February 2022 Newsletter
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Here the shortcuts to this months musings:
Every month I put out an update on what I am working on, what I am talking to people about and what I am reading. All this gets put together into a Newsletter which you can sign up for. It comes once a month and I promise there is no other use of your email address to me. I appreciate those who do both to receive and read my updates. Thanks!
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Repurposing Content
One problem I see often and experience myself very often is generating enough content to post on the internet. Through my interviews and articles that I write I have plenty of good information at hand and share all of that but those are heavy lifting items. It takes weeks for a podcast to be scheduled, conducted, edited and then shared. An original article can take a few hours or months. So, how do I create a regular flow of content across the platforms where I am active?
Repurposing Content
TL;DR Scroll down to the 3rd article here to see an overview of this “Content Carousel”
Sharing long-form content is exciting but hard work. Taking that piece you have created and making a collection of smaller items means having 3-8 pieces to share after the first one! I just wrapped up a podcast episode program which was recorded in November. The podcast (long form) was edited and posted in November. This week I took that podcast (audio only) and made 3 short “audiograms”, wrote 2 articles and still have a video “vlog” version to make this weekend. That is 6 additional pieces from the original. The articles are then shared twice on my site here and on LinkedIn. The audiograms are shared on LinkedIn, posted to my YouTube channel and also Instagram. All in all that’s 14 pieces shared from 1 podcast.
Now, this is just one example and I will be generating a case study for a public organisation which wants more “publicity” but doesn’t have much time to put into it. The idea is not anything new but I needed to find a way to make this scale with less effort; meaning less pressure on long-form content. I was lucky to run across Ben Baker’s website this last summer and spoke to him about what he company (link below) does. On the website it says “give me 4 hours or your time and I will give you a years worth of social media content”. - WHAT!?! Basically he offers a service which generates and repurposes content for businesses. After speaking with him I made a concerted effort to design my own framework to make it more easy, more efficient to do the same.
You’ll be seeing me writing more about this in the future but for now just an explainer in case you see me in different places sharing “similar” content. If you have any ideas or questions for me, then let me know!
Ben Baker’s site: Communicate Your Why
Adapt or Die
Should I Digitally Transform My Business?
The last 2 years have taught us many things but the role of the internet, the digital world, has, in many ways, seen it heyday. Where would we be without remote working, schooling, food delivery and more. I don’t want to say everything ‘digital’ is better or the best way it should be, but that digital is for many, even before a pandemic hit a major role in their lives.
This is what I wanted to talk to Howard Tiersky about on the New Normal podcast. Howard is founder of an agency in NYC called FROM and they work with clients to ‘digitally transform’. They are The Digital Transformation Agency. During the interview he stated, ‘transform or die’.
(Links to everything mentioned are below)
Digital transformation is not a new topic but in my 25 years of working with companies it was often met with resistance. “The customers don’t want to contact us via our website” or “they don’t want to pay with plastic!” was recently in my local newspaper. My followers in the U.S. will know of Radio Shack and what it was and where it is today. Gosh that battery club saved me. Netflix pivoted from DVD rental to what it is today. Disney+, Spotify or Apple Music, The Weather Channel I could go on, but you know what I mean. I came across Jennifer Clinehens founder of Choice Hacking on LinkedIn a few months back and love the cross of behavioral psychology and experience. She has a video over on YouTube where she talks about the demise of JC Penny’s, and I will be interviewing her very soon.
Here is an excerpt from the podcast where I asked Howard why a business must digitally transform?
The world is undergoing a digital transformation. And even more importantly, your customers are undergoing a digital transformation. The behavior of your customers today is dramatically different from what it was 10 years ago, frankly, even two years ago. And the main difference is that their lives have become even more digitally centric.
They're sleeping with their phone beside their bed and more and more facets of their life are funneled through an app or an online platform. So, as a business, when your customer undergoes that kind of change, you've just got two choices. You can change to continue to be relevant to your customer or you can become irrelevant and probably go out of business. These are really the options.
Let’s look at a company like Sears. There was a time when Sears was the number one retailer in the United States, 1969. Their revenue was approximately equivalent to 1% of the US gross domestic product. That is about what Amazon is today. Of course, the GDP is larger today than it was in 1969, but Amazon's revenue just for retail. I'm not talking about the other aspects of Amazon is about 1% of the us GDP. So, consider that there was a time when another company had that level of retail dominance.
And where are they now? Sears has gone from having over 3,500 stores to, I believe, 15 Sears and 15 Kmart, something like that. (Update, there are only 21 left) So, for all intents and purposes, Sears has become irrelevant across the map. That's what happens. They were obviously highly relevant to the customer at one point in time, but they didn't change or change fast enough, the customer changed, and this is where they are. It's why I titled my book, Winning Digital Customers: The Antidote to Irrelevance because today's customers, I call them digital customers.”
Not because everything they want in their life is digital. They still want to have a nice meal. You know, they don't want to eat a digital meal, but they're living a lifestyle with digital at the center, which means that they expect to be able to make a reservation digitally, maybe see a menu digitally, get the receipt digitally, so it's not all about being digital, but about appealing to these digital customers that people with their lives. So driven by digital. I think that's why digital transformation, is so important it's ‘transform or die’ to be not to be overly dramatic.
Transform or die. That sounds like a t-shirt I need to print. As a kid I grew up with the Sear catalog. I remember being so excited every time the new Sears catalog came out and I flipped through all, 800 pages of it, looking at every lawnmower and tractor they sold out there.
The important takeaway from Howard’s piece is you must keep your customer front and center. What does that customer want? How does that customer communicate? What are they interested in? With which other companies are they doing business with? My 3-chair barbershop just recently added a card payment terminal. He was always a cash business but was hearing from his customers, who are many under 30, that they just don’t use much cash, so he transformed. It costs him more for the transactions, but he figures he will attract more clients. Hair & beard cuts are still offline, with scissors and razors. Finally, from Howard’s blogpost on “Rules for Contact Centers” rule #1: many times, your customers don't want to talk to you.
/Andrew
Links:
Howard Tiersky of FROM
Howard’s Blog: 4 New Rules for Contact Centers in a Digital World
https://www.from.digital/insights/4-new-rules-contact-centers-digital-world
Howard’s Best Seller Book: Winning Digital Customers: The Antidote to Irrelevance
https://winningdigitalcustomers.com/freechapter
Choice Hacking – Jennifer Clinehans
https://www.choicehacking.com/
Jen’s YouTube – Grow Like The Greatest
https://www.youtube.com/c/GrowLiketheGreatest/featured
Content Framework
Here is an extract of what I am working on right now. If you are interested in the more complete version just drop me a note.
Hey, if you made it this far then, thanks! I hope it was worth your time and if you have a comment please leave one below. I am on a journey to learn how people and organisations are coping in this New Normal. If you are interested in sharing your story or know of someone who might, just reach out. Use the contact form here and leave me a short note. I would love to hear your story.
Thank you for coming here and sharing your day with my stories.
/Andrew
What is Digital.Done.Right.?
It’s a global education and consulting platform on a mission to get companies and organizations comfortable engaging with the digital world to:
✅ Attract today’s digital consumer
✅ Design more engaging digital experiences
✅ Drive growth, conversion, and sales across the customer/user journey
Interested in learning more? Reach out and let’s chat.