SPECIAL GUEST!! CMO Thryv Tami Cannizzaro→ AI for Small Businesses! | Ep. 395

0:01Welcome to Do This Not That, the podcast for marketers. Each episode is packed with quick tips. They're super short, and at the end, we have some fun. Let's jump into it, and thanks for being here. We are back for Do This, Not That podcast, and we have an incredible guest, a really good friend of mine, Tammy Canizaro is here. Now, who's Tammy? Tammy is the chief marketing officer at Thrive, but she's a really big deal. Even before Thrive, she had big positions at IBM, at eBay, at Oracle. I mean, a marketer's marketer. And if you don't know Thrive, all right, they are it for small businesses, legitimately it, helping over 50 ,000 small businesses worldwide with everything from their, you know, listings on Google to their email sending, to their billing, to reviews.

0:49If you're a small business and you haven't checked out Thrive, T-H-R-Y-V, I don't know what you're doing, but Tammy, all the marketing is her fault. We're going to be talking about AI stuff today. I'm so excited to have her here. Tammy, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Jay. Great to be here. This is going to be fun. All right. So before we get into all of this, I'm just curious about something as it relates to your role in Thrive, because everybody out there is that listening, a lot of them are marketers. This is not a commercial here for Thrive, but I've always been curious about something.

1:18Thrive does so much stuff. I go to your website, you have all this different stuff that you do. How do you wrap your mind around your go-to-market and actually marketing Thrive? Because that's got to be hard to tell your story. Yeah, it's true. I mean, I look at it that we tried to provide, I call it utility for our customers. And so, how can we help small business owners with their marketing plans and their marketing strategy, getting found online and then engaging customers and getting repeat business. And so we produce lots of content around top ways to market your business, how you get found online, building your brand.

1:56And the idea is that that kind of draws people in to kind of listen to you and what you have to say. And then we provide a methodology for growth for small business. And then we provide the technology to support it. But even if you decide you're not a customer and you're not in the market for technology, I think you can get a lot of value out of the relationship with Thrive. Yeah. And I think it's pretty cool what you all do. And I think this is for anybody out there that has lots of different lines of services. I think the top of the funnel game is so, so important, putting out so much thought leadership so that way people can find what they need and they can find you.

2:31So I like how you guys go to market. Speaking of go to market these days, if you haven't heard, there's this thing called AI. It's catching on a little bit. And in general, for small business owners, because that's kind of your core market, are small business owners, are they shying away from AI? Are they using it more? I feel like you all can take the temperature on small businesses and AI use? Yeah. And I would say we did a survey. We just recently did a survey and it turns out that over 50 % of small business owners are starting to use AI. But I would say we get the question a lot. People are used to Google.

3:09You're kind of used to SEO, right? And getting found online. And we get asked the question a lot, how do I get found in AI. And it's actually good that the way you get found in AI is actually the same way that you get found in traditional Google advertising online. All the same best practices. Make sure you have a great online listing. Make sure you're actively updating and changing and promoting your listing. Make sure you have a good website. Make sure you're consistent with your keyword strategy. So all those same best practices that kind of got you found online and on the web as a small business owner and stand out above your peers, it's actually those same best practices.

3:51The only thing I'll say is user-generated content. So community forums, Reddit groups, any sort of like user-based customer feedback becomes even more important for you to focus on in the world of AI. That's super interesting. You know what I just saw, which I've been messing around with, not to go off script, but oh well, that you can now go on, for example, ChatGPT, and you could ask ChatGPT, what is the most upvoted Reddit comment or post in the last six months on whatever topic? And it will actually show you which subreddit comment, whatever, is the most upvoted. So to your point, digging into these communities and making sure that you're present there as a small business, it's kind of like it's table stakes now, right?

4:40I mean, is that like what we have to focus on? It is. It absolutely is. Yes. And Reddit's come up with their own search engine, right? Reddit Answers. And I think folks, I do think folks have gotten a little jaded over Google because it's so much advertising and it's hard to know what's real and what's not real. And so, you know, surfacing this user-generated content from like real people about, you know, real products as opposed to advertisers, I think is, you know, is becoming even more important in this, you know, in this next generation of the internet. Okay. So along those lines, the ultimate user-generated content is reviews, right?

5:20Is getting the reviews, making sure you have good reviews, all that stuff. How can small businesses who reviews are their lifeblood use AI to kind of maximize reviews or manage reviews? I know Thrive can help you do that, but beyond just Thrive helping you do that, how can anybody do that? Yeah, it really helps with any sort of social advocacy or managing your customer reviews. You can use a tool, so you can use kind of a bot response that generates an immediate response. because folks don't have time and they expect an immediate answer, right? That's kind of consumer behavior these days. And so with AI, you can have it generate automated responses so your customers get responded to right away.

6:07The other thing that people really don't like, if you're, and I'm sure you know this as a consumer, right? If you don't get a response, whether it's a negative review or a positive review, folks expect an immediate response. And so AI can kind of help to quickly generate that immediate response to make sure that you're responding to those reviews and you're active online. So is that like what small business owners are doing? They're taking like, okay, let's say they get negative reviews or whatever, and they're just copying, pasting, saying, okay, we got this negative review. How should I write back to this thing?

6:39Is it that simple? It really is that simple. And what's great about AI is it takes best practices from all the best brands in the world, right? You're a small business owner. You don't have a department to handle this, right? You're handling it on your own. And so it can really pull in all the best practices for how you handle negative reviews and give you that expertise at your fingertips. So is that where it stops for a small business? When I say a small business, I always think of like somebody out there that owns like an HVAC company that's got some sales folks out there or technicians out there losing their minds.

7:12They could barely get their invoicing done. They can't answer their phones. They can't look at reviews. When I say small business, it's always what's in my mind. And then you then position like, okay, now you should use AI. And they're like, really? I don't have time for that. How else besides for reviews is that HVAC person that's owning that business, are they really using AI? Because they seem like they're overwhelmed. Well, one of the best ways that customers can drive more initial profits is by repeat revenue from your current customer base, right? And to that point, small business owners are super busy.

7:49So it's hard to remember to stay in front of your customers and wish them a happy birthday and send out a back to school campaign, right? But with AI, literally at the click of a button, you can really think through, okay, for a year, for my customer base, let's look at the year. I wanna wish them a happy birthday. During the off season, I wanna run a discount so I can kind of help to even out my sales. I want to remind them when their services due the next year. You know, and all you have to kind of do is think about your customer base and how it would be best to sell into. And AI can really take care of the rest.

8:25It'll write the email. It'll generate a recommended offer. And then you can add automation. So rather than you having to worry about each customer and staying in touch with them, keeping top of mind, you're able to automate all that and use AI to really make it pretty easy to generate, you know, lots more repeat business for your, for, you know, through your current customer base. I love all that. And I think for small businesses in particular, there's a mindset shift that based on the data that you shared that over 50 % are now using it, it's finally starting to happen. I feel like early on, small businesses were like, I remember back in the day when Amazon first started and everyone's like i'm not giving my credit cards amazon you crazy i'll steal my identity and then obviously now there's 200 million plus amazon prime you know customers whatever i feel like for small business owners it's the same thing with ai that originally was like i don't care about those robots are doing and now everyone's like um this is a game changer like have you felt that sentiment shift from small business owners they finally like truly on board Or is there still that reluctance, like, I'm old school, I don't need to use that stuff?

9:37I think there's a reluctance. And I also think people are dipping their toe in the water. But really understanding how to use it across their business to drive and grow their business, I think we're all on a learning curve. And what I suggest is really get in there and try it because there's really almost nothing you can't do. So anything you're going to do manually, I would stop and say, could AI do this to me? Whether it's writing an email, it's writing an invoice, it's asking for repeat business, it's your whole billing process. Anything that you do manually today can truly be automated and is repeatable.

10:15And I think one of the best things that it can help with our small business owners is working 24-7 and kind of never getting a break. And it really can help you to kind of automate and take some of that busy work and give you some time back in your day. You know, and to that point, if I did own that HVAC company and I was nervous about not understanding AI, I would go to any of the AI platforms, the free versions, Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, doesn't matter. And I would say, listen, this is the business I own, this HVAC company, whatever. How can I be automating my company using this platform?

10:49And it will tell you. It will tell you you can do these five things. You don't need to know how to do it. It will actually tell you. And I think that that's the part that people get intimidated by. But you can't be intimidated. It's not going anywhere, right? I mean, this is it. I agree. I agree. I also think there's this notion that people feel like they're cheating, right? Well, is AI, you know, is it real? Am I cheating if I use AI? And I think you sort of just have to get over it, right? This is the world that we're living in. And if you're not using AI, you're missing out on a competitive advantage.

11:21Well, and speaking about competitive advantage, the thing that I love doing the most, and if I did own that HVAC company, what I would do is you could literally go to any AI platform and say, these are three of my competitors. I'm in San Francisco, and these are three other HVAC companies. Here are their URLs. Can you analyze their pricing, their marketing, their offers? Tell me what they're doing, and tell me what I'm not doing. And boom, and it will tell you in three seconds. I agree. Fabulous. And even your positioning, right? Here are my three competitors. How can I stand out against these three competitors?

11:54What could I do differently or better? It'll help to give you potentially a competitive advantage from how you're positioning or pricing. I love it. And so I feel like you have this kind of crystal ball that actually is clear. You could see the future. What is the next year, two years, five years, 10 years? How is it going to play out for small businesses and AI? I mean, do you see, like, for example, on your platform, you all have a lot of AI stuff going on in there. Are you adding even more functionality that's going to become commonplace for small businesses to use? Yes, absolutely. And this world of kind of bots, little AI helper bots, right, that are kind of helping you.

12:35And, you know, they say that this generation of AI, as you're asking, the kind of the next generation is you're going to be prompted, you know, and AI is almost going to kind of take the lead. And I think that'll be really helpful as small business owners, you know, kind of helping with the learning curve on how to use and how to prompt. because this, you know, AI prompting is a, it's a bit of an art and a science on itself. You know, it's so funny you say that. What I've come to your eyes is I'm very bad at prompting. So what I always now do, which works so well, is I go to AI with whatever I'm trying to do.

13:08I say, what is the prompt I should ask you to get this thing? And they'll say, actually, here's the prompt. So it's like, I almost don't even know if you need to be great at prompting anymore, as long as you just ask it, what is a great prompt, which is so ridiculous. The whole thing is ridiculous. It is pretty wild. I want to know something. For in your real life, now you're not CMO of Thrive, you're whatever. Maybe you're planning a trip. Maybe you're thinking about what's for dinner tonight. I don't know. Your weekend plans. How does Tammy use AI in her life? So I've started, I'm actually planning a wedding and I've started planning.

13:44I'm overwhelmed by the prospect of this. And so I've just started, you know, asking, asking chat, you know, where should I get married? Who's I married? That's loaded, right? Really? You know, to try to figure out, you know, all the, you know, all the avenues, because you can put lots of parameters, here's how much I want to spend, here's what I'd like it to feel like, you know, and it's much more advanced than Google in terms of sort of understanding what you're looking for and being able to promote, promote choices. Wait, now I'm, now I'm like, okay, would you upload like your, who you're inviting?

14:23Like this person has to talk to this person in two years. This is my aunt. She's very annoying. Like, and say, where should they all be seated? There's 10 people at a table. Go. Oh, I love that. That's a great idea. You're like, I'm going to do that. That's amazing. There's no way to do it, right? It can write the speeches, you know. Yeah. Oh, definitely for speeches. That's a no brainer. That's a great idea. The invitation, you know, let's think about it. Yes, I love it. I love it. All right. The other big thing that we have to talk about is that Thrive has this incredible in-person event coming up, and I'm going to be there.

14:58I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing for everybody listening, but I'm going to give everyone this crazy discount code. But Tammy, can you tell us a little bit about Grow 2025 and what's going to be happening October 16th and 17th in Arizona? up well we're super excited about grow and what we really want is to introduce this you know growth method right three steps to growth you know you need to get found online you need to turn leads into new customers and you need to nurture your customers to drive great repeat business and that's kind of going to be the storyline we have barbara corcoran of shark tape shark fame will be there um you know and she'll she'll give her sage you know some sage advice to small business owners we also have david heath who's the co-founder of bombas we have our our very own jay swettleson we'll be giving best practices what to do and not to do in person and i attended your session at inbound uh last year and it was it was one of the best sessions so we're super excited to have you speaking as well um and it's i really think it's going to be a fantastic event with great content We also have speakers from Google and Yelp, you know, really talking about building a great digital foundation for your business.

16:13And the idea is you'll come out of this two day event really positioned to take your small business above your peer competitive set within your local industry. All right. Well, before Tammy came on, I twisted her arm. I said, I need an amazing discount code for our listeners for Grow. And she said, OK, fine. And so 25 % off to attend Grow. This is amazing. It's going to be in the show notes. You're going to put the code in. It's JPODCAST, one word. And I'm going to be there. And if you're going to be in Arizona, October 16th or 17th, and you care about your small business, there's not going to be a better event on the planet to get you fired up for what's to come in 2026.

16:53So I'm so excited. I appreciate you including me. And by the way, Tammy's going to be there. So that's the number one incentive to go to this thing. But it's going to be awesome. and Tammy, thanks for being here. This was fun. Thank you, Jay. We're excited to see you in October. All right. See everybody at Grow. You did it. You made it to the end. Nice. But the party's not over. Subscribe to make sure you get the latest episode each week for more actionable tips and a little chaos from today's top marketers. And hook us up with a five-star review if this wasn't the worst podcast of all time. Lastly, if you want access to the best virtual marketing events that are also 100 % free?

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