Messaging your buyers respond to.
Message Foundry helps B2B companies figure out who they're really selling to, what those buyers care about, and what to say that no one else in the market is saying. It's the groundwork your SEO and AI search strategy depend on, done by people who have built brands and demand engines from zero.
We'll talk about your market and where your messaging is leaking.
Great products lose to clearer stories.
Most B2B messaging is written from the inside out. It describes the product the team built instead of the problem the buyer is trying to solve. You'll recognize the symptoms:
- Lower level teams love your product, but budget owners don't see the value.
- Your homepage could belong to any of your three closest competitors.
- Leads come in, but they're the wrong buyers, or they stall after the first meeting.
- Nobody can say, with evidence, which persona signs the check and why.
- Your content is competent, but it says what everyone in your category is already saying.
- You're spending on SEO and AI search optimization, and there's no clear story for Google or ChatGPT to pick up.
AI can only repeat what you've made clear.
Every team is racing to rank in Google, appear in AI Overviews and get cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude. Those engines don't invent your positioning. They read what you publish and summarize it. If your story is vague or inconsistent, that's what they'll repeat, or they'll recommend a competitor whose story is clearer.
- Engines answer buyer questions.You can't optimize for those questions until you know which ones your personas actually ask.
- Consistency is the signal.When your website, content, sales materials and third-party mentions say the same thing, AI systems describe you the same way.
- Specific ideas get cited."Leading platform for digital transformation" gives an engine nothing to quote. A distinctive point of view does.
SEO and AI optimization are worth doing. They work far better on top of a message worth amplifying, and that's the layer most firms skip.
Each layer depends on the one beneath it.
Have something worth saying.
The B2B brands that win usually have an idea buyers haven't heard before. Case studies prove you can deliver. A sharp point of view is what gets you into the conversation in the first place.
Reframe the problem
Most categories argue about features. Breakout brands change the question buyers are asking, so the old comparison stops making sense.
Take a real position
If nobody could disagree with it, it isn't a point of view. We find the stance that's defensible, uncomfortable for competitors and true to what you deliver.
Back it with proof
Ideas get attention and evidence earns trust. We pair the big idea with case studies, data and customer stories so it holds up in the boardroom.
This work takes intellectual horsepower. It's the hardest part of building a B2B brand, and the part we enjoy most.
What we do
Persona research
Interviews with your customers, prospects and lost deals to map who buys, who influences, and what each of them needs to hear, from the people who use the product to the executive who signs off on it. Personas grounded in evidence instead of assumptions.
Messaging and positioning
A framework your whole team can use: positioning, value propositions by persona, proof points and the language that separates you from the alternatives.
Point of view and thought leadership
The contrarian insight, the reframed problem or the new way to solve an old one, built into a point of view your executives can own on stage, in print and in sales conversations.
Launch and activation
Putting the new story to work across your website, sales decks and demand programs, with hands-on support until marketing and sales are telling it the same way.
How an engagement runs
Listen
We start with your buyers. Customer and prospect interviews, win/loss review and a hard look at the competitive landscape.
Forge
We turn what we learn into positioning, persona-level messaging and a point of view, then test it with real buyers and your sales team before it goes public.
Activate
We roll the message into the places that drive pipeline: website, sales materials and campaigns. Then we measure whether it's working.
Track record
Results from leading marketing and running the business, with accountability for the number.
- $0 to $18M ARRBuilt at a retail software company after moving it to a true SaaS model.
- 45 SQLs a monthFrom a demand engine built for a highly niche B2B market.
- About 2 deals a quarterAt roughly $250K each, up from one large deal every 18 months.
- $0 to $50M+Vertical revenue grown at Pegasystems in communications and media.
What we believe
The best positioning is a new way to solve an old problem, proven with real results.
Message Foundry is a senior practice. The people who do the research are the people who write the messaging, and every engagement is led by someone who has carried a revenue number, not handed off to junior staff.
That experience includes rebranding and repositioning a software company around its real buyer personas, defining a new software category, and introducing an enterprise brand into a crowded market at Pegasystems.
Engagements are led by Tom Erskine, former CMO and CEO of One Door.
Is your message pulling its weight?
Book a free 30-minute call. We'll look at your market, your buyers and your current messaging, and you'll leave with at least one idea you can use right away.
Book a call