A small business guide to using AI for your content
AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude are super useful for small business content, but most people either don’t know where to start or just give them a vague request and hope for the best, which usually ends in disappointment. The real value is in knowing what to ask, and how to ask it.
In this post, I’m going to use Sarah, a Brisbane based counsellor with her own business, as my case study. Sarah is warm, experienced and great at her job. Her website, however, doesn’t quite reflect that yet.
Research how your audience talks about their problems
Most small business owners write about their services using professional language. Their clients search using everyday language. That gap is where your online visibility and connection can be lost.
How to do it: Ask your AI tool to describe your ideal client’s situation, frustrations and hopes in their own words, as if they were talking to a friend rather than a professional.
Sample prompt: “I’m a counsellor based in Brisbane. My ideal client is someone experiencing anxiety or relationship challenges who has never seen a counsellor before. Can you describe how they might talk about their situation to a friend, including the words and phrases they’d use, before they’ve found the right support?”
Sarah might find that her clients say things like “I just feel like I can’t cope anymore” or “I don’t even know where to start” rather than anything resembling “therapeutic support for anxiety management.” Those phrases belong on her website.
Find the gaps in your content
Once you’ve written a page or a post, it’s hard to see what’s missing. AI can read it with fresh eyes and tell you what questions a reader would still have after finishing it.
How to do it: Paste your page or post into your AI tool and ask it what questions your ideal client would still have after reading it.
Sample prompt: “Here is my counselling services page. [paste your text] I’m writing for someone in Brisbane who is considering counselling for the first time and feels nervous about reaching out. What questions would they still have after reading this page?”
Sarah might discover her page doesn’t answer basic questions like what happens in the first session, how long sessions run or how her private health rebates work, all things a nervous first timer would want to know before getting in touch.
Write in your client’s voice, not yours
One of the most underused AI techniques is feeding it real client language and asking it to reflect that back in your content.
How to do it: Find a handful of your own real enquiry emails, testimonials or intake form responses and ask AI to identify the recurring words, phrases and themes, then use those to rewrite a section of your website.
Sample prompt: “Here are three enquiry emails I’ve received from new clients. [paste your deidentified emails] Can you identify the words and phrases they use most often to describe their situation, and then rewrite my homepage introduction using that language? Here is my current homepage introduction: [paste your text]”
Generate multiple versions of the same thing
Rather than settling for your first attempt at a headline, a service description or a call to action, use AI to generate several versions so you can choose the one that feels right.
How to do it: Give AI the context it needs and ask for five or more variations of the specific thing you’re trying to write.
Sample prompt: “I’m a Brisbane counsellor specialising in anxiety and relationship challenges. Can you write six different versions of an opening sentence for my about page? I want it to feel warm, honest and immediately reassuring to someone who is nervous about reaching out for help.”
Simplify complicated language
If you’ve been working in your field for years, it’s really easy to write in a way that makes complete sense to you and very little sense to your clients.
How to do it: Paste in a section of your website copy and ask AI to rewrite it in plain English for someone with no background in your field.
Sample prompt: “Here is a paragraph from my counselling services page. [paste your text] Can you rewrite it in plain, warm language for someone who has never seen a counsellor before and isn’t familiar with therapeutic terminology?”
Build out your FAQ section
A strong FAQ section answers the questions your clients are too nervous to ask and can shorten the gap between interest and enquiry. AI can help you work out what those questions actually are, really quickly.
How to do it: Describe your business and your ideal client and ask AI to generate the questions they’re most likely to have before getting in touch.
Sample prompt: “I’m a Brisbane based counsellor working with adults experiencing anxiety, stress and relationship challenges. Can you generate ten questions a first time client would likely have before booking their first session, including any practical questions about cost, Medicare and what to expect?”
Repurpose existing content
Every blog post you write contains more content than just the post itself. AI can help you pull out that valuable content and use it across other channels.
How to do it: Paste a finished blog post into your AI tool and ask it to generate social captions, a newsletter intro or a list of related post ideas from the existing content.
Sample prompt: “Here is a blog post I’ve written about managing anxiety between counselling sessions. [paste your post] Can you write three Instagram captions based on this content, each with a different angle, in a warm and conversational tone? Please don’t use hashtags. Also include suggested images to use for each post.”
Stress test your messaging
If you want to know whether your website copy is actually doing its job, ask AI to argue against it.
How to do it: Paste in your homepage or services page and ask AI to identify anything that feels vague, unconvincing or unsubstantiated from a sceptical reader’s perspective.
Sample prompt: “Here is my counselling services page. [paste your text] Can you read it from the perspective of a sceptical potential client who is on the fence about whether to reach out, and tell me which parts feel vague, unconvincing or don’t answer the questions they’d have?”
Create a content brief before you write anything
Most people go straight to asking AI to write content for them. A better approach is to ask it to help you plan the content first, so that when you do write, you have a clear brief to work from.
How to do it: Tell AI what you want to write about and ask it to help you develop a brief, including the angle, the audience, the key points and the call to action, before any writing begins.
Sample prompt: “I want to write a blog post for my counselling practice about how to know when it’s time to see a counsellor. My audience is Brisbane adults who are on the fence about whether their situation is ‘bad enough’ to warrant getting help. Can you help me develop a brief for this post, including a suggested angle, the key points to cover and a call to action?”
Check your about page is actually about your reader
About pages are almost always too much about the business owner and not enough about the person reading. AI can help you identify where that’s happening.
How to do it: Paste your about page into your AI tool and ask it to identify every sentence that’s about you rather than your reader, then suggest how those sentences could be rewritten to bring the reader back in.
Sample prompt: “Here is my about page. [paste your text] Can you go through it sentence by sentence and identify which sentences are primarily about me rather than my reader? For each one, can you suggest an alternative version that brings the reader’s experience or needs back into focus?”
These are just starting points. The more you use AI in your content process, the more you’ll develop a feel for what it does well and where your own judgement needs to take over. The prompts above are templates, so please adjust them, add more context and make them specific to your business each time you use them.
If you’d like help building a content process that works for your business, I’d love to talk.
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