Even if you understand that the concept of log data has nothing to do with forestry, face it: it’s just not inherently riveting stuff. Or is it?
The so-called Big Data revolution is gaining momentum after languishing as an obscure concept just a few short years ago. And one of the key drivers is imaginative, credible content crafted by the savvier tech brands that are spreading the Big Data word to a broader commercial audience.
Technology executives and marketers have always tried to make their marketing content relevant, readable and actionable. The problem is, the arcane computer-science vocabulary used by so many companies creeps into marketing content – including communications intended for audiences that are not necessarily technical. Yes, you still have to reach those systems administrators and lords of IT. But getting the attention of finance and operations stakeholders is equally important. Not to mention the CEO, the board and the opinion leaders they listen to. It is here where tuning marketing communications based on stakeholder requirements, preferences and biases is essential.
Otherwise, you run the risk of baffling, boring or confusing key purchasers and influencers.
What are you doing to ensure that your technology content, however arcane, is presented in compelling and imaginative business terms for non-technical decision-makers and the media who follow your category? Is your technology story consistently told in business terms?
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We’re in violent agreement with the folks over at Beaupre bemoaning the dearth of dedicated content specialists (AKA writers and editors) among the ranks of so many PR firms.
To be clear, we at Write Angle have no ax to grind whatsoever when it comes to public-relations agencies. Quite the contrary. Some of us are former agency operatives, one even having spent decades in Silicon Valley on the client-side retaining the best in the business at places such as Apple and NetApp. So we know, too, that great media-relations, the primary assignment of technology PR, is not the same thing as great writing. Most firms, large or small, simply cannot afford to keep a separate stable of great writers.
Agencies earn their keep by their skills as interpreters and as relationship cultivators. They’re paid to translate complicated concepts and information into irresistible ideas — nuggets of topical interest to the right reporters, bloggers and influencers with whom they have personal familiarity and cordial working relationships. People who are adept at this aren’t necessarily as effective at long-form translation or turning these ideas into the lengthier prose that make prosaic media backgrounders, whitepapers and op-ed articles vivid, compelling reading. The problems crop up when the volume of work outstrips — or falls short of — the resources at hand.
The fact is that in hectic periods of “feast” the demand for press releases and web pages and content of all kinds can overwhelm a lean shop. The other side of that coin are the leaner times when agencies, including those with no dedicated writers on staff, find themselves in the unhappy position of having to support idle overhead. No matter what, clients will always expect quality deliverables on time and on budget at all times. The solution: dedicated, on-demand, outside writers whom the beleaguered agency would be proud to call its own. It turns out that such a service is just what the budget calls for in more ways than one, during times of feast or famine.
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