What to Look For in a Technology Writer

The tricky thing with writing for the technology sector – it’s technical. The sort of technicality that means translating your idea, your product, your purpose into workable marketing materials can be a logistical problem, even with the best idea and the strongest USP behind you.

It was partly what inspired us to set up Phable – to be able to translate the idea into not just branding and marketing materials but into a language that everyone understands, and more importantly, a language littered with benefits that everyone understands – your target market most of all.

Dubbed ‘service’ journalism (illustrating the service you provide to you clients/consumers), it’s at the heart of translating the technical into the applicable, the concept into the need. It’s a journalism form that is nuanced – it talks to you, not about you. ‘Why’ is at the core of almost every paragraph and the style is simple, not snobby, with little room for exclusivity. Service journalism translates as simply not alienating anyone you needn’t, from your potential target market.

It’s not an easy ask and it’s almost a perfect paradox – a technical form of writing about technical subject matter, designed to make marketing material much easier and simpler to digest. But, when a technology journalist makes it sound simple, you know you’ve found the right person to push your product. So here, in no specific order, is what time, experience (and tangible results) have taught us to consider as you look to match a writer with your message:

It’s a 50/50 split

As the client, you will have your key messages well defined. The material you want will of course include that, but along with it will be a tale-to-tell that will include key catch-points of your defined market. No, it won’t necessarily be the key messages, but they will be in there too. The heavy sell of your product is valid, but more often than not the ‘subscribe/like/CTA’ button will be hit when the narrative does more than hard-sell. The socialisation of the narrative that surrounds it can be as important as the message itself. Your journalist of choice will know this.

It’s like we finish each other’s*

 The ultimate stress test for good technology journalism – can you be bothered to read more? Tech journalism, (like all journalism) can easily fail by offering ‘worthy’, where ‘interest’ would be so much stronger. When you’re looking at a potential candidate to represent you or your brand across all marketing materials, see if you ever lose interest in the story, and if you do ask yourself ‘was that me, or it?’. It could well be you – you know the subject, you're tired, you're bored. But if it isn’t, see if a more succinct style would work well for your proposition. *(sentences).

First and last

‘I developed a successful chicken social network app to make more money…’

The first and last lines of your copy are so important for creating, then maintaining attention. Yes, chances are your target market is inherently interested in your product, but wouldn’t it be good if your marketing material attracted more market share?

‘… I didn’t do it for the glory I did it to make hens meet’

Perfection by platform

You probably know this. But, to be fair to the thousands of journalists out there who suffer from a poor brief, we have to say it. Have you considered what primary platform you want your writer to work on? Granted, most journalists can turn their hand to anything, but there is as much of a technical need in platform-specific content writing as there is platform-specific technology coding. The art of long-form, short-form and caption writing is different but can be tailored (by platform) to deliver stronger, measurable results. If you have a preferred marketing method, matching the writer to the platform can be a better way to see ROI more quickly.

SEO to go

To paraphrase Batman’s dichotomous nemesis Two-Face, ‘SEO is often the enemy of true narrative’. The right writer will add eloquence as well as emphasis to your marketing material but be aware of the form-and-function trap that can see you rework your masterpiece of marketing into near oblivion. SEO is of course, obvious. Keywords are included time and time again (did I mention Phable is a TECHNOLOGY-focused CONTENT company?) and they can make any messaging seem slower – sometimes even a bit clunky. If you let your writer know the SEO keywords before they begin, they will be able to offer you the balance in form and function your marketing content needs. 

There is always more to finding the right narrative form, but if you have a handle on these 5 simple suggestions (decide on the type of narrative, the preferred platform, the style that suits your brand, form vs function, and most importantly – is it engaging), you’ll save yourself time and money, but even more importantly, you’ll see that all-important ROI much more quickly than if you don’t match your tech need with the right tech writer.

If you are looking to find a technical journalist to provide branding or marketing materials we would love to help. Phable is a content company with a deep pool of digital specialists. Please feel free to get in touch at yourstory@phable.io, we’d love to hear from you.