Insights

I spent a good portion of my formative years in a law firm, as a number of my family members were part of the bar. While I chose a different career path, my time in that environment gave me a few legal insights, including:

• When "Law & Order" is getting it all wrong. Seriously, trials are rarely that entertaining and never end in 13 minutes.
• That some matters conclude with no clear winner, regardless of the verdict.

It's not often that I have to justify or explain what I do for a living, thank goodness. The advancing prominence of digital marketing has meant this industry is no longer relegated to the ropes, taking rib shots for multiple rounds just to wear down opponents. The downside is that I'm particularly baffled when I come across a business that still views the web in parochial, even dangerous, terms.

This happened last week during a discussion about a company that relies on the decidedly aged technique of in-home sales. They pointedly refuse to allow any type of online marketing, thinking it cold and impersonal—not to mention a threat to their business model.

It seems I made a bit of a boo-boo in Digett's July newsletter, titled "Join our Launch Party." You see, we try to center our monthly missives around one theme, a practice that helps focus the conversation. Since we completed a number of projects toward the end of June, I thought it appropriate to highlight them and call it a "launch party," a minor mockery of the irrational exuberance of the dot-com boom of the late 90s.

Unfortunately, the title caused some confusion—there was no actual party. In my zeal to create a quirky and memorable theme, I committed a basic communications error by not being clear. I've even been told a couple of people were confused about how to R.S.V.P. for the party, which probably means I now owe some folks drinks and a cheese platter.

Almost one year ago, I sat down to write my second-ever blog post for Digett. The topic? The fact that a website we designed for McMillin Homes won a 2008 Summit Award from the Greater San Antonio Builders Association. Well, you'll never guess what happened: It won again in 2009.

Two wins in two years brings pretty sweet satisfaction, we'll warrant, and we'd love to think of ourselves as the Phil Jackson of web marketing (just with respect to his record, folks). Still, I have to reaffirm what I stated last year: It's more satisfying to please our clients.

WeatherfordLabs.com came to Digett via The Phillips Agency (TPA), an advertising and marketing firm out of Houston, TX, that has been working with Weatherford Laboratories on branding efforts for some time. TPA requested our involvement for our experience building content-managed websites. They provided our team with a beautiful design layout, and that's where our great collaborative effort began.