The world of technology, particularly software, has evolved so quickly that trying to keep up is a daunting challenge. Managers that need to allocate funds to acquire software and solutions to be competitive must stay on top of changing trends. Buyers are taking the initiative to learn about evolving technologies and strategies and spending less time engaging with sales people and marketing material. They are doing their own research. Forrester Research found that 74% of B2B buyers do half of their research online.

The more buyers understand relevant technologies the more comfortable they will be in pulling the trigger on an investment. In many cases, the challenge is helping a non-technical buyer to grasp the concepts of sophisticated technology.  Here are a few tips to create content that prospects can easily understand and will want to read.

Use a hook to entice your reader to learn something new

It takes some brainpower and attention to get your head around complex technical topics. With technology buyers focused on many areas, marketers need to provide them a reason to invest the time to learn more about technology or solutions they are promoting. They need to quickly see there is a benefit to making the effort.

Presenting your solution in the context of the issues facing your audience is the best way to get them to engage. Discuss pain points the reader, their organization, or their stakeholders may be experiencing is a great approach. The worst thing you can do is focus on product features and technical specs.  Getting into the weeds and going on about heavy technical data will only turn off your reader. Keep this info to the datasheet.

Talking with your sales people is a good way to uncover some of these pain points as they presumably have discussed a variety of issues with prospects and customers. You may uncover concerns and issues that prospects may not be aware of. For example, a manager or IT executive may not know how inefficient a particular common industry practice may be and how it affects productivity. This type of content provides real value.

Make sure you create content that is contextually relevant to you reader. Framing your technology in the context of the current market environment and highlighting a changing landscape can create a sense of urgency to learn more.

Write simply and clearly

Once you have provided a reason for a prospect to engage, you need to make it easy to do the work. When the subject matter is complex, the prose needs to be as simple as possible to consume. This means that:

Sentences need to be short and to the point.

Keep it high level and avoid using very technical terms.

Don’t assume your reader knows what you mean when you use an acronym. Acronyms can trip up readers that are beginning to learn about a certain space or technology.

Don’t be tempted to use big words and complex sentences to look smart. Executives can see right through it and don’t appreciate your attempts to make it about you. Defiantly do not try to impress with technical jargon as it will only make your reader feel stupid and turn them off. On the flip side, don’t make it too simple to patronize your reader. Knowing your audience and their language is the key making your piece engaging and easy to read.

Explain it in multiple ways

Using analogies and explaining technologies in different ways are great tactics for presenting solutions that are complex in nature. Being able to relate a complex concept to a topic familiar to the reader makes understanding new ideas much easier.

This is difficult to do if the writer doesn’t have enough of an understanding of the technology to be able to look at it through multiple lenses. To present a technology or solution in simple terms, the writer also needs to fully grasp the subject matter so they can boil it down into consumable chunks of information.

Once you have convinced the reader that learning is worth their time and provided a clear explanation, enable your reader to continue their journey. Provide links to more technical content where they can expand and deepen their knowledge.