c+p digital

Conversion driven digital marketing agency, focussed on creative content.

AI advantage

5 AI for marketing podcasts you must listen to for 2024

by

Artificial intelligence promises to transform marketing, yet founder-led brands and SMEs eager to implement AI often find themselves lost in theoretical content. Articles outlining AI capabilities far outnumber practical guides on execution.

This scarcity of tactical, applied AI knowledge is a detail worth noting for founders ready to leverage AI to maximize revenue.

Why you should pay attention to AI literacy delivered in podcast format  

Podcasts remain a surprising under-indexed marketing format. In fact, over 60% of all podcasts publish less than 7 episodes before fading into oblivion. Getting to 50 episodes puts podcasters in the top 1% (of audio content producers). It’s a good idea to pick the early adopters who choose to stand out by working in a blue ocean, not a red ocean, when it comes to creating AI literacy that finds its audience with less clutter.

With a majority of small businesses overwhelmed by options when it comes to AI tools that can help them, the format and track record of your instuctors matter more than ever. Podcasts that deliver unique, high-quality AI-focused content can provide the tactical “how-to” missing in most materials. By committing to in-depth, consistent episodes, these niche podcasts become a goldmine of practical insights on using AI for small business marketing. The longer-form, conversational format also allows much needed space to work through real listener challenges and use cases. Rather than slog through vague AI speculation, founder-led brands must seek out enduring podcasts delivering strategic AI marketing training. 

Here are 5 top-notch, consistent AI marketing podcasts to add to your playlist right now:

1) The Marketing AI Show

Hosts: Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput

What makes it interesting: As AI experts, the hosts make the complex understandable through simple explanations and real marketing examples.

Why you should make time to listen: The creators of the Marketing AI Institute explain complex AI in simple terms along with real examples to make the tech actionable for marketers.

Home: Cleveland, Ohio

2) AI-driven Marketing

Host: Laura Meyer

What makes this AI for marketing podcast interesting: Laura draws on her extensive marketing experience to provide immediately actionable AI insights.

Why you should make time to listen: With 20+ years of marketing experience, Laura Meyer provides valuable AI insights you can immediately implement to enhance your strategy.

Home: Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania

3) Artificially intelligent marketing podcast

Hosts: Paul Avery and Martin Broadhurst

What makes this AI for marketing podcast interesting: The hosts have in-depth conversations exploring AI and marketing from various angles.

Why you should make time to listen: The hosts explore AI’s marketing potential through interviews, use cases, and their own experiences at the intersection of AI and marketing.

Home: Derby, United Kingdom

4) The 4am Report

Host: Susan Diaz

What makes this AI for marketing podcast interesting: Susan is the author of ‘UNboring’ on content marketing and brings fun into AI literacy to make it non-threatening for non-tech founders.

Why you should make time to listen: Susan offers founders bite-sized AI micro-lessons and strategies to drive exponential business growth and get ahead of competitors.

Home: Toronto, Canada

5) Unprompted: AI, Marketing and You

Hosts: Multiple (Unbounce’s company podcast)

What makes this AI for marketing podcast interesting: The show takes a balanced view of AI marketing separate from the hype.

Why you should make time to listen: The balanced perspective separates AI marketing facts from hype so you gain clarity on legitimate applications. 

Home: Vancouver, Canada

Committing to a quality niche podcast will provide founders ready to ride the AI wave with applied knowledge unavailable elsewhere. Find time for one! 

Hands-on Approach to AI execution

Ready for a more hands on approach to the practical guides for AI execution I mentioned earlier? Look no further. Next month I’m opening spots in my coveted Marketing Power Circle. 

Join an intimate group of founder-led brands as they mastermind together to harness the power of AI, buy back their time and spend their days driving growth and revenue vs driving themselves crazy with operations admin. I designed this one of a kind high value, low obligation mastermind for you! 

If you’re ready to introduce AI into your business in a safe and supportive environment we should chat. 

Next week I’ll be opening spots up to the public.

Book a 20 minute discovery call to see if MPC is a fit for you

The Future Belongs to Hybrid Marketers: How AI Will Make You Indispensable

by

We’ve all seen the (fake news!) headlines – “AI will take your job!” For marketers, this prospect can feel particularly unsettling. Unlike many other areas of subject matter expertise where SMEs are treated like demi-gods (read: technology, finance, construction, health!!!) marketing experts often have to contend with people thinking they can DIY marketing because it’s so simple and s3xy-looking.

What is to become of us if people think machines can also do what we do as marketers???

Here’s the reality:
AI isn’t replacing marketers, it’s EXPONENTIALLY strengthening us. 

The future belongs to hybrid marketers who embrace the human-AI partnership and make the sum MUCH greater than its parts.

As a 6-7 figure entrepreneur, you already know that outsourcing marketing tasks rarely yields results. You need strategic thinking and creativity tailored to your niche. This is where AI comes in. Consider it your new superpower, not your adversary.

The Key Is Strategy First, Tools Second

The most common AI mistake is getting enamored with the tech before nailing down your strategy. Flashy tools won’t fix flawed strategies. That’s why leading entrepreneurs use AI to reinforce proven marketing fundamentals, not replace them.

For instance, AI excels at understanding your audience and products in depth. Use it to create buyer personas, analyze customer conversations, and uncover pain points. These insights inform messaging that truly resonates. But first you need a clear growth strategy for AI to execute on.

The Hybrid Model Is a Game Changer

In the past, executing complex marketing strategies meant big budgets and teams. Now, pairing strategic humans with smart AI systems allows entrepreneurs to punch above their weight.

Let’s examine the key roles:

Human Strengths:

  • Setting objectives and Key Results
  • Crafting positioning and messaging
  • Providing creative direction
  • Validating quality

AI Strengths:

  • Researching trends and data points
  • Producing initial content and copy
  • Optimizing and repurposing content
  • Automating repetitive tasks

Together, humans and AI can achieve exponentially more than either could alone. The hybrid model maximizes strengths while minimizing weaknesses.

Start With High ROI Activities

When launching your AI-powered marketing flywheel, focus initial efforts on high ROI activities. For instance:

  • Brainstorming content ideas and outlines
  • First drafts of blogs, social posts
  • Basic graphic design
  • Analyzing campaign performance

These tasks are straightforward for AI to execute and provide immense time savings. As your AI skills improve, expand its scope with care. Remember quality over quantity.

Prompt Engineering Is Critical 

The key to excelling in the hybrid model is prompt engineering. Just like programming code, your prompts instruct the AI what to do. Invest time honing this skill.

Use clear, concise language. Give plenty of relevant examples. Experiment diligently until your prompts reliably produce desired results. Prompt engineering unlocks AI’s true potential.

Own the Future

In this age of automation, the marketers who will thrive are not the ones fighting AI or relying on it wholesale. Instead, they are the strategists who leverage AI as a force multiplier. They set the vision, guide the AI, and deliver high-value results.

If you’re ready to step into the future and amplify your entrepreneurial impact, it’s time to embrace the hybrid model. Partner with AI to execute winning marketing strategies faster and better than you ever could manually. Own the future by becoming an indispensable AI-powered strategist.

The tools will only get smarter. Are you ready to level up?

EP200 The future of marketing is hybrid (human + AI)

by

🌟 For the milestone 200th episode of The 4am Report, we’re doing something extraordinary. Imagine if you could peek into the playbooks of some of the industry’s leading minds on generative AI. Well, on this episode, you can!

🛠️ We’ve assembled six revenue leaders to each share one killer tip on leveraging AI in your marketing strategy:

1️⃣ Learn how top social media agency founder and University of Toronto digital marketing instructor, Andrew Jenkins, spins content gold from assets like podcast interview transcripts using gen AI.

2️⃣ Get the inside scoop from financial advisor and founder, Wendy Brookhouse, on gathering industry intel for targeted marketing and showcasing of thought leadership.

3️⃣ Understand from pioneer event-led growth leader, Dionne Vaz, why strategy must precede tool selection with AI.

4️⃣ Discover from top strategic marketer, Suzanne Huber, the visual content revolution that can be enabled by AI.

5️⃣ Get sales insights from GTM leader, Dr. Jim Kanichirayil, on building a thought leadership framework to generate demand with AI.

6️⃣ Find out from Kira Tchernikovsky, founder and SaaS marketer extraordinaire, how to capture and process customer data at scale with AI.

🔥 This turbo-charged vault of wisdom WILL equips you with tactics to transform your marketing game using AI.

📝 So grab your notepad and dive into an eye-opening, life-giving episode!

If you’re returning to The 4am Report, thank you! It’s folks like you that have kept us going for 200 episodes, with pride and purpose. Please do me a solid and me a drop a 5-star rating. The internet only recognizes feedback; and this would be super helpful to keep going. Thank you, again!

How to choose the right AI literacy program (to build your marketing skills consistently)

by

Unless you’ve been on a yoga retreat in the mountains, you know that artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how we work and live. As AI capabilities explode, developing AI literacy (for yourself and your team) is becoming essential for anyone in business. 

And guess what, in under a year since OpenAI stormed on the scene, with ChatGPT, to take generative AI to the masses, the number of programs available to help you learn AI have EXPLODED. 

Not all AI training and premium content programs are created equal.
With so many options out there, how do you choose an AI literacy program that will really build your skills and strengthen your domain expertise?

Here are key criteria to look for when selecting an AI education program:

Customized, practical curriculum 

Avoid generic AI overviews. Look for training customized to a specific role or to specific needs. For example, if you’re looking to build your AI skills in marketing and communication, don’t buy a general prompt package where you’ll be thumbing through a virtual dictionary with no significant savings of time. 

Your program should go beyond AI theory to give you practical frameworks and prompts you can immediately apply in your marketing and communication work. The training should be regularly refreshed with new material tailored to current AI capabilities. Canned, outdated content won’t cut it in a field that’s moving as fast as this one is.

Strategic guidance; not just tools

Programs that only offer access to AI tools like ChatGPT fall short. The tools alone aren’t enough without the knowledge of how to strategically apply AI to your unique business challenges. Choose in-depth guidance on AI strategies and best practices for your industry from seasoned experts. This strategic angle is how you’ll get the most business value from AI.

The track record of your teachers

Marketing claims are cheap. It’s getting harder than ever to distinguish established programs from programs thrown together overnight. In the case of AI, since much of what is available in the mainstream is new, it’s even harder! 

Look for programs that have clearly articulated goals in helping professionals like you achieve specific business goals with AI. Ideally, the program should highlight specific ways in which people are successfully applying their AI skills. 

In other words, look for strong use cases that resonate over ex-Cryto-bros in front of jets haha!

Long-term mastery approach 

AI literacy isn’t built overnight. To fully embed AI in your work, you’re looking at extended time frames in training approaches that extend over months, not days. Choose programs substantial enough to deliver long-term, lasting skills through sustained learning. Avoid short workshops that barely scratch the surface or one-off PDF downloads that promise to be the cure all.

A cost that fits in your budget 

Quality AI education that delivers real skills requires qualified instructors investing significant time. Your best results will come from premium programs, not freebies. Expect to invest anywhere from $500 to $2000 a year for comprehensive AI training that you can DIY. For more personalized group or 1:1 support, you can expect to pay anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 per year. However much you decide to set aside in you budget, view it as an investment in your professional future that will pay dividends for years to come.

One program that ticks all the boxes!  

If you’re still here and reading, you’re serious about this AI literacy thing! Kudos. May I introduce you to The AI Advantage program, which exemplifies these criteria for effective AI literacy training. The 12-month premium program combines customized prompts, tutorials, and strategic frameworks tailored specifically for marketing. 

Early participants in the program have already seen incredible time savings and new marketing capabilities thanks to their new AI skills. The TINY investment is well worth it for consistent long-term AI fluency that transforms your work.

Get the AI Advantage

Beating email burnout with generative AI (artificial intelligence)

by

Email is an indispensable tool for founders and marketers. It runs like an engine in the background.
Non-stop.
Whirring and blipping. 

Often on the very VERGE of overflowing! 

Untamed inboxes can quickly stop being a dirty little secret, and instead become a massive time suck. Hours can slip away crafting thoughtful responses to customers and prospects. Hours with nothing to show for them.

This is where AI comes to the rescue. Generative AI can help founders handle email more efficiently and effectively. 

But, Susan! What about privacy and security??? That’s the question I get ALL THE TIME. “Won’t it be learning all of my stuff?”
“Isn’t ChatGPT a security concern if it knows everything?” 

Yes, it can be learning all your stuff to take over one. It can be a security issue, for sure.
But there are ways in which to use it to get around it.

Here’s the key: if you don’t put incriminating information into the machine, it won’t know!
(mind blown? Haha yes sometimes it’s as simple and obvious as that.

Let’s look at my 3-level framework on how founders (and GTM leaders – or anyone really!) can leverage AI to eliminate email overload.

Start from the bottom of the circles in the diagram above and work your way up. 

Step one requires getting the routine-emails-that-need-simple-answers under control.
Next, use the ChatGPT as your ‘second brain’ to think up responses – keeping yourself secure by removing details like names, dates, and other stuff you might feel ill- at-ease sharing.
And the final, high-level use is to bring emotional intelligence into your communication, at scale! A much needed skill in the email world. 

So let’s dive right into each.

1. Automate routine requests in your email using AI and workflow automation tools

Many emails founders and GTM leaders receive on the daily are some variation of a routine request. AI excels at quickly generating appropriate responses to mundane emails like: 

– Meeting scheduling
– Basic product/service questions
– Status inquiries with details that live in your documentation and project management systems

With the right prompts, an AI assistant can reply to these repetitive requests in seconds. This will include creating a workflow using a workflow automation tool like Zapier. This frees up your mind to focus on more complex, domain expertise and thought leadership specific action.

At the very simplest, you could use a simple prompt for the AI tool, like: “Write a friendly 2 sentence response to a customer asking when their order will arrive.” 

2. Use AI to handle specific challenging emails  

Trickier stakeholder emails require finessed, customized responses that are best handled by us human overlords! But AI can still provide a strong starting point. Your simplest solution is to copy and paste the challenging email into the AI system – like ChatGPT, Claude, or Bard. Remove any sensitive details like names or locations. Then create a specific prompt based on the context.

Here is a sample prompt “The client is asking for a 24 hour turnaround when that is not our policy. Generate a reply explaining why this request cannot be accommodated while preserving the relationship. Original email below (paste content here).”

Your AI will give you a thoughtful response tailored to the situation. Trust me, it’ll start you off at atleast 50% better than a blank page. You can then tweak the language, and add in the specifics before sending it on out.

If you’re ready for a higher level of automation, this is where workflows like ‘grab the shipping date and write 2 line note’ type instructions come into play via tools.

3. Use AI to help you reply with emotional intelligence 

Some prospect emails demand emotional intelligence. Generative AI can help founders understand stakeholders’ underlying needs and craft an empathetic response without getting in your head or throwing you off your game and wasting your whole day!

Prompt the AI to help you analyze why the prospect is really contacting you. Then have it formulate a reply addressing their concerns. For example: “This prospect is asking about pricing but their real issue seems to be fear of commitment. Provide a 150 word response to address their worries and reassure them.”

Your AI will spit out a psychologically-aware, relationship-building response. You’ll then use this to edit to your ideal draft that builds trust and confidence with your prospect.

Lusting after ‘Inbox zero’ at scale? You’ll need the AI Advantage

Email will never stop being a key communication channel for founders and GTM leaders. With AI, it doesn’t have to consume your day. Use the firepower of generative AI to respond faster, strengthen relationships, and focus on high-impact priorities beyond your inbox. 

If you’re tired of drowning in a sea of unread emails or struggling to craft thoughtful, empathetic responses while juggling a million other tasks, I can help. I offer you the AI Advantage.

This comprehensive 12-month AI literacy program gives you the keys to unlocking the immense power of artificial intelligence for simplify your marketing and communication.

Through expert-designed prompts, specialized tutorials, and strategic marketing frameworks, you’ll learn to leverage generative AI to easily:

  • Automate routine email responses
  • Handle challenging stakeholder emails with finesse
  • Write emotionally intelligent, trust-building messages
  • And so much more…

With The AI Advantage, you’ll take back your time while transforming email into an effortless, relationship-building tool.

Get the AI Advantage

How SMEs can use AI as a force multiplier

by

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) constantly face the challenge of limited resources. With tight budgets and small teams, small business leaders intuitively understand the need to maximize productivity and get the most bang for our buck. 

Perhaps that is one of the reasons you’ll find many SMEs leading the way when it comes to adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI). When thoughtfully implemented, AI has the power to significantly multiply the impact of a small business’ existing capabilities. It can act as a “force multiplier”. (Context: In military science terms, a force multiplier is a factor {like a tool}, ‘which increases a unit’s combat potential, allowing it to fight on a par with a larger force’. Pasha Irshad, co-founder of Shape & Scale, made this reference in my recent conversation with him on my podcast, The 4am Report – if you’re an audio person, listen in.)

So, how CAN AI help small business teams simplify our workload and find more time? Here are some of the top things you need to think about to operationalize.

1. Spot, and map out, your (repeat) friction points that can be automated

Use AI tools – like ChatGPT, Claude, Bard, Notion, MidJourney, and Perpexity, as well as workflow automation tools like Zapier, Hubspot and others to identify repetitive tasks that create friction and automate them. Tasks like basic research, data sorting, scheduling social media, formatting reports, and other rote workflows can save a lot of time when approached with the principles of robotic process automation (RPA). Thinking of AI like “RPA for the founder mind” can free up mental bandwidth for small business leaders to focus on more strategic priorities.

2. Surface insights from your data

As agile early adopters of tech, SMEs often collect troves of data but may lack the analytics horsepower to gain value from it. Generative AI makes short work of analytics to help uncover patterns and insights. This will help you better understand your customers, identify new opportunities, and make smarter decisions (in less time).

3. Learn how to prompt generative AI and build institutional memory for AI learning

An important part of leveraging AI as a small business is learning how to properly prompt the technology. Thoughtful prompts allow you to tap into the full potential of generative AI. Take the time to experiment with different prompts, inputs, and examples to see what works best for your to-do list.

You’ll also want to build institutional memory by cataloging your successful AI use cases, queries, and prompts in a knowledge base. This allows your team to reference past learnings rather than starting from scratch each time. Organizations that master prompting and create AI knowledge repositories will find themselves ahead of the curve and in possession of a decided edge when automation-by-AI gains mainstream traction. (Which I totes believe it will. Like the birth of the internet! Or the calculator!)

Looking to really unlock the power of AI for your small business? Join The AI Advantage premium content program. Dubbed ‘an essential AI textbook’ for small business, this program will give you access to in-depth tutorials, actionable strategic marketing plays, and an exponentially growing generative AI prompt library that will take your AI skills to the next level. 

Don’t just dip your toes in, dive all the way into transforming your marketing and workflows with artificial intelligence! I can help.

Give me The AI Advantage 

4. Simplify content creation 

Content marketing is pretty key for most small businesses, but quality content takes time. AI writing assistants like ChatGPT can help speed up the creation of content drafts. Generate blog posts, social captions, and other marketing copy a LOT faster than before. While human review is still required, AI provides a strong starting point to build on. For example, you’ll be starting your drafts at 30-50% instead of starting from zero each time. This percentage increases as skill and mastery from humans is fed into our AI tools to further speed up the content creation process.

5. Vastly improve your customer service

With limited staffing, many SMEs can easily get overwhelmed in the process of operationalizing the high level of customer service that we hope to deliver. Paradoxically, it is this commitment to delivering a high level of service to customers that sets many small businesses apart. Generative AI combined with human effort will enable you to make short work of overflowing inboxes, and create the kind of institutional memory that will simplify the management of common requests and repeat actions. This improves customer satisfaction while creating the time and space for your people to focus on high-value actions that focus on relationships.

6. Put saved time into your life’s real priorities 

At its core, AI allows you to get more done with less. This means saving time for what matters most, whether it’s strategic work to solve the world’s problems, family time, or health.

Using AI thoughtfully is about working smarter, not harder. And that is often why many entrepreneurial minds got into the game to begin with! The key is to apply AI to amplify existing resources, not replace them. With the right focus, AI can help us SMEs punch WAY above our weight class.

It’s important to remember that an early adopter advantage will only be ours for a limited time. So it’s important that we each move as fast as we (comfortably) can. So, if you’re looking to get moving with AI for your small business and are want a powerful learning resource, I can help. Get The AI Advantage.

***

 

📌 Generative AI tools and enablers referenced in this article are rounded-up below for easy reference 👇(it’s worth noting that all of these have a free version, many robust enough for ongoing use)

ChatGPT – ubiquitous at this point, and defo the folks who brought us to mass adoption of AI in one weekend! Chat.openai.com 

Jasper – a copywriting AI assistant that’s been around for a while and has massively improved in a post ChatGPT world! Jasper.ai 

Claude – claude.ai – generative AI language model. Like ChatGPT but better is the way they tell it. Are they? Stay tuned for our break down on the mainstream NLPs in a future episode.

Building a second brain: https://www.buildingasecondbrain.com/ 

Notion – Knowledge management system – Wiki x Docs x Projects – it’s like the concert headliner act of AI tools to many 💁‍♀️ https://www.notion.so/ 

Perplexity.ai  – AI-powered search engine. Think ChatGPT and Google’s love child 😁 

Zapier.com – the workflow automation tool of small business champions! It’s an accessible tool that can string a lot of the other generative AI tools together into an actual automated action.