Embracing collaboration in the midst of scarcity

Many of us would probably say that we and our businesses operate in a world of scarcity, where my gain is at my competitor's expense. That's why it's so refreshing to read a story like this one from FastCompany, Why we opened our pandemic-born delivery platform to competitors.

Despite the SBA's Paycheck Protection Program there are going to be countless businesses that never reopen. Some of them could probably be saved if that segment's business community worked together, rather than in opposition, like that Maryland brewing company from the FastCompany article has done.

How might this work in your business segment? I realize I need to step back and start viewing others more as possible collaboration partners rather than competitors. More importantly, I need to start asking a simple question when I speak with each of them going forward: What can I do, and what might my employer be able to do, to help provide some lift for your operation? Who knows where those conversations might lead...


Welcome to DisruptorFest!

If you're looking at this page and scratching your head it's probably because you're used to seeing my digital content strategies site. Although I'm still intrigued by the future of digital content I'm even more passionate about business management, personal development and leadership.

The DisruptorFest name is inspired by the fact that disruptors are the people who are truly leading organizations into the future. They're not satisfied with the status quo; rather, they're laser focused on creating new markets, solving new problems or simply inventing new ways to solve old problems.

Going forward, DisruptorFest will serve as a resource where I plan to share many of the lessons I've learned and continue to learn. Digital content directions and trends will still be a part of that, of course, but this shift provides more latitude for me to cover other topics as well. Here are just a few of the items I plan to feature in the coming weeks and months:

  • The importance of life-long learning
  • Empowerment
  • Flat organizations
  • Agile
  • Fail forward fast
  • Exercise and fitness
  • Favorite books and excerpts
  • Favorite podcasts

The "Fest" in DisruptorFest means this is intended to serve as a community resource. I'd like to hear from you via article comments and/or email. Please be sure to share the lessons you've learned and the techniques you use as a disruptor in your world.


Unlocking value with audio and DBW 2018

Screen Shot 2018-02-18 at 3.54.52 PMI haven't attended or presented at a major publishing event since TOC ceased operation in 2013. Over these past five years I've returned to my roots on a couple of fronts. First, as a former software developer, it was fun heading up strategy and business development for a small software company which specializes in helping print publishers make the leap to digital. For the past couple of years though, I've been blessed to work with and lead a team of publishing professionals, similar to the various publisher roles I've previously held at places such as Macmillan, John Wiley & Sons and O'Reilly Media.

These two recent roles have enabled me to step back and look at the future of content development and distribution in a whole new light. The rapid pace of technology has also brought a number of new capabilities and services to the forefront, some of which simply didn't exist in 2013 (e.g., Alexa).

Many of you know that the last major digital publishing event, Digital Book World (DBW), recently changed hands and is now owned by Score Publishing. I've had the pleasure of speaking with Score's CEO, Bradley Metrock, and I'm inspired by the energy and vision he brings to the table for DBW. That's why I'm excited to announce that I'll be both speaking at DBW 2018 in October as well as moderating the New Media Book World track there.

My DBW session, "How Audio Will Unlock Value", connects a number of topics I've written about on my website and will cover each of the following, for starters:

  • Siri, Alexa, et al, are just scratching the surface
  • The importance of richly tagged content
  • Playlists, both personal and crowdsourced, show how curation becomes at least as important as creation
  • Voice UIs lead to the most powerful adviser and mentor you'll (n)ever meet

I'm looking forward to this session and track, but more importantly, I'm excited to reconnect with many members of the community I haven't crossed paths with since 2013. I hope you're planning to attend DBW 2018 so that we can continue the conversation in Nashville this October.

(P.S. -- In case you're wondering, no, I'm not on the DBW payroll -- I simply remain a fan of these important industry gatherings and I want to help spread the word and serve as an agent of change, same as I did in the TOC days.)


How are you connecting with your customers?

Figures-1607182_1920The people who actually buy and read books are still mostly nameless and faceless individuals from a publisher’s point of view. This, despite the fact that there are plenty of opportunities for publishers to establish a direct relationship with consumers. I’m not necessarily talking about selling direct; I’m referring to the opportunity to build a relationship with the people who open their wallets every day for your products.

This isn’t something that’s limited exclusively to ebooks, btw. In fact, the publisher-consumer relationship can be built via print books as well.

What’s the first thing consumers see when they open one of your books? Most of the time it’s the book’s title page. What a waste. If you just bought a book and are about to start reading it, do you really need to be reminded of the title? I’m sure this violates the core of The Chicago Manual of Style and a slew of other publishing references but what’s wrong with publishers offering a simple “thank you” message on that first page? Something like:

Thanks so much for your purchase. Be sure to register your book at www.publisherwebsite.com for free membership in our reader club where you’ll get early access to new titles and opportunities to meet your favorite authors.

Step one is to convert that anonymous consumer into a real person. But don’t just make some lame request for them to hand over their email address. You’ve got to give them compelling reasons to connect or they’ll simply ignore you.

I mentioned “early access to new titles”. What does that mean? I’m suggesting that publishers offer samples of new publications exclusively on their website or via email through free membership programs. Amazon typically doesn’t offer the ebook or e-sample till the print book publishes. Why not take advantage of the period between when the sample is ready and the book is released to encourage consumers to join your membership program or visit your site? And if you do this, be sure to remove all DRM from those samples; after all, the goal is to encourage sharing of that content, not lock it down.

I also mentioned how a reader club could provide ways for consumers to meet authors. Author webinars are one option and you could make them available exclusively to members. Those tend to be one-way conversations though, so how about adding a few more intimate virtual events with no more than 10-12 attendees? Lucky winners would be randomly drawn from the membership base and earn the opportunity to interact with authors via Google Hangout or any of a number of other virtual platforms.

Exclusive content is another way to drive consumer engagement. Would your authors be willing to create short articles, videos, etc., that are shared via the membership program? I realize every author won’t be on board with this but the ones who will are the authors who understand the importance of connecting with their readers.

This sort of program could be used to drive more sales through all channels. If you’re interested in building a better direct channel though you could also offer a variety of discounts and other incentives to get consumers to buy from your site.

It’s amazing that in 2016 most publishers still act as if there’s no benefit in establishing a relationship with their readers. The reality is these same publishers are missing out on opportunities to expose more of their content to readers who already bought from them. And as the saying goes, maintaining an existing customer generally leads to a better economic outcome than trying to find and sell to a new customer.


Here’s where innovative publishers need to focus

Idea-48100_1280There are a number of key attributes successful publishers will be known for in the future. These core capabilities will be very different from the ones that have led to the modern empires of the Big Five.

Some attributes will remain the same, of course. For example, it will always be crucial for publishers to acquire, develop and produce excellent content. But the services and capabilities that surround and complement the acquire/develop/produce core are what will matter most.

With that in mind, here’s my short list of what will separate tomorrow’s publishing leaders from all the rest:

Being data-driven – Remember the old days when Ingram data was the only source of industry-wide sell-through information? Then Bookscan hit the scene and it felt like we moved from the Stone Age to the Information Age. I’m not talking about this kind of data. Bookscan and other retailer sell-through numbers are lagging indicators. They represent what happened yesterday, last week or last month. The successful publisher of tomorrow wants to know what’s happening right now and where the trends are leading. Real-time website analytics, heat maps, email open/click-thru rates…that’s where the actionable data can be found today but most book publishers treat them as secondary information sources at best. A publisher who thinks they’re data-driven today might adjust plans for a book scheduled to publish six months from now based on sell-through data they studied from last month. Tomorrow’s data-driven publisher will alter the free content on their website this afternoon based on information they gathered this morning.

Breaking free of containers – Why are publishers focused on lagging indicators? Because they’re stuck in the era of containers. They’re producing books, magazines or newspapers and they measure everything based on those containers. It may not be obvious but the container model is slowly fading away. Please don’t misinterpret this. I’m not saying books are going away. Print books will still be produced for a long, long time. But the way content is being consumed is shifting to a more digital, container-less model. Think about that last bit of content you read on your phone. Did you care whether it was originally produced for a newspaper, a magazine, a blog, a website or a newsletter? Probably not. What mattered most is that the content covered a topic that matters to you. Innovative publishers need to think more about highly relevant content streams rather than content containers.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) – I vividly recall talking five years ago with a Big Six executive about the importance of creating a vibrant direct-to-consumer channel. She rolled her eyes and said they’d never do that because they prefer to let their retail partners handle the consumer connection. I feel somewhat validated now as I see that same publisher experimenting more and more with D2C. It’s not just about capturing all the revenue. The data and resulting opportunities to do some very powerful things with that data are what make D2C such an important model. That, and the fact that you become less reliant on middlemen who control your destiny, ought to be reason enough to focus on D2C.

Owning and leveraging the list – The most important piece of data every publisher should own is the customer name and email address. This is what makes D2C so special. Securing names and emails isn’t as easy as simply making a sale. You’ve got to earn the consumer’s trust by having them opt in to your future marketing campaigns. Too many publishers who have built a D2C channel simply become data hoarders, gathering names and emails but never doing much with them.

Building the funnel – One of the biggest reasons publishers don’t go direct is that they feel they’re unable to attract enough traffic to make it worthwhile. That’s because they’re not applying the funnel model. You start by offering plenty of outstanding free content on your site. Once visitors arrive and they like what they read you have the opportunity to connect with them via free newsletters, for example; rather than waiting and hoping they come back, offer to continue sending outstanding content right to their email inbox. Part of this step includes asking them to opt in for other offers and information from you. As the funnel narrows from top to bottom, you’re leading these consumers along a path loaded with all your terrific content, some of it free and some of it paid.

This isn’t for everyone. For example, the Big Five are simply too reliant on the existing ecosystem, unwilling to risk alienating certain channel partners and built upon a very rigid container-based creation and distribution model. The Big Five will remain large, just like B&N and Borders did for many years after Amazon arrived. But then Borders went away and in order to survive B&N evolved from a bookstore to a gift shop.

The smaller players though, the ones who focus on a particular topic, vertical or audience are the publishers who are best positioned to embrace the attributes described above. And as they do they’ll find themselves in a far better world with a direct connection to customers and the ability to serve those customers with more than just one or two types of container-driven content.