wrote them.
Do I have to say my marketing was written with AI?
The National AI Centre says you may not need to disclose it every time. It depends on the impact of the content and how much AI contributed. Be clearer when content could influence important decisions, and never present generated images as real work.
Will AI marketing get me more customers?
It can save drafting time, which helps you show up more consistently. It cannot guarantee enquiries or sales. Results depend on your offer, your audience and how quickly you respond.
Sources
General information for Australian small businesses. Check the original source before relying on a price, product feature or rule.
