If you want to find answers to just about anything, it only takes a quick Google search to find what you're looking for. Indeed that may include researching something of a technical nature.
This being the case means that tech companies must now prioritize creating content in many forms.
The importance of content creation is becoming more understood among companies of many sizes, locations, and industries. This means that for industries such as IT, where things can get highly technical and relatively fast, it's become essential to make content everyday people can understand.
Now that may seem like a tall order and can depend on the technical subject you are writing about. However, when we tackle a big project, it's advisable to step back to look at the whole picture. We want to take the same approach when creating tech-focused content.
Instead of providing very detailed information, you want to create a general understanding while still highlighting the smaller details. Read along if you are interested in creating simplified, technical pieces for your general audience.
Understand Your Audience
Number one thing right out the gate is understanding for whom you are writing. Whom is your company speaking to and why? Why is essential, as it helps you sort out what content you want to write and what you would rather avoid.
When you write for an audience, you want to speak their language. In this case, we are talking about people of varying education, ages, and backgrounds—everyday people whose interaction with the tech world may be limited to their cell phone or computer.
Why would someone visit your website? What information are they searching for? Do they want to solve a problem, or do they want to understand a particular subject, such as how coding language works to build software?
Asking these questions while building your user persona will be of great help in the direction and goals of your website blog or social media content.
Keep it Short
They say to keep it short and sweet, but how do you accomplish that when there are a million different aspects of technology to cover?
Start by considering a word count for your articles. While we do look at the word count for SEO purposes, it's a good measure to keep you from being too long-winded or going into too much detail.
Not only should you consider the length of the content as a whole, but keep your paragraphs shorter; break them up to provide easier readability, flow, and structure.
This goes for words as well! Using big technical terms that need further explanation can drag down the reader and cause them to lose interest in your content.
Instead, use more common terms or more straightforward explanations. If your audience feels that reading your article is a chore, it's no longer an enjoyable experience for them.
Use Illustrations
Remember in school when you were learning a new word and a picture next to it to help you understand what was happening? Well, you can do the same within your technical blogs.
As we were saying before, making a tech piece concise will help a reader understand the blog and keep them coming back to read more.
The use of pictures, graphs, videos, and the like are great ways to simplify a complicated subject. Instead of explaining everything in words, use illustrations to guide the reader through the point.
Keep it Lively
Technical information can be hard to digest, mainly because it's presented in a boring way. When writing for others, you want them to enjoy what they are reading. You want them to engage with your content and possibly take action with your company in the future. But most importantly, you want to provide the reader with something of value.
That means becoming more creative with how you speak to your audience. This is where brand voice plays a part. What do you as a company sound like, what do your customers sound like?
Brand voice is simply the personality of a company, and even though your world is technical doesn't mean that your personality has to be filled with complicated terms and words that no one understands.
Have fun! Crack a joke, throw in a meme or a pop culture reference. Let the reader know that you are fun and are willing to speak to them on their level of understanding. We all just want to have fun!
Moving forward
Breaking down technical content does take some work and even a little research to put together something your audience will enjoy. However, providing informative, reliable, engaging content is the aim of everyone creating in the digital space.
Writing for a general audience will become more intuitive the more proactive you are. Have a non-technical person review your work to see if you are heading in the right direction. Read content from other tech firms you admire and want to aspire to for inspiration!
If you are looking for a company to aid you in building your tech-focused content strategy, look no further than your tech-friendly creators at Sud Creative! We aim to create content of value that expresses your brand voice and drives brand awareness. Oh, and we have fun doing it! So have a chat with us, and let's create some content!