Stop struggling to get attention. Instead, get discovered.

In 2019, anyone who wants to reach an audience is being forced to evolve.

Business owners. Entrepreneurs. Consultants. Coaches. Speakers.

You have to change the way you reach out to customers and clients. Or you risk becoming irrelevant, invisible and insolvent.

Why?

It’s the dawn of the Authority Age where only credible experts and thought leaders will win the attention of their key clients and customers. 

In the scramble for the scarce (and decreasing) attention of your community, standard marketing practice and business-as-usual sales processes just can’t attract the same kind of airtime and visibility. 

You’ve probably experienced this yourself.

Tougher to make appointments with new clients? Check.

Longer lead times on sales? Sure.

Smarter, quicker competitors? You’re dealing with all of that.

In fact, then, if you want to attract new clients, inspire your community, or even leave a legacy – without wasting time on random social media strategies – your next project is simple.

You should write a book. 

You’ve been thinking about this off and on for some time. People have even been telling you ‘you should write a book’. 

Here’s the solid business case.

The Problems of 2019

We know 2018 and 2019 so far have been an information overload for our clients. And if your gut tells you the flood won’t let up for the rest of 2019 and into 2020... you’re probably right.

Check out Mary Meeker’s astonishing deck on Internet Trends.

“If it feels like we’re all drinking from a data firehose, it’s because we are”

“If it feels like we’re all drinking from a data firehose, it’s because we are,” Meeker tells the audience in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Recode conference.

The last two years alone? Mindbending. (Seriously.) Check it out.

So the themes for the rest of 2019 are obvious. 

First, the global economy is forecast to grow just 1.8%, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Second, Brexit uncertainty and the changing outlook in Europe are driving investment down – 30% since 2016 (says the IMF) – and sucking the air out of business growth.

Lastly, that sound you hear of a global slowdown? It’s the screeching brakes of the Chinese economy.

But forget about these specific challenges for a moment, important though they are. (There will always be global shifts, weak economies, and sector volatility.) 

Allow me to focus your attention on a bigger story.

The fundamentals of getting your message out there, of marketing your business, have changed.

How so?

The global expansion of the smartphone presents a pivotal moment for anyone trying to reach their clients and customers in any significant way. 

Alerts. Notifications. Messengers. Chat.

In your pocket. In your purse. In your hand.

This has changed communication forever.

So how do you win attention in the Attention Economy?

Scroll back 22 years. Two Andersen Consulting consultants, Thomas Davenport and John Beck, write a pragmatic Harvard Business Press book, The Attention Economy. 

And they offer two opposing strategies for managers and leaders who want to grab the attention of their communities: engage or ignore.

First, what does engage mean?

‘To engage wholeheartedly in the use of attention-getting technology [is] a state-of-the-art, sheets to the wind, no holds barred effort to manipulate electrons in the service of attention management’

‘To engage wholeheartedly in the use of attention-getting technology [is] a state-of-the-art, sheets to the wind, no holds barred effort to manipulate electrons in the service of attention management,’ say Davenport & Beck (2001, p75).  

Sadly the book’s examples are prehistoric. (Lycos anyone? Alta Vista?)

So what does engage look like in 2019? 

If you want to scrabble for the attention of your community you’re going to be forced to create killer new strategies, like intent-based branding from Frank Kern (livestreaming on multiple platforms simultaneously).

Or the content marketing model from Vaynermedia’s Gary Vaynerchuk, (breaking an hour’s keynote into 30+ soundbites, videos and Instagram memes).

So the challenge, if you want engage with the attention economy in 2019, is to embrace ALL the attention-grabbing technologies.

And you’ve got to get to the leading edge and stay there. Become an expert, a thought leader, in online communication technology AS WELL AS your own discipline. (Or hire a team to do it for you.) 

Thing is, if you’re successful, the rest of the world’s marketers will copy you in 5 minutes.

Ignore the trend then?

Put a sandwich board on and stand in front of the office of your key clients? 

Maybe not. 

But there is something to be said for going the non-traditional way.

When everybody zigs, zag

Have you ever read the book Zag?

If you haven’t, you should. It’s a fantastic book. (Here’s my personal copy.)

Zag is one of the 100 Best Business Books of All Time, according to Todd Sattersten, former President of 800-CEO-READ.

The author is Marty Neumeier and I interviewed him for one of our ebooks.

He’s brilliant at making complex ideas sing.

For instance, the act of standing out from the competition isn’t front-page news, he says.

What IS front-page news – in a world with Attention Deficit Disorder – is that you need more than differentiation.

You need RADICAL differentiation.

“The new rule?”, he tells me: “When everybody zigs, zag.”

I love that.

Because in your business or profession you have only two strategic choices:

1. Copy what everyone else is doing. (Faster, better, or cheaper.)
2. Or do something RADICALLY DIFFERENT. Truly distinctive. Something that stands out. Something that produces exponential, not marginal results.

So if your competitors are all pumping out shallow internet memes in an attempt to go viral, you should answer your best clients’ biggest problem in a book.

(Yes it’s an investment of time. But not as long as you think. And there’s a free app for that.)

So when your competitors are madly scrambling to get attention you simply ... get discovered.

It takes no brilliant foresight.

And it’s simple. (But not simplistic.)

In fact it’s the only way forward if you want to get NOTICED and stand out in the ever-crowded world of your clients and customers.

One more time: why write a book?

Why write a book?

Let’s put it another way: what’s the outcome of writing a book?

One of the big things you need to do (the biggest?) is win new clients.

We typically do that by reaching out – on the telephone or face-to-face, through press coverage or writing articles, by social media or by advertising.

That’s a huge number of interruptions for any potential client.

Seth Godin – the godfather of permission marketing – has this to say about interruption marketing:

‘Marketing is a contest for people’s attention. Thirty years ago, people gave you their attention if you simply asked for it. You’d interrupt their TV program, and they’d listen to what you had to say… That’s not true anymore'

He goes further.

‘There’s too much going on in our lives for us to enjoy being interrupted… So our natural response is to ignore the interruptions’. (My emphasis.)

So Godin is clear: NO ONE is paying attention to your business, your ideas or you.

The good news?

Everyone is OBSESSED with their own challenges and their own opportunities.

Jacqueline Moore is my wife, my business partner and a former columnist on the London Financial Times. (Meaning: I listen to her carefully.) She put it like this once and it stuck with me…

‘Getting more time isn’t the problem. It’s getting attention…

‘And people’s attention is scarce.’

Reinforces for me that carpet bombing everyone’s social media accounts isn’t going to work any more. (If it ever did.)

Just today, flicking through my news feed, I’m seeing random pictures, click-bait articles and apple-pie platitudes. How about you?

All I can tell you is that 99.9% of it does not reach my conscious brain.

So…

If blogging, social media, sales calls, or today’s latest tactic (whatever it is) aren’t working for us (because everyone is doing it), how can we cut through the noise? How can we stand out?

Here’s Big Idea No. 1:

To get the attention of someone in need, simply do this: offer to help them.

If they need you, they’ll raise their hand.

And Big Idea No. 2?

The fastest and most effective way to have someone raise their hand is…?

Write a book that helps them.

You might have come across the journalist Daniel Goleman – he’s the guy who popularised the concept of emotional intelligence (EQ).

I met Daniel at London Business School, when he was sharing some of his latest work highlighting the science of attention.

There’s a book, of course. Called Focus. And it makes you think.

In short, says Goleman, people who are focused inwards, on something really significant to them, can at the same time be attuned to the same topic in the outside world.

I simplify drastically, but in practical terms, if you want to get someone’s attention (and you know what they’re obsessing about), just put something helpful near them. On Amazon or Kindle, for example. They’ll see it.

How so?

Amazon and Kindle are search engines.

So what?

People are looking to solve their problems. Your book allows them to find your solution.

So what do you write about?

You write about your best clients’ biggest problems.

Because books are a brilliant way to attract clients while you sleep. And to build credibility even before they call or email you.

A book is your silent sales team. Always on. Always working.

You can get found on Amazon and Kindle and iTunes and many other platforms. Without even trying.

Let that sink in for a moment.

What now? (1)

If you are frustrated by the time and effort it takes to get the attention of people who you can genuinely help in your community, and the high cost (in time and money) of random PR, social media and sales outreach, then write a book.

It’s a discovery strategy not an attention strategy and it’s the only intelligent approach open to you.

Because you will get discovered based on what people are actually looking for.

When you realize that Amazon and iTunes et al. are search engines (and they are) then you will also realize that your community is out there actively trying to solve the problems they have.

Meaning they are looking for you.

They just don’t know it yet.

So STOP scrambling to get attention. 

Instead, get discovered. 

And win the luxury of the undivided and voluntary attention of your community.

Not just for 5 minutes, either.

For hours at a time.

Make no mistake, you should write a book.

What now? (2)

Have an idea for a book? Give me a call.

Jacqueline and I are busy... writing books among other things.

But we’ll tell you if you have a killer idea.