A few years ago, at mivision, we took a long hard look at our business model. The world was increasingly moving online and the loudest voices in publishing were saying print was dead. Magazines were turning away from their paper editions, choosing instead to send regular e-bulletins to their subscriber base in the belief that these would all be opened, shared and interacted with at every occasion.
mivision ventured into online and, don’t get me wrong, we’ve done well. We’ve got an amazing following of over 15,000 online subscribers, our e-newsletters, on average, have a 35 per cent open rate and of those 50 per cent click through to the website. In the past year, we’ve also had a 55 per cent increase in the number of people who complete our CPD modules, reading the articles in the journal then going online to earn their points. The thing is, we did this while holding on to the journal because we knew that was the core of the business, that it aligned with our vision and our mission, and that it enabled us to produce a substantial, quality document that reflected the professional nature of our readers.
I’m glad we made that decision, that we held on to the journal as our flagship product, and decided against cutting production costs to focus more on online, because a few years later, when we look around, all the strongest mastheads – think Vogue, Australian Women’s Weekly and Australian Geographic – have remained in print and they’ve thrived.
Support for mivision continues to grow. Each time we publish, we get feedback from readers who love the content, appreciate the quality feel of the pages and the look of the design.
it’s best to look at the small adjustments you can make to expand your offering, broaden your market and grow your business
As a result, the issues are getting bigger (this issue is our biggest yet), we’re taking on more writers and expanding our reach. We could have dumped the publication – thrown the baby out with the bath water – and found ourselves with just the dregs of what we once had. But we didn’t listen to those few loud voices, we listened to the silent majority, we stuck to our original vision, and we too, have thrived.
In eye care – as in all business – the same applies. It’s so easy to listen and follow the loudest voices, to dramatically change the way you do things and to take a new path. But really, if you have established your core business, your values and your mission, and if you’re adhering to all of these, we believe, it’s best to look at the small adjustments you can make to expand your offering, broaden your market and grow your business. Of course we all need to constantly review where we’re at, what our competitors are doing and ensure our relevance into the future. But the trick, while holding on to the heart of the business, is to be fluid enough to discard the out of date, embrace the new and move forward with confidence.
In business, as in life, it’s important to listen to all the voices, especially the silent majority – because they’re often the ones that love what you’re doing for them… they just may not tell you!