Look, most of what you hear about AI is total rubbish.
You’ve seen the headlines. You’ve probably had ten different 'consultants' slide into your LinkedIn DMs this week promising that AI will magically double your profit while you sit on a beach in Noosa.
Let’s be real: it won’t.
But, if you use it properly, it can stop you from wasting five hours a week on mind-numbing admin. It can help you answer enquiries at 9 PM when you’re trying to have dinner with your family. And it can make sure your ads actually bring in phone calls instead of just burning through your credit card.
At Local Marketing Group, we don’t use tools because they’re shiny. We use them because they work for our clients—the plumbers, the lawyers, the shop owners, and the service businesses right here in Brisbane.
This isn't a list of every tool on the internet. It’s a deep dive into the ones we actually pay for every month because they make our clients money.
1. ChatGPT (But not how you think)
Everyone and their dog has tried ChatGPT. Most people use it like a fancy Google search or to write a crappy Facebook post that sounds like a robot wrote it.
That’s a waste of time.
We use it as a junior staff member that never sleeps.
The Real-World Case: The Tradie’s Quote Follow-up
We had a client—a local electrician—who was great at getting out to jobs and giving quotes, but rubbish at following them up. He’d send a quote on a Tuesday, get busy, and forget about it. By the time he called the customer back ten days later, they’d already hired someone else.
We built a simple system using ChatGPT to take his rough notes from a job site and turn them into a professional, friendly follow-up sequence.
It didn't just write 'please hire me.' It addressed the specific concerns the customer had mentioned during the site visit.
The Result: His 'win rate' on quotes went up by 22% in two months. He didn't have to work harder; he just had to stop letting leads go cold. This is one of the best ways to get customers faster without spending more on ads.
What it costs:
$30 AUD a month for the 'Plus' version. Don't bother with the free one; it’s slower and dumber.My honest take:
If you're using it to write your whole website, you're going to look like every other generic business out there. Use it to polish your ideas, not replace them.2. Claude (The one that actually sounds human)
If ChatGPT is the smart but slightly 'rehearsed' student, Claude is the one you’d actually want to grab a beer with.
We’ve switched most of our content writing—emails, newsletters, and local landing pages—over to Claude. Why? Because it doesn’t use words like 'delve' or 'transformative' every second sentence. It sounds like a person.
The Real-World Case: The Boutique Law Firm
A small law firm we work with in the CBD needed to explain complex legal changes to their clients. Usually, this would take a senior partner three hours to write an article that was so boring nobody would read it.
We fed the legal documents into Claude and told it: "Explain this like I’m a business owner at a pub who just wants to know if I'm going to get sued."
The Result: The firm sent out an email that actually got replies. Not just 'thanks,' but 'hey, I need help with this, can we book a call?'
That’s the difference. If your marketing sounds like a textbook, people tune out. If it sounds like help, they buy. This is a massive part of how we win customers through better search presence.
3. Perplexity (The Google Killer)
Google search is getting messy. You search for something and get ten ads, three AI summaries that might be wrong, and five blogs written by robots for robots.
Perplexity is what we use when we need facts, fast. It’s an AI search engine that actually cites its sources.
Why it matters for your business:
Let’s say you’re looking at expanding your service into a new suburb, like North Lakes. You need to know: Who are the competitors? What’s the average house price? What are people complaining about in local Facebook groups?Perplexity can do that research in 30 seconds.
The Result: We saved about 4 hours of manual research for a landscaping client who wanted to know which suburbs had the most 'fixer-upper' homes bought in the last six months. We used that data to target their ads perfectly.
4. Zapier (The Glue)
Zapier isn't 'AI' in the sense that it talks to you, but it’s the brain that connects everything else. It’s the tool that makes marketing automation possible for a normal business.
The Real-World Case: The Missing Lead
We see this all the time. A lead comes in through a website form. It sits in an email inbox for three hours. The business owner is on a job. By the time they see it, the customer has called three other people.
We use Zapier to: 1. Catch the lead the second it hits the site. 2. Send a text to the business owner immediately. 3. Send an automated (but human-sounding) text to the customer saying "G'day, got your message. I'm on a job but I'll call you at 4 PM. Does that work?"
The Result: The customer stops calling other people because they feel looked after. Our clients have seen their booking rates jump just by being the first person to reply.
What it costs:
There’s a free version, but you’ll likely need the $30-$50 a month plan to do the cool stuff. It’s cheaper than an admin assistant.5. Midjourney (The End of Crap Stock Photos)
You know those photos of people in suits shaking hands in a white office? They’re terrible. Everyone knows they’re fake.
Midjourney is an AI tool that creates images. We use it to create high-quality visuals for ads when we can't get a photographer out to a site immediately.
The Real-World Case: The Pest Control Ad
A pest control client needed an ad for 'termite season.' We didn't want to use a gross photo of a bug, and we didn't want a generic 'man in overalls' photo.
We used Midjourney to create an image of a beautiful Brisbane Queenslander home being protected by a digital shield. It looked professional, it was unique, and it stopped people from scrolling past.
The Result: That ad had a 40% higher click rate than the one using a standard stock photo.
6. Fireflies.ai (The Meeting Memory)
How much time do you spend after a meeting trying to remember what you actually promised to do? Or worse, how many times has a client said "You told me it would cost X" and you can't remember if you did?
Fireflies joins your Zoom or Teams calls (or records on your phone in person) and transcribes the whole thing. Then, it gives you a one-paragraph summary of the action items.
The Real-World Case: The Busy Consultant
One of our clients runs a small HR consultancy. She was spending 10 hours a week just typing up meeting notes and sending 'next steps' emails.
Now, she doesn't take notes. She focuses on the person in front of her. Five minutes after the meeting, Fireflies pings her with the summary. She tweaks it, hits send, and she’s done.
The Result: She reclaimed a full day of work every week. What would you do with an extra 8 hours?
7. Descript (Video Editing for People Who Hate Editing)
Video is the best way to get sales on social media. But editing video is a nightmare.
Descript lets you edit a video by editing the text transcript. If you said "um" or "ah" or stuffed up a sentence, you just highlight the text, hit delete, and it's gone from the video.
The Real-World Case: The Real Estate Agent
We work with an agent who wanted to do 'Weekly Market Updates' on Facebook. He’s great on camera but kept messing up his lines and getting frustrated.
With Descript, he just records for 10 minutes, talks through his mistakes, and we clean it up in 5 minutes.
The Result: He actually stays consistent with his videos now because it isn't a chore. And consistency is the only way to make social media actually get you sales.
The Trap: Don't Buy Everything
Look, I could list 50 more tools. But you don't need them.
Most 'AI' tools are just a wrapper around ChatGPT with a fancy logo and a $40 monthly fee. You’re being sold a dream that involves you doing less work for more money.
Here is the truth: AI is a tool, like a hammer. A hammer doesn't build a house; a builder uses a hammer to build a house faster.
If your business processes are a mess, AI will just help you make a mess faster.
How to start without wasting money:
1. Pick one problem. Is it following up leads? Is it writing emails? Is it doing research? 2. Pick one tool. Don't try to learn five at once. Start with ChatGPT or Claude. 3. Set a timer. Give yourself an hour to play with it. If it doesn't clearly save you time or make you feel like you could make more money, bin it.What’s next?
We update this list every quarter because this stuff moves fast. What worked in January might be obsolete by July.
But the fundamentals don't change. You need to find people who need your help, show them you're the best person for the job, and make it easy for them to pay you.
If you’re sitting there thinking, "This sounds great, but I don't have time to learn how to talk to a robot," that’s where we come in.
We don't just 'do marketing.' We build the systems that make your marketing work while you’re out on the tools or running your team.
If you want to see how this could work for your specific business, let’s have a chat. No jargon, no high-pressure sales pitch. Just a look at what’s working for businesses like yours in Brisbane.