The primary goal of a lead-generation-focused content strategy is to get the right content into the right prospect's hands at the right time. That's no small task, and the success of that effort typically rests on how well you've defined your targets; the deeper you dig into your prospects, the better chance you have of determining their needs, motivations, and hangouts.
When we conduct brand-positioning exercises, our goal is to help our client define their brand so that it may be communicated in a straightforward and believable way. One of the first steps in the process is developing their unique selling proposition (USP), which separates them from other businesses and lays the groundwork for a positioning statement that is designed to be the foundation on which their content strategies are built.
But we've had at least one recent example where hours of working through buyer criteria and competitor analyses failed to result in the creation of a simple, complete USP. We ran straight into the biggest challenge of working with service providers: intangibility.
Automated marketing often is a misunderstood concept, particularly as many think it just takes the form of email autoresponders. These are the awkwardly distant "I'm out of the office and having more fun than you" kind of replies or robot-like missives that come with return addresses beginning with things like "DONOTREPLY." They rarely communicate something of value and often sound like they were written for a poorly translated Atari video game. But it doesn't have to be that way.
Normally, we're a humble bunch of folks; we put on our pants one leg at a time and get to work (cough) early to get a leg up, all without fanfare, ticker-tape parades, or floats. That said, we don't turn up our noses when an award comes our way, especially if it's for the third year in a row.
That being the case, we're pleased to announce the Greater San Antonio Builders Association has awarded the Digett-designed and -developed McMillin Homes website the 2010 Summit Award for Best Website for a Builder. I might mention we also won in 2009 and 2008—and telling the truth never constitutes bragging, in our playbook.
If we had more room in our header areas, I'd tack "for you" onto the end—that's one of the crucial points of this post, after all. In the course of doing what I do, I come across all kinds of email templates, and one truth emerges: the perfect email template is what works best for your organization and your readers. There's no one-size-fits-all solution.
Finding your own sweet spot, however, can be challenging. And while I was fully prepared to dive into the research and present some high-falutin' scientific evidence for your edification, I figured show-and-tell might be more meaningful. Let's take a look at some examples—two created by Digett, one not—that work.
