What common mistakes do product marketers make when communicating technical features?

Even in the very tech world, we often forget we're talking to people, those people, the buyers are not the users in general terms and need to understand the value in lay terms.

You absolutely need to use the language your audience understands. For example, I mostly work with tech startups. I often end up in projects where 95% of the employees are technical engineers. They have no patience for marketing jargon. So I need to explain things in words they use on their day-to-day. When you do that, the chances of the sale are much higher than when using industry-specific jargon.

Here are two valuable lessons from my experience that I'd like to share: 1. Assuming your audience already knows what you know: It's important to remember that not everyone has the same level of knowledge as you and your team. You don't want to assume too much and end up missing out on the opportunity to sell your product to those who may not be as experienced. 2. Neglecting the 'why': Sometimes you get so caught up in explaining the benefits of the feature, and oversimplifying the technical stuff that you often miss addressing the 'why'. It's paramount to help users see how your product/features fit into their specific needs, using the language they best understand.

Talk like your users. They probably don’t care about your release x.y.1! They care about the value they get which will make their job easier. Communicate the value, not the jargon.

This is where it's critical to be talking to customers constantly! That allows you to have a better idea of the exact words your customers are using so that you can reflect those in your own messaging. Another thing I notice that's related to jargon: companies often make their most technical launches about them instead of the customer. For example: "We're so excited about our new ai feature!" instead of "You can now do x, y and z easier and faster". We get so overly focused about seeming like we're the most technologically advanced solution that we forget that all customers care about is being great at their jobs and driving an impact with their work. They want to know how our technology helps with that.

Focus on the "why" not the "what" Before explaining to your target audience-- ask yourself "what does this specific person care about and why will this make a difference to them?" This will help you decide how to present your technical features to non-technical stakeholders

Marketers often focus on what the product does (features) rather than what the customer gains (benefits). Tip: For every feature, ask "So what?" to find the benefit. For instance, instead of "Our camera has 20 megapixels," use "Capture every detail with our 20-megapixel camera for memories as sharp as the moment they happened."

This might be the #1 mistake product marketers make in their messaging and campaigns. This happens when product marketers don't fully understand their product and audience. To combat this, product marketers need to use their org's product(s) and engage with customers, prospects, churned customers, buyer committees, and keep an eye on the broader ecosystem. By understanding the forces at play, product marketers can better prioritize benefits, not features, because they understand the unique value the product offers.

This is certainly the point most product marketers get wrong. It's not that you've designed a product that can harvest energy over NFC. It's that with your product the customer doesn't need to care about exchanging batteries.

It's easy to focus on features because that's what your team has been working for months on and are excited to ship but it's important to always be thinking from the perspective of your user. A PMM's job is to be the voice of your user and so putting yourself in their shoes can help you build the most impactful messaging. Your user probably cares more about what the benefit to THEM is rather than how exciting this new feature is, so leading with benefits first in your messaging will help you connect with your target audience most effectively.

Three things I focus on so I don't miss out on tailoring my messaging: > Addressing buying committees, but not boiling the ocean trying to address everyone by name. Spend time parsing out the target buyers, users, influencers, and gatekeepers. Then develop messaging. You don't need to be everything to everyone. Consider key attributes about the committee roles and incorporate themes into your messaging. > Keeping the feedback loops going Stay close to your customers, community, and internal GTM team. Keep your ear to the ground and see if there are small messaging pivots you can make. > Grounding myself: * what do I know? * what questions do I need to answer? * what can I use, or who can I talk to and validate these ideas?

Considering the considerable resource strain we know product marketers often work under, while I fully believe in audience tailored messaging; be careful not to try to do too many segments. Remember that product marketing originates much of the work across the marketing team, and every added segment/audience is a multiple of that work. So be pragmatic, identify your most important customer; then identify your most important audience within that customer - then perfect messaging towards that audience first.

Not customizing the marketing message for the specific needs and interests of different audience segments. Tip: Understand and segment your audience, then tailor your message; speak to young tech enthusiasts about 'cutting-edge innovation,' while professionals might prefer 'enhanced productivity.'

In line with the two previous items, it's all about translation. Translating technical features into benefits and actual use for customers. And it's all about talking the same language as your target audience. As a user, when looking at a car, I don't need to know everything about the engine, the chips, the nuts and bolts. I mostly need to know that it has four wheels, an engine, a few seats, and will get me from point A to point B. Same thing here. "Keep it simple" is the simplest - and best - way to convey value and a clear message.

Tailoring the message to your audience is especially important when dealing with enterprise deals. One pitch simply isn't enough as it won't resonate with the whole buying committee. Let's say your buy-in is a software engineer, who presents your solution to the CPO, who needs approval by the CEO to integrate your solution into the company. The three people you need to convince will have completely different priorities & objections, so make sure to address the following: - The benefit that specific person is getting from your solution - The objections they might have - How they should sell that idea to their boss. Doing that will shorten your sales cycles and improve conversion rates.

Buyers are skeptical (!!!!) and are often weighing options when it comes to their resources (time, effort, budget), so they seek proof of a product's value and its ability to solve their problem. To overcome this, product marketers need to prioritize using customer stories and emotional engagement to demonstrate the product's real-world impact - especially in terms of time and money saved. Get started by repurposing customer feedback into reviews or using a review platform, maintaining/owning a consistent review capture process with other GTM teams (sales/cs/product), and show appreciation to customers for their advocacy. This approach of building in stories builds trust, makes your brand more memorable, and the product more compelling.

While we think we make purchase decisions rationally, we often make them based on emotion and then search for the facts to justify our emotional decision. Respond to your buyer's fears and wants.

Here’s a framework that I use with all my customers. Orchestrate your demo to technical people as if it was a Hollywood movie script. 1 - Context: Start with creating context about the situation that your prospect can recognize 2 - Catalyst: Introduce an event that needs to be solved urgently 3 - Complication: Give some constraints that make the situation even harder to solve 4 - Change: showcase how this exact problem can be solved fast – this is where your product power comes alive. Don’t wonder off. Remember – fast can actually have a positive shock effect 5 - Consequence: summarize the outcomes – the impact created, and the gains achieved Yes, they are technical - but human as well.

Using visual aids to build a story and explain technical features is key. Visuals such as diagrams, infographics, or product demos should be incorporated to make complex technical concepts more accessible and resonate with the target audience.

Listen, Overlooking the power of storytelling and emotional connection in explaining technical features. Tip: Frame features within stories that evoke emotion, like "Our app's encryption isn't just strong; it's the fortress that guards your digital life, giving you the peace of mind to explore, create, and share your story safely."

What I've found helpful to get out "we've always done it this way, so we'll do it this way": Start by gaining a deep grasp of the problem at hand and your audience's objectives (saving time, driving revenue, etc.). Then create a few hypotheses and SMART goals. Why? Because - without those you will be optimizing messaging on assumptions which is NOT how you win hearts and minds (and budgets) in this economy. Don't shy away from conducting quick surveys or consulting customers/communities. Seeking validation at every step ensures that you're tackling the right problem, showcasing the right feature, and paving the way for a more iterative process when it comes to adapting messaging.

Copy testing is one of the most valuable tools in the product marketing toolkit. User research is incredibly important to give you guidance on how to shape your message but getting the results from tests will help give you a definitive answer. Copy testing can also give you signals on feedback from your users that you can then bring back in to influence your product roadmap. Though all value propositions might be valuable to your audience, results from tests can show you that some resonate more than others.

Not testing your message is a biggie. When we come up with a message, it's easy to think as a job well done, and implement that across the website and marketing materials. You just want to get it done. I get it. But. It's extremely difficult to get the message right and the message might not resonate with your target audience for a number of reasons. It's also relatively easy to test the message quite quickly and efficiently: - In mass-market B2B: Create a Display Google Ads campaign and drive people to the landing page and into the product. Measure CTR% on the ad level and the conversion on the LP. - In enterprise B2B: Pitch using the new message to 5 people. You'll quickly find if people are responding or not.

Once I was at a company when a new arrival asked a question about the company's messaging, based upon a decision made before the new arrival joined: "Did we perform A/B testing on this message?" The new arrival was told that A/B testing was not needed...which was clearly inaccurate because some prospects HATED the company's messaging.

Big advantage of working at Jiminny is having access to the voice of the customer at all times so that alongside quantitative data on clicks, engagement and user adoption - we can also review what customers and prospects are communicating and their pain points. This helps me tweak messaging and speak the language of the ICP to improve their understanding of our features and the value proposition. Qualitative x Quantitative = great messaging

Features are the enabler to benefit, which a target audience will gain value from. Work backwards from value in your articulation. PMMs should see features merely as a taxi for benefit, with value being the destination.

Neglecting the customer's perspective and use cases, lacking clear storytelling and visuals, and being inconsistent in messaging. Overpromising, underestimating competitors, not training sales teams adequately, and ignoring customer feedback are also key pitfalls to avoid.

Context! Context! Context! This is the biggest mistake I see - the lack of context when describing the value of features. Hence, the importance of stories that describe what someone is doing, why they're doing it, the outcome they want and the reasons they can't get there. Then describe how your features help eliminate the issues to get the outcome! My rule of thumb - always end with features, don't start with them.

Differentiation! When communicating product features and benefits, please share how they differentiate from your competitors. Customers need to understand why your product is different than the other 30 products on the market.

It's also imperative to consider the maturity of the product and market and the culture of the company when doing anything related to messaging—be it technical features, a product offering, or corporate messaging. For example, if it's a relatively new market or segment, the messaging and channel message will be very different than in a mature category. Also, product-led organizations will usually have dramatically different goals, budgets, and maturity within their marketing org, which can also strongly impact the messaging and positioning of products and features. Oh, and ALWAYS back up what you're saying with proof—data, social proof, anything you have—but show your work!