Technical content marketing can be a highly effective component of a strong product marketing strategy. It educates and engages the target audience, ultimately driving sales. But what exactly is it, and how can it help with product marketing? Let’s take a deep dive.
Understanding Technical Content Marketing
Technical content marketing is a subset of content marketing that has a narrower focus on how your product works. In turn, this explains to users how the product will benefit them.
What Is Technical Content Marketing?
Good content marketing is designed to educate, entertain, or inform the target audience. Although it drives sales, it isn’t “salesy” in nature. Technical content marketing operates exactly the same way. But instead of more generally educating the reader about a particular issue, it drills down into the nitty gritty technical aspect. It is especially useful for businesses that target audiences who are already highly familiar with the subject matter.
For example, if you sell tools to auto mechanics, you don’t need to generate a lot of content about how a car works or why it’s important to change the oil regularly. Instead, those mechanics want to know how your tools will help them do their job better, faster, or at a lower cost. So you might write a piece on how to rebuild an engine, with a soft mention of how your valve lifter remover can speed up disassembly.
Why Is Technical Content Marketing Important?
Technical content marketing establishes you as an expert in your field. This builds credibility with your target audience, especially if they already know a lot about the types of products you offer. It also drives more traffic to your website, as Google’s latest updates tend to favor sites that demonstrate authority and trustworthiness.
Technical content marketing also provides a platform to explain your products and what differentiates them from competing items. While it should remain informational or entertaining rather than salesy, it’s your chance to show how your products solve your readers’ problems.
Together, these elements will help you drive sales. You’ll get more eyeballs on your website. Those readers will view you as an expert. And you can explain why your products are the best. It’s a win-win-win!
The Intersection of Technical Content Marketing and Product Marketing
Technical content marketing requires a very specific skill set, especially when combined with product marketing. Much of a product marketing campaign involves generating buzz and excitement. But technical content is often dry and boring.
The key is finding ways to bridge the gap between the technical and marketing teams. Technical content marketers must have a deep working knowledge of the product and the customer. They must also serve as translators, providing a serious overview of how the product works in language that fits the overall product marketing strategy.
How to Leverage Technical Content Marketing for Product Marketing
So how can you go about finding this balance? What steps do you need to take to leverage the power of technical content marketing while making it fit into an overall product marketing plan?
Identify Your Target Audience
Technical content marketing only works if you genuinely know your audience. Start by finding answers to the following questions:
- What are their basic demographics?
- What is their existing knowledge level in your area of expertise?
- Are they buying the product for themselves, their company, or a family member?
- Why are they visiting your website today?
- What problem are they hoping to solve?
The further you can dig into your target audience’s needs and wants, the more effective your technical content marketing will be.
Create Engaging Technical Content
This is where many technical writers get tripped up. So much of technical writing is documentation that explains exactly how to use the product, which is exactly what people who already made the purchase need. But it doesn’t explain the product or the problems it solves.
Technical content for product marketing is an entirely different beast. You don’t need to explain exactly how your product does what it does or describe every feature in detail. Instead, you must follow the basic principles of writing content that connects with your audience. But you’ll give that content a technical slant, meaning you need to know the product inside and out.
Diversify Your Technical Content Formats
Technical content for product marketing can take innumerable forms. You might use case studies to show off the product in action. You could make an explainer video that details the problem and the solution. Or you could write a blog post that uses plain language to explain a technical topic to an unfamiliar audience. Many businesses use a combination of these content types, repurposing the same basic information to reach different audiences at different times.
Ensure Clarity and Accuracy
No matter what type of content you create, it must be clear and accurate. Define terms and limit jargon. Make sure you understand and accurately convey what the product can do, and never over-promise.
Promote Your Content and Track Results
It’s not enough to simply create high-quality technical content. You also need to make sure your target audience sees it. Use social media. Send email newsletters. Make your technical pieces just as important as every other aspect of your product marketing strategy. And then track the results to make sure your efforts are paying off.
Challenges in Technical Content Marketing
Technical content marketing comes with its own unique challenges. Here are the most common:
Balancing Technical Accuracy and User-Friendliness
Technical content should be accurate and informative, but it should also be engaging and easy to understand. That’s why knowing your audience is so essential. It will help you decide how to present the information in a way that keeps them interested.
Maintaining Engagement in Complex Topics
Complex topics make many people zone out or click away altogether. Break down these topics into short chunks that are easy to follow. Use visuals, such as pie charts or screenshots, to break up walls of text and make it easier for users to digest your content.
Ensuring Consistency and Quality
Always take a second and third look at any technical content you produce to make sure it’s of the highest quality. Work with the product marketing team to develop a consistent style and tone. Consider having someone else at the company who is an expert look over each piece as well to catch any errors you missed.
Case Studies of Effective Technical Content Marketing
Many companies have successfully used technical content marketing to promote their products. Here are two examples:
Google is arguably one of the best-known examples of a business that can target technical content marketing to a non-technical audience. The company has boldly positioned itself as an authority on what web searching should look and feel like. And it isn’t afraid to back that up with a wide variety of content that explains how and why it does what it does. An excellent example is its recent Chromecast campaign, in which the company studied public Google Trends data to learn what users might like to watch on their new Chromecast.
Salesforce
Salesforce rolled out a brand new marketing strategy known as Leading Through Change in March 2020, just as the global pandemic changed life as we knew it. With a new focus on actionable content built around themes and series, the company was able to quickly pivot. They put out highly useful technical content quickly on topics such as vaccine management and how to succeed remotely.
The new strategy had three basic goals:
- Providing actionable leadership content
- Creating community
- Showing humanity in unprecedented times while also demonstrating the company’s value as a trusted partner
As a result, Salesforce was able to promote what they do best: focusing on the customer and leading with values while teaming up with health experts, CEOs, and others to provide up-to-date information about the spreading pandemic. No one had all the answers. Being open and honest about that while striving to provide the best possible guidance from subject matter experts allowed Salesforce to build trust and, ultimately, loyalty.
The proof is in the numbers. In the first month, Salesforce grew organic prospect traffic by 47%. Its newsletter audience grew by more than 70%. And this success even drew an unprecedented number of participants to Dreamforce, the company’s biggest event of the year (held virtually in 2020).
Summing Up Technical Content Marketing
Technical content marketing can be a powerful way to engage your target audience and drive product sales. But it is both an art and a science. With the tips above, you will be well on your way to incorporating technical content marketing into your overall product marketing plan.
Do you want to take your technical content marketing to the next level? Sign up for a content strategy session with ClearVoice to learn how we can help you meet your content goals!
