Today’s piece is aimed at tech professionals and content marketers that deal primarily in technical markets that serve overseas clients. As I’ve said many times, knowing your market and how to talk to people in that market is vital for successful marketing and new business creation. It doesn’t matter if your company is based in the U.S. or someplace else.
Dealing with people in other places is a fine balance. Knowing how to deliver quality messaging can give you a major leg up on your competitors. Some of them rely too heavily on translation software and other means of angling their messaging and don’t stop to think of how effective that messaging actually is to their target audience.
Making even a small effort to communicate an understanding of how your readers and clients think can make a huge difference in the volume of business you generate. It can also have a very positive effect on the marketability and shareability of your content. This is singularly true in the area of technical writing.
Native speakers almost never get this right, mostly because they haven’t been trained to know many of the linguistic nuances that affect how their messaging is interpreted or received. My mind always goes straight to the differences in specific words between cultures. One man’s gift (English) is another man’s poison (German), just for the sake of example. “Sang” in English is a verb in past tense. The same word in French means blood. Like I said, it’s a fine balance.
While these words probably won’t come up in a tech manual, the example proves a point. It’s a big world out there with lots of linguistic diversity in how words are used and interpreted. You don’t necessarily need to know all the structural and dialectical breakdowns of other languages since many foreign markets deal primarily in English, but the choice of words and the way concepts are explained can still be misread without understanding how the reader receives them.
Right now, I want to give just a few quick pointers on how you can avoid a few pitfalls and deliver technical marketing copy and other forms of technical writing. Following these guidelines as you develop your copy will help build trust and confidence in your readers and motivate them to think of your brand as a legitimate authority.
Research and Compare
One good place to start is spending some time looking at how successful tech companies and marketing pros approach the market you want to penetrate. It’s a step that too many of your competitors skip, mostly because of the time involved. Look at it this way, though: The time spent getting to know your audience will have a far bigger ROI than rolling the dice on your messaging ever will. It’s important to observe how the people doing this right go about it.
Start by searching for technical blogs with subjects and keywords that pinpoint the right market. You might want to join their social media groups and see how they present their posts, as well. Social media is a global communication medium, and people around the world use it differently. What works within your native market may not fly with readers in another.
As for blogs, look for links to other types of content, like tech manuals, whitepapers, and the like. Give every piece of content a thorough read and make physical notes where you see decided differences between your native messaging style and theirs.
Be Very Detail-Oriented
Writing to American (and some European) markets is far more emotional and experiential, even in technical writing. This is especially true with whitepapers. While whitepapers are largely fact-based, they also have underlying agendas that involve motivating people to act based on how they feel about your brand. Other markets — most other markets — still respond better to a fact-based, emotionless presentation of information in technical formats.
Be sure that you’re presenting instructions and directions (including your calls to action) in a way that makes it easy to respond and interact with your copy. Direct attention to major concepts with good headings, section titles, and formatting.
Know Which Details Matter to Your Clients or Readers
Figure out the kinds of questions your reader will have as well as the specific pieces of information that they’ll expect to see. Make the most important concepts easy to find and interpret. Never rely solely on translation software to convey your messaging for you.
If you’re unsure of how to frame your messaging, get some help. Professional copywriters who know your market are a great place to start. This is true whether you contract with them to write your copy from scratch or edit it to make the messaging stronger or clearer to the reader.
Think Evergreen
Good technical copy stands the test of time, at least until the technology shifts and it becomes necessary to shift your messaging with it. For more static concepts, think evergreen in the way you organize your messaging. That means that it retains its relevance long-term. Tech manuals, textbooks, and other technical documents all go through revisions at timely intervals, but the framework should hold up indefinitely.
Also Think Long-Form
This last one builds on all the rest. Think in terms of supplying as much information you can in a single space. You can always augment the messaging with blog content that mimics curated content as a means of building interest. However, the more detail you give your readers, the better. Use mediums like social media and blogging as lead-ins to the meat of your content. Don’t rely on them as primary sources.
As always, if all of this seems too big to handle, there are avenues of help available to you, particularly BeezContent. We can develop copy from scratch as well as offer editing and consultation on any kind of technical copy that is geared toward any kind of reader. Contact us today to learn more.
