Technical marketing is a specialized niche of marketing that focuses on the more complex facets of a particular product or service. It should be used when a basic and general overview of a product would not impress the target market. The aim is to highlight specifications or features of a product (for example) that will appeal to customer demographics with higher technical aptitude.
Normally, marketing efforts should avoid complex jargon or complicated specifications. However, this can often be counter-productive. Certain customer demographics (or entire demographics depending on product) often will not respond well to this type of marketing.
Technical marketing is designed to appeal to those with a basic technical appreciation of a product – who may otherwise not be satisfied with standard marketing efforts.
For example, swapping “simple” graphs with more complex ones, featuring detailed comparisons and benchmarks of other products, or advanced tutorials showing the exact capability of a certain product/service are often well-received by these customers.
Why technical marketing is so important
Let’s consider what can happen when a complex product is not marketed correctly. For example – when marketing a new computer processor, marketers have to take into consideration that a large number of users simply do not care about technical details like core count or wattage under load. In fact, many of these users may become confused and not understand the offering altogether, resulting in a loss of sale.
On the flip side, more experienced and technically proficient users may dismiss the product if there’s not enough technical information available in marketing efforts.
Marketing departments may very well decide that a two-pronged approach is necessary when marketing a complex product. Firstly, a more simplified and deconstructed campaign that would appeal to a wider audience of customers not particularly interested in the technicalities. Secondly, a separate campaign aimed at enthusiasts or pro-level users would ensure this demographic (often one of the most loyal and engaged) is effectively reached.
In addition, there can often be a knowledge and skills gap between the technical aspects of a product and the marketing department (especially for new companies or new products). Marketers are typically not engineers or technical experts, and therefore it’s extremely important that this gap is filled either from within the organization (e.g. an engineer with marketing knowledge consulting on the campaign) or externally from subject matter experts.
Examples of technical marketing
Technical marketing can take many shapes and forms.
