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Harness the power of alliteration in your content marketing

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Let’s talk about what a relatively underutilized literary device can do to help you improve your content marketing. Alliteration is a technique in which the initial consonant sound is repeated in two or more consecutive words. You may recall some common examples peppered across social media – “rapid results”, “fun Friday facts”, “Monday Motivation”, “Throwback Thursday”.

There’s cadence to them.
There’s rhythm and musicality.
And they are memorable. 

The thing is, most people think alliteration ends with words that start with the same letter.

That is a puppy perspective!! Come over here where the big dogs play 😁 Alliteration also covers, for instance, a phrase like “kids’ coats”, which has the initial consonant sound even though the first letters are different (in other words, it’s phonetically the same start). On the contrary, a phrase like “phony people”has two words that start with the same letter but the consonant sounds are different, so it is not alliterative. 

Alliterative words should flow in quick succession for them to be effective. Three to four consecutive words tends to be the sweet spot (although two is very popular with those who can contain their hooks to two words 👊)

Where can you employ alliteration in your marketing?

Simple answer here: in your headlines.

If you’re sending out emails, publishing blogs, and regularly posting to social platforms like LinkedIn, you’ll know the importance of a strong headline with a good hook that draws you in. Alliteration can really be your friend here.

Here’s some inspo to get you started 👇

Let’s look at some examples of alliteration in advertising and marketing that I bet you’ll know. Over the years, alliteration has been used for Brand Names (think: Krispy Kreme, Circuit City, Range Rover, PayPal), Sports Teams (LA Lakers, Delhi Daredevils, Pittsburgh Pirates), events (Big Billion Day, Big Bash League), Brand USPs and Ad Copy (Bed & Breakfast, Anytime Anywhere) and even characters in the fictional world (Donald Duck, King Kong, Peter Parker, Bruce Banner).

Want to learn how to build podcast infrastructure that pays?

Why alliteration works

The magic of alliteration is that it is in the background. The consumer of your content almost never outright observes it at first. What it does is create a little music in your mind 😁

Consider this: some concepts just don’t work if the alliteration is missing. Who’d remember: “Bed and shower” or “Bugs rabbit” or “Ted Seminars”? But replace them with “Bed, Bad and Beyond”, “Bugs Bunny” and “Ted Talks” and they become the iconic alliterative brands that they are.

While alliterations is by no means a must-have for your marketing, it can certainly help with memorability (ie: brand recall). It is a linguistic tool with a certain ‘head-turning’ ability and when used masterfully, it can help you cut through the masses of cluttered writing that is hitting everyone online these days.

Try! Use it wisely. If you make every headline alliterative you’ll lose your audience.

#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!

#119 – The Benefits of Daily Stand Ups with Mara Svenne

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A 15-minute meeting where you actually stand up? Mara Svenne is back on the show to tell us about the benefits of daily Stand Ups for collaboration, productivity, and efficiency. Learn why:

🧍‍ Stand Ups are short, sweet, and focused
🧍‍♀️️‍ A facilitator helps keep things moving (along with the presence of key decision makers)
🧍‍️ Parking an idea can be strategic
🧍‍♀️️️ Stand Ups help team members get clear on their priorities (and so much more!)

Plus, you’ll get some of her top time management tips used in Agile, like Scrum and Combat.

🎧Tune in for more!🎧

About Mara

Mara Svenne is the founder of mPath Facilitation and works as a group process facilitator, scrum master and agile coach, primarily in the financial services industry.   Mara is an IAF Certified™ Professional Facilitator, a past board member of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF), and a 2017 Gold winner of the Facilitation Impact Awards.  Mara has facilitated project team start-ups and retrospectives, management strategy sessions, and vision /mission sessions for non-profit boards and start-ups.  An active and Distinguished Toastmaster, Mara believes in the power of conversation to help individuals find their voice and create a shared path to success.   To more information, please contact: mara@mpathfacil.com

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!