Tech companies—whether startups or enterprises—often struggle to keep up with the pace and quality of content needed to connect with their audience. The subject matter expert (SME)’s gift is understanding the tech. They’ve put a lot of thought into their product, platform, or service, and they’re probably eager to share their work with prospective and current users. And they’re an essential part of the content team because they need to ensure that any content released is suitably technical and accurate to convey authenticity and provide true value to your audiences.
But translating that expertise into engaging, high-value content that resonates with tech practitioners and executive-level buyers is another challenge.
It’s not just about accuracy—it’s about strategy. To make an impact, SMEs need to collaborate with tech marketers who understand content formats, distribution channels, and long-term brand positioning.
Part 1 of this two-part blog post series looked at why tech marketers need SMEs. In the second part of our series, we dive into why SMEs and tech marketers need to work together, the challenges involved, and practical tips for building a productive, long-term partnership.
Why Can’t the SME Go It Alone Without a Marketer?
Often, SMEs—whether developers, IT specialists, UI designers, or SOC analysts—underestimate the value and expertise that tech marketers and content creators like creative writers and video producers bring to the table.
Tech personas are into the tech side of things, so they’re more likely to find ways to highlight and showcase the technology, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Most organizations need to strike a balance, creating a mix of content types. And tech marketers can help plan all of that so it’s produced in a streamlined, optimized way.
Without a positive, constructive relationship between the tech personnel and the marketing team…
- Content may not effectively reach and engage audiences.
- Content may focus too much on the technical aspects of a product/service and not enough on the benefits it offers to the target audience.
- Content may lack long-term vision and consistency with branding and overall messaging.
- Content may not be timely, as tech marketers are aware of general industry trends.
- Content may be too expensive since it’s an inefficient use of the tech person’s time. (When an SME works hand in hand with a marketer, everything functions optimally and nobody’s time is wasted!)
Tech marketers also have a better grasp of which content type is necessary and when. For example, deep tech content is great for users who want to dig in and understand product features in detail (e.g., a how-to guide or detailed knowledge base).
But it’s less helpful when what you need is a short, sweet explainer video for prospective users with a fun storyboard and script.
Tech + Marketing = The Secret to Success
Great tech marketing results are only possible when tech experts (SMEs) work closely with marketers and content creators.
SMEs must collaborate with content creators experienced in marketing—professionals who bring storytelling and creative structure to the table while relying on SME insights to connect with the right audience.
Content creators work with SMEs to:
- Collect information
- Ensure the content is accurate and that any technical details are clear
Then, the content creator uses their writing skills to craft engaging and informative content for the target audience.
Marketer and SME skills are highly complementary:
But while these roles obviously complement one another, the process of building working relationships and keeping content flowing through the pipeline to audiences doesn’t always go smoothly…
Cautionary Tales from the Content Creation Trenches
Companies of all sizes experience challenges when it comes to transferring tech content from the minds of SMEs to content marketing assets desperately needed to speak to audiences—blogs, explainer videos, white papers, one-pagers, case studies, and more.
This can lead to content-creation nightmares.
One IOD client comes to mind, in particular. Note: Their name has obviously been changed for confidentiality.
Large Enterprises: Challenges of Scale
“GlobalFort” is a well-established enterprise-scale security vendor serving corporate enterprises and governments around the world. Obviously, a business of this size demands a non-stop stream of content at a very fast cadence.
Yet because of the structure of this enterprise—including numerous product lines and target customers, with often-conflicting marketing requirements—there is no “buck stops here” persona to take ownership of content marketing. Instead, each PMM is more or less on their own, often leading to chaos.
With no clear ownership of tech content marketing, there is no proper scheduling and no point person to oversee KPIs on:
- Quantity
- Frequency
- Timelines
- Marketing campaign results
This enterprise’s marketing department literally has no way of knowing how it’s doing and thus has little hope of staying ahead as a thought leader.
With so many moving parts in a large enterprise, there’s lots of turnover among stakeholders—either personnel moving from department to department, people leaving the organization, or new team members coming on board mid-project.
What that meant in practice for GlobalFort’s tech marketing content timeline was that many articles would be started with the best of intentions, but would often stall or run aground, only reaching completion months or even years after being started. In addition, because of these problems, many content projects weren’t started at all.
Given that content is one of the best ways to launch new products or versions, and to keep existing products in the public eye, a lack of fresh content was beginning to seriously harm GlobalFort.
It’s often a challenge for veteran tech vendors to compete with agile startups in content creation. With too many mistakes, they can come across as old school and start losing ground to the competition when it comes to remaining front of mind for tech personnel like IT and security practitioners.
IOD helped GlobalFort take charge of its content strategy and content creation processes by:
- Coordinating projects
- Dealing with multiple PMMs at GlobalFort
- Working to ensure a coherent, consistent approach to content
- Maximizing the use of GlobalFort’s SMEs’ time by coordinating meetings and ensuring timely reviews of outlines and drafts to keep all content moving along on schedule
Small Companies: Separate Concerns
While enterprises often lack the agility to succeed at content production at scale, startups often suffer from content creation problems for other reasons, such as over-reliance on a CEO who is passionate about his product, but too busy to focus on marketing.
In this case, while the CEO is perhaps the ultimate SME, whose tech expertise is essential to creating great technical content (obviously!), it’s not enough without a full team in place.
3 Tips for SMEs to Build a Productive Relationship with Marketing
These tips, based on our deep experience working with tech leaders, will help you cut through the challenges and build the best possible relationship for seamless tech content production.
1. Understand the Need for Marketing
Creative content is essential to product success. Marketing goals like increasing brand awareness, generating leads, and driving sales all help ensure a productive future for the product expert.
Creative, deep-tech content will help your product rise above the competition when it comes to attracting potential customers. When you connect with your target audience on an emotional level, your brand will be the first they recall.
2. Ask for Accountability and Reproduce Success Wherever You Find It
SMEs shouldn’t be afraid to ask the marketing team for KPIs, even if they don’t volunteer them. They should be able to share examples of tech marketing content that has succeeded in reaching the company’s target audience and achieving marketing goals.
Say your brand created a series of short and engaging technical videos that resonated with the target audience, increasing brand awareness and also leading to a bump in sales. KPIs will show you this type of success, i.e., what worked so you can do more of it.
3. Recognize Your Contribution
SMEs should feel confident to share their contributions to marketing success when describing the tech department’s achievements. SME input on content ideas and drafts is highly valuable and critical to the content creation process.
The SME’s role is to constantly look for better, more effective, and more accurate ways to communicate certain aspects of the product or service. Your product is essential to the organization as a whole—but it can only succeed when the organization is communicating its benefits in a way that’s both informative and engaging.
Building Happy Tech Content Creation Relationships
When SMEs work hand in hand with marketers and content creators, coming together with mutual respect and a clear understanding of each other’s roles, this synergy is exactly what results in great tech marketing content.
At IOD, we’re experts at bringing together a wide variety of SMEs, along with tech marketers and content creators, to make tech content production seamless and effective.
Turn your organization into a well-oiled tech content creation machine that achieves all your marketing goals. Get in touch with IOD today.
