Marketing Versus the Techies

"How can you make the techies happy while still maintaining a good marketing spin … ?"

Recently the Society for Technical Communication asked if they could interview me on the topic of marketing writing for technology companies. This would be for an article in the Society's journal -- and I very much appreciate the opportunity to participate.

The writer sent over his questions -- one of which is quoted above. It is so central to my work that I wanted to address it here.

My answer is that I basically write for two audiences, with a lot of overlap. Those are C-level decision makers and the technologists who support them. The thing that connects those two audiences is strategy. To sit at the table, marketing (not just the marketing writer) must connect the dots between technology and strategy -- the focus of this blog.

If strategy does not connect the technology to the business, or if the seller's strategy is not an extension of the buyer's -- there is no credibility. So, I don't see the built-in tension between the technically savvy and the less technically savvy that the question suggests. If there is tension, that's a sign things aren't working.

To understand strategy, you have to understand how stuff works. If you are selling, say, the business benefits of spaces (i.e., virtually extensible runtimes) then you better know how to explain why they make a better service oriented architecture.

How far left or right you move the slider on the "techie" scale is a matter of professional judgment. And so too is how much you rely on sidebars, journalistic pyramids, graphics, tables and other techniques to elevate technology counterpoints above the business chorus -- or vice versa.

Writing is like any performance. You map form and content against the needs of the audience.