Does Your Customer Understand Your Product?

You have a fantastic product: the latest technology, a state-of-the-art, etc. 
Nobody is buying your product.

You have invested a lot of money in marketing, communications and sales material. 
Your team used a lot of hours preparing it. 
Nobody is reading it. 

You have gotten no inquiries.

It is perhaps time to ask yourself a very important question: are your customers understanding what you are trying to say?  

Create messages which are easy to understand.  
Picture http://smilingtreetoys.com

Technical communication for non-technical customers: 

I have been involved in multiple technical or engineering-oriented projects. If I am honest, at the beginning it was not easy. I remember sitting in technical meetings listening to technical presentations. There the product managers used their field jargon and presented all the possible technical data. This was heavy data. It was hard to understand. For some engineers, the messages about their products were "so obvious" that they thought additional explanations were no needed. Unfortunately, the delivered messages to the customers were as complex and difficult as those used during the meetings. The messages were not reaching their audience.

Assuming that your (non- technical) target group understands very well your technical messages is a very common mistake. Another common practice is delivering very detailed data to "clarify" something forgetting that the target group has a very different level of understanding.  

The solution is simple. If your audience is not as technical as your team, you have to translate the technical information into messages which are easy to understand by your audience.



Communicate with your customers effectively:

If you are an expert on the topic, and especially if you are the "father of the product", you might try to impress your audience with your knowledge. That is a normal human tendency. However, there is a big difference between knowing something and being able to explain it to someone else. When preparing your marketing, sales or communications material remember the blog post, the brochure and the campaign are not for your or for your team.

The solution is not adding technical details to your content. You need to think a bit more like the customer. So, focus on finding out your customers' needs as well as getting to know your customers' understanding level. With this information you might know the right level of detail needed on your content. It is important to always keep in mind that if you are focusing only on the technical details or scoping your message too narrowly, there is a high risk of getting bogged.

Keep it simple. If your message is too hard to explain, it will be too hard to be understood by your audience.

Teamwork means better marketing and communications material:

Are you thinking that your product is so unique that nobody else than you is able to talk about it ? If your answer is YES, it is time to change your mentality. Such a product does not exist. 

You should work with different people to prepare your marketing, communication and sales material. It will help you developing your content. If more people understand your content, you will have more chances to get your customers and prospects interested in your product.

If you want to start with something simple, test if your actual material works. Ask feedback from people who are not directly involved in your project. 

Let your marketing and communication team work on your wording and on your content. If you are working with an outside agency, they might give you a sincere feedback on how you should try to create your content to increase your product's awareness and especially, to be understood by your audience. You don't need to accept all the suggestions but, it is all about working as a team. Be ready to interchange ideas, to ask and to answer questions as well as to share your thoughts.