Building Your Own Automated Marketing System with Agentic AI for Denver Small Businesses in 2025

Welcome to the first post in our series on agentic AI for Denver small businesses! I’m Benjamin Blair, a 20+ year marketing veteran who’s passionate about helping local businesses thrive. Today, we’ll set up profiles on key platforms to prepare for automated marketing with agentic AI. Don’t worry—you can absolutely handle these steps yourself, even if you’re new to tech. Let’s get started!

Why Start Here?

Setting up profiles on the right platforms is the foundation for automating your marketing. These accounts will later connect to agentic AI tools that handle tasks like scheduling and personalization, saving you time while growing your Denver business.

The Platforms You’ll Need

We’ll use four free tools that are perfect for small businesses and ready for AI integration:

• Mailchimp: For email marketing with AI-driven features.

• Buffer: To schedule social media posts across platforms.

• Canva: For creating visuals with AI assistance.

• Google My Business (GMB): To boost your local presence in Denver.

You can set up all these profiles in under an hour—let’s walk through the steps together.

Step-by-Step Setup Guide

Mailchimp is an all-in-one marketing platform built to help small businesses grow. From email campaigns to automations and audience insights, it makes it easy to connect with customers and drive results.

1. Mailchimp (Email Marketing)

Mailchimp’s free plan lets you manage contacts and send emails with AI help (e.g., optimizing send times). Here’s how to start:

• Go to mailchimp.com and sign up with your email (e.g., yourbusiness@gmail.com).

• Create a list called “Denver Customers” and add a few contacts (e.g., from your phone).

• You can set this up in 10 minutes—I promise you’ve got this!

Buffer is a super handy social media management tool designed to help individuals, creators, and small businesses streamline their online presence. With Buffer, you can schedule posts across various platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Pinterest, Threads, and even YouTube.

2. Buffer (Social Media Scheduling)

Buffer lets you schedule posts for up to 3 social accounts (e.g., X, LinkedIn, Instagram). It also has AI to suggest post times.

• Visit buffer.com and sign up for the free plan.

• Connect your social accounts (e.g., your X handle @yourbusiness).

• Schedule your first post (e.g., “Excited to grow my Denver business!”).

• You’re capable of this—it’s quick and straightforward!

Canva is a user-friendly design platform that lets anyone create stunning graphics, presentations, and social media content with drag-and-drop ease—no design experience needed.

3. Canva (Content Creation)

Canva’s free plan includes AI tools like Magic Design to create stunning graphics for your posts.

• Head to canva.com and create a free account.

• Search for “Social Media Post” and use the AI to generate a design (e.g., “Denver Sale!”).

• Download your design—you can do this easily in minutes!

Google My Business (GMB) is a free tool that helps businesses manage their online presence across Google Search and Maps, making it easier for customers to find and connect with them.

4. Google My Business (Local SEO)

Google My Business helps Denver customers find you, with AI insights to improve your profile.

• Go to business.google.com and claim your business.

• Add your Denver address, hours, and phone number.

• You’ve got this—it’s a simple way to boost local visibility!

Download Detailed Guides

Need more help? I’ve created detailed guides for each platform, with step-by-step instructions to ensure you succeed. Download them below:

• Mailchimp Setup Guide

• Buffer Setup Guide

• Canva Setup Guide

• Google My Business Setup Guide

These guides walk you through every click, so you can set up with confidence.

What’s Next?

Now that your profiles are ready, our next post will show you how to connect these platforms to agentic AI for automation—think automated emails, scheduled posts, and more! Stay tuned for the rest of the series, and let me know how this setup goes for you in the comments or on LinkedIn.

Let’s keep growing your Denver business together!

The Rise of the AI-Powered Marketer

Let’s clear something up—AI isn’t replacing marketers. It’s replacing average marketing.

If you’ve been worried about your job, your agency, or your relevance in a world where AI seems to be doing everything, I’ve got good news: you’re asking the wrong question. The right question is: How do I use AI to multiply my impact?

The marketers who survive this wave aren’t the ones who resist the tools. It’s the ones who learn how to use them so well that they become indispensable—not just to their clients or companies, but to the strategy itself.

Marketing Has Evolved—Have You?

Today’s marketing landscape isn’t just faster, it’s exponentially more complex. You’re juggling:

• Multiple ad platforms

• Behavioral targeting

• Content strategy

• Funnel optimization

• Lead nurturing

• SEO

• Email

• Social

• Video

• Attribution

Oh, and you’re expected to do all of that while staying “on brand,” hitting KPIs, and proving ROI. Sound familiar? Now layer in AI—and everything changes. With the right systems in place, AI handles the grind work, freeing you to focus on the big moves.

Tools You Should Already Be Using

This isn’t some futuristic prediction. These are tools I’m actively using to drive results today:

ChatGPT

For copy, creative ideas, email sequences, social content, persona development, and even messaging simulations.

OpenVoice

Cloning voices and generating audio scripts instantly to power podcast intros, ad reads, and customer service prompts.

Make (formerly Integromat)

Your new automation assistant. Think Zapier on steroids. I use it to connect CRMs, email platforms, ad performance, and more—without writing a line of code.

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) Systems

Need your AI to know your business, not just the general internet? RAG lets you feed in your own documents, past campaigns, and company data to make the AI way more personalized. These aren’t “nice-to-haves.” They are non-negotiables if you want to compete in the next phase of digital marketing.

From Operator to Strategist

AI doesn’t make the marketer obsolete. It makes the strategic marketer unstoppable. The marketers who win in this new world are the ones who:

• Know what to automate and what to humanize

• Build systems that adapt, not campaigns that expire

• Think across channels, formats, and platforms

• Don’t just execute tasks—they design feedback loops

Once you have AI doing the labor, your thinking becomes your most valuable asset.

Want to Market Like It's 2025?

Most marketers are stuck in 2015—and they don’t even know it. The CMO Plan was built for the next era of growth. It’s where strategy meets system meets scale. Here’s what you get:

• A custom AI marketing stack tailored to your needs

• Automation workflows that eliminate busywork

• Strategic oversight that keeps everything pointed at revenue

• The infrastructure to grow smarter—not just louder

Whether you’re a solo operator or managing a team, this plan gives you the tools, training, and blueprint to future-proof your business.

Let’s build your AI-powered growth engine—together.