Without an effective communication strategy, even the best new technologies can struggle to reach a wider audience. To determine who should be addressed and what methods should be used to achieve business objectives, experience and good knowledge of the industry are essential.
Discussing technology in clear and practical language is never easy, but becomes even more challenging for more advanced and specialized solutions.
For that reason, the support of communication professionals has become crucial to business success in the high-tech sector. Through empathy with the target audience, they can take acknowledge vital yet commonly overlooked aspects of communication. Top communication professionals can not only generate effective messaging, but also gather and identify important signals from a company’s environment.
Here are five ways that the experience and knowledge of communication professionals can help high-tech businesses to succeed.
1. Define and Highlight Core Communication
Most technology-related communication should center around the problem or need that a solution addresses. The majority of customers expect an answer to one basic question: What’s in it for me? Of course, the problem and the target market should be identified at the product design stage. The job of communication professionals is to find an effective way to get the value proposition across. From the very first contact with the messaging, the recipient (be it a potential customer, a business partner or a journalist) must be shown compelling reasons to take interest in the product. Among such reasons is a unique market position. Communication professionals familiar with the target industry can quickly see where a product’s competitive advantage lies, so it’s well worth trusting their judgment on strategy focus.
2. Find the Right Words
With dynamic development comes a steady stream of new high-tech vocabulary, usually originating in English and borrowed into other languages. When preparing non-English messaging, experienced professionals know how technical terms should be rendered or translated for maximum intelligibility. They will also extract the core message from complicated industry jargon and deliver it in a clear and accessible form.
3. Illustrate the Message
We live in an age when visual communication is king. PR professionals can suggest the best photos, graphics or videos to highlight key messages and make the desired impression. For consumer electronics, outward appearance can play a major role in purchase decisions. For more abstract technologies and software, symbolic visuals are often the only way to quickly and effectively communicate product features and benefits. Experts can also ensure that messaging is consistent across channels and formats.
4. Define Channels
Experienced PR professionals need only some basic initial information to determine the key communication channels for a new technology. They know which media and opinion leaders specialize in the relevant area and may be interested in the solution. They can also leverage existing relations with these audiences. Experts can identify the most effective channels for reaching a specific target group and determine the types of content consumed by this group. And because the media market changes every day, being up-to-date is vitally important.
5. Pay Attention to Detail and Expect the Unexpected
A communication professional pays attention to such details as personalized messaging (e.g. to match the specialization of an influential journalist) or reasonable completeness of a solution’s technical specification. Through empathy with the target audience, experts can anticipate questions and doubts, and design messaging so as to minimize them.
Specific technology classes lend themselves to a number of specialized communication approaches and tactics. Companies without an in-house communication team may wish to consider employing a specialized agency, especially for actions on the agency’s native market. Once objectives are clearly stated, experts can be consulted to develop a fully customized action plan that will greatly increase the chances of success.
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