Constant Contact launches Catalyst, an AI that runs small businesses' marketing for them

Email marketing company Constant Contact has launched Catalyst, an AI tool that plans and carries out marketing for small businesses, according to a press release.

Catalyst scans a business's website and online profiles to learn how it talks, then drafts a plan the owner can review and change in a chat window. Once approved, it writes and publishes content across email, Facebook and Instagram, text messages, ads, the Google business profile and the website, and uses results to adjust the next week's work. Owners choose which channels it may use and approve everything before it goes live.

In one example from the company, a landscaper's outdated profile and website are refreshed in minutes, job photos become Instagram posts and recent customers get an email asking for reviews. "Most of them don't have the resources to hire a marketing pro, and they shouldn't have to," said CEO Frank J. Vella. Pricing was not given.