How far do you want to go?

SOFTWARE GIANT

This brand’s sales enablement tools didn’t tell a story, were easily corrupted, and were too big to email.

Managers were writing, writers were researching, and product teams were dictating content. The results were a mess.

This team needed to turn itself into an internal agency, so I revised their decks to a storytelling + appendix model, revised process and workflows, advised leaders on how to re-organize the team, developed a RACI model optimized for content work, then created and updated brand tools (Value Propositions, Voice & Tone guidance, etc.).

The team was doing bad PowerPoint when I arrived. Two years later, they were doing good video.

SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR

This brand needed to shift left in a global market left but had no content strategy capability.  

Despite superb ability to implement technology, content was an afterthought.

I wrote their official position on content and content strategy, then developed a method for delivering that work to customers. I helped hire content strategists for customers in the US and Europe, then trained them to use the method.

This brand’s digital studio now has a mature content and content strategy practice. It can create and sustain experiences that drive engagement and revenue for their customers, and can create sales enablement materials for internal teams.

EUROPEAN STARTUP

This consultancy needed to provide ultra-targeted content for enterprise clients—with a tiny US-based crew.

This brand didn’t have enough writers for the workload, so there was no room to grow it’s US operations.

I reviewed and streamlined the discovery process, then created a set of storytelling templates populated with pre-approved talking points for their largest customer. As we refined these methods, I leveraged them for other customers.

This ContentOps approach cut our discovery call duration from 2-3 hours to 1 hour, cut the time to create a customer-ready draft from days to hours, and expanded our team capacity from 3-4 simultaneous projects to over 20.

MULTINATIONAL #1

This company got acquired, then had to turn their parent company’s website into a modern experience.

The creative director did most of the writing but was too swamped to take on a politically sensitive assignment.

I reverse-engineered a brief from a string of emails, got it approved, and socialized it. Then I created content strategy and executed on it, coordinated with adjacent teams, coordinated with C-suite leaders, wrote over 40 case studies, and led a writing team in creating three layers of content (Executive, BDM, TDM). As the parent company continued to grow by acquisition, I developed a repeatable method and templates for the creative work required to incorporate new companies into the parent brand.

This project evolved into a multi-year engagement to create a content practice, and this company can now deliver content work across its client roster.

MULTINATIONAL #2

Disparate content orgs took forever to create off-brand work—and even then the work often alienated audiences.

This brand survived for decades with no central marketing org, but times changed and the internal kingdoms went to war.

I assessed their output, people, process, and tools, then coordinated efforts with adjacent teams. I clarified vision for a centralized team and how it could support the brand. I drafted new Voice & Tone guidance, initial audience proto-personas, and other strategic tools. I wrote tech and organizational roadmaps to prepare the team to leverage data, automation, and AI, plus a data-based roadmap to improve email marketing operations. Then I trained staff across the company to use the new tools and methods.

We cut average content creation time from 27 days to six, and cut first-draft creation time from multiple days to a few hours. The team has since added video and motion graphics capacity.

INSERT YOUR BRAND HERE

Now it’s your turn. What success story do you need to create?

johngaineswrites@gmail.com 206-498-0798