Sherlock Holmes may have been the smartest person in the room, but even he needed Watson to help make his conclusions shine – and it’s the same with tech teams and marketing.
Like Holmes and Watson, Woody and Buzz or Jake and Amy (IYKYK), unlikely companions always make for the best stories.
And so it is when it comes to B2B marketing. Except that the two unlikely heroes in this story – marketing and technical – rarely meet, which means your company’s amazing stories don’t get told.
There’s the pace, the vision, the joie de vivre that marketing (Jake) has, alongside the precision, the quiet intelligence and knowledge of the technical (Amy). Stereotypes – yes, incorrect – not usually.
Bringing these two powerhouses together to tell a story that captivates your audience is a challenge that most tech companies (and specialist/niche companies) constantly face. When it comes to content, marketing wants something punchy and engaging that makes the audience think ‘yes, I get this – wow’. Technical, on the other hand, wants it to be right. Really right, with talk of speeds and feeds, acronyms and algorithms.
The collision problem
Usually, when the two do come together, there’s one of two outcomes: either the technical voice is diluted into something bland and meaningless (AI-powered, blah blah snooze) or it’s left untouched and reads like a software installation guide has just accidentally wandered into your campaign.
But the technical team are a seriously underrated and underused asset in the marketing arsenal – they’re often the people who actually understand in detail how your product works and most importantly, why it matters.
So it’s not about whether you should use your technical team to help with marketing; it’s how to do it in a way that doesn’t make your content either ideal reading material for those with insomnia or all style and no substance.
Don’t get lost in translation
Technical experts aren’t inherently bad at marketing, just like marketing teams aren’t devoid of product knowledge, but what usually happens is that tech teams start from the beginning and build up a picture of how certain features work and what they do. Marketing, on the other hand, starts at the end, with outcomes and why it matters to the audience.
But it’s the space in the middle where good content lives – or in most cases, doesn’t.
Same same, but different
Let’s not beat around the bush; much of the B2B content out there is being churned out by AI, and while it might not be classed as slop exactly, it’s all starting to sound eerily similar. But a good technical perspective is one of the few things that’s hard to fake.
For starters, it’s more detailed, and while your audience might not want to know the exact Mbps, RAM capacity or API response time of your product, the slightly more nuanced language, realistic claims and acknowledgement that, no, your technology cannot help forge global peace or organise an entire supply chain during a black swan event, often builds more trust with an audience than the glitz and glam of marketing-speak.
Rather than making grand statements that marketing is often guilty of, it’s about being able to explain how and why your product behaves the way it does in the real world, and vitally, why that matters to the audience.
It’s these details that make your content credible, genuine, and like it’s written by someone who knows what they’re talking about (which of course, your tech team do!), not just someone who’s trying to sell them something.
Start with the right questions
The first problem when marketing and tech get together isn’t a language issue; it’s a briefing issue. We’ve all been there – you email over a doc to someone in the technical team and ask them to “quickly sense check it”, which translated means “we’ve already written this as we want it, so please don’t change too much”.
Alternatively, you ask them to write something for you from scratch about your product, which translates in their mind as “give me every feature, function and detail you can about this.”
Instead, get more specific about exactly what you want them to help you with. Questions that we’ve found really helpful are:
· What does this replace that people are currently doing manually?
· How does this make their lives easier?
· What is the best unsung outcome our product helps companies achieve that you don’t think enough people know about?
· What’s the first thing you say to people that our product/service does when you’re explaining it in the pub or to your family?
· What do customers misunderstand about our technology?
· What’s the one thing you always have to correct in sales conversations?
These draw the tech team away from speeds and feeds and further into insights, not just info. They also help to frame your conversation in real-world scenarios and mean that you have a point of view, not just a features list.
Be an editor
That’s not to say technical specs, features and input need to be brief or without detail. If you don’t get the ‘small stuff’, then it means you (and by extension your audience) may not understand the bigger picture outcomes.
Instead, give your tech team the space and time to go further than you actually need. Let them explain it properly, get into the weeds and be in their element. Not only does this help to forge a better relationship, but you’ll also understand the product better.
Then, when you have all the info, you can edit to your heart’s content because that’s where marketing excels; understanding how to see the wood for the trees because we know what’s important to our audience.
Framed in this way, it means you’re not dumbing down the technology angle; you’re understanding what the audience needs to know about now, what’s second-stage messaging and what doesn’t really need to be there at all.
It’s all about layering
It’s this second-stage messaging where the tech team comes into their own. Not every piece of content you produce needs the full weight of the tech team’s input. Instead, think in layers that cascade your technical messaging – along the lines of a nurture track.
· A top-level blog or LinkedIn post that introduces an idea in a way that’s accessible (intro to tech angle – audience is exploring)
· A deeper follow-on piece that explores the mechanics (deeper tech element – audience is intrigued)
· A more detailed asset for those who actively want to go further (deepest tech element – audience shows real interest)
Your technical voices play across all of these. They just don’t need to say everything, to everyone, everywhere, all at once.
Use what’s at your disposal
The technical team aren’t just there to sense check your latest document or a hurdle to clear before you go into design. They’re likely to be the closest thing you have to an audience perspective – they know how your product works in the real world, and its full capabilities.
While working to have a tech voice in your marketing content might make the process slightly longer, the value that the tech team can bring is worth the extra time and effort. Differentiating your content, helping you better understand your technology, and you never know, you might even find your new partner in crime.