After several years of hard work, you’ve finally released your tech product into the wild. But for some reason, you’re not getting the sales you were expecting. You know your product is awesome, and you’ve been shouting about it, but that message just doesn’t seem to be converting your audience into customers.
As a tech company it can sometimes be a struggle to really articulate the value your product creates. But following these 5 tips can help you get the message across and get your audience to love your product as much as you do!
1. Be explicit about value, even when it seems obvious
Let’s say you created a personal finance app that tracks spending using machine learning. It’s not enough to say “Our machine learning enabled app helps you track your spending in real time”. It’s true that intuitively your audience might know that tracking their spending is valuable, but don’t make them have to think about it.
Instead try this:
Track your spending on [app] and take the stress out of budgeting and saving.
Added value stems from removing or alleviating pain points, so reminding your audience about how stressful budgeting and saving are will instantly convey the value of your product. You should always speak to value first before jumping into specific product features or the technology behind it.
2. Avoid cliches and buzzwords – be descriptive
After you’ve clearly articulated value you can now explain a bit about specific features and the technology behind them. However, words like ‘innovative’ and ‘cutting edge’ should be banished from your content dictionary. Buzzwords like these are overused and risk giving the impression that your product is all hype.
Instead of describing your product as ‘innovative’ explain why it is without using that word. If your audience is able to come to the conclusion from your elegant prose that your product is state of the art without using buzzwords then you’ll win them over. The same goes for tech buzzwords such as AI, VR, IoT, etc. Use them only when necessary as it can add to the hype factor if you use them too much.
3. Use simple, audience appropriate language
Technology products are usually backed by some deeply complicated and mind blowing math, science and engineering. For those of us who work in tech it’s the creation of valuable tools from many years of research and experimentation that makes going to work every day a joy. But venturing off into explaining how your (awesome) algorithms work will cause most people’s eyes to glaze over. Your audience should not need to grab a dictionary to understand your messaging.
While it’s important to make sure that you use appropriate jargon for your audience it should still be kept simple and punchy. People tend to have a very narrow attention span when it comes to digital content— even if they have a Phd.
4. Use metaphors and similes
In many cases it’ll be a learning curve for your audience to understand why your product is useful to them, especially if it’s particularly disruptive and challenges entrenched paradigms about how things are done. Learning something new can also be intimidating, so maintaining audience engagement can be a real challenge.
The effectiveness of powerful metaphors and similes here cannot be overstated. They make your product relatable by providing a familiar point of reference and framework to enable understanding.
Get your creative team together and think about how your product relates to something familiar to your audience. It’s ok if your metaphor isn’t perfect. In some instances you might need to explain the difference. But intuitively your audience will know that it’s not a perfect comparison, and they’ll appreciate being provided with a simple way to understand your product.
5. Make it human
Often with tech products there are a few degrees of separation between you and your audience. You don’t interact with them to the same level as you might in a brick and mortar location. Interactions are typically reduced to written feedback or, less frequently, telephone calls.
Because of this, it can be difficult to connect technology to the greater social good that it delivers— The stronger connections technology helps people forge with people and causes they care about.
Content that focuses on this type of value can really delight and help your audience connect with your product in a meaningful way. Take a moment to really think about how your product helps people better connect, whether that be with their colleagues, families or friends and be sure to find space in your content library to tell those stories.
Conclusion
Ultimately, crafting effective messaging about your product that resonates with your audience and customers and clearly communicates product value is about trust building. Even if your product does what it says on the tin, if your messaging comes off as inauthentic because it’s poorly explained or uses too many buzzwords or jargon people will disengage. And it’s not necessarily because they don’t see how your product might be useful, but because your messaging doesn’t feel trustworthy, and they aren’t going to commit money to a product if they don’t feel confident it’ll deliver on value.
By following the 5 tips outlined above and incorporating them into all of your messaging across your marketing channels, you can create consistent and clear messaging that builds trust with your audience and converts them into paying customers.
Jeremy Holland 