Messaging and Content That Works

Kevin Spaulding, the engagement manager at True|IT, West Fargo, N.D., didn’t really see the need to bring in a freelance copywriter for the relationship and project planning document he intended to use with clients. He said so to Director of Sales and Marketing Brant Flint.

“Just wait and see,” Brant told him.

A few months earlier, True|IT had purchased a competing business, and the merger of staffs gave True|IT additional capabilities and areas of expertise. Brant and Marketing Associate Morganne Stinsman hired me to develop a brand messaging framework for the new, combined business technology company and write content for a new website. I’d done the same work for True|IT a few years earlier, along with a client case study, so I had a head start on understanding the company and its business environment.

Today, rather than being just a managed service provider (MSP) for information technology that also offers customized software development, True|IT also provides enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management. More than that, True|IT ties together all aspects of business technology – the infrastructure, tools and processes – into a seamless continuum for clients.

It’s a dream for chief information and chief technology officers. Previously, the CIO/CTO had the headaches of dealing with separate IT teams handling the distinct silos of IT infrastructure and tech-based tools. Often, neither team fully understood what the other was doing, which resulted in all kinds of issues, inefficiencies and rework. Now, the CIO/CFO gets everything from one expert provider.

I worked with Brant and Morganne to focus in on and verbalize True|IT’s strongest differentiators and key messages, then started work on the website content.

True|IT’s wanted minimal words; 1,500 over the entire site would still be too much. I condensed the messaging into high-impact statements comprising about 850 words over the entire site that conveyed precisely what True|IT wants website visitors to take away.

Brant said it just made sense, with the understanding I’d gained in the previous projects, to involve me in writing the relationship/project planner.

I met with Brant and Kevin for about an hour, asked questions and listened, and later that week sent them a draft.

“Kevin came to my office as soon as he finished reading it,” Brant recalled. “All he said was, ‘I get it now.’”

True|IT had few changes, and the document was ready to go.

“Martin really makes it simple,” Morganne said later. “You tell him the need. Sit down and converse. Then he writes the content. He’s intuitive and helps come up with an even better outcome than we could imagine.”