What is Technical Content Strategy Part 2: Capturing Your Audience

In Part 1 of this series, What is Technical Content Strategy Part 1: Thought Leadership, we discussed one of the primary challenges encountered in technical content strategy - which is identifying the right topics and content. The second challenge when embarking on the journey to industry thought leadership is identifying the right audiences. In this article, we delve into the nuanced complexities that businesses encounter when identifying, creating, and honing technical content for the right audiences.

Let’s start with the two categories of businesses, B2B and B2C.

B2C

Generally, technical content is easier for B2C businesses because most consumers do not need highly technical information to make buying decisions. However, there are some unique situations where businesses need to simplify their technical content into something that is consumable by the layperson. For example, if you were to have a new medical technology that you needed to explain to the market, you would need to communicate the technical specifications that differentiate your product to the layperson.

B2B

For companies operating in the B2B space, you step into a different realm of audiences, content, and function. In B2B, you have three distinct audiences:

1. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

2. Well-Read Audience (think salesperson or buyer)

3. Everyone else (for most topics, this is you and me)

Each of these audiences has distinct needs, and as a result, technical content strategy typically involves creating different pieces of collateral for each audience from the same source of information. This also includes creating content for different mediums like articles, eBooks, podcasts, etc. to ensure that you connect with your audience via the medium they use most.

The second half of capturing your audience is identifying the right audience segment. You need to learn the personas and interests of each of these categories to ensure that the content you create targets their specific needs and helps draw the conclusions that will drive the consumer to take action.

Speaking of taking action, when you look at the function of your technical content, it may not be intended to push the reader to make an immediate purchase. You may simply be targeting industry awareness, driving the audience to contact your business, or elevating the status of your brand in the market as an industry leader.

Each of these goals tends to be unique to B2B cases, and they can depend heavily on the buying cycle of the business. For example, businesses with a shorter buying cycle will more likely push the user toward a contact form or to make a purchase. Whereas businesses with a longer buying cycle may drive more toward thought leadership or industry awareness.

With this in mind, you can see that technical content strategy is far more than simply technical writing - it’s honing and refining your overall content marketing strategy to position your business as an industry thought leader and a trusted resource for the needs of each audience.

If you need support identifying who you need to reach with your technical content and how to reach them, let us know. We can help.