The 2,000th StrategyAudit blog post
2,000 posts published. A milestone, achievement, a joy.
I tried to do a count of the notes, links, ideas, half written posts, and completed but inadequate posts in my One-note files and gave up. It is in the 10’s of thousands, over 12 years (March 2009 was the first post) of scribbling, reading, thinking, feeding my curiosity. It looks like an idea to publishing ratio of about 1.5%. Yikes!!
A blog is a personal possession, something owned, that continues while the owner cares enough to do the work. Individual posts also have a life of their own. Posts published years ago are still generating pageviews every day. The old saying about newspapers being tomorrow’s fish wrappers does not apply to digital content, especially posts that are specific to a niche where people remain interested and engaged.
Learning from history is no less important for a blogger as it is for someone important.
There are numerous posts that are read often, that are old. I do not know who is reading them, and what if anything they are doing as a result, but the sheer number of times the same posts are opened indicates something useful.
Several have gone ‘viral’ if I use the term simply as a comparison to the averages I see, but in the grand scheme, are little more than a pinprick.
However, there are some lessons:
- I am a much better scribbler than when I started, albeit still some distance from being a ‘writer.’ This has come with practice, study of others I admire, feedback, and sweat. I have learned to eliminate the beginner mistakes, which centre around clarity and certainty of meaning. Things like long sentences, using three words when one will do, and words that make me appear smart because they have lots of syllables.
- When people read my musings, they do not get any artifice, or window dressing, they get me, and what I think, devoid of the trappings. Every word is original, every perspective mine, distilled over almost 70 years of life and 45 years of commercial experience. If nothing else, I have been consistent since the first post. When I look back, some of the early posts leave much to be desired, but others, many others, I am proud to have written and put out there for others to take away what they will.
- While I do range widely, across business, politics, economics, and the occasional personal rant, the focus of the writing is for those running SME’s. Things I see that impact their lives and businesses. This brings them back, not all the time, not for every post, but regularly.
- SEO is (relatively) unimportant. It is easy to be seduced by vanity measures of likes and even shares of posts, the feedstock of SEO. However, the real measure is the degree to which readers really engage with the posts and respond in a meaningful and thoughtful manner. I am a small, sole trader, without the funds, or indeed desire to be anything more. Readership has come one person at a time, over time. While it is important to do the simple things to give yourself the best chance at being found, spending lots on SEO in the absence of something useful and worthwhile to say, just makes more money for Google.
- New shiny things while important at a point in time, are not important over the long haul. The value of a post on a topical issue that goes away quickly is limited, while the value of a post on an issue of long-lasting impact is, by definition, long lasting. The name of the thing is after all StrategyAudit, implying both long term and quantitative.
- The pressure of the status quo is immense, it demands conformity, which is the antithesis of what is required for innovation. Those we need in organisations to question the status quo are labelled as troublemakers, or they are bypassed in one way or another. Most choose, sensibly, to be a part of the status quo, to conform. It enhances career, pay, status and privilege, why wouldn’t you? Because, at some point, good people look at themselves in the mirror and if they do not like what they see, they move on. In the war for talent, this is the worst possible outcome for the organisation. The solution for organisations is to explicitly encourage the weird, to seek out the outliers, those who do not take cover behind the barriers of the status quo and bureaucracy. Encourage them and make it comfortable for them to be different, to think differently. It is these people, along with the owners and managers of SME’s, to whom I direct this blog.
- Headlines matter. David Ogilvy’s dictum that a headline represents 80% of your advertising expenditure applies equally to blog posts. A great, informative, value adding post with a lousy headline will do a dead cat bounce. By contrast, a modest post (hopefully not too many of them) with a great headline will generate more views, but little engagement. The challenge is to do both.
- In an increasingly competitive market, people’s time and attention is the one truly non-renewable resource we have. At a networking event about a year ago, chatting to a small group of people I had not met before, one person was looking at me oddly. Later he asked, “Do you write the StrategyAudit blog’? When I answered in the affirmative, he told me he had been reading it for a decade and thanked me for the insights he had been able to glean. Until that moment, I never knew he existed, as he had not ‘engaged’ in any way, other than to read what I published, and occasionally he told me, share it amongst his networks.
- There is no direct correlation between project commissions (sales) and the publishing date. It has never happened that someone contacts me and says here is an assignment based on a post you have just published. However, what has happened many times, is that after a conversation, I can follow up with a post on the key topics discussed, often several, written over time that address various aspects of the topic discussed. That establishes my level of knowledge and authority, and has led to many, if not most of the engagements over the years.
- Any brand that believes it has any power to dictate to consumers will disappear, if it has not already. Power is firmly in the consumers hands, and it is the job of marketing to answer questions that emerge along the journey to a transaction and relationship. However, any marketer who believes that consumers want to have a relationship with their brands is soft in the head. Consumers do not care about your brand, only about what it can deliver, the problems it solves, so you need to be explicit about that.
How do so many get written?
I am often asked how it is that I produce so much, and so regularly.
My standard answer is that I am simply curious, and writing another blog post is a way to salve that curiosity. I see blog post everywhere, in the questions I am asked, in the stuff I read, and in the things that I think about, usually sparked by something unexpected, and unplanned.
After that, there seems to be a process that is fairly consistent.,
I record the thoughts, ideas, links, in any form they occur in One-Note. It is a library of random stuff broken into categories, of which there are now about thirty, including subcategories. Sometimes stuff gets lost, but it remains there, able to bob up, and the whole mess is searchable.
Every post goes through a process, usually several times as it is refined, often over an extended period. I have a thought that adds weight to something I have recorded before, so I find the original and add it.
At some point, the nascent post gathers clarity. The point it is making, and who that point may be of benefit to, it is then the process becomes serious, and editing occurs.
I try to use simple language, rather than displaying my vocabulary, and I try and use stories that illustrate and make the point. A relevant story, and often those are personal, are better than a page of statistics. Readers do not engage with stats, unless they happen to be a stats nerd, and very few of them read my stuff, but a story that makes a point and is personally relatable makes an impact.
I edit aggressively, trying to reduce the number of words, a task at which I often fail. I also always use the tools provided in Word to check spelling, punctuation, and structure, then when it seems OK, I have the ‘read’ tool read the text back to me, often many times as more edits emerge. At that point, the post is stuck in a ready to post folder, in which it may live for some time before it seems ‘ready’ enough to be published.
What I do not do, which is pretty dumb, is follow the stats of posts in any more detail than at a macro level. You see, they are for me, they are selfish. Writing makes me better at what I do, as it forces clarity and structure in my mind, if someone else benefits, great, but the object has become selfish.
How is StrategyAudit differentiated from the millions of others?
Many blog posts out there are written with the explicit objective of generating income from a transaction of some type. It often seems like good stuff to someone just looking for advice and input, and it can be. Problem is that the advice is often untested, and almost certainly untested in the context of the person seeking the advice. This makes it at best, fragile. I get ideas and perspectives from all sorts of sources, the books read, the conversations I have, the blog posts I read, webinars I watch. Each of those titbits ‘feeds’ OneNote, acting as a general information resource. Nowhere in the StrategyAudit blog is there a call to action for any sort of transaction, no affiliate sales, no ads. If I recommend a book, it is because I think it is worth your time. The only benefit to me is that I may have contributed to someone else’s growth, someone I will never know existed, but nevertheless, I contributed in some small way.
The things I write about are all things I have done. I am not speculating about what might work, the things reflected in the posts are things that I have experienced, it is a toolbox, but everything has its place in the box, and each tool has a specific purpose, a context in which it is best used. Never do I set out to deliver something that I cannot do to an expert level. For example, I often have people wanting me to execute the plans to leverage social media. I know how to use all the tools, but I am not an expert, I do not have the skills to optimise the spending of your money. I know and understand the principals, know which tools to use, but then choose to get an expert to execute.
StrategyAudit plays the long game. It is wrong to think of a post as being tomorrow’s fish wrapper. There are many posts that have taken on a life over many years, every day they deliver people to the posts, and then to others. The longevity of a blog post is a surprise to most, certainly it was to me. The great benefit is that it becomes clear what topics my readers are interested in, so I tend to focus my thinking on those topics.
I also admit to several hobby horses: the paucity of thinking around the funding and organisation of education, the shambolic nature of our politics and the apparent absence of any real oversight, transparency, or moral compass. My views on these are mixed in with the observations and advice that hopefully make the StrategyAudit blog useful for small and medium businesses, particularly those manufacturing a product.
What is the value of a blog?
A single blog, not much, in the absence of something truly extraordinary. It is the accumulation of the knowledge that comes from researching and writing posts where the value lies hidden.
Einstein observed the compounding was the most powerful force in the universe, he was right, and it applies to everything, including blog posts. The caveat of course is that every post must be of value to someone, and compounding is a two-edged sword, working in reverse as well as forward.
Is blogging still relevant in the digital ecosystem that has expanded in an astonishing manner? Well, yes. At least in my view. Despite the numerous new channels, and more opening every day, the discipline of a blog is a value adding activity which can be leveraged onto other channels.
There are many ways you can make money from a blog, at least a successful one with longevity. Not only can a blog lead to consulting assignments, speeches, and accumulated wisdom assembled into a book, there are other opportunities. None of the following tactics have been used: Advertising, affiliate links, sponsored posts, product sales, simply because they pollute the intent of the writing. The reality is that you only make worthwhile money with a big following, which this blog does not have. The price for selling my soul to any of these so called ‘monetisation strategies’ is nowhere near big enough, and never will be.
Some predictions.
Years of intimately observing the changing competitive, strategic, and regulatory environment, leaves you with a set of parameters by which to make judgements and predictions of those future things that are unquantifiable, until they have happened. Marketers are charged with predicting the future so that they can enable the alignment of assets of their enterprise to best generate leverage and outcomes. Therefore, predicting the future and placing bets is a part of the responsibility. So, here goes, in no particular order:
Hyperconnected but lonely. We have become the most connected population in history. We have also become the loneliest, losing the connections to small groups that ensured survival as we evolved. This downward spiral will reach ‘bottom,’ and we will find new ways to reconnect with small groups that offer the physical and psychological safety we need. While we have become hyperconnected and lonely, we have also become polarised, driven by the echo chamber of digital platforms that have emerged. I remain optimistic, that the ‘reconnection’ will reverse this disturbing trend.
Digital currencies will create an existential threat to the existing Sovereign borders. There are many ‘crypto currencies’, and hundreds more will be created by anyone with the digital grunt, and ability to create a market for them. Facebook seems publicly to have backed away from its announced ‘Libra’ digital currency, and associated payment and trading enhancements. However, given the reach of Facebook, and the potential of ‘Fintech’ to disrupt the cash generation capacity of ‘pre-digital’ business models, (banks & insurance specifically) I suspect it will re-emerge in some form. Irrespective of the involvement of Facebook, or indeed, any of the other ‘digital unicorns’ the potential for crypto currencies to change the face of commerce and the fiscal health of sovereign economies is, in my view, significant. We had best be prepared.
Social media regulation. It is probable we will see some sort of regulation of social platforms. Twitters recent decision to ban all political advertising is at absolute odds with Facebooks hypocritical position that to do so is an invasion of free speech. I detect an increasing level of public disquiet, so at some point, years too late, regulators will bumble towards regulation of social platforms. The recent Australian experiment which remains legislated, to collect money from digital platforms to keep newspapers alive is an absolute dog, and will be, hopefully, repealed, and replaced by something sensible.
Ageing population. The population of the first world is getting older, and more expensive to keep alive, while the number of people generating taxable income reduces. This creates pressure for a substantial reordering of the status quo in the broad range of industries called ‘health and aged care’. There are numerous models around the world, some work better than others, but all hide enormous inefficiencies and inequity that will become the focus of much innovative attention. The consortium of Amazon, JP Morgan, and Berkshire-Hathaway, set up to address the challenge, closed in early 2021 after 3 years of operations. The managers cited data collection and aggregation as the central obstacle. Given the nature of innovation, I suspect this consortium which burnt $100 million, petty cash to these giants, is just the first experimental foray into the jungle of regulation and self-interest that drives profitability in this huge industry. More will follow.
Climate change is not an opinion. We need to recognise in our marketing activities and positioning, that climate change is a reality. Irrespective of what the dinosaurs running the place may think, the science demonstrates clearly otherwise. The Greta Thunberg’s of this world will be running it soon and will reasonably expect my generation to have made a start on saving the place as best we can.
Customer centricity. You must now be customer centric in everything, as it is the customers who have all the power in the lead up to a transaction. No longer just talking about it but making customers the reason for every activity. This exchange of power in the purchase process will not be reversed. If anything, it will leak into our wider social and political lives, and demand change. In a word, ‘transparency’ will become the objective, and the more it is denied by the status quo and vested interests, the nastier the argument will become.
Artificial Intelligence. Machine learning of various types will continue its march into marketing decision making. Machine learning (ML) is a subset of artificial intelligence, relies on progressive ‘learning’ from trial and error, which delivers increasingly accurate interpretations and predictions against a defined goal. As more data becomes available and is subject to the algorithms, the predictions become increasingly more accurate. ML is a valuable tool when the objective is clear. It is less effective when the objective ambiguous or morally complex. For example, self-driving cars must gain approval from stakeholders outside the data, regulators, insurance companies, and others. In addition, it must be capable of making moral decisions, such as ‘will I collide with that old man or that child’ when no other option but those two is available. We have a long way to go yet, but the advent of quantum computing over the next 20 years will be a game-changer.
Digital access. Around 35% of people on the planet do not have access to the internet, for an array of reasons. Often the infrastructure is not in place, or affordable to those effectively ‘net disenfranchised’ billions of people. Over the coming years this inequity will be addressed, probably by private enterprise. This huge cohort represents the largest opportunity to level the growing inequity in the distribution of wealth on the planet.
The successful become the victims. Success means others will copy what has made you successful. However, to be attractive, you must be sufficiently different to attract attention, and revenue from those who lead the success. It seems to me that this means that the newcomers will look for a segment in a market being served by the initially successful innovator, into which they can deliver a better outcome. There are many examples, Skype, the first mover, has attracted a host of competitors that have delivered growth for themselves and the total market by focussing on a niche and delivering a better outcome than Skype. PayPal has spurred a welter of Fintech innovation, as has YouTube. Locally, it seems to me that the two dominating real estate platforms, Realestate and Domain, are in for a rough time, as competitors emerge that do a better job in specific segments, as well as adding on other services like funding.
The Chinese second long march is digital. China has jumped a couple of generations of digital evolution, and across broad fronts are now the innovators, pushing aside Silicon Valley. Tencent, WeChat, Taobao, Alibaba are all part of an ecosystem that is combining online and offline in ways not seen before. Get used to it, our grandchildren will be living in a world where China has taken the preeminent position occupied by the US in the 20th century. Their system will evolve, history suggests that social and political change comes from the middle classes. China has done an astonishing job in lifting millions from abject poverty to middle class security in a generation, and therein lies the seeds of the changes that will become necessary. The outcome is unlikely to be anything resembling too closely the current so called ‘Democratic’ west, which for the opposite reasons has its own evolution happening, as the divide between the haves and have nots increases.
Surveillance: Is it creepy/scary/intrusive, or just another way to better deliver service. Every click on a website, social platform, email, is stored and used to target you for advertising, based on behaviour. Rapidly emerging is facial recognition, voice control, adding to the data points. At what point does this become dystopian rather than a means by which to serve us better. All these developments are by either robotic engineering people, who instinctively believe machines are better than the humans at decision making, as they are less messy, and more decisive. Those who do wish to build control over the activities of individuals, Putin, rocket man, various mullahs, and others will also continue to deploy surveillance until there is a general revulsion that creates momentum for rolling back, which in some places could be bloody.
The role of brands. The brands we grew up with, which were mostly consumer brands are largely dead, killed by house brands, price, global supply chains, and lack of any emotional connection. A few have survived. Those few are the few that have built a genuine connection that is more than just a brand, it is the transparent commitment of the owning body that is the core. Those few are immensely valuable in a world where ‘intangibles’ is increasing towards 90% of the valuation of a business.
In Australia, banks and large financial institutions have trashed their brands, which offers a huge opportunity for renewal by smaller community banks and ‘Fintech’. It seems to me that ‘Fintech’ is taking over in the absence of agility by the incumbent banks, which will lead to regulatory challenges. Similarly, energy companies, what an opportunity to invest in a transparent manner in renewables, measures to mitigate climate change, long term investments that lead us to trust the corporation behind the brand. Dairy companies in Australia all have brands, but they are owned by multinationals apart from Bega and Norco. Again, what an opportunity to leverage the ownership of those enterprises as the holder of Australian values, as the opposing brands are just labels owned for the benefit of someone else.
Relative economic growth rates. Experts predicted a world pandemic, with the benefit of hindsight it was a safe prediction given the number of times it has happened before. Question is, how will this shape the post pandemic world? My bet is that the debt that has accumulated in the west, together with the evolution of crypto currencies and the reshaping of global demographics will see the relative decline of today’s successful economies and the rise of those in Asia and Africa. They are currently less constrained by debt, ageing infrastructure, sunk costs and a resilient status quo. They will undergo an increasing level of education and gain low-cost digital accessibility which will drive their relative productivity improvement to catch up with the old West.
That is enough from me. If you have read all this, thank you. It has been a bit self-indulgent, but it is StrategyAudit’s coming of age, so why not?
