3 Time-Saving Ways to Use AI in Your Business You Haven’t Tried Yet (what the Rotary asked me) | Kokoro - Marketing that starts sales conversations

So, I got a call from Chris, “Could you come and talk at the Nevada City/Grass Valley Rotary about how to use AI? Maybe give some examples of how to get started?”

Sure, happy to!

I did a session with them and below is what we covered. Thought you might want to see it, too.

If you run a small business, you probably wish there were more hours in the day. Between calls, emails, follow-ups, product development, and keeping everything moving, it’s a lot. That’s where AI can really help.

I’m not talking about handing your business over to bots. I’m talking about smart tools that save you time on small things every single day — answering calls when you can’t, helping you make better decisions, and creating marketing materials for you.

Let’s get started.

1. Make everyday operations smoother (and answer every call).

Let’s start with phones. When someone calls your business after hours, do they get voicemail? If so, chances are you’re missing leads, especially if you’re B2C. Whoever responds first usually wins.

That’s why we’ve started using AI to answer calls and texts 24/7. You can actually try it. Call 530-203-5706 and you’ll reach Koko, our AI assistant at Kokoro Marketing. She’s ready to answer questions, book appointments, and if you ask for free resources, she’ll make sure to send them your way.

You can train your AI assistant to answer questions based on your website or FAQs. It’s like having a team member who never sleeps, never calls in sick, and never misses an opportunity.

Beyond phones, AI can also respond to reviews automatically. Google rewards businesses that have reviews and respond to them. It’s just like having a website these days — not a “nice to have,” but a “must have.”

So instead of juggling phone calls, chats, and reviews all day, let AI handle it so you and your team can focus on more high-value work.

2. Make smarter decisions with strategy and analysis.

A client of mine had a situation where someone was posting negative comments online. We used AI to analyze the comments and craft a smart, calm response. It helped de-escalate the situation fast.

Here’s another example. A friend used AI connected to his email to find all the receipts he forgot to include on his expense report. Brilliant, right?

After teaching a class recently, I used AI to analyze attendee feedback from participants to see who’s most likely to attend again, who might refer others, and which topics got the best reactions. That kind of insight would’ve taken hours to do manually.

AI can even help you think strategically about your future. One friend asked: “What kind of business is putting companies like mine out of business — and how can I become that business?” Now that’s a powerful question.

Nonprofits are using it too, automating tasks like grant writing or outreach so they can focus more on their mission and less on admin.

AI is great at spotting patterns, and that can save you hours of work by helping you make better decisions, faster.

3. Get the word out (without burning out).

If you’ve ever stared at a blank screen trying to make slides or write a presentation, this one’s for you.

When I got invited to speak at the Rotary here in Nevada City, I started with a few notes. Then I used ChatGPT to help turn those notes into an outline. From there, I brought that outline into Gamma AI to create slides. I tweaked a few things, changed some images, and super quickly, the presentation was ready.

For another talk I gave a few months back on trade show marketing, I took a webinar transcript I’d already given and asked AI to create 30 simple slides, add speaker notes, and pull in related stories from my book, 7 Marketing Basics.

Some of the stories it suggested were spot-on, others reminded me of new ones to swap out. It gave me a huge head start.

If you ever give presentations, make videos, or write blog posts, AI can help you organize what you already know and present it clearly. So there you have it: 3 ways AI can save you time by automating mundane tasks. If you’d like to have your own AI assistant answering calls like Koko, get in touch or take a look at our Kokoro Connect AI tool.

What people are saying about Kokoro

People remember people who treat them well, and Cindy understands this. She makes every client feel special, no matter how large or small, and she helps her clients do the same for their prospects and customers. After all, a small customer today might just wind up being your next big customer!

Jessica Colyer

I was on our stand at our biggest exhibition of the year and a colleague asked me, “Does the work that Kokoro do for you actually do anything, do you measure it?” I pointed to a demo happening right next to us and said, “That guy is here because of the email promotion we did. He replied to the email and set up the appointment. In fact, the 10 appointments we have this morning are a result of our work with Kokoro.”

Saifudin Mohd. Sani

The pre-NAB campaign we did with Kokoro worked on multiple levels in that it gave us visibility and exposure, highlighted what we’re about, and gave them that little bit of an appetizer, if you will, to come see us at the show and find out more and get the full course. A majority of people came to the booth saying they wanted to see more or know more about what I was highlighting in the campaign.

Joe LoGrasso

Kokoro is very professional and organized running webinars. So we don’t need to worry about anything with the webinar set up. They organize it, direct it, and then run the webinar. And even after, they gave me all the scores and quantitative information about how many people were there, their names, and how to follow up, plus they follow up with eblasts, so it’s very sequential and continuous. It’s been a very tangible, visible reaction from customers and very positive.

Satoshi Kanemura

We have a great marketing team but found ourselves in need of some help recently. I reached out to Cindy and the Kokoro team and couldn’t be happier with the results. One of their strengths is that they are technology-focused, so they understand our products and how they are used. This means less time on our side, bringing them up to speed and, more importantly, much more meaningful marketing messaging.

They really hit the ball out of the park with a comprehensive marketing plan along with the content for the plan. All we had to do was execute. I look forward to a continued partnership helping us expand our reach and drive sales skyward!

John Henkel

In a word, Cindy is “amazing.” She’s a marketing expert who understands complex technical concepts like an engineer and is able to explain them through her marketing. In the past I have struggled finding marketing professionals who understand the broadcast television markets and technology. Cindy gets it. She is able to explain and speak to customer pain and present solutions through marketing. She’s an expert at marketing automation (especially but not limited to InfusionSoft), email marketing, online lead generation, Facebook ads, social media marketing, LinkedIn marketing, graphic design, webinar marketing, white paper or ebook marketing, content marketing and so much more. She stays up to date with the latest marketing trends and automation tools. Cindy is a valued member of the VidOvation marketing team. She is a true pleasure to work with and I highly recommend her.

Jim Jachetta, MS EE

If you need expert knowledge and it is in Cindy’s wheelhouse, don’t hesitate to contact her. She listens first to understand the issue then explains, teaches, and actually shows you how it is done. Cindy has the ability to translate her expertise into easy-to-grasp, real world useable knowledge. She can make you look good!

Rich Hajdu

When it comes to sales and marketing, most professionals know one or the other well, or possess mediocre skills in both. At Kokoro Marketing, Cindy and her team have an unfair advantage of knowing and implementing both sales and marketing techniques and best practices with precision and drive. The excellence with which the team works ensures all partners are well serviced and receive special attention to their brand’s voice and goals. When you want to drive engagement, convert leads into clients, and ensure continued development of clients into brand evangelists, Kokoro is who I recommend. Their industry knowledge, passion for marketing and sales, and desire to help brands achieve the best results is like none other!

Shell Vera

Cindy is terrific to work with – professional, enthusiastic and highly motivated to thrill her clients. My favorite part about working with Cindy is she has a consistent passion for understanding customer problems and solutions from their point of view – and seeks to write and talk about them in the language they use. This a sign of a skilled marketer.

Alan Repech

Emotion Systems is a small company, but marketing automation allows us to punch well above our class. Without significantly increasing our overhead, we’ve been able to turn a successful organization into a much more successful organization.

MC Patel

I am new to Cindy’s service on LinkedIn, it is refreshing to see immediate results from a marketing campaign. I have a fairly narrow target market and the results after 2 weeks have been amazing. Cindy and Fallon have been great to work with and really know how to get results. If you are using LinkedIn as a marketing platform, you need to see what they can do. Their follow-up and follow-through are the best. They deliver!

Jay Maynard

Cindy is the consummate marketing professional, sharing her knowledge through multiple channels and making it available to all. Adopting her recommendations has made a marked increase in meaningful connections with key people in our industry. Anyone in sales and marketing should tune in to her podcasts, including her Tuesday 7-minute presentation, 7 Marketing Basics. Additional marketing services are available through her company “Kokoro – Marketing that starts sales conversations.”

John Morgan

I had the pleasure of working with Cindy and her team at Kokoro on the development of a couple of lead-generation marketing campaigns for us at NETGEAR. The process was smooth from the very beginning. With a few questions and some input from us, they quickly went to work and cranked out well-written and thoughtful campaigns that met our goals and objectives. Oh, and they’re good people too! I would highly recommend Kokoro as an extension of any marketing team.

Scott Seifen

I have been working in Graphic Design & Marketing Communications for over 35 yrs. and I hate to admit it but I had not kept up with current trends, especially Social Media. I think Cindy Zuelsdorf and her company Kokoro Marketing offers its customers the latest insights into the most effective marketing tools & strategies for today’s world especially with regards to how the business marketplace has changed since the pandemic. Cindy’s experience in social media, webinars and automated marketing is second to none. She’s among the best you will find to boost your business. Make sure to read her new book, ” 7 Marketing Basics”. I have known her for over 5 years and she has always been a pleasure to work with and always eager to share her business knowledge. I would highly recommend Cindy for any marketing needs that your business might require.

Gary Whitten

All of this is a whole lot of awesomeness! Thank you for taking the time to read, watch, and understand Vizrt’s key messaging in our content, and spice it up to the next level. The copy within each email is exactly what I was hoping to see, and only wish I had the time to write.

Melanie Crandall Freding

We’ve been working together for 1 year and have developed all kinds of simple, efficient, cost-effective marketing emails for DekTec. Cindy understands that the key to success is providing simple, meaningful information about products, technology and market to our customer base. She advises us on what works and what doesn’t, helps us develop the content and handles all the work to make it happen successfully. Results in terms of visibility and sales are obvious. Cindy and her team have the right approach to modern marketing in today’s over-communicated-with-no-real-substance world. I would recommend Kokoro and Cindy in a heartbeat.

Stephane Billat

Cindy is such an incredible marketer, but also one of the most amazing business owners skilled at sales and the sales process. Cindy knows how to maintain control of the conversation while really making her prospective clients comfortable to ensure they get their needs met. Cindy is great at helping prospective clients see areas of opportunity they may not see themselves that are in their business by asking great specific questions. If Iwas a business owner seeking a head of sales position, I would do everything i could to poach Cindy away from her own business because she is amazing in growing businesses!

Kristina Rueling

Even though I’d meet prospects at trade shows and have a great conversation, things would go cold after an email or two because I simply didn’t have time to follow up and nurture that relationship. If I didn’t hear back from them, I was onto the next thing. Since we started working with Kokoro, we’ve definitely become more engaged with our customers. Now we’ve got a lot going on, but I don’t have to physically do all the work. And our marketing work is turning into leads and sales. That’s the biggest impact for us.

Jill Sorgi

Cindy has a great knowledge and system for Marketing and Communications. She has been a fantastic inspiration, not only from her books and videos/conferencing in inspiring to help fine tune the communications messages. But just from her abundance of energy. She gets you focused and driven. An amazing asset to the Broadcast and Media industry. Well done, Cindy, and keep going! 🙂

Peter Bruce

Cindy helped me launch my new consulting business last year. She has a keen sense of the market and was quickly able to connect with my customers, launch a web portal, and helped me become relevant in LinkedIn. She is also very agile and able to pivot a marketing plan when the need arises. She is a joy to work with.

Chris Homer

The crew at Kokoro Marketing was great to work with. Cindy and her team helped us out by providing some of the content creation and writing for our video marketing campaigns that my team and I didn’t have time to do. They did the video editing, blog post, wrote several email marketing pieces, created the social media post templates for us to us, the video description, video transcript, and gave it to use in an easy to use format for us to then push it out in our marketing. Thank you!

Heidi Steffen

Team Kokoro actively feeds my obsession with results! They know their craft inside and out, and Cindy’s extensive knowledge of InfusionSoft and digital marketing is truly impressive. Her professionalism shines through in everything she does!