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 AI search and AI content strategies 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.
AI drifts toward consensus.
Ask AI to write your messaging and you'll get what everyone else in your market is already saying.
That's how these tools work. They learn from what's already been written and give the most common answer. Research backs this up: people who write with AI end up with work that looks more alike.
- Your content starts to sound like your competitors'.AI can produce content fast. Without a clear, tested message behind it, you just publish more of the same, faster.
- AI search can't tell you apart.ChatGPT and Google's AI answers summarize your whole category. If you sound like everyone else, they won't single you out.
The fix: decide what makes you different, test it with real buyers, then let AI spread it. That first step is what we do.
Each layer depends on the one beneath it.
Great products lose to clearer stories.
AI makes the problem louder, but it starts earlier. 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 team is publishing more than ever with AI tools, and it all sounds like everyone else in your category.
- You're spending on SEO and AI search optimization, and there's no clear story for Google or ChatGPT to pick up.
How we get you out of the consensus.
We find the idea your competitors can't copy, prove it with your buyers, and turn it into messaging your team and your AI tools can use.
Case studies prove you can deliver. A sharp point of view is what gets you into the conversation in the first place, and it's the part AI can't supply. It takes judgment, conviction and a deep understanding of your buyers. We focus on three things:
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, and your AI tools, can work from: 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, including the briefs and guidelines your AI content tools work from, with hands-on support until everyone is 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
- Messaging is a business decision.It decides who you sell to, what you can charge and which deals you walk away from. It belongs in the boardroom, not just the marketing plan.
- Win the budget owner, not just the user.Users champion products. Executives fund them. Most messaging only speaks to the first group.
- If nobody could disagree with it, it isn't positioning.Safe messages are invisible, to buyers and to AI.
- Proof beats hype.The strongest position is a new way to solve an old problem, backed by real results.
- Senior people do the work.The people who interview your buyers are the people who write your messaging. Nothing gets handed off to junior staff.
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