How to infuse AI with marketing automation for local businesses

Marketing automation for local businesses

This week Evocalize CEO Matthew Marx was a guest on This Week in Local podcast, hosted by Locology‘s Charles Laughlin. He broke down how Evocalize is using cutting-edge AI and marketing automation for local businesses (over 100,000 local businesses across the U.S.).

Marketing automation is moving from nice-to-have to need-to-have for multi-location brands. But it takes a strategic blend of data, tech, and human guidance to pull it off.

The conversation covered a lot of ground from small business needs to changes in social media marketing. Matthew explained why top platforms like Meta still deliver the best lead volume while Google Discovery and YouTube now give better quality. And with venture capital drying up fast, he advised startups to focus on sustainable growth and profitability – not the pursuit of fundraising above all else.

When pressed about implementing AI, Matthew kept it simple: the big win so far is using large language models to automatically generate marketing copy tailored to each specific location. This AI-powered copy has already driven a 30% performance bump!

At the end of the day…operators don’t want to have to do anything…they shouldn’t even have to push a button.

MATTHEW MARX

Key Takeaways

• Marketing automation for local businesses is the goal – Local owners don’t want to push buttons, they want full automation so they can focus on their business.
• Meta (Facebook and Instagram) dominates volume, Google quality – For paid social marketing, Meta still delivers the most leads while Google Discovery and YouTube provide higher quality conversion.
• Sustainable growth rules – In the new venture capital landscape, profitability and sustainable growth matter more than chasing fundraising.

Tap play on the video to hear Matthew and Charles discuss all things AI and insights on marketing automation for local businesses.