AI slop could be sabotaging your local business brand - do this instead!

What every local business owner needs to know about using AI in your marketing

Chat GPT, Claude, Gemini, Co-pilot etc. etc. They're so clever! And they are bloody quick at making marketing material. 

When you're a busy business owner, using these tools to save you time just seems like the obvious thing to do. 

I'm sorry to tell you that if you are using AI generated content in your marketing this is actually unknowingly sabotaging your business brand in quite a catastrophic way.

If you go into any local community Facebook group today you'll see what I mean. Just about every local business under the sun is using AI to generate what they think are 'top notch images' and 'great captions'. They can be quite cute or clever, and as a busy business owner myself, I can certainly see why you are tempted. Spending time creating social media posts just seems like a big waste of your time when you could be out there serving customers or making money. 

But here's what I really want you to know. 

Every single customer facing touchpoint is influencing that person on the other side about your brand. Every photo, every post, every email, every poster, every text you send, every word on your website. Each and every one of these communication methods is influencing the way people FEEL about your business and your brand.

I want you to deeply consider if an AI tool is capable of understanding feelings.

Feelings?

Do you really want to put something that is 'inhuman' in charge of building rapport and trust with the humans you are trying to convince to choose you and your business? Do you?

AI tools are so good at scanning, summarising, researching and a whole raft of other timesaving specialties. 

But can they feel? Can they know how humans feel? Can they truly empathise, care, support? I think you know the answer even if you don't want it to be true.

So now we've established that, I want you to think about your brand. Your human customers (and potential human customers) are coming into contact with your brand each and every day. Do you want them to have a bland, generic, inhuman experience, or a real, relatable, empathetic, compassionate, trust-based HUMAN  experience. 

If you need more evidence, then I encourage you to think about how you feel when you receive a phone call from a  generic recorded message (that sounds like a robot). Are you pleased to receive that call? Are you intrigued about what they are offering and wanting to learn more? Or are you hanging up as quickly as you can and considering how to block the number so they can't contact you again?

What is AI Slop?

AI slop is generic AI content. The same AI generated images and captions everyone else is posting. It looks nice, sounds clever but it's impersonal, generic and quite simply 'blah'.

Customers can spot AI Slop a mile off. And if you use it in your marketing they trust you less. Humans trust humans. And if you're choosing to use AI slop in your marketing, they honestly think a little less of your brand as a result.

The Evidence

• 64% of Australians believe they can spot AI-generated content.
• 45% would trust a brand less if its ads were AI-generated.

Not only that but Social Media platforms are reported to be reducing the reach of AI generated content. So you are actually reaching fewer people when you use it!

Now I'm not going to just tell you what not to do, without giving a little support on what you can do instead.

I'm a local business owner - how can I protect my brand when it comes to marketing?

• DO post real photos and videos of you, your team, your work and your customers - AI images scream inauthentic

• DO write in your own voice and share what only you know - AI can't replace your experience and your opinions and an expert in your field

• DO use AI as your VA to improve systems, processes and record keeping - there are so many ways you can free up time, use that time to interact with your customers in a human way

• DO ensure that anything customer facing is written by a human  - humans trust humans, show your customers that you are one

• DO make it authentic - Good marketing doesn't have to be polished and perfect. It just needs to make people feel! Be you, be human, and be real. Your customers will respect you for it and you'll stand out in the sea of same (when everyone else is posting AI Slop!)

• DO think about what only someone with your knowledge and experience could possibly know, and share that - your potential customers will be so impressed. They want to choose a human who knows their stuff - not someone who can click a button on their computer to make AI Slop.

Do you need help with your local business marketing? 

I'm a human who loves all things local business marketing and I'd love to help! If you want to talk to someone about social media, branding, in-person activations, SEO and AEO, websites that convert, email marketing, community building or anything else related to marketing your local business then I'd love to connect with you personally. Here's my email address - drop me a line.

Email kirsty@socialmumsclub.com

Kirsty xoxo

Meltwater and YouGov (April 2026). The 64% is what people believe about their own ability to spot AI, not a test.YouGov (May 2026)TechCrunch on Facebook's crackdown on unoriginal content and Instagram's limits on undisclosed AI profiles.