A colleague recently pointed me to a blog (Make Marketing History) detailing the flaws typically seen in technical product marketing. As a reformed marketing exec hailing from the technical world, I can attest that this person is right on. What makes tech marketing poor is that the technical marketer is typically too focused on how cool their feature is, that surely they have to explain how it works. Nope. Don't care.
I do not need to know how to build a clock in order to tell the time (BENEFIT).
This is why technical manuals are long, unread, and therefore, irrelevant in improving the client experience.
How does this relate to Lost Compensation? After all, "The LC" provides expert economic consulting to injury litigators, not technical gadgets. And yet, simplicity and clarity are just as relevant.
One must capture the interest of the audience before one can even hope to capture the sale, and to do so, one must communicate simply and concisely. It's not about "dumbing down" the message: that incorrectly implies the audience is somehow flawed intellectually. It is about distilling the message. A one page glossy summarizes an answer to one simple question: "Why the hell should I buy your flippin' product (or service)?" If you cannot answer that, start over. A 3-page Getting Started Guide anticipates your needs and addresses them quickly -- where on earth would you find help in an 87-page User Manual? Would you even pick it up and thumb to the TOC?
Soon, very soon, we are launching our new website. The message will be distilled, and the benefits of working with us more clearly in focus. We will communicate what makes us unique, and why you should care (ie, how that uniqueness benefits you).
Until then...
