Technical Marketing Week 13

Materials
Introduction

 Technical marketing materials are designed to sell a product or service.

 Unlike proposals, which also offer products or services, technical marketing
materials tend to be less formal and more dynamic, colorful, and varied.
 A typical proposal is tailored to one client’s specific needs and follows a fairly
standard format, while marketing literature seeks to present the product in its best
light for a broad array of audiences and needs.
 Also, technical marketing documents describe science and technology products
and are often aimed at knowledgeable readers.
 Even when directed toward a general audience (say, home computer users),
technical marketing materials must deal with specialized concepts.
 1.
Types of Social media pages: Most companies use social
media and the Web to display their marketing
Technical materials. The advantage of these sites over a
printed document is that you can update price,
Marketing specifications, or other features of the product.
Social media also allows interactivity: Customers
Materials can provide feedback, request additional
information, share tips and ideas, and rate your
product or service.
 2.
Brochures: Brochures are used to introduce a product
Types of or service, provide pricing information, and explain
how customers can contact the company. A typical
Technical brochure is a standard-size page (8-½ ×11 inches)
folded in thirds, but brochures can assume various
Marketing shapes and sizes, depending on purpose, audience,
and budget. Brochures can be made available to
Materials customers in PDF, downloadable from the company’s
Web site. You can create a professional looking
brochure using any of today’s word-processing or
page design programs (most offer dozens of templates
to choose from, which can be modified to meet your
particular audience and purpose).
Types of
Technical 3.
Fact sheets: Fact sheets offer technical data and
Marketing consumer information about the product or service
being offered. Fact sheets are often one part of a more
Materials comprehensive brochure or Web page.
Types of
4.
Letters: Business letters are the most personal types
Technical of marketing documents. If a potential customer
requests details about a product or service, you may
Marketing send this information and include a brief cover letter.
Thank the customer for his or her interest and point
Materials out specific features of your product or service that
match this customer’s needs. You can send the letter
in the mail or, if you have the customer’s contact
information, as an email attachment.
Types of 5.
Large color documents: Some technical marketing
Technical materials are far more elaborate than a typical
brochure. Consider the glossy booklets for a new car:
Marketing The high-quality photography, slick color printing,
and glossy feel are designed to evoke the feeling of
Materials owning such a car. These booklets include technical
specifications, such as engine horsepower and wheel-
base size.
Emily in Paris for a day?
Communicating through Social Media
Week 13
 Helps interact with users

Why is Social
Accessibility to owners/manufacturers
Media
Important in Humanize the brand/organization

Technical
Setup? A sense of community

Rapidly growing channel of crisis communication

Examples of
Social Media

 Internet-based
platforms which helps
people to create and
share ideas
 A digital community
 Blogging
Types of Social
Media YouTube
we need to focus

Twitter

Facebook
 Allows readers to interact
with the blogger through
comments option
 Reach out to global Blogging and
Business
audience
 Different forms of blog:
 Vlog-posting videos A blog is a type of website or online
 Podcasts-public platform that features written content,
announcements, news,
often in the form of articles or posts
 Microblogging-brief
contents, usually 200 words
 Facebook, Twitter,
MySpace (free
microblogging services)
Reasons for Blogging

Communicate with Communicate with Improve search Network through Track public
colleagues customers engine rankings syndication opinion
Effective Corporate Blogging

1 2 3 4 5
Identify your Achieve customer Start blogrolling Keep it fresh Develop policies
audience contact for corporate blog
usage
Target technologically YouTube and
adept customer
Business
 Affordable mean to connect with
users (as compared to TV, Radio)
Why have a
YouTube
presence? Video posting is free of cost

Access to global audience

(Remember Shae Gill and Kaifi
Khalil?)
What to post on YouTube?

Presentations from
executives to discuss
finances, corporate Announcements of News releases of company Training for purchasers of
activities, company important corporate news activities products
performance, and so forth
(transparency)

Videotapes of consumer
Events such as corporate Instructional videos
questions and help‐desk Marketing of new products
celebrations, meetings, and showing how to use
answers with procedural with pictures
other activities products
steps
  Title your video and use appropriate subtitles
periodically in the video.
 Include the company name and contact information
such as a telephone number and the Web site URL.
 Use onscreen graphics to enliven the video.
How to shoot a  Edit a longer video into short segments.
video for  Keep focused “on one key message with the strongest
lead benefit,” and avoid attempting to cover all your
YouTube? products or all your services (Zahorsky).
 Avoid plagiarism by creating your own content.
“Before using music clips, television clips, or movie
clips, you need to get permission to do so. If you fail
to get permission, you are, essentially, stealing
someone’s work” (Brewer).
Twitter
and
Business
What’s Twitter?
What’s a Tweet?

 Twitter is a social
networking platform that
allows users to send and
read short, 280-character
messages called tweets.
  Direct people’s attention to corporate news, products,
services, and events.
 Give customers and coworkers a forum, allowing a
company to study concerns, manage issues, initiate
discussions, answer questions, and respond to complaints.
 Assist with business development—promotional and

Why use marketing collateral.

 Add to and improve customer service. Through Twitter, you

Twitter? can send service updates and respond to customer concerns.

Example: “Twelpforce,” a customer‐service team to answer
customer questions about products and services.
 Help you show the “human” side of your company (tell
what employees are doing and show how your company is
involved in charitable activities).
 Allow dispersed work teams to communicate quickly with
each other.
  Use services like Twitter Search to find who might be
writing about you or your company.
 Don’t tweet all day while at work. That’s not an
effective use of your time or corporate time.
 Don’t use Twitter just as another channel for
advertising. It should have a more personal, social
media component—people talking to people.

Twittetiquette  Separate business from fun. Have two Twitter

accounts: one that is strictly business and one that is
for friends, family, and fun.
 Don’t tweet in anger. A tweet sent in anger can be
read by thousands of people. They might not
appreciate your haste and negativity. In contrast,
positive interaction with a company representative
could have a more positive impact (Brogan,
Mathews).
 one‐stop location to market
products or services, create
brand recognition, recruit new Facebook and
employees, and connect with
the customer on a personal
basis
Business
  Create a clear business goal
 Keep it fresh
 Add links to social media tools
 Create reasonable conduct policies with the user
 Always write truthfully about yourself or your company.
 Do not disclose confidential information about the company.
 Post photographs that represent employees in a professional
manner.
How to use  Avoid links to unprofessional, inappropriate, or personal sites.

Facebook?  Post videos that are short and professional.

 Respond to public inquiries on the site immediately (within 24
hours of the posting).
 Update the work-related information on the Facebook site
frequently.
 Avoid wasting work time with frequent postings of a personal
nature.
 Avoid endorsing other people or companies unless your company
approves.
 Do not post other people’s writing without getting permission.
Write a catchy
tweet to sell this
soda…
within the confines of technical
communication
Source

 Technical Communication: Process and Product, Seventh Edition, by Sharon J. Gerson and Steven M.
Gerson. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.