Tech copywriting for humans

At Craft we’ve worked for a lot of tech clients from software and AI, to solar panel technology, to smartphones. But we always keep in mind that this is not just tech copywriting, but tech copywriting for humans.

Why do we make that distinction? Because in the world of technology it can be so easily forgotten, particularly in a B2B setting. 

At the end of every piece of marketing there’s always another person.

That’s why, whether we’re working for Apple Retail or helping Sngular reach audiences in health, finance, retail and manufacturing, we have the same guiding principles.

Keep it simple

Just because a product or service is super-clever and was invented and developed by people with brains the size of a planet, it shouldn’t mean you can’t communicate its benefits simply. After all, Apple has made some revolutionary products, but managed to say most of what it needed to get across in two words: think different.

Keep it emotional

This principle can take people by surprise. When we say emotional, we don’t mean washing your copy with our tears. What we’re looking for is the emotion that triggers your customer’s buying decision. In some cases it’s relief (thank god that’s a problem I can tick off my long list). Sometimes it’s pride (this will make me look good in front of my boss). Other times it’s a negative emotion like fear (this is too big and expensive a purchase to get wrong). People aren’t robots and even though they may justify their decision with a lot of data, something much more primal lies behind their cold rationality.

Keep it direct

The best selling is done one-to-one. That’s why we try to write with a directness and intimacy that connects with fellow humans. We’ve all read grandstanding copy that feels more like a speech to shareholders or a PR boast, and it doesn’t really land. Lots of companies like to wang on about being leaders in this and that, number one in the other, etc, etc. It just feels self-serving rather than persuasive. The best tech copy understands its audience, and connects with them on a level of shared interest. We want our readers to come away thinking, ‘These guys really get me’, not ‘These guys are really pleased with themselves’.

Don’t Bury Your Brilliance

This is our mantra across our client base, tech or otherwise. It’s funny in a way that we even need to say it. Because surely, no company would be burying what’s brilliant about its product or service? You’d be surprised. It’s all too easy to become distracted with tangental issues like the new widget, or the chairman’s knighthood, or what the competition is up to. Or disappear down a rabbit hole of tech features and hardware capabilities like the company’s ‘cloud migration infrastructure’. Yawn. We’re here to remind clients why their brand exists in the first place. The difference they make to their customers’ lives. The reason why someone should choose them over all others. 

Your brilliance might not actually lie in the minutiae of the product details. 

After all, some tech products are almost identical to each other. Their individual brilliance could be buried in so called ‘soft’ benefits like:

• Your attitude
• Your people
• Your approach
• Or what you don’t  do

In a previous blog we’ve argued against pigeonholing. Experience and skill in writing consistently, persuasively and effectively should be more important reasons to choose a copywriting partner, rather than their experience in tech.

But at the same time, we also understand that our long list of tech clients and case studies is reassuring. We seem to have an affinity with this kind of client and are proud to have collaborated with some great tech brands, including three of the world’s 20 most valuable companies as ranked by Forbes: Apple, Microsoft, and Cisco.

Why so many?

Well perhaps it’s because the humans in our company have connected with the humans in the tech companies. It’s rarely more complicated than that. Oh, and the fact that we’ve constantly delivered good work that has worked hard for them.

All because of our belief that tech copywriting for humans is the only way to write tech copy.
It may not be the most common way.  But experience has proved it to be the most effective.