5 Communications Tips for Technology Companies

Com­mu­ni­ca­tions are a strate­gic imper­a­tive for tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­nies look­ing to gain and keep a com­pet­i­tive edge. With com­plex offer­ings and a wide range of audi­ences, tech com­pa­nies need to be able to clear­ly artic­u­late tech­ni­cal details as well as the val­ue of their solu­tions to share­hold­ers, sales, mar­ket­ing and non-tech­ni­cal customers.

Bell­mont Part­ners is one of the country’s lead­ing tech­nol­o­gy PR firms, work­ing with tech com­pa­nies of all sizes. We are deeply expe­ri­enced in tech com­mu­ni­ca­tions and PR activ­i­ties for pub­lic, pri­vate and start­up tech com­pa­nies. Here are five pro tips for tech­nol­o­gy com­mu­ni­ca­tions to lev­el-up your PR game to the next level.

Tip #1 – Know Your Audience

No one knows your tech­nol­o­gy bet­ter than you, but depend­ing on your audi­ence, your infor­ma­tion might not res­onate clear­ly. It’s cru­cial to under­stand not only your tech­nol­o­gy, but also your audience(s) before you start com­mu­ni­cat­ing anything.

For exam­ple, when it comes to mes­sag­ing about your products:

• Engi­neers may want you to spell out all the specs and features
• Deci­sion-mak­ers may need a mix of high-lev­el infor­ma­tion and tech­ni­cal information
• Investors may want more infor­ma­tion on your company’s recent mile­stones and growth plans
• Con­sumers may only want to learn about the coolest, most inno­v­a­tive features

Regard­less of who you’re talk­ing to, you should always be pre­pared to trans­late your tech­ni­cal lan­guage for a non-tech­ni­cal audi­ence and explain your val­ue propo­si­tion to some­one who knows noth­ing about your busi­ness – even those in tech don’t always know all the jar­gon and back-end speak.

Addi­tion­al­ly, be mind­ful of cul­tur­al dif­fer­ences when com­mu­ni­cat­ing, espe­cial­ly if you’re try­ing to grow glob­al­ly. You may need to tai­lor your mes­sag­ing for spe­cif­ic regions to ensure clar­i­ty and avoid cul­tur­al faux pas.

Tip #2 – Show, Don’t Tell

One of the first rules of writ­ing is “show, don’t tell.” Give exam­ples, high­light use cas­es and share anec­dotes to illus­trate what you’re try­ing to con­vey. Some great exam­ples of show­ing what your com­pa­ny does could include cus­tomer case stud­ies, prod­uct demos (don’t for­get to prac­tice ahead of time!), shar­ing data and met­rics, and more.

“Show­ing” instead of “telling” may come out in unex­pect­ed ways, too – per­haps you use a visu­al to quick­ly con­vey some­thing that would take much longer to write. Or use your data in a video to tell a sto­ry in a snap­py – but effec­tive – way.

And remem­ber, shar­ing the ben­e­fits of your solu­tion can often go much fur­ther than just how it works. Don’t get mired down by the details – show how your com­pa­ny is pro­vid­ing val­ue, backed up with data and results.

Tip #3 – Don’t For­get the Basics

In a world of gen­er­a­tive AI, pod­casts, YouTube videos, influ­encers, end­less spon­sor­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties and more, it’s easy to lose sight of the foun­da­tion­al work that needs to be done when it comes to com­mu­ni­ca­tions. This is espe­cial­ly true for start­up com­pa­nies who are drink­ing from the fire hose and just try­ing to get a prod­uct to market!

Don’t be afraid to start at square one. This foun­da­tion­al work is cru­cial for a long-last­ing brand. This can include things like cohe­sive brand mes­sag­ing and visu­als, ele­va­tor pitch­es, typo-free copy, visu­al­ly appeal­ing sales decks and a pro­fes­sion­al look­ing website.

Hav­ing a pol­ished, pro­fes­sion­al appear­ance both online and in per­son goes a long way toward earn­ing new cus­tomers, net­work­ing with investors and more. And keep in mind – pol­ished doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly mean wear­ing stuffy suits! It just means being pre­pared and pre­sentable. Online, this might be as sim­ple as a com­plete, copy-edit­ed web­site with func­tion­al links, live social media pro­files and accu­rate (and acces­si­ble) con­tact information.

Tip #4 – Share News Locally

Even if your tar­get audi­ence of cus­tomers is spread out across the coun­try or world, don’t dis­count the val­ue of shar­ing news with your local media sources. Peo­ple want to know about inno­v­a­tive com­pa­nies in their own backyards!

Local media rela­tions pro­vide the oppor­tu­ni­ty to show the human side of your com­pa­ny and the peo­ple behind it – show­cas­ing not only your team’s tech­ni­cal exper­tise but also the ways your com­pa­ny is show­ing up in the com­mu­ni­ty. Are you host­ing a blood dri­ve? Did your com­pa­ny spon­sor a Lit­tle League team? Did you recent­ly install solar pan­els on your build­ing? Con­sid­er shar­ing that news with your local news­pa­per, radio or TV sta­tion – you may just find your­self on the local evening news.

Don’t for­get that deci­sion-mak­ers halfway across the world often see local news results when eval­u­at­ing pur­chas­es – espe­cial­ly if you remem­ber to share media cov­er­age on your web­site and social media chan­nels. These sto­ries can be incred­i­bly valu­able in high­light­ing what makes your com­pa­ny a great part­ner to work with.

Tip #5 – Be Pre­pared for the Unfortunate

Although we nev­er want to think about a cri­sis aris­ing, tech com­pa­nies have extra cri­sis sit­u­a­tions to con­sid­er and pre­pare for, rang­ing from cyber­se­cu­ri­ty inci­dences and ran­somware attacks, to per­son­nel issues, nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, prod­uct mis­use and legal dis­putes. Cri­sis com­mu­ni­ca­tions is nev­er a sub­sti­tute for emer­gency pre­pared­ness, but being pre­pared to com­mu­ni­cate clear, con­cise and accu­rate infor­ma­tion about your com­pa­ny is imper­a­tive to suc­cess­ful­ly nav­i­gat­ing any num­ber of cri­sis situations.

Know­ing that any num­ber of cri­sis events can arise in any com­pa­ny, be sure that you have a cri­sis com­mu­ni­ca­tions plan in place, and it’s nev­er a bad idea to have a few pre­pared state­ments ready to go that you could adjust to a spe­cif­ic situation.

Have your lead­er­ship team and any­one else who may be called upon in a cri­sis – HR, facil­i­ties, inter­nal com­mu­ni­ca­tions, etc. – aware of your cri­sis com­mu­ni­ca­tions plan and have access to the plan in a vari­ety of for­mats includ­ing off your serv­er, in print, at home, etc.

We know run­ning a tech com­pa­ny takes a lot of work, and com­mu­ni­ca­tions and pub­lic rela­tions may be at the bot­tom of your to-do list. Get in touch with us today at info@bellmontpartners.com and we’d be hap­py to help you cre­ate a com­pre­hen­sive pub­lic rela­tions and com­mu­ni­ca­tions strat­e­gy that address­es your team’s spe­cif­ic needs and challenges.