Digital strategy must be linked to a simpler objective: simple communication. What are you trying to say, and to whom are you saying it? Why say it at all?

Communication is central to building relationships, which is central to growing your business. Communication is the key.

We need to begin with strategy, not content. There is an effective way to do this. Listening carefully is the basis of how it is done.

You and your team are the ultimate authority on what you do, on what you make, and who you make it for. Not me. If I don’t listen carefully to what you do - and do not - tell me, there can be no insight. Without insight, there can be no strategy. There isn’t even a starting point.

Content? That’s the easy bit. The hard bit is defining the overarching strategic context, the umbrella, within which tactical decisions can be made about how, when, and with whom you communicate. When you have the strategy in place, the tactics become clear - and the content practically writes itself.

(Actually it doesn’t, I do that too.)

In 25 years I have had about 100,000 words published into legacy print media both in Australian and overseas, and many tens of thousands more words published through digital media channels. The print number alone is the equivalent of a good sized novel, or about four masters thesis publications.

Of course, quantity is not quality. We all know that. Nevertheless, I can say that through sheer quantity of practice I have got the hang of copy writing for diverse audiences. This last point is important: I understand the difference between writing for industry professionals, and writing for intelligent and interested lay people. In my career I have done both regularly, and for everyone in between.

This one is an idea I have been playing with. The concept is to build on my 25 years of design journalism experience - namely, interviewing creative people about who they are, and how they do what they do - and ‘weaponise’ the process into a useful and practical strategic tool.

I have named this tool the ‘Clarity Session’.

It is my intent to offer this service as a low-cost, quick and dirty method of defining a clarity of purpose and insight into a creative business, process or product, just as I did with my own business.

Stay tuned.