In the past year alone, AI has become an integral part of creating success in the business world. From writing and editing software to website chatbots, and using programs like Gemini or ChatGPT to help answer questions, AI is being used everywhere to help explore and create. Take another look at AI for your business. Keep yourself updated on how it can be used in business, planning, accounting, and marketing.
While AI initially seems daunting, it can be a worthwhile tool if incorporated correctly. The use of AI in the business world is vast and allows businesses to accomplish tasks that were once far more tedious or difficult.
Some of these applications of AI include:
Top three General AI sources:
By breaking down some of these applications, you can see that AI is worth using to manage and run your business. It helps with brainstorming, data management, data gathering, and even troubleshooting problems you may not have been able to solve alone.
Chatbots are also an extremely useful tool that is easy to implement into your website. These bots can be used to interact with customers and provide a more personalized experience. Chatbots work 24/7, allowing round-the-clock access to customers who might need answers even when your business is closed.
AI is also a powerful tool for tasks such as translating, allowing for global conversations between customers and other businesses. Language-oriented benefits include editing assistance. While having AI write for you is not recommended, AI can be a good proofreading tool for checking grammatical errors within emails, newsletters, and other marketing pieces. Programs like Grammarly have begun incorporating AI into their software to enhance the user experience.
AI is not a replacement for human creativity, skill, and intuition, but a tool for enhancing human skills. We've discovered that human writing tends to be far more stylized and of better quality, while AI produces blander and, oftentimes, poorer content.
AI doesn't have all the answers - yet. Balance your use of AI, and don't rely too heavily on it for success. Instead, the best method of integration is to use it to build on the already powerful human creativity and skills.
Looking for marketing advice from real, experienced people? Don't hesitate to reach out and give us a call. We're in business to make you look good - and can help you integrate AI into your business.
Want to get started? Here are two AI programs for business:
Chatronix: Access to 550+ prompts and multiple AI models in one place.
Humanizer: Humanize text created by computers to sound like a person.
Contact Poole Communications at 573-221-3635... or email us at info@poolecommunications.com.
Get your business found on Google Search and Google Maps, and let your customers know more about your company! Google Business is critical; it lets customers know important information about your company, like hours, a link to your website, location, and customer reviews. Building a good Google Business profile can let people know about your company with a simple search that provides customers with invaluable information.
We recommend using Google Business for all of our customers and updating your business profile to be as accurate as possible. This is really beneficial to your customers. Google Business profiles improve business visibility and credibility, so it is essential to set one up if you haven't! Start by going to business.google.com and walking through the easy steps of setting up your company to get noticed.
Busy, and need help setting up your Google Business page to grow your online presence? Give us a call: 573-221-3635. We can help make sure it's done right and that your business gets found.
Interested in more marketing tips and ideas? Check out our website: https://poolecommunications.com/insights/
©2025 Poole Communications
Websites are the foundations of your digital brand. A well-designed website can attract many customers and boost your company on search engines like Google. A poorly designed website can cause you to lose customers. When putting together or updating a website, it is good to think about what you can do to boost your page to the top of Google Searches.
There are three main factors to consider for every website, known as Core Web Vitals:
These Core Web Vitals can make or break the success of your website. Things to consider when trying to focus on these three questions include how you might make your website more mobile-friendly, clean, interactive, personalized, and accessible. All of these things contribute to the website's ability to run smoothly and work well.
When putting together or updating a website, it is important to remember that websites are commonly accessed by mobile devices. Over 60% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. Designing a website that prioritizes responsiveness and mobile-friendliness is much easier than trying to cram desktop web pages onto a cell phone. In addition, trying not to clutter your website with too many elements makes the website easier to read, navigate, and decreases loading time.
Adding interactions and personalization can make viewers of your website more likely to return and stay on your web pages longer. This can include integrating things like polls or quizzes, or even trying out AI-powered tools that can assist with and tailor the user experience. Another huge factor is making your website more accessible by using tools like keyboard navigation, alternative text on images, and incorporating high-contrast colors in the website's design.
Overall, a website can become more successful by:
Focusing on these things will help boost your website on Google and other search engines. It is important to be intentional about how you approach your website — it is the digital face of your brand!
Need a little help to get started? Contact Poole Communications at 573-221-3635... or email us at info@poolecommunications.com.
©2025 Poole Communications
When most people think of ADA compliance, it's easy to fall into the trap that meeting ADA standards only means prepping your physical location to accommodate disabilities reasonably. However, most companies overlook the importance of preparing their digital platforms for ADA compliance. Websites need to be reasonably accommodated to be accessible by law. The best and most recommended way to stay up to date with online accessibility is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). WCAG is the standard for web compatibility and covers a wide range of recommendations for making web content more accessible for various disabilities and devices.
Of course, there is a large amount of information out there about the best practices for creating or adapting a website to meet this standard. To break it down, WCAG can be highlighted into four sections.
Your website is a step closer to following WCAG if it is:
This means that your website must be able to adapt to people with disabilities. If a website is perceivable, it might offer alternative text, audio assistance or alternatives, have high contrast colors, and mark what language is used in the website's header code. If it is operable, it will have a clear hierarchy with a header and easy-to-navigate menus. If the content is understandable, it might avoid using long, unnecessary words. If it is robust, then your website will be able to work on any device it needs to.
All of these factors make a world of a difference when it comes to making your website just a little more usable for people with disabilities. People often design websites as visual pieces, but they must also be functional and usable by all sorts of people. Making a website too complex or confusing can vastly change how accessible it is. In addition, a website that is not accessible is far less likely to be boosted by search engines and is less likely to be seen as often. This only adds to the urgency of setting your website up to be ADA compliant.
As a note, there is a new ruling under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act that requires web content for state and local governments to meet specific standards of WCAG by a certain deadline, depending on population. The first deadline is in April 2026. Check out this fact sheet for more information.
Further details on these deadlines:
Need a little help making your website ADA compliant, or would you like us to train your people? Contact Poole Communications at 573-221-3635... or email us at info@poolecommunications.com.
©2025 Poole Communications
You’re doing digital advertising. You have a website, use some cool graphics, email customer lists, post regularly to social channels, and run some paid online ad campaigns.
Great, can you confidently answer the next four questions?
If your answers are like the ones provided, then what the digital are you doing with your valuable time and hard-earned ad budget?
Deep down, many small business owners feel the same way. They are all “doing the digital things,” but do not have the time to plan and connect the dots to see what is going well and what could improve.
The good news? You can remove some digital doubts with a little more time and organization.
Here are three tips to clear some doubts and maximize digital dollars:
2. Set up and check Google Analytics. If you are not sure how to start, Google can help.
3. Combine your Google Analytics and Google Ad Words. Not doing Ad Words or want to check your skills? Yep, Google can help with that too.
Love the tips, but still spinning from all the data, analysis, and acronyms? Here’s some more good news – you can call your digital expert friends at Poole Communications to help. Ask them to look at your website and Google game. They can access or create the necessary Google and web accounts to streamline your strategy: 800-900-3635.
Source/Reference links:
Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List (2021)
© 2021 PooleCommunications.com
As the Zoom Brady Bunch squares pop up one-by-one on screen, the vibe of any virtual meeting hangs in the balance. To make sure your next online gathering becomes an oasis of energy instead of black and white name tag portal of doom, observe the following 10 Do's of Zoom:
Turn on your camera. Your meeting mates deserve to see your reactions and contributions. Appearing on screen shows that you are ready to contribute and your colleagues matter to you. They can visit an art gallery if they want to see portraits, avatars, or sunset landscapes. If there are legitimate or technical reasons for not using your camera, consider catching up later or share the reason why your video is off through the chat or an email prior to the meeting.
Show up early. Make time to log in to the Zoom at least five minutes early in case of technical glitches. If you are the first one in the meeting or placed in a waiting room, it shows you are eager and prepared.
Avoid distractions behind you. Your spouse scanning the fridge or curious child peeking around your shoulder are unwanted distractions. Others joined the meeting to see you, not random surprises in the background.
Keep it short. The average zoom meeting lasts 31 to 60 minutes and today business people spend about 23 hours a week in virtual meetings. Shoot for meetings that are 30 minutes or less, action-focused, and packed with value.
Get into work mode. Perhaps your top half is dressed for business and your bottom half looks ready for bed, but your demeanor, tone, and topics of conversation should be focused on work, not on what is happening at home.
Mute yourself. No one can predict who or what noise may pop up during a meeting. Focus on the speaker, raise your hand through an icon, post a question in the chat, or patiently wait your turn to talk. (Pro tip – hit the space bar to unmute yourself for a quick response.)
Stay put. Resist the urge to rock back and forth in your chair, get up to grab a drink, and no matter what, don't take your laptop or phone with you to a bathroom break.
Be engaged. Virtual does not give anyone permission to be void of energy. Be engaged in the conversation even if it is through non-verbal reactions. Look at the speaker (not yourself in the camera), ask questions, and prepare points to share with the group. Be the reason someone was glad they joined the meeting. Plus, being plugged in means you'll never be serenaded with a chorus of, "You're on Mute!"
Avoid eating. Meetings are not lunch dates. No one wants to see you munching on a muffin or chomping on chips, and they certainly don’t want to hear you doing either.
Forget Fido. We all love our four-legged friends, but they weren’t invited to the meeting, so don’t show up with a plus one.
Put on a pleasant face. I know this sounds odd, however how many meetings have you been to and it looks like folks are just mad... or sleeping? Put on a pleasant face and pay attention. There just may be something you learn and you want to portray a pleasant, professional image.
Follow these 10 Zoom Do's and save as many colleagues and clients as you can from the black and white name tag portal of doom.
Visit our Insights and pick up some quick tips for your business. Subscribe to our newsletter to be sent regular tools and tips.
© 2021 Poole Communications
For more reading:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/seven-rules-of-zoom-meeting-etiquette-from-the-pros-11594551601
https://hbr.org/2017/07/stop-the-meeting-madness
Use chatbots to grow your business. Set up a chatbot on your site or social media page, or give us a call: 800-900-3635. While not free, it may be much quicker than setting it up yourself... and we're happy to help.
There’s no denying it, marketers are diving into digital advertising - the deep end of digital advertising.
Recent surveys of business owners and ad buyers spanning multiple industries show that everyone is swimming away from traditional media like print, radio, and TV into the streaming current of digital channels.
According to eMarketer.com, digital advertising accounts for 54% of ad budgets. That's nearly $130 billion in the United States alone. That figure is expected to grow to 67% by 2023.
Notably, this marks the first time marketers are spending more on digital advertising than traditional options. Take a look at the figures:
While print and radio were the first to feel the drowning effects of digital, television is also getting swept up by the growing digital tide. Even Google and Facebook are watching their backs as reports indicate Amazon is swimming into their territory with rapid speed.
Clikz Marketing Technology Transformation and Marin Software took a deeper dive into the specific digital advertising channels used; which shows paid search and paid social accounting for nearly 60% of advertising spending.
Source: Marin Software
As marketers dive into digital advertising and ride digital tidal wave, video will be their best surfboard.
Emarketer.com shares that video will continue to drive the growth of digital advertising spending, particularly in social media and through the use of Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms like Hulu and Roku.
A Forbes.com article shared a report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau indicated that 41% of United States consumers over the age of 13 watch online and streaming videos daily.
The report also shared that 75% of digital video viewers are willing to watch advertising in exchange for content. Not only will they watch the ad, online viewers pay more attention to video messages and prefer to learn about new products through video.
Impact Learning Center and Wyzowl also provide compelling digital video statistics:
As marketers are swimming in the deep end of digital advertising ocean, it may be comforting to know they all have a familiar lifeboat.
Good storytelling remains at the heart of any campaign. Without it, consumers won’t get on board with a product or brand, no matter how often they see it on their channel of choice.
Finally, if marketers stick with good stories and surf all channels with video, they can ride the wave of digital marketing to success.
Thinking of diving into digital advertising? Need help with your story or social media? Give Poole Communications a call. We can help provide strategies and tips to get the most from your digital advertising. 800-900-3635
When you're done go to our Insights and pick up some quick tips for your business. Subscribe to our newsletter to be sent regular tools and tips.
© 2019 Poole Communications
