Don’t be boring.
Writing technical copy is a battle—a push-and-pull act between writing for intrigue and writing for accuracy and authority.
Many writers try to communicate authority by writing like a boring professor: describing each step in detail like their drawing up schematics for a new building.
You want to deepen your relationship with your readers by building trust with your writing. Build trust, but not so matter-of-factly that you lose their attention after a few dry sentences.
You’re only a click, notification, or glance away from losing their attention. 👀
So, how do you write technical copy that’s actually interesting?
For Engaging Writing, Tell a Story
As counter-intuitive as it may sound, what you may be missing is narrative, a story. While you need to be technically competent and accurate, your reader naturally gravitates toward the story you’re telling first. Your marketing story needs to be about the client and their needs, not about you or your company’s offerings.
What you have to say (and what your customer needs to learn) is more than a list of technical details. By tying those details together in a narrative, you will increase the understanding of the content and improve its ability to influence the action you desire.
Case studies lend themselves to storytelling, but even a data sheet has a purpose: to answer the question, “Should I buy this model?” Email marketing needs to earn its time in the inbox by telling a personally relevant story for your readers.
Even an SoW has a story to tell:
- Things were going fine, but we got stuck on <problem>.
- We looked for and found <company> to help us <objectives>.
- That team gave us a plan to accomplish, which looks like <proposed tasks with schedule and deliverables>.
- Once executed for <cost of project>, this plan will allow us to <expected outcomes>.
In Business Story Marketing, You’re Not the Hero. Your Customer is.
We get it.
The offerings you have—whether they be products, services, or otherwise—are the obvious solution to your target client’s pain points and corporate aspirations. As a result, many companies make the mistake of seeing themselves as the hero, but when their copy focuses on themselves, the audience disengages.
Why? Because we all want to hear a great story about ourselves.
We all want to hear a great story about ourselves. (Click to Tweet)
Yes, it’s a bit silly and seems selfish, but the fact is, you see yourself in this narrative only if I address you and your needs. If not, you wouldn’t have even read this far into this blog post.
You need to craft your message into a marketing story. It needs to be a narrative about the client first, their pain points, desires, and future goals. And only then do you step in to discuss a potential solution and how you’ll help them achieve their goals.
Most Stories Follow a Proven Template
According to Donald Miller, author of Building a Story Brand, all good storytelling, yes, even brand storytelling, follows a well-trodden path:
- A hero has a problem
- The hero meets a guide
- The guide gives the hero a plan
- The guide calls the hero to action
- The action results in success (or failure if they don’t act)
Hero [Character] Development
Position your potential client as the hero—the person who fights for the victory, problem-resolution, and business success.
The hero is the focal point of the story because they are ‘the ones charged with the initiative—a quest for answers. And you have to encourage the idea that they are the only ones with the potential to solve the story’s conflict.
Conflict
A story isn’t worth reading without conflict, and you need to address the battle in your client’s journey directly.
Your newly-established hero needs to have a dog in the fight to want to keep reading. Otherwise, your audience won’t stick around to find out if the hero succeeds or loses.
- Will the company successfully refresh their infrastructure under budget?
- Will they remediate their malware infection?
- How does the transition to a new single source of record improve efficiency and flexibility for the business?
Guide
Rarely does a hero solve the problem alone. If they could, there wouldn’t be much of a story to tell.
Enter the guide—you, your team, and your company solutions. You have set the stage for your hero, their conflict, and their desire to solve it. Now you show them the way.
Enter their story as the industry expert with the data, tools, and services to guide them to their best-fit solution. Here’s where you educate and provide the knowledge they’ve been looking for. Help them grow, navigate the conflict, and achieve business success.
Tell Stories that Increase Relationship and Encourage Action
You’re speaking directly to overworked developers, solutions architects, sales teams, government officials, cloud engineers, and executives scrambling to keep up with their own digital transformation. You’ll make them pay attention because it’s their story that you are telling.
Don’t forget! Your marketing strategy is just pre-customer service. Every part of your company’s story should focus on your ideal customer’s journey. Redirect your content marketing towards a brand story that leads your clients to their success —and you’ll win as well.
