Tech marketing blunders: Failure to communicate

I’ve posted about the value in meeting with media/analyst contacts prior to a briefing to ensure that you’re presenting information your contact can use. This is all well and good — assuming your contact can hear and understand your speaker, which brings me to another briefing blunder: failure to use a clear communications channel (I’m talking about the telephone line!) and/or a presenter that speaks clearly.

Most technology briefings are conducted via a conference call between the speaker, a marketing manager, a PR rep, and of course the media/analyst contact. This is understandably unavoidable. It’s difficult to get all these people in the same room. However, speakers should not be presenting briefings from a mobile phone while driving or sitting in a noisy airport terminal. If the speaker does manage to stay focused, he/she may not be heard over the background noise. This can also be a problem when using VoIP lines. Make certain ahead of time that the speaker can call in from a quiet location on a line that provides decent quality of service.

Once you’ve established that your speaker will be clearly heard, ensure that he/she will be understood. There are a lot of smart technology managers and executives outside the U.S., and many of them are non-native English speakers. Unfortunately, a heavy accent or broken English can make a highly-detailed technical conversation difficult to follow, especially if your contact is new to your product. This is not to say that your speaker cannot still give the presentation. Consider providing your contacts with speaker notes prior to the briefing, or be prepared to answer questions, clarify quotes, etc., after the briefing.

Additional resources:
Tech marketing blunders: Cookie cutter media briefings
Five questions to ask before pitching your tech story to the media

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Crystal Bedell
Freelance technical copywriter & content strategist
cbedell@bedellcommunications.com