Industrial, marine, energy, logistics, and infrastructure companies have particular needs when it comes to their communications. Here’s how they can get better results from their marketing efforts.
About the sector
Often family-led, proud of their legacy, and focused on excellence, the industrial, marine, energy, logistics, and infrastructure companies I work with all need to communicate complex capabilities clearly, while showcasing their scale, precision, and reliability.
FAQ: How I add value
When I work with no-nonsense businesses, I can add value by:
- Extracting clarity from complexity, without compromising your technical rigour
- Acting as a translator between your technical teams and any non-technical audiences
- Making sure the essential details are preserved, while maximising ease-of-understanding
- Introducing an external, strategic eye to bring order and structure to complex or sometimes sprawling service offerings.
- Organising information to help your customers to get what’s on offer instantly, without needing to wade through reams of jargon.
- Conducting in-depth customer and market research to capture the whole picture of the business and articulate it in plain but powerful language.
This clarity helps your leadership teams articulate your strengths and capabilities in a way that’s both commercially persuasive and true to the business. And it can form the foundations of a brand tone of voice that will set you apart from the competition.
As it did with AVA Global.
Trusted by banks, traders, and refiners worldwide, AVA Global is a secure global logistics partner for transporting cash, gold, bullion, and precious metals.
I worked with CEO, Chris Fergus and his wider team in their regional offices in New York, Miami, Buenos Aires, London, Frankfurt, Dubai, Hong Kong and Perth to develop their website messaging and website copy, clarifying their offer and services.
“It was clear from our first engagement that Katherine understood the brief and would be able to work remotely with our executive team across the globe to deliver copy that would immediately differentiate Ava from its well established and multinational competitors. It was a pleasure to work with Katherine.”
Chris Fergus, CEO | AVA Global
It was a similar situation with Shepherd Offshore, a company that’s been contributing to the continued growth of the offshore sector on the banks of the River Tyne in Newcastle for over 100 years by delivering critical support services to the offshore, oil and gas, energy, marine, power and renewable energy industries.
As demand for Shepherd Offshore’s services increased, Managing Director, Charles Shepherd wanted a website that would take the pressure off staff who could often be busy with the arrival of a vessel or a load out by clearly outlining each of the company’s wide range of technical services online.
It needed to be clear what was on offer and how customers could access what they needed. All without overloading people with industry and technical jargon. He also wanted to reflect the joined-up thinking that’s evident across the company’s sites and services.
The Challenge
The company website needed to present information to prospective customers that would answer all their questions and demonstrate the company’s expertise and growing capacity – especially when on-site staff were busy supporting visiting vessels.
The extensive marine and manufacturing facilities at their Offshore Technology Park and Neptune Energy Park handle 150+ vessels a year and transfer 130+ reels by road between facilities, with services available 24-hours a day and seven days a week, 365 days a year.
The website’s services pages needed to do two things. First, to make sure prospective clients could explore the full range of offshore services across Shepherd Offshore’s sites with ease. Second, to promote Shepherd Offshore’s available commercial and industrial property development opportunities along the River Tyne and at additional locations across the UK
“We wanted to tell our clients about the full range of support we offer. When the office is busy with the arrival of a vessel or a load out, we need to make sure that our prospective clients can find all the information they need about our company at-a-glance online.”
Charles Shepherd, Managing Director
Website development
A tour of the Offshore Technology Park and Neptune Energy Park, and a series of meetings with team members revealed how Shepherd Offshore’s different business service offerings fit together.
With customers who are often under cost and time-restraints when looking for reliable providers to support their needs, it was important that the language of the website’s service pages was easy-to-read and had clear and compelling calls to action.
“Our focus is on meeting our clients’ needs, delivering relevant, timely and transparent communications to remove the traditional stress and ‘bluff’ from the planning and operations stages. We want our clients to enjoy working with us, we want to remove the friction that we know can hamper the speed of projects, and we want to deliver added value with every interaction.”
Charles Shepherd, Managing Director
I worked with different team members to craft detailed website pages that now offer an explanation of the particular service offering, within the context of the business as a whole.
From the capacity of the plant, mobile and crawler cranes that fulfil lifting and handling needs at any time, to the berthing, sounding, and dredging that keep marine vessels and barges on the Tyne operational.
This detail-rich copy not only answers a prospective customer’s questions – it helps the website rank well in search engines. And creates consistent messaging frameworks that the people in the site office can use, without second-guessing the tone or language.
“Your work on the copy sections made them engaging and very user-friendly, while successfully conveying what the company stands for; your writing style clarified the essence of each sentence without being distracting.”
Shepherd Offshore team
The industry-specific language positions Shepherd Offshore as a trusted, capable, and responsive business, even when the work is highly specialised or time-critical.
The business can now attract high-stakes commercial clients through its credibility and clarity and maintain its authority, while being approachable to prospective partners.
The company website does the heavy lifting, which is vital for clients when staff can’t respond to enquiries immediately because they’re dealing with the arrival of a vessel or a load out.
Conclusion
No-nonsense operators typically express themselves using technical, high-trust language with multiple references to capacity, compliance, and continuity. They’re authoritative and precise with a focus on safety and quality. It’s a tone of voice that’s serious but grounded and outcome-focused.
By working to understand the different needs of multiple audiences, I can ensure copy for no-nonsense operators connects with their customers’ needs and wants, while demonstrating what sets the business apart in the market.
“Added results of the improved website copy? Definitely more enquiries, longer website sessions and visits and a lot of feedback from prospective employees and clients that the new website communicated all our services a lot more clearly and in greater detail.”
Natalia Bogiatzoglou, Marketing Coordinator | Shepherd Offshore
To find out more about support for your no-nonsense operations: hello@haydngrey.co.uk
