Everything is backwards now
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It didn’t happen overnight, |NAME|, but gradually over the last five years, I’ve shifted most of my operations from being static to being mobile based.
I do most of my work outside of a conventional office, I have just one phone number (as opposed to the three I had in 2001). I do nearly all of my marketing and prospecting online and this newsletter you are reading is my number-one source of new business.
The reasons why I did that aren’t just a matter of lifestyle choice or because I’m a bit of a geek (although let’s be honest, those are factors).
It’s because I’m seeing really big changes in the way that we work and do business: so much so that it’s become a lens through which I provide much of my advice to my clients on how they can grow their audiences and tell bolder stories.
I’d like to share some of those thoughts with you so that it can help you in your own work.
The business of writing for an audience used to hinge on a “movable type/immovable typist” way of looking at the world. By that, I mean the work was typically produced in a well-defined space, reproduced mechanically and shared with a well defined group of readers. Being published meant you were part of a very small circle of people who had a near monopoly on ideas and by extension, you also had front-of-the-line access to the attention of readers.
For the most part, things don’t work that way anymore.
Ideas used to be scarce (because the way to share them was controlled). Audience attention was fairly abundant (because the sources were so few).
Now, ideas are everywhere, barriers to entry are almost nil and it’s attention that is scarce.
Despite this, so much of how we structure our businesses and make decisions on how we are going to reach people remains rooted in the assumption that nothing has changed.
For instance, why are so many websites still built with tiny typefaces, crammed with dense paragraphs of information and nearly impossible to read on a mobile device—all at a time where mobile devices accessing the internet are eclipsing the desktop computer market?
Why do we spend so much time and money publishing annual reports as if the majority of our readers are consuming them in hard-copy format as opposed to online, where year after year the traffic keeps exploding and the distribution costs are almost zero?
Why do we continue to unwittingly make it so hard for people to make a decision to buy something today when so many have a device in their hand that makes it possible to do just that?
Forrester Research is blunt about this. “A great digital experience is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a make-or-break point for your business as we more fully enter the digital age.”
Being more mobile focused in your business isn’t just about being more friendly to people who have cellphones. It’s about being lean: getting better results by focusing on what matters.
I like how this McKinsey study (http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/manufacturing/next_frontiers_for_lean?cid=other-eml-nsl-mip-mck-oth-1403 ) sums it up. It means “putting customers first by truly understanding what they need and then delivering it efficiently; enabling workers to contribute to their fullest potential; constantly searching for better ways of working.”
I’m not saying that everyone needs to convert their organization to a flat, mobile-driven operation like I have.
But we do have to recognize that we’re living in a very different world from even a decade ago.
The world’s stock of data doubles every 20 months. There are nearly twice as many internet-connected devices as there are people on the planet. Payments by mobile phone will soon hit the $1 trillion mark—roughly the size of South Korea’s economy.
And we’re all just barely in the front door to meet what’s coming.
More people now have a way to share ideas with others than ever before. They don’t need to follow conventions anymore on how to do that. Many don’t need to go work in boxes called offices to make that happen.
But they do need to find better ways to get the attention of their customer.
And for anyone in the business of writing for an audience—and that’s a heck of a lot of us—it means we have to see mobile for what it really is: the thing that’s changing how we work, what we read, where we work, who we reach and how often we can do that.
Very best, Patrick
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