How to humanise your tech marketing in 8 steps

Marketing teams, passionate about their technology’s capabilities, frequently overlook a defining reality: even in the most technical of markets, it’s the human connection that truly drives engagement. The challenge isn’t the quality of the tech, it’s how its value is communicated in a way that resonates with people. Here, PR gives tech founders the power to rise above the noise, outshine competitors and speak directly to their ideal customers.

Eight steps to humanise your tech marketing

1 Identify your audience’s human needs

Look beyond technical requirements to understand what truly motivates your customers professionally and personally.

2Translate features into benefits

For every technical specification, articulate how it solves a real problem or creates meaningful value for your audience.

3Focus on business outcomes

Frame your messaging around the tangible business results your technology delivers rather than how it functions.

4Incorporate emotional elements

Recognise that even B2B decisions are influenced by trust, confidence and other emotional factors. 

5Tell customer success stories

Share real examples of how your technology transformed situations similar to what your prospects face.

6Balance technical detail with clarity

Ensure technical information is accessible without sacrificing accuracy or depth.

7Test your messaging

Regularly validate that your content resonates with actual customers, not just internal technical stakeholders.

8Ask the human question

Before publishing any content, ask: “What human need am I addressing here?”

The technical marketer’s trap

Many technology leaders fall into the trap of focusing too heavily on product features, believing that superior technical specifications automatically translate into compelling market positioning, neglecting the actual issues their product solves. CTOs and other tech leaders, immersed in their product’s complexity, often assume their audience shares the same depth of technical understanding and enthusiasm. This assumption leads to content that emphasises features over benefits, specifications over solutions and technical excellence over business impact. The need for clear PR messaging that preserves product expertise while maintaining an ease of understandability cannot be overstated.

Consider this scenario: A potential customer visits your website seeking to understand how you can solve their business challenges but instead encounters numerous examples of over-engineered messaging. This perfectly illustrates how technical teams can miss the fundamental human needs their audiences are expressing. Such oversight weakens market positioning, hampering growth and resulting in content that fails to connect emotionally or on any level whatsoever.

The human reality of B2B marketing

This approach overlooks a crucial reality: B2B audiences, regardless of their technical expertise, are humans first. They have strategies to execute, goals to achieve and pressures to alleviate. While they need to understand that a solution is technically sound, their primary concern is how it will impact their business objectives and, often more importantly, their professional success.

The myth of the purely rational B2B audience has persisted far too long in our industry. Research consistently shows that business engagement, even in technical fields, is influenced significantly by emotional factors. Brand trust, content quality and confidence in the message all play crucial roles in the marketing process. When tech decision makers engage with your content, they’re not just assessing functionality; they’re asking themselves whether this information will help them make better decisions, whether they can trust the brand to deliver on its promises and how it will impact their organisation’s future.

Understanding your ideal audience

Your target audience offers valuable insights into how they think, feel and make decisions. By accessing these insights, tech companies can craft messages that resonate more deeply with their target market, stimulating stronger connections and memorability. A customer-first approach provides a framework for understanding content consumption patterns and pain points, enabling marketing teams to tailor their strategies more effectively. This understanding enables the fine-tuning of messages to specific audience needs and preferences, increasing relevance and engagement while accelerating market penetration.

Bridging the technical-human divide

Successfully bridging this tech-first/human-first divide requires a fundamental shift in how tech companies approach communication. Instead of leading with features, successful companies start by understanding what keeps their audience awake at night. They investigate what success looks like in their ideal client’s world and how their solution can make their lives easier. This understanding allows them to frame technical capabilities in terms of human benefits.

The power of this approach lies in its ability to transform technical excellence into relatable value. Instead of describing an AI’s architectural efficiency, effective marketers discuss how it reduces decision-making time and increases confidence in results. Rather than detailing system uptime statistics, they discuss how their solution helps technology leaders deliver reliable services to their stakeholders.

Building human connections in tech marketing doesn’t mean downplaying technical excellence; it means presenting it in a way that resonates with human needs and aspirations. Successful tech companies should balance technical expertise with human connection, crafting content that meets both technical needs and business goals.

Transforming your approach

This human-first approach transforms how tech companies engage with their market. Instead of leading with technical specifications, they share insights about business challenges. Rather than presenting feature lists, they share stories of how similar organisations achieved transformative results. The focus shifts from what the technology can do to how it can transform the audience’s world.

As technology continues to grow ever more complex, the ability to communicate its value in human terms becomes increasingly crucial. Tech companies that master this skill gain a significant competitive advantage. They build stronger brand relationships, drive higher engagement and create longer-lasting market presence.

Remember, the next time you’re tempted to dive into technical specifications, pause and ask yourself: “What human need am I addressing?” The answer to this question should guide your communication, shaping how you present your technical excellence in terms that resonate with your audience’s human experience. After all, even in the most technical industries, people still connect with people.

Need help with your Tech PR messaging?

To start transforming your tech PR messaging, reach our to our specialists today. And if you found this article valuable, read our 8 simple steps to a B2B communication strategy to help formulate the right messaging for your target audience, or download the complete takeaway guide here.

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