Why High-Tech Marketers Need To Make The Complex Simple

Post written by

Devin Davis

VP of Marketing at Cloud Foundry Foundation. Technology, marketing comms and business executive. Leader, strategic thinker and task doer.

When you work in high-tech marketing, you get used to the complex acronyms and concepts that developers use every day. If you come to the game already knowing the language, great. If you learn it along the way, well done. But no matter how you gain your tech knowledge, one thing remains true for your marketing: You must make the complex simple.


Even when you are presenting to a tech audience, you need to have a basic story about the most complicated technologies if you intend for people to buy them.

I work for a nonprofit open-source foundation. Our users are developers and engineers, but our buyers are executives and line-of-business folks. We need a layered marketing approach to 1) get the people who will use our technology excited and on board, and 2) give them the simple business-impact language they need to influence the buyers and decision makers.

If you do this well, it’s incredibly effective.

Amazon Web Services is a great example. The company presents beginner-level articles that let non-tech people easily understand and grasp what cloud computing and its other services are and why they are important for a business’ customer experience.

Why does this matter? Tech people can use those resources to help educate decision makers, and decision makers can draw on the resources to self-learn and feel more empowered when talking with IT professionals.

Approach A Complex Concept One Step At A Time

So, how do you take a layered approach and make the complex simple? When you’re thinking through how to explain complex technological concepts, boil it down to answering these six questions -- and in this order; I’ll explain why in a minute.

1. What problem does the technology solve?

2. Who needs to solve the problem?

3. Why do they need this problem solved?

4. Where in the industry and within the business itself does this solution apply?

5. When is the right time to introduce this solution?

6. How does the technology work?

Explaining how it works must go last. You need people to care first, and explain the what, who, why, where and when before you can explain how it works. Trust me, it’s so easy to fall into explaining how it works first (and this is the most natural response you’ll get from developers if you ask them about a technology).

The goal is to go from simplified to more complex, and build on each step. You want to create a sales cycle that ends with how it works. By the time your audience members get to that, they should clearly understand why they need this solution, where it can impact their business most and when to apply it in their business -- and they should also feel as if you understand them and who they are.

Do that well, and you’ll attract far more engaged prospective buyers.

Lastly, let me just say that no matter what your opinion is of the media and public relations (PR) industry, you need these allies to help you take complex concepts and deliver them to a broader audience. They must be able to educate journalists and speak with analysts so that your marketing gets to the people who need your product or service.

It’s not always easy to boil down the complex elements to simpler terms, but as a high-tech marketer, it’s essential. Your brand and your customers depend on it. So, do it well.


VP of Marketing at Cloud Foundry Foundation. Technology, marketing comms and business executive. Leader, strategic thinker and task doer....