Top 10 Creative Tips for Leveraging ChatGPT as a Small Business Owner

Artificial Intelligence (AI) was first created as a working model in 1951 and with each programme created since, it has blossomed into the technology we know today. When AI was initially created it typically came in the form of game-playing programmes and robots. Fast?forward to November 2022, ChatGPT burst onto our screens.

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ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot which gained over 1 million users within the first 5 days of it going live! Since its launch in November, ChatGPT has witnessed a huge surge in popularity, gaining widespread recognition and adoption across various sectors as we have begun to understand the capabilities and opportunities it has to offer. This could be due to one of the programme's most impressive functions - task automation. ChatGPT possesses the ability to automate different tasks that a lot of businesses are spending a vast amount of employee time on. Automation of these tasks using the programme is allowing businesses like yours to save working hours, and off the back of that, money.

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Unlike other chatbots, the revolutionary programme doesn't just provide an automated pre-programmed response. The bot really does put the I in intelligence, as it understands intent, learns from past chats, thinks, and processes the information given to produce a more accurate and personalised experience.

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1. Inspiring Ideation

One of the many uses of ChatGPT is inspiring ideation. You can use the AI tool to help get your creative juices flowing for content writing, to help with that time-consuming creative block many of us have experienced. The chatbot can suggest topics for you to write about and give you information on what to include in your content. All you need to do is start a chat and type in your request.

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For example, you could ask ‘Give me some ideas on what topics I can write a blog about for my small craft business’. Once you are happy with your question you just need to hit that send button (or the enter key is a shortcut!) and the bot will start typing a response. You will want to make your prompt as specific as possible to make sure you are getting the right information. Made?clear by the example above you can see a structure to the prompt which is as follows: what we are wanting (ideas), what information to give (topics), what kind of content we are producing (blog), what we want from the content (education) and the topic for the response (hospitality).

?2. Writing Copy

Another use of ChatGPT is content creation. The chatbot can help to generate content for your small business including blog content, social media[AB9]?copy, website copy, and marketing materials such as emails and printed advertisements. You can type your prompt into the chat box and ask the programme-specific question such as ‘Write some copy for Facebook containing no more than 20 words advertising a Thursday Gin Club’. You will?want to make your prompts very specific and include your objectives to ensure the bot can provide an answer that ticks all your boxes.

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?3. Rewriting Old Copy

Have some old content you need to rework? Or just simply don’t like the way something reads??This is something ChatGPT can also assist you with. All you need to do is input the original content into a chat box explaining the action you would like the bot to take (in this case it would be something like rephrase, reword, rewrite) and press enter.?

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ChatGPT will then provide alternate versions of the same text but written in a different way, and you can select the ‘regenerate response’ button that is present at the top of the message box if you don’t like the version the bot has created. If the responses you are getting aren’t quite covering what it is you need, you can also add specific prompts to the end of your text, such as ‘Rewrite this copy positioning me as professional’. Remember the more specific you are with your prompts, the better your answers are going to be!

?4.?Enhancing Search Engine Optimisation

One of the main components of marketing your business is most likely going to be making sure your content contains essential components required for search engine optimisation (SEO). ChatGPT can assist you with SEO by providing insights, recommendations, and generating content that aligns with SEO best practices. The bot can do this through:

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·????Content creation: You can seek assistance from ChatGPT to generate engaging and SEO-friendly content by incorporating target keywords naturally and structuring it for readability and search engine crawlability.

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·????Meta tags and descriptions: You can request that ChatGPT provides optimised meta tags and descriptions for your web pages, ensuring they are concise, compelling, and include relevant keywords.

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·????Title tag optimisation: You can ask ChatGPT to suggest compelling and keyword-rich titles that accurately represent your content and attract users in search engine results pages (SERPs).

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·????Internal linking: You can seek advice from ChatGPT on strategically placing internal links within your content to enhance website navigation, improve user experience, and assist search engine crawlers in discovering and indexing your pages.

?5.??Problem Solving

ChatGPT can be a useful tool for problem-solving in a variety of ways. You can ask ChatGPT questions related to specific questions or topics you may be unsure of, and the bot can provide you with insights, explanations and details that may aid your understanding and decision-making process. When facing a complex decision, you can use ChatGPT again to discuss the pros and cons of different options. The bot can help you to weigh out the factors involved, providing an understanding on available data and assisting in evaluating potential outcomes or risks associated with each choice.

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If you’re trying to solve a problem in unfamiliar territory, ChatGPT can help you with this by providing information to help you to learn and research relevant information. You can ask the bot to provide examples, explain concepts and point you to trusted resources to deepen your understanding and find suitable solutions. For now, ChatGPT’s knowledge is limited past 2021, so be sure to double-check the information you are provided with.

?6.??Drafting a proposal

You can use ChatGPT to assist you with drafting any proposals that you may need to create. For the bot to be able to provide you with the best answer, you will want to include as much information in your prompt as possible. To create a proposal that is bound to impress, you can utilise this checklist for your prompt must-haves

ü?the proposal’s objective

ü?target audience

ü?industry-relevant sections such as data/statistics?

For example, ‘Draft me a proposal to persuade my boss to increase our marketing ads budget by ￡2000’. This includes your objective and your target audience for your proposal. With this prompt, it will give you a basic draft, if you would like a draft to be more detailed you can include more specific information such as ‘Draft me a proposal to persuade my boss to increase our marketing ads budget by ￡2000 as the current ads metrics show that if we do this, we can increase ROI to 25%’. This more statistically relevant prompt will allow ChatGPT to provide a more detailed response.

7.??Market Research

When conducting market research for your small business ChatGPT can help you to evaluate data to assist in identifying target markets, analysing customer demographics, understanding industry trends, and exploring competitors. You can then use this information to make more informed business decisions and develop effective marketing strategies.?

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The process for doing this using ChatGPT would be to first define your objectives by determining the specific areas you want to explore such as target market analysis, customer preferences, competitor analysis, industry trends, or product positioning. You can then compile existing data you have about your industry, target markets and competitors to form the foundation for your research and provide ChatGPT with context for its response. Keep in mind that you don’t want to provide ChatGPT with any identifiable data so you may want to anonymise this to protect your customers.

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You may want to assess the answers ChatGPT generates, checking for accuracy and relevance by cross referencing with existing data. You can also experiment by rewording your prompts for more precise and valuable insights. Once you are happy with your findings you can document these in a data sheet such as Excel or Google Sheets, so you can easily analyse the information to identify patterns and draw your conclusion. This can help you refine your business strategies and identify new opportunities.

?8.??Inventory Management

If you are a small business that requires inventory and stock checks ChatGPT can assist you with the general management of this. It does this by providing recommendations on optimal stock levels, predicting demand patterns, and suggesting reorder points. This is all based on historical data that you can input into the bot for it to analyse.

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ChatGPT can provide information on demand forecasting by analysing historical sales data to provide insights into future demand patterns. This helps to estimate the quantity of products that will sell to prevent ‘sellout’ or overstocking, and the bot is also able to suggest how often those orders should be made through analysing factors like lead time, sales velocity, and desired safety levels, so it can recommend the perfect time for replenishment.

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Aswell as this, ChatGPT can assist with product categorisation, sorting inventory into sections such as type, size, colour, and seasonality. This can help you to track more efficiently and make more informed decisions regarding restocking or continuing specific product lines.

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It’s worth noting that ChatGPT doesn’t have access to any online data past 2021, so for you to receive an accurate analysis and report, you will need to provide it with your past and current inventory data.

?9.??Customer Support

A fascinating ability of ChatGPT is its ability to offer basic customer support on behalf of a company, as the bot can handle customer inquiries and simulate responses acting as a brand employee. Please note that this isn’t a replacement for a customer support team as this function will require a person to input the customer question into ChatGPT. The best use for this may be for more generic customer queries and as training aid for new employees.

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For this function you will need to start a chat and ask ChatGPT to simulate live chat customer service help from (your website). For example, ‘Please simulate the live chat customer service help from www.instantprint.co.uk are you ready?’.

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ChatGPT will then be ready to act as a customer service agent. You can input the customer question into the message box exactly as it is asked and ChatGPT will respond which can be sent directly to your customer. It is recommended to double check the responses generated by ChatGPT for brand tone of voice and accuracy. If you are unhappy with the response, you can ask it to rephrase by prompting it to ‘Please respond more professionally’, which will have your next response in a more professional tone.

?10.?Language Translation

If your business has international operations or deals with customers from different language backgrounds, ChatGPT can help to make these interactions as smooth and efficient as possible with language translation. Having this service available can improve your customer satisfaction and expand your reach which can help with your business’ growth.?

The process for this is super easy as all you need to do is provide ChatGPT with the text that needs to be translated and ask it to translate this into whichever language you need to understand. If you need assistance in identifying the language of the text, ChatGPT can do this too!

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It is worth noting that ChatGPT’s translation capabilities may not be as accurate as a professional translator or translation service, so for critical translation needs it is recommended to double check the information provided or consult a professional.

?In Conclusion

ChatGPT is proving to be a valuable asset to businesses with its ability to aid professionals in making informed decisions, improving service and refining data analysis. By implementing this software?into your business strategies?you can ensure you are staying ahead of the game with your brand and driving for growth and success.