Your technology-lead business is rich in knowledge and in-house expertise. And for content marketing, technical professionals are information goldmines.
Technical experts:
- Know the tech and can explain how things work
- Interface with clients and hear the questions your audience is asking
- Keep up with the industry and often have passionate points of view
If you could access and transform this knowledge into content marketing material, your digital marketing strategy would be powered with rocket fuel.
So how do you harness this knowledge? Leading global retail technology company REPL shows us how.
The Honey Pot
Just like every content-savvy tech business, REPL’s marketing team knew it needed articles, white papers and case studies to showcase the company’s technical prowess.
They wanted a steady stream of high-quality, interesting and timeless pieces their audience will find useful throughout the buying cycle.
REPL’s marketing director, Rachel Price, understood how bringing the business’ technological experts into the realm of content could be a game changer.
“Tapping into our tech specialists’ expertise gives our content an extra layer of intelligence. We can offer greater value to our readers at any buyer stage, driving business and also our brand authority in the retail tech arena.”
Their best shot at securing this? Working side-by-side with their technical, service and delivery teams. But how, like REPL, will you overcome the challenges of getting your technical people on board?
The Hurdles
Before approaching REPL’s technical experts, Rachel took into account the potential difficulties surrounding communication and getting her people motivated to be involved.
Here are some critical concerns you might encounter:
Time
“I’m busy. My work literally pushes the company forward. Will I have to write? How can you guarantee the time we spend on this isn’t wasted?”
Inclination
“I don’t want to shout about what I do - it’s not my style”
Understanding
“What does marketing even do? It’s all fluff and no action, right?”
The Remedies
Understanding these apprehensions is crucial to successful collaboration between teams. REPL knew it had to address these concerns for its content strategy to work. The business needed to:
1. Get Mike Callender, REPL’s executive chairman, and other members of senior management to buy into the strategy to encourage technical specialists to follow suit.
2. Prove that its technical experts’ knowledge is invaluable to marketing. That involving them will help drive business.
3. Help them to feel comfortable. Give them concrete facts on their involvement, helping them understand exactly what to expect.
But how exactly did the company achieve this?
How REPL Made it Work
REPL was fortunate to have tech experts that didn’t view marketing as outlandish. But (as with any business) that’s not enough to ensure productive collaboration.
Incredibble - now regularly curating content for the business - works seamlessly with REPL’s marketing team and technical staff thanks to several factors.
Culture of Inclusivity
REPL is a business that loves its people. Everybody is rooting for the success of the company. Rachel expands on this:
“There’s a real sense that we all want to succeed on a personal and company level. We share the vision to strengthen REPL’s position as a technical pioneer and drive growth. Technical and marketing staff are equally committed to the cause.”
How did the company get to this sweet spot? REPL’s employees may have different roles but the way they work aligns through values.
Accountability. Autonomy. At the top of their game. Everybody strives to own their responsibilities, to contribute personally and be the best they can be. Teams may be separated by work but know they can not succeed without each other.
Everybody Likes to Help
With a culture like this, everybody is willing to do what they can to help the business. This attitude was one of the biggest assets at the marketing team’s disposal.
REPL needed input from its technical staff as part of Rachel’s marketing strategy. Yes, she needed to find the best approach for interviews. But their enthusiasm to help never waned.
Know Your Technical People
Not all experts are the same. Some work with different clients, have different specialisms and communications skills plus varying levels of experience.
When building the content plan, REPL’s marketing team considered:
- Who’s great at translating technical knowledge for non-technical clients?
- Who understands the algorithms and deeply technical themes?
- Who knows the client best?
By pairing up the right experts for interviews with Incredibble writers, the information gathered was relevant, necessary and worthy of the the team’s time. A brilliant approach that, when imitated, can extract exactly what you need for better content.
Clear Requests and Objectives
Understanding what your marketing strategy is trying to achieve gives your expert team drive and direction.
Incredibble’s writers had the necessary interview skills to listen and ask the right questions for the articles they were writing. But to really get REPL’s technical people on board, ensuring they knew the bigger picture gave them greater satisfaction in the work, strengthening relationships, igniting motivation and delivering better interviews for dynamite content.
Practical Actions
Ensuring not a minute of your tech experts’ time is wasted (or that of your content writers) is vital, so organisation is a must.
In REPL’s case, the in-house marketing team masterminded the interview process. Meetings were booked in advance and reminders were dispatched prior to each interview.
They also kept individuals fully informed of their involvement and how they would be credited for their work.
Follow Through
Only when your experts can see the finished content can they fully appreciate the value of their input.
Therefore, it’s an absolute must that interviews turn into content and that content is well-written, approved by the interviewee and published.
Your evidence of success? The mere fact that it’s been published on your site or emailed to prospects shows that their efforts were worth it. Finally, you have something concrete to show them the value of their contribution.
Rachel offers her advice on how to communicate your end result:
“Ensure links to the articles are sent to everybody involved in the process. Dispatch this alongside a warm message of thanks, reinstating the importance of their value.”
If your technical experts originally saw marketing as a trivial pursuit, this process will give them new eyes. They’ll see how marketing is integral to the business and, by result, their work.
Finding the Right Content Team
REPL works with Incredibble to deliver consistent, high-quality content. This outsourced function offers REPL a scalable resource which can be flexed to suit peaks in campaign activity.
The Incredibble team has the right balance of copywriting expertise, marketing knowledge and technical know-how to create pitch-perfect content bursting with value.
Our marketing experience means we see the full picture. We understand how to help businesses across the spectrum of activities - emails, articles, ebooks, website copy, video scripts, event collateral and more.
A technical business doesn’t always need technical copywriters - in fact, we rarely coordinate a content team that’s purely technical to ensure complex concepts are translated into everyday language.
Interviewing REPL’s technical specialists to extract advanced knowledge ensures we can capture the business’ full potential in our writing. And translating this information into clear language means readers at all levels can easily grasp REPLs innovative services and products.
What Have We Learnt?
Before you leave, here’s a recap of the most crucial components you can master for seamless communication between teams and awesome technical content:
- Nurture a culture of inclusivity
- Understand your tech team preferences and personalities
- Communicate clear roles and objectives
- Organise interviews
- Lay out the groundwork for their involvement
- Follow-through on your goal and provide hard-evidence it has been achieved
Looking for wise words from a dynamite content team? Incredibble can harness your technical expertise to create timeless written pieces. Show the world how your tech is redefining the future and driving dazzling success for your customers with our help.