c+p digital

Conversion driven digital marketing agency, focussed on creative content.

Podcasts

The role of digital media in the 2019 Canadian Elections with Andrew Jenkins

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Susan and Will interrupt regularly scheduled programming for a special Canadian federal election episode of The 4am Report.  

This week they invite one of their favourite guests, Andrew Jenkins, back to the table to talk about the role of digital media when it comes to the election cycle.

People get their news on social media. We know this. We read headlines and have the attention span of about 150 characters. We keep up on pop culture via memes and gifs. So what does this mean for political parties?

Let’s dig in, shall we?

Andrew kicks things off with a 101 on the rise of rich media and its impact on how we consume messaging.

He talks about how we’re image and video obsessed. And how everyone with a smartphone is a creator of content.  

Will explains a simple formula that illustrates how social media is king when it comes to getting your message out. People aren’t watching the evening news. But they are sitting on their couch on their phone scrolling through Tweets and Insta stories.

Of course political parties are stepping up. But social media is beast and it won’t be tamed.

Case in point – Will refers to how Elections Canada royally messed up an influencer campaign that had a price tag of 650K.  Basically they didn’t properly vet the influencers they chose to work with.

Andrew talks some of the benefits of social media when it comes to the election. Politicians can’t get away with bending the truth as easily. (Well, at least that’s true here in Canada. We won’t mention another country where misinformation via Twitter seems to be working quite well for someone). Andrew points to how people are literally fact checked by social media in real time as they speak.

Will wonders if politics needs to whole-heartedly embrace memes as a way of communicating with their audience. It seems the only things getting shared these days are memes. Susan states that memes are the 2019 version of the political cartoon. So true!

Andrew warns politicians to be careful with trying to create and control memes involving themselves. According to him, just keep your fingers crossed that you end up on the good side of the meme. Trying to control memes could blow up in your face.

Susan and Andrew bring it back to some takeaways for our listeners. If we are getting our news about politics via social media, how can we do this responsibly? According to Andrew, it’s up to us to make sure we’re fact checking and following a diverse group of authorities.  

The episode ends with Andrew highlighting what he feels is a great benefit of social media when it comes to politics. Back in the day, you’d have to write a letter to your local MP’s constituency office. Today, you add the right level of sass to a tweet, and hit post. You have a very direct line of communication to them.

About Andrew

Andrew Jenkins

Andrew Jenkins has provided social media strategy and social selling services to numerous mid to large enterprises such as CIBC, Royal Bank of Canada, BMO Nesbitt Burns, National Bank, Sirius XM Canada, the Globe and Mail, World Vision Canada, and the Aga Khan Foundation. He has spent the last twenty years working in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) spanning social media, wireless, and e-business. He holds a BA in Economics from Laurentian University, a BFA in Film Production from York University, and an MBA from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He also taught entrepreneurship at OCAD University and currently teaches Digital Strategy at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. Andrew speaks internationally about the social and digital landscape. His entrepreneurial efforts have been featured in the Toronto Star and by LinkedIn Canada as one of their success stories.

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Still can’t sleep?

We would also love to know what’s keeping you up at night! Email us your problems – your issue might be featured in our next episode!

Any of these problems *speak* to you? Click here to subscribe in iTunes to hear about more things that haunt us or to keep an eye out for any of your problems. We might find a solution for you (or at least share your pain too!) We have more episodes with great tips, jokes and conversations – don’t miss it! 

If you get a chance, leave a review on iTunes so that others can find this podcast too! Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” We’d love to hear what your favourite part of this episode is in the comments below. Thank you!

 

How to measure marketing ROI like an investor with Tracey Bissett

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Just in time for National Small Business Month, here’s a very relevant episode of our micro podcast, The 4 am Report.

We’re tackling the unsexy side of marketing: how small businesses can best measure ROI on their various marketing activities.

Numbers, data, analytics. It’s easy for small business owners to get bogged down in all this. It’s difficult to know where to start.  

This is definitely the case for this week’s guest, Tracey Bissett, president and chief financial fitness trainer at Bissett Financial Fitness. In fact, Tracey points out an interesting paradox about herself:

“I know how to help my clients think about return on investment, but how do I do this for my own marketing?”

This led to an interesting discussion. What if you were to approach establishing your marketing ROI as if you were establishing the ROI on financial investments?

Susan, Will and Tracey bring some cool hypotheses to life and discuss what an investor lens might look like when you assess your marketing investment. They also talk about what ROI looks like beyond just vanity metrics and data.

Set your marketing goals

Susan talks about how it’s important to set overall goals. 

Is it sales? In that case, is there a certain number of dollars that need to come in the door? Then that becomes a measurement factor. If it’s a question of increasing lists, then again quantifying the goal from something vague to increase the list by 20%. Get into that discipline of numbers at the goal stage. 

Awareness is a big goal for many people. That as well needs to be quantified. Does awareness mean you want more people to come to your page? Does it mean you want more people to be calling you? So quantify what the end result of those things are. 

The importance of doing a full content audit (regularly)

Will and Susan talk about why doing content audits is essential to fully understanding how your content is performing.

Cataloguing content and measuring it against the 2 – 3 metrics you’ve already chosen is the only way to see what’s working and what’s not.  

If you’re looking for a guide on how to do a small business content audit, get it here.  

Can we approach establishing marketing ROI in the same way we’d approach it with financial investments?

This is where Tracey and the hosts have a little fun.

They look at three factors that Tracey says help her establish ROI for her clients:

  • What’s the risk profile of the investment
  • What fees are involved?
  • And are we comparing apples to apples?

Susan and Will talk about how low risk marketing is doing what you’ve been doing. You know your audience consumes it. But it’s not getting you a jump in numbers/engagement.  

Enter the higher risk marketing. Everyone wants to be a disrupter and get that 5X results. But it’s not easy to predict what’s going to gel with your audience.

Some areas of marketing that are higher risk but are proving to be rewarding for some brands?

Taking a stand on an issue. Newsjacking. And mindset marketing.

The two tiers of measurement

To keep you from the overwhelm, Will explains there are two simple tiers of measurement.

The first tier is vanity metrics. Obviously that’s the likes, the shares, all those things that make you feel good right away. 

The second tier is engagement or behaviour related. Things like where on social is the traffic coming to your web from? Or is it coming from emails? And looking at how long people have spent on a page gives you some indication of what they’re reading, watching or listening to.

Are they clicking to go elsewhere on your site, staying within your site? Are they putting something in the cart? All of this helps with tweaks to your UX.  

How using The Anchor Theory of content creation can help ease the volatility of your marketing portfolio

(Look, another investing analogy)

Susan explains that if you’re investing time and planning a 2500-word lead magnet or a 45-minute podcast, you’re putting a significant amount of effort into creating that content. 

So you wouldn’t just throw some money in an investment and pull it out after a month. We need to look at our content creation that way. 

The c+p digital team call this ‘anchoring’ your content and then spinning it off into bite size pieces, giving it as much exposure as possible. It’s not the idea of duplicating content necessarily, it’s just creating it in multiple formats. 

For a great visual on what The Anchor Theory is all about, check it out here. 

How do we measure the success of The 4 am Report

Susan talks through how c+p digital measures the ROI on this podcast. It’s a mix of traditional metrics but then she explains how going beyond the data can give you the true picture of overall worth.

One key thing is the value of the relationships that are being built with podcast guests. This means and expanding network and new business opportunities.

Will and Susan have also seen an actual impact on the industry (i.e. micro is where it seems to be at).

If you want to read a case study on how The 4 am Report has been one of c+p digital’s best marketing investments, check it out here. 

Tracey then shares some of that same ROI she’s encountered from her podcast Young Money, including reaching an international audience and being asked to appear on a popular podcast in Australia.

We end with a plug from our guest

To help entrepreneurs who have cash flow concerns, Tracey has created a master class called, Can I Afford It? How to be certain of what you can and can’t afford in your business in five minutes or less every time. To check out the details for the master class, go to bissettfinancialfitness.com/afford

About Tracey

Tracey Bissett is the President and Chief Financial Fitness Trainer at Bissett Financial Fitness. She is on a mission to redefine the economic future of the world by addressing financial literacy of young adults and entrepreneurs. She does this through her weekly podcast, Young Money – the advice show for millionaires in the making, teaching and delivery of courses, coaching and consulting.

Connect

https://twitter.com/bissettfinfit

https://www.instagram.com/bissettfinfit/

https://www.facebook.com/bissettfinfit/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceybissett/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/10570745/

What is keeping Canada up at night this week?

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In a special episode of The 4am Report, we tackle the question: ‘What’s keeping Canada up at night?’

Answer: The brownface/blackface Justin Trudeau incident.

It’s been a week, and some of the dust has settled around the whole topic. There have been a bunch of people that have come out and spoken about various aspects of this incident, and everyone has had the right soundbites to say around it, but Susan talks about how she feels like there’s one person who captured it best — family doctor Ritika Goel.  

Susan further explains, “I think it captured the feeling of many invisible minority and people who are brown, which is that she’s not surprised. She’s not surprised that this particular incident happened or that it was Trudeau. That’s kind of thinking that’s going through my head.”

(If you haven’t read or heard about her twitter thread on this, check it out here)

Why wasn’t Susan surprised by this?

Because encountering some level of racism is an everyday occurrence in the life of the average minority. It’s not like people are jumping out at us on street corners in full brown face, but you often find that people are not really able to connect with you as someone of a visible minority on anything other than the way that you look.

Susan continues to explain most people’s attempt at small talk with her involves asking her for her recommendations on the best Indian restaurants in the city, or where she buys her tikka masala.

75% of Canadians feel Trudeau is a hypocrite.

A just released survey showed that most Canadians believe Trudeau is a hypocrite, whether they believe he is a racist or not. And that’s one of the biggest issues that’s been battering his brand all year it seems. 

One hilarious/awkward-to-watch takedown of Trudeau came courtesy of Netflix comedian Hassan Minhaj. He relentless pokes holes in Trudeau’s brand.

Will comments on how it’s not just the Trudeau brand but also the Canadian brand that took a hit (just google the US late night hosts and how they’ve reacted. It’s funny).

Were we foreshadowing?

Will brings up that just a few weeks ago Rohini Mukherji joined the two hosts for an episode of the 4 am Report called, “Beyond the Brochure for Inclusivity”, and how that episode almost foreshadowed this.  

The conversation in that episode centred around a discussion on people choosing lifestyles, like where you choose to work and how you choose to work, or being inclusive of people with physical needs, or being inclusive of race, or understanding what someone from a different culture needs to do in order to just travel to meet family. That kind of thing is just facets of the experience of someone else that you don’t fully understand. It goes back to that empathy and that putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and trying to understand for a minute what it is that they’re feeling or going through. 

How to know when someone is truly sorry and has learned from their mistakes

The discussion turns to Aziz Ansari, and how he handled being called out for unwanted sexual advances/aggressive behaviour. Ansari did what most high profile people do these days when they get caught in a situation like that – he went away. And he stayed away from the spotlight for a few months, and then came back and then gave what Susan explained was a really good, authentic apology.  

Unfortunately for Trudeau, he can’t go away for a bit right now. Does this make it harder for us to believe he really is atoning?

The takeaway

Susan and Will end the discussion by referencing a book called Atomic Habits by an author called James Clear. There’s an idea well captured within it. It’s the idea of making improvements slowly and the fact that when you add in a 1% change to something on a regular basis, you’re going to get exponential results because it’s sort of equated to the idea of compound interest. 

The story the book tells is about the British cycling team, and how the team was not doing as well as it should. And how they made small modifications to their training on a daily basis (like every day a 1% change). They were back to winning in under one year. 

The idea there’s really just make small improvement. This is like a responsibility. We need to educate ourselves to fully understand one another, and this is a country that’s based on the fact that we welcome people of all kinds and we support all choices and decisions. Then if you don’t actually live it, we’re going to have to start somewhere and we’re going to have to make that 1% improvement on an ongoing basis.

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Still can’t sleep?

We would also love to know what’s keeping you up at night! Email us your problems – your issue might be featured in our next episode!

Any of these problems *speak* to you? Click here to subscribe in iTunes to hear about more things that haunt us or to keep an eye out for any of your problems. We might find a solution for you (or at least share your pain too!) We have more episodes with great tips, jokes and conversations – don’t miss it! 

If you get a chance, leave a review on iTunes so that others can find this podcast too! Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” We’d love to hear what your favourite part of this episode is in the comments below. Thank you! 

Why the shoemaker has the worst shoes with Shelagh Cummins

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A bit of my business story over here 👋 
 
And guess what? We’ve convinced Strategic Business Coach, Shelagh Cummins to come on and tell parts of it, on our micro podcast, The 4 am Report. From it we hope to provide inspiration to small business owners in an episode we’re lovingly calling: 
 
👠👠👠 Why the shoemaker has the worst shoes 👠👠👠 
 
Aka why you’re probably finding your subject matter expertise hardest to apply if you’re applying it for yourself.
 
This episode is extra especially for you if you’re a female entrepreneur, on a scaling mission of some magnitude, and are looking to get some great marketing insight into where your growth can come from. (These stories and actionable tips will resonate. We promise.)
 
Think of it as a 20-minute laser coaching session – with a marketing focus. And if you do nothing else to work ‘on your business’ today instead of ‘in your business’ , let it be this. 🔊😀 
 
About Shelagh
 

Shelagh Cummins is an in-demand business coach, consultant and speaker.  She works closely with women entrepreneurs who want to shake their moneymaker, make strategic power moves that help them grow faster, and share their smarts and skills with premium clients who value what they’re worth.

Shelagh’s unique background in experimental education combined with her corporate leadership training inspires her practical, hands-on approach to getting real results for her clients.

Her ultimate mission is to show other women that it’s possible to build a profitable, sustainable business – without drowning in debt, forfeiting family time, or working in their sleep.

Website

Facebook

Instagram, Twitter: @shelaghcummins

 
 

The challenges of selling purely online with Leigh Clements

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Another 4 am dispatch ready for your unreasonably early listening pleasure.  

This week, as we go deeper into the dark, we’re talking to Leigh Clements from SHOT in the Dark Mysteries and we talk about the ever changing ecommerce digital marketing space.

So Leigh has a pretty cool gig! She’s creates murder mysteries. (For reals!)

Not really like those parties your parents threw in the 80s, though. Leigh’s creations are focused on true investigation experiences 🕵️‍♀️. And people, all over the world, are loving them. 

Leigh is what we’re calling a magical unicorn when it comes to marketing. She has run a successful online shop, ranking on page 1 of google, taking on ‘The Overlord of Search’, who makes 3,200 algorithm changes a year, solo. That’s pretty. Darn! Impressive!!

But what’s keeping her up at night now, is exactly those 1000s of changes Google has made to SEO. It’s a lot. And they impact smaller players who’ve lived by wit and hard work, just as harshly as they impact the bigger players who think mindless keywording and backlinking is the ticket to all things.

And Leigh wants nothing to do with search results beyond page 1.   

So grab a coffee, give us 10 minutes (remember, our podcasts are micro), and go deeper into the dark with us as we discuss how Leigh and others online businesses (which is the holy grail for us, let’s be honest) can own search intelligently again!

Subscribe on iTunes

Oh, and if you have trouble sleeping because you can’t switch off your hard-wired, marketing obsessed brain, drop us a line, and be a guest on an upcoming episode. 🎙👀

About Leigh

Leigh Clements is the Creative Director of Shot In The Dark Mysteries, a murder mystery company focused on true-investigation experiences. Leigh has been marketing SHOT digitally since the days of MySpace, and continues to strive to grow SHOT within the ever-changing e-commerce digital marketing space.

Connect with Leigh

Website
Insta: @shotinthedarkmysteries
FB: @shotinthedarkmysteries
Pinterest: @mysterymaiden

Building strong financial brand voices with Wendy Brookhouse

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Financial brand marketers. Take note! This episode of The 4 am Report is for you.

Things are changing right now in the traditionally slow-to-change financial industry. Many big brands are undergoing major re-brands as they try to figure out this new 2020 investor.

Wendy Brookhouse is an independent financial advisor, and she’s tired of seeing financial brands missing the opportunity to step up their understanding of the modern investor that’s very different than the investors of yore. 

“It’s time to come up with something other than a couple on the beach in a sailboat, or on the golf course, to show financial freedom. I mean, if you can’t do that, you really should go get another job!”

And that’s just the beginning!

🔥🔥🔥

Wendy’s take is that it’s about leveraging user experience and using that to deliver the financial industry responsibility to build better habits. Her big tip? Gear your marketing, just like your financial planning, to predictive indicators versus lagging indicators. See who we think is doing it well!!

“Replace your quest for marketing greatness … from making big promises and absolute statements to actual intelligent audience connection, and find out the true embodiment of the client journey…”

It’s a woke world, and we’re just getting started investing in it as marketers, right Wendy?

Wendy further shares a fascinating theory: Convenience beats loyalty. 

We’re calling this the disrupter of the future. Why is this relevant to our financial brands?

You need to listen to find out, won’t you?

About Wendy 

Wendy Brookhouse

Wendy Brookhouse is a behavioural finance focused advisor who helps smart, ambitious people unleash their money power. Wendy believes that we all have money power. It is buried under life’s pleasures, unconscious spending and the desire to have the lives that everyone else’s social media says they have.  She invented the One Number Solution, a trademark system that unleashes money power with strategies around spending, debt, saving and safety net.

Connect:

Black Star

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlackStarWealth/
 LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/black-star-wealth-partners
 Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlackStarHFX

Wendy

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wendybrookhouse?lang=en
 LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/wendy-brookhouse-4210701
 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wendy.brookhouse.370