People leaders, sales and marketing executives know it by heart: In order to be successful they need to steer the emotions of their target audience. Some products and services bear more potential for engaging storytelling. However, tech companies generally face a multitude of challenges when turning their offer into an effective, consistent tech story. Here are my observations why storytelling in IT is not a given and how you can change that!

BLURRY LINE BETWEEN TRUTH AND FICTION

Communication is about the creation of strong pictures. You can call things by their name or share a vision that goes much further than what your product currently is about.

Finding a balance between facts and storytelling is for many tech companies an important communication strategy exercise that doesn’t come easy.

Technology experts have mostly a mind-set that values “objective reality”. It can turn into an internal conflict when the external communication doesn’t reflect what your development and consulting team is really working on. It’s good to know that every tech company has to make this kind of compromises. Be bold, but don’t exaggerate when telling your story.

THE STORY IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING

The marketers and business people in your company are aware that the market is constantly changing. We all might laugh about the culture of buzzwords, but it’s a reality we have to face. If you miss out to adapt your communication strategy and wording to dominating trends, you risk to lose your brand reputation as innovative leader at the forefront of your market niche. Don’t skip the effort to iterate your tech marketing communication regularly.

STORY IS PRETTY MUCH THE SAME AS THOSE OF COMPETITORS

Good marketing is all about differentiation, but what do you do when your product is quite the same as those of your competitors? Tech companies screen other products for their functionalities to further develop their own offer. They do the same with sales arguments and marketing communication. If you free yourself from the habit to observe others for what they do, I guarantee that you will develop your unique brand even in a crowded market.

DON’T KNOW WHAT TO TELL

Not every tech product is innovative and can be associated with mega-trends that enable a company to create a broad topic landscape for their content marketing. Often successful products are simply useful. They automate processes, help to save costs and free employees from administrative and operative workloads. Unfortunately, this doesn’t relieve you from marketing your solution. Hire a creative tech marketer who will create a communication strategy for you. There is nothing like “boring”.

Reach out to me if you want to benefit from an external perspective in your marketing communication efforts!