Choosing a product marketing firm for highly technical products
Technical product marketing has a built-in learning curve, so it can take time to get it right. Engineering is likely explaining the details of your product to sales, then again to web page developers, again to customer support specialists, and then all over again for an upcoming webinar (as a leader probably didn’t plan for all of this time spent educating, either).
All of this effort takes valuable time away from your technical experts—time that they don’t have when they’re already busy in development sprints to help the product be the best it can be. That’s why choosing the right product marketing firm for technical products is so vital. You’ll need a partner who can get up to speed fast, then communicate your product’s value in a way that your target audience can understand.
Look at how the firm learns your product
When leaning on a new product marketing firm for help, you’ll want them to meet you halfway so that the support is as plug-and-play as possible. To do this, you’ll need to explain how the product works, but they should already have done their homework and shown up with a baseline understanding.
The right prospective partner will put in the effort to save you time. They’ll start by taking a thorough first pass at understanding the product and your market, familiarizing themselves as much as they can with everything that’s already available and documented. They may ask to review Product Requirements Documents (PRDs), product demos, existing sales materials, frequently asked customer questions, and more. Once they’ve absorbed every last drop of information and completely understand the product’s capabilities, then they’ll come to you with thoughtful, clarifying questions to fill in the remaining gaps.
To choose the right product marketing firm for technical products, ask your potential new partner how they would go about learning your product. What materials would be helpful? Do they have experience in digesting technical content then translating it into easy-to-understand language for customers? How would they make sure the learnings can be repurposed in the future?
Their answers will help you determine whether they’ll actually save you time, or whether you’ll just spend more energy educating yet another team.
Check what they keep when simplifying
There is a delicate balance between educating customers enough for them to make an informed decision and overwhelming them with technical information. The right product marketing firm for technical products will have mastered that art.
When you’re vetting a potential partner, ask about their experience communicating value to potential and existing customers in a way that resonates. Can they pay close attention to the needs of different audience segments, knowing which technical details would be helpful to one customer, and what wouldn’t be to another? How do they judge when and what to simplify, versus what to expand upon? When considering the website, what product information belongs in an introductory web page, versus a visual diagram or more detailed documentation?
The team who is marketing your technical product must be able to understand the details of your product so that when they hear each customer’s needs, they’re able to intelligently highlight which nuanced details are relevant. What’s more, a reliable partner will be able to tell you how they’ll communicate your product’s benefits in an engaging way that doesn’t leave customers’ eyes glazing over.
Understand their workflow
Many teams work together to build your highly technical product—from engineering to product, marketing, sales, legal, brand and more. Together, they all must determine priorities and ensure that the best possible product goes to market. In a race where each team is competing to have their piece prioritized, how can a product marketing firm lessen the chaos (and not just add to it)?
When you’re selecting a product marketing firm, understand how they approach the technical reviews and approvals process. Are they able to get in the weeds with the feedback-and-iteration process—adjusting where possible, consolidating what’s left, and delivering action items to the right stakeholders? What happens when conflicting feedback arises? How do they keep track of what’s completed, what’s in-progress, and what still needs to be assigned?
The right partner will protect you from all the cross-functional chaos by stepping in and absorbing it themselves. They will organize the action and only bring things to your desk when absolutely necessary, freeing up your time to focus on other priorities. They will work with engineers to align on feature details without reconstructing the whole story. An exceptional partner will even take all the learnings from the workflow and establish a repeatable process that can be used in the future, should ownership of the function change.
Take them for a test drive before committing
A lot of these questions can be better answered in demonstrations rather than in words (showing rather than telling). To get a true read on the capabilities of a potential product marketing firm, consider starting with a small, paid engagement.
Offer a brief, technical excerpt from your product’s messaging materials and provide a defined target audience. From there, ask how they would turn the sample into a digestible, enticing sales material. When analyzing their work, pay attention to:
Discovery: Did they ask for additional materials—and make themselves entirely familiar with those materials—before asking you questions?
Refinement: Did they analyze what you provided and personalize the messaging in a way that specifically supports the target audience’s needs?
Interconnectivity: Did they consider how other teams’ angles of work may complement or interfere with theirs?
Communication: Did they think through the best way to present the technical information (ie visually, graphically, verbally)?
Before committing to a partner, it’s important to see their technical sales enablement capabilities. Evaluate the level of accuracy they produce, how organized they are, how sound their judgment is, and how intelligently they’re able to move through a cross-functional flow of work.
The right product marketing partner is an investment that pays dividends
The right product marketing firm for technical products will make your life easier from the moment you hire them. They’ll synthesize existing product materials, ask thoughtful questions, and take the work off your plate once they’ve got everything they need. You can trust them to translate the highly-technical information into consistent, easy-to-understand language that makes customers eager to do business with you.
Take your time when learning the working style of your prospective partner. The right firm for you won’t just answer your questions, but enthusiastically and thoughtfully ask you questions in return. Why? As much as you’re invested in them, they’re invested in you (if not more so).
Need help turning technical expertise into clear marketing materials? Let’s talk about your product and what your team needs. Schedule a call.