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The simple 4-Step playbook for systematizing your marketing with AI

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As a small business owner, your time is limited but your responsibilities can feel endless. Between strategy, content creation, analysis, and supervising multiple external service providers, marketing can quickly become overwhelming. Artificial intelligence presents a huge opportunity to systematize your marketing workflow.

But with all the hype surrounding it, AI can seem intimidating and complex to adopt. The key is keeping it simple. Here’s my straightforward 4-step playbook to start streamlining your marketing with AI today:

Step 1: Map your current workflow

Before you figure out where AI can help, you need to understand your existing workflow well. Walk through a typical marketing process you want to tackle like content creation or campaign management. Write down each individual step from start to finish. 

Mapping it out visually on paper or a whiteboard is extremely useful. Seeing your workflow end-to-end makes it easier to pinpoint areas that offer ‘quick win’ automation opportunities. Plus, the act of writing it down will likely reveal workflow inefficiencies you weren’t even aware of! Double check!!

Step 2: Identify your biggest pain points

Next, analyze your workflow map to spotlight bottlenecks and gaps –  these are what marketers like to call ‘pain points’. Look for steps that are repetitive (yet manual), time/resource intensive (yet operational not where your high per hour rate should be applied in a successful business), or prone to human error. 

Ask yourself questions like:

  1. What tasks take up most of my time?
  2. What do I find most tedious or boring?
  3. Where do I feel overwhelmed or stressed?
  4. What steps tend to fall through the cracks?

Finding the disconnects between what you want to achieve and your current workflow is key. The biggest pain points likely present opportunities for AI to assist.

Step 3: Pick an AI tool for your top pain point 

With your most annoying pain point identified, research AI tools that can help. There are countless options for everything from data analysis to content generation. And there are 2 very solid free generalist options:ChatGPT and Claude (which can be deployed with mastery to unlock a great deal of purpose-built firepower for your specific need.) 

For instance, if writing is difficult for you, in addition to just trying to get ChatGPT to perform for you in a vacuum, gain access to some quality writing prompts and you will save hours in starting from scratch. (Want to craft killer thought leadership blog posts without burning the midnight oil? This bite-sized 25-minute masterclass will unlock the secrets of using ChatGPT to create compelling blog posts that channel your voice and expertise). 

Avoid overhauling everything at once. Pick one AI solution for your top pain point and start small. You can expand from there once you see results. 

Step 4: Integrate AI into your workflow 

With the right AI tool selected, it’s time to integrate it into your workflow. Refer back to your workflow map, and think through exactly how and when you’ll leverage the AI solution. 

Set clear expectations for how much time/effort the AI will save, what the hand-off points are between AI and human, and how you’ll review the AI’s work before finalizing it. Documenting the AI-human collaboration process is essential.

Don’t lose humanity in your marketing! No AI platform is perfect right off the bat. Take time to “train” the system on your preferences and style. The more you use it, the better it adapts to you. (Remember, often we sound robotic in our marketing EVEN as human content creators. That can compound when you add generative AI to your process. The trick is to start with your existing body of work and you own review points. Want more on that, read this article on why the future of marketing will be hybrid.)

Putting it all together

The key is starting small and letting real results guide your path, not getting distracted by all the emerging AI solutions out there. Focus on what will make the biggest impact for your business today. 

There you have it – a simple but powerful playbook to make your marketing workflow more efficient with AI, step-by-step.

Hands-on Approach to AI execution

Ready for a more hands on approach to AI execution in your business? I’ve opened 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. 

Join the Marketing Power Circle

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

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🌟 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!

#125 – The Holy Trinity of Podcast Hooks

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Want to get people hooked on your podcast? The Holy Trinity of Hooking tells you how (in our trademark style, because if your mind went there, you’re our people).  On this episode of 🎙The 4am Report🎙 we dive into the 3 ways you can make sure your podcast is memorable:

  1. Up your visual 
  2. Rethink your intro 
  3. Ditch the fluff

🎧 Tune in for more! 🎧

Podcast Panel: Four content audit things you’re probably not thinking about… and should be

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For this episode of 🎙The 4am Report🎙 we bring you (🥁drum roll🥁) a panel of experts on content audits. Yes, most people hate the idea of a content audit. It can feel like a lot of work. But these bright minds in the world of marketing all agree that a content audit is crucial – not only does it help you figure out what content your customers are consuming, it saves you time and energy as you can repurpose content – ultimately, amplifying your reach👏. 

Together with Will and myself, on this episode we have Amber Khan, founder of Amplifyology, a repurposing content marketing agency in London; Romina Buchle, marketing manager of a B2B lead nurturing firm in Zurich called Aioma; and Kira Tchernikovsky, an international marketing consultant based in Toronto. 

We started off speaking about our pet peeves and how they keep us up at night. Mine is the sheer amount of new content out there. 

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In most cases, without there being any kind of plan for that content. 

Kira agrees that creating content for the sake of content isn’t a great strategy. ” If you know why you’re creating content and audit and repurpose content, you can measure it and do what needs to be done to achieve your goal.”

For Amber, what keeps her up at night is when people use content out of context. “If we don’t start from a place of context, it’s basically saying, well, I’ll just throw something out on the web, and hopefully, it will work, hopefully, it will get you the kind of attention you want. And maybe you’ll gain some followers. If the clients come from a non-marketing background, it’s hard to explain to them that the audit is required in the beginning to select content that is contextual. And then work with it, create your goals, repurpose it, whatever, but start from there.”

“A lot of people think content auditing is just one thing they do one time and then they forget about it,” Romina added. “They don’t do the work afterwards; they forget about the actual things they created and about all the rough diamonds they have that just need to be polished a bit” 💎. 

Here’s four content auditing things you should be thinking about according to our worthy guests:

  1. Focus on your Ideal Client Profile (ICP)

It is tempting to be all things to all people but targeting your ideal client profile is crucial – and an audit can help you narrow down your focus. Romina tries to go into each stage of the customer journey. “I want to see how I can optimize this stage or go into different topics and how I can really nail the touch points in the topic area along the journey a customer takes.”

“ICP is very, very important.” Amber related. “I feel that a lot of times we are writing, or the companies are writing, for so many different ICPs. And it gets confusing. For example, they might be targeting pet owners, but they may also be targeting cat owners. So first you need to figure out the ICP, who is it speaking to, then you have to figure out the topics for that ICP. And categorize them.”

Kira suggests choosing two or three ICPs to run tests on to find the best performing audience. “You have to nail the journey for that specific ICP, be it pet lovers or cat lovers, because otherwise you won’t be able to measure.“

  1. Test by running ads

According to Amber, running ads are a great way to establish patterns and find audiences. “In our case we run Facebook ads for a particular piece of content from a webinar or training. It’s long form content, an hour long at the minimum. By running ads, we figure out very quickly if the concept and topic resonates with our client’s audience. And if it does, we take that big piece of content and repurpose it, not only for different types of content, but for various spots in the customer journey as well.”

  1. Use public domain content 

Kira feels that a content audit can also include looking beyond your own content to repurposing content from people who have published in your field, in the public domain. This can include auditing the news to include relevant content (aka newsjacking).  

“I’ve started to do third party relevant content lately. Say we’re talking about digital transformation. There are these sources, like Boards of Trade here in Canada, for example, who run webinars with amazing experts that are publicly available. If it’s an hour-long panel discussion, why can’t you take that and do a quick bulleted post? It will be so helpful to other business owners, as they don’t have to go through the whole hour. And you don’t have to create that content, you just repurpose, it is publicly available.”

  1. Trawl your own company for content

According to Romina, it’s important to think about auditing the content from within a company. “A lot of companies have so much content flying around in different departments, and you can use all this content for your marketing, of course. So, I feel like the first step you need to take is going internally and saying, ‘hey, I need to know stuff, guys’. And really also checking how you can get the content from your audit departments and then repurpose it. There is a lot of potential just lying around.”

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For more on the specific strategies and tools these experts use, you’ll have to 👂listen to the episode👂. 

Want to chat more about your marketing concerns (or any of your content!)? Give us a shout at C+P Digital – we would love to help!

Plus, if you’re losing sleep over a particular marketing/business related problem or if you would like to suggest a guest on the 4AM Report, let us know.

You can find us on Apple Podcasts – subscribe to us – you won’t regret it!

And as always, sweet dreams😴…well, hopefully!

The Benefits of Daily Stand Ups

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Welcome back to 🎙The 4am Report🎙. We have a Mara Svenne back on the show to talk about the benefits of Stand Ups🧍‍♀️🧍️. Not the funny ones (usually).

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Disclaimer: We love funny at c+p digital, so don’t be scared to use a little bit of humour to make Stand Ups fun. Some of our Stand Ups have featured onesies and terrible puns(ies)🤣🤣🤣. 

With our shifting workforce and the likelihood that we’ll continue to be virtual or hybrid for a while still, team Stand Ups (aka short, focused, and productive meetings) are incredibly useful right now.

Let’s face it, it’s so easy to miss emails or forget to respond to something. A Stand Up is a collaboration tool that reduces emails in your inbox, and helps teams work better and more efficiently. We use Stand Ups as a productivity tool for our team at c+p digital.

Mara is an agile coach and facilitator, who works with many software and management leadership teams. We worked with her on a large content audit a few years ago, where she introduced us to the value of virtual daily Stand Ups to help manage the multiple moving pieces of the project. Here’s some of the key benefits of Stand Ups:

Short, sweet, and focused

According to Mara, a Stand Up is a daily 15-minute planning meeting of what’s going to happen and how to help each other. “It’s not a status report, it’s, ‘here’s what I’m working on, I’m making good progress’. ‘Or here’s where I’m struggling’. ‘Or I might need somebody to help me with this, because I don’t understand this area of the work’. ‘Or I’m missing something, can you help me get that information so I can continue’. The idea is that you’re continually checking in with each other to see how the work is going.”

Keeping things moving

“Ideally, you actually stand up. because it forces the time box to be 15 minutes because nobody wants to stand up for an hour. And it gives the energy in the virtual room because you’re all standing up.” As Mara relates, key decision makers and executives are present to move things forward. And if somebody has an idea, you park that for after the stand up. “So right after the stand up, you say, Will and Susan need to meet with Mary, the rest of you can go to finish your work. And you guys stay behind to talk about the question or challenge or ideation in depth.”

Getting your priorities right

“What’s important about today that you want to accomplish today. This is about going through a whole project plan for the next six months and when this is happening.”

Multitasking is a myth. 

“Even women cannot multitask, no matter what they say! Your brain can only do one thing at a time. So, finish that and get to the next most important thing. It’s worth saying, ‘I’ve got two things. I can’t get both done today. What’s the priority?’”

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In this episode you’ll find out why you need to lay the groundwork and establish team norms to build that trust within the team – so that you have each other’s back.
You’ll also learn some key time management tips used in Agile, like Scrum and Combat (for more on Combat listen to Getting Sh!t Done with Mara Svenne). 

Tune in to learn more about how to support your team, build relationships and prevent burnout by making extra time to talk and be there for each other (often before or after the Stand Up). 

And if you need more convincing before you hit play, Mara talks about how focusing on the things that are closest to being done, gets things done. Along with the value of retrospective Stand Ups, so you can “inspect and adapt as you go along”.

Want to chat more about your marketing concerns (or any of your content!)? Give us a shout at C+P Digital – we would love to help!

Plus, if you’re losing sleep over a particular marketing/business related problem or if you would like to suggest a guest on the 4AM Report, let us know.

You can find us on Apple Podcasts – subscribe to us – you won’t regret it!

And as always, sweet dreams😴…well, hopefully!

The 12 Formats of Podcast Episodes You Should Be Using

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Surprise! The good kind…because we’re talking about podcasting again. Susan has put together a framework for how to come up with endless amounts of episodes and formats to keep things interesting. 12 formats that will help you hook your audience, cut the clutter, and may even make your work a little easier. 

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We’re going to talk about a few and hopefully, get you so curious and eager to hear the rest that you’ll feel like you have no choice but to listen to the podcast! 

  1. First up is strategic teaching. This revamps the tired and bored podcasting format of interviewing a guest or just sharing your thoughts, because you get to showcase your expertise. For example, on The 4AM Report we might share a particular way of operating or a system we use, or even something we know, like audio and how it’s going to impact people’s business.
  2. Then there’s tactical teaching, which is another format that mixes things up a bit because you can provide a bunch of tools or tactics for your listeners to use or download. “I think people really love that, they’re like tell me what to do. Give me the blueprint, and I’ll run with that.”
  3. Another cool way to change up your podcast format is to create an episode arc. This can really make your production more efficient. We could record a 30-minute episode for The 4Am Report, but why not break it up into three parts and create a three-series arc? It’s more digestible, goes deeper over a shorter time span, and gives you a bit of breathing room if you are tight on time and bandwidth. Instead of drowning your audience with information and scaring the sh!t out of them, you’re giving them one piece of info. at a time and letting them run with it.

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This very podcast is a great example of a potential episode arc. We could do a separate podcast on every one of these points. So that’d be a 12-parter! Long live long-winded content✨! 

5 and 4. Another way to really turn the traditional podcast upside down is the podcast cohort, basically getting a panel of experts together to weigh in on something and how this amplifies your audience (we spoke about this here). There’s show & tell which is profiling a case study or use case on your show. This can also feature two or three people talking about something you’ve achieved and how you did it.  

  1. This one is fun because you can draw from your internal team and tactical processes. It’s a way to showcase your team on the inside or a process you use again and again. You could have a  team member come on or a client who uses that process and just beak it up and bring in different perspectives. For example, we did an episode on The 4AM Report where our writers came on to chat about their process and share some tips on how they approach different tasks, like social media or researching long-form copy. 
  2. You’re in touch right? Maybe your business wants to be inclusive or get known as a thought leader. To establish credibility, you can bring together industry analysts or workplace commentators to talk about things that are impacting our times and start making wider social commentary on more than just your business. 
  3. Every week, we newsjack with pride. If you don’t know what this is, read more here. We have Thirsty Thursday, which is a roundup of the hits and misses in the world of marketing, pop culture, entertainment, social injustice and more. We pick our top five to seven favourite stories, and we chat them out on video. But then we also release this as a podcast episode.

So, that’s a sneak peek into newsjacking. For more on why newsjacking needs to be agile and quick, you need to listen to the episode. And you’ll also find out why this helps you jump on the topics that people are searching for (aka more traffic) and can even show you care🤗🤗🤗.

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9-12

Let us summarize points 9-12. Repurpose, repurpose, repurpose, and repurpose again! From combining podcast episodes or repurposing and clustering them together, to rolling out episode highlights or bringing together themes, repurposing can be as easy or involved as you want it to be. You can also repurpose events, like your mastermind / live event or zoom recordings and make these into podcast episodes… And guess what? This is when the podcast flywheel starts to work for you because it just gets easier and easier to get that volume and promote the hell out of yourself👏👏👏. Plus, nobody gets bored with it because they haven’t heard it yet. 

We ♥ that so many people love podcasting. So, let’s all pick it up a notch by 🎧listening to this episode🎧 and learning how to entertain and engage your audience with a bunch of great formats.

Want to chat more about your marketing concerns (or any of your content!)? Give us a shout at C+P Digital – we would love to help!

Plus, if you’re losing sleep over a particular marketing/business related problem or if you would like to suggest a guest on the 4AM Report, let us know.

You can find us on Apple Podcasts – subscribe to us – you won’t regret it!

And as always, sweet dreams😴…well, hopefully!