Explain To Sell

"So why not distribute synchronization via Ethernet?"

--COTS Journal contributed article

Back in April I posted on a Business Week story about how tech companies turn their intellectual property into marketing assets simply by explaining how stuff works. Here's an example. It is an article I ghost wrote that explains how to distribute mil-spec timekeeping over packet networks.

On the one hand, it explains technical concepts that are the editorial rationale for the article's publication. On the other, it also makes a case for the technology's economic advantages (and my client's business case). The technical explanation and the business case should integrate seamlessly and, in doing so, spark genuine reader interest in both.

By the way, when I point out examples like this to clients, I sometimes get back the response that they don't want to give away proprietary secrets. So this article is also a good example of how you don't have to give away the secrets of how you do something in order to explain how you do something.

Signs of the Times

"All abstract sciences are nothing but the study of relations between signs."

--Denis Diderot

Several of the pages in this blog (see Talk Faster as well as my current homepage intro) discuss the need to pack more content into fewer and fewer words. Nothing beats text for conveying complex thought, yet many tech companies throw up their hands at the thought of actually saying what they do. Instead, they settle for making their website, or brochure, or whatever look nice -- with some engineering speak thrown in "that nobody reads anyway."

(Click the images to enlarge.)

Here's an example of the "content compression" I'm talking about. It's a postcard. In fact, it's the postcard I just mailed out to a select list of prospects. Over the course of my business, over 90% of my clients have come from postcards like this (either directly or by word of mouth). When you measure the ROI in dollars or effort, nothing else comes close.

Postcards are one of the most compressed communications media you can use -- which also makes them one of the most challenging. What's good is that the prospect pretty much has to get the message you wish to send, even if only to filter it. What's hard is that you only have a very limited space to get that message across.

Each side of the postcard has to stand on its own, yet the two sides also must work in combination regardless of which side the recipient happens to look at first. That requires a theme (like the "signs" theme here) that naturally ties the two together and completes a thought -- and that thought obviously has to reinforce what you want to say.

You also need a device (again, like the signs) that allows you to say a lot without necessarily constructing whole sentences or fill the space with text bullets (which is what most postcards do and why many look like just a pile of stuff).

There are many other ways to compress content for the web, white papers, articles, ads and collateral. But postcards are probably the real test.

Talk Faster

"The supply of time is totally inelastic. No matter how high the demand, the supply will not go up."
--Peter Drucker

Sharply lower production costs driving a content explosion impacts strategy big time — especially for tech companies. Tech is a knowledge-intensive industry, so tech companies have a lot to say. So now they have to say it faster. Just as a few bestsellers carry the publishing industry, and Hollywood depends on a handful of blockbuster hits (and bankable stars) — tech companies need at least a few “rich” content successes to stand out. Content for the sake of content wastes time.

What makes content rich? I suggest five key elements:

• It grabs you from the beginning and doesn’t let you go till the end
• It follows proven principles of structure, theme, and style
• It is factually accurate
• It is logically convincing
• It is language efficient

Life would be great if all five of these elements were present in all your content —ads, web pages, white papers, case studies, articles, or whatever. But whether it is or not, in this content environment, you are just like a Hollywood studio. You need a few solid hits to carry you through.