Content & email strategy

This $20-million+ company had their eyes set on future expansion. But they were stuck watching customers choose nationally-recognized names over their family-owned, local operation time and time again.

They wanted to know why. And what could be done about it.

Brand voice

Competitive differentiation

Product marketing

“What are they doing that we’re not?”

The market big dogs were using a better positioning playbook

When market leaders talked about benefits, it was through the lens of their differentiated positioning. That move helped them capture greater market attention, and become leaders in a market full of brands all selling the same things, with the same benefits, in the same ways.

"You need to have a clear understanding of your benefits."

⬆ That's common marketing advice.

Copy-paste benefits offer no benefit

But it loses efficacy (and conversion power) when everyone in the market is talking about the same benefits, in the same way.

Through market analysis, it became clear that the biggest market players understood this in a way that the brands chasing them did not.

In this market, those words were background noise.

Everyone promised "high performance."

Market Leader #3:

Fronted themselves as leaders of innovation.

Rather than talking to the customer, they talked over them. They didn't promise “we’ll meet you where you are,” they communicated — “we’re ahead of where you are, and that’s to your benefit.”

Complex ideas, lofty language, and a sterile/mechanical tone front innovation over personalized human support.

Market Leader #2:

Family care sat at the center.

They valued customers as people, in a way that moved beyond business and into the personal. They saw how professional realities (more revenue, more efficiency) contributed to real personal benefits (more time with the family, more freedom).

Market Leader #1:

Meanwhile...

Framed their marketing through a competitive and achievement-oriented lens.

They catered to high-intent, no-BS customers with highly tactical language (“front lines,” “unrivaled,” “in the dirt”).

Equals

Focused on meeting audiences where they are through a sense of partnership. Rather than shouting about expertise, quietly saying "we're on your level" through accessible language drawn from real voice of customer data.

Experience

A 100-year legacy is impressive on its own. But it builds in power when paired with clear communication about the growth experience, the lessons learned, past knowledge shared, and how those experiences (mistakes and all) drive future visions.

Personal

While competitors were keeping audiences more distant with third person, a close-in use of the word "you" in communications made customers feel in-conversation, not spoken down to or over.

The gap:

Deep awareness of the industry BS their customers hated: and how they wanted to do things differently.

Respect for tradition.

100-year legacy.

Finding that gap? Not the same as distilling it down into a clear, repeatable structure that could be executed across a 150+ person team. Guiding principles included:

Across blog pages, website pages, email campaigns, and internal content pieces. To drive organic traffic through SEO while conversion-optimizing key pages and creating a cohesive customer buying journey.

Content strategy

To help direct creative through a company-wide rebrand, with psychology-backed decision making to match new visual identity with positioning identity.

Rebrand direction & creative alignment

With clear tone, cadence, and value-oriented language guidelines that could be implemented across company while maintaining consistency across a large and changing marketing team.

Brand voice guidelines

For a 150+ person team

Deliverables that bridge strategy & execution

The brand went on to unite their 5+ business divisions under one unified company umbrella, with the work we did together as a strategic throughline. They have since brokered new equipment partnerships and expanded into new locations.

As the client’s priorities shifted toward immediate scaling, certain initiatives (including the website-wide implementation of brand voice) took a back seat. However, company growth continues.