In a Nutshell – Technical Writing vs. Marketing Writing

Different forms of content have different purposes and thus the debate – Technical vs. Marketing Writing. Content types can be different based on the industry, target audience, and objective. Be it writing web copies, blogs, ebooks, product documentation, engineering manuals, etc., all these fall into two major categories – Technical Writing and Marketing Writing.

These two variants of writing are different in terms of flow, subjectivity, tone, and narration. For example, the target audience for technical writing includes engineers, partners, vendors, technical staff, and end-users with technical knowledge. Based on the level of the target audience, the objective can be – training, creating high-level knowledgebase, process documents, and problem-solving guidelines.

On the other way, marketing writing is meant to showcase products, services, brand values, achievements, recognitions, etc., on different portals to reach more and more target audiences, create brand recognition, brand recall, and eventually lead generation.

High-level Differences Between Technical Writing and Marketing Writing

As the target audience and their technical comprehension are different, technical writing is mostly about the why and how parts of the problems and solutions. In contrast, marketing writing targets the end consumers majority of whom do not have much technical knowledge and are looking for the right products or services for their problems.

The marketing content tries to resonate with the problem scenarios and creates an awareness about the available solutions so that the audience can make an informed buying decision.

Technical Writing

What Is Technical Writing and the Objectives

Technical writing is aimed at elaborating complex technical details in a way that the audience can understand and make use of it, as they are expected to have the basic knowledge. Forms of technical writing include – white papers, instruction manuals, handbooks, product descriptions, press releases, reports, etc.

Technical Writing and the Target Audience

The audience of technical writing is the intended reader who is looking for some concrete solution, explanation, or procedure to accomplish a specific or a series of tasks. In technical writing, the audience can be categorized as follows:

• Stakeholders — These can be investors, partners, business leaders, and high-level management.
• Experts — People who are coming up with ideas about a product.
• Technicians — Those who usually build, operate, maintain, or repair in an operational or manufacturing setup.

Importance of Instructional Designing

An instructional design is one that systematically collects, processes, and analyzes data into an easily comprehensible content piece. This helps in structuring the technical content based on the level of knowledge of the target audience and what details will help them understand the required information.

For example, when designing a program for level 100 to level 600 engineers, an instruction designer creates different structures and guides the technical writing team in developing the content pieces with references. The level-600 engineer might only need to know the overall details, whereas a level-100 engineer needs to know the details as well as the technological contexts to understand the functionality, processes, and usage of the product/device.

The Tone, Content Structure, Flow, and Narration of Technical Content

Technical documents are written with a lot of technical jargon and abbreviations standardized across the document or the series of documents.

• Technical Content Tone – The tone for technical content usually sounds professional, and it seems that one is making the reader understand the intent of something very complex with ease.
• Technical Content Structure – It should keep the heading and paragraphs short and scannable, providing context through embedded screenshots, videos, and GIFs. Technical content frequently uses the abbreviations of the technical terminologies and reference notes for extensive study of the subject matter in case required.
• The Narration and Flow – The narration in the case of technical content writing is straight and to-the-point always. As each section is intended to be understood and taken action, the sections are usually numbered or to be comprehended in a series, one after the other.

Importance of Creatives in Technical Writing

Visuals from the tool or from the product UI make it easier to refer to the technical documentation without mistakes. Elements like graphical representations, data charts, diagrams, etc., and other numerical information leads the reader to draw accurate conclusions.

Tools or Skillsets for Technical Writing

Like every other writing type, technical writing also has its own ethics and approach to explaining the information. Technical writers share a wide range of skills –

• Technical Comprehension – The writer should have a knack for technical knowledge and a background
• Strong or Technical Vocabulary – The writer must have the subject knowledge for writing and technical validation
• Flair of Instructional Design – Instructional designing knowledge for content structuring/segmenting based on the target audience.
• Knowledge of Publishing Tools – The knowledge of content publishing tools should be there, like Microsoft Word, Google docs, WordPress, HTML editors, etc.
• Practical Approach to the Topic – Creative presentation (presentations, infographics, etc., of technical processes, charts, and statistics, for readability and information retention

Tools for Technical Writers

Here are a few tools that can aid technical writers in structuring the content, making the content pieces visually effective, and making those publish-ready with the intended objectives aligned.

• Adobe FrameMaker
• Adobe RoboHelp
• Text Editor for HTML
• WordPress
• Microsoft Vision
• Windows Snipping Tool

Marketing Writing

What Is Marketing Writing and the Objective

Marketing writing refers to creating content for the very purpose of creating awareness about the products, services, problems, solutions, or brand. By this, businesses can attract leads and positive connections with their audience, pushing them down the sales funnel.

With different marketing content formats, they can reach potential customers at different stages of the sales funnel.

Marketing Writing and the Target Audience

Marketing writing has two types of audiences to target – B2B and B2C. For B2C, the content needs to be written for the end consumers and to connect better with the defined audience via blog posts, social media advertisements, contests, etc.

Whereas B2B content understands targeting decision-makers for premium-priced products/services. The content should be business or industry-specific and should sound professional in terms of communication and information for easy stakeholder visualization. It is performed by using Reviews, Testimonials, Case Studies, Referral Systems, Social Promotions, and Influencer Marketing to connect with such an audience.

Branding, Audience Retention, and Lead Generation

A clean and detailed piece of marketing content interacts with audiences through various mediums like paid advertisement, marketed email, retargeting, etc. The whole SEO-driven marketing strategy and its implementation work around content.         

The Tone, Content Structure, Flow, and Narration

When it comes to marketing content, defining or deciding on the tone or structure is very tricky. There are different categories of target audiences, and the content depends on the research around the industry, competitors, and the buying behaviors of the audiences predominantly.

• The Marketing Content Tone – It could be formal/professional while targeting the B2B audience like – any industry or business. Whereas in B2C, the tone should sound like a helping hand, problem-solving, and goal-oriented.
• Marketing Content Structure – It should be structured along with the elements like – graphs, tables, photos, videos, and much more so that the content not only becomes easy to understand but also appealing to be sticky.
• The Narration and Flow of Marketing Content – In the case of B2C marketing, the content should be written with respect to the audience’s understanding on a personal and emotional level. One can use storytelling to better connect or interact with them. Whereas in the case of B2B, the writing should be goal focused, straightforward, and to the point. The way of interaction should be on professional note. In both cases, the content should be laid using titles, headings, subheadings, bullet points, etc.

Importance of Creatives in Marketing Writing

The use of creatives plays an important role in helping a reader understand the gist of information via various creatives such as images, graphs, charts, videos, etc.

Tools and Skillsets for Marketing Writing

Understanding the marketing objectives aligned with the audiences’ buying intentions is the biggest trait for a marketing content writer. Along with knowledge of grammar, legal guidelines, geopolitical language terminologies, etc., the same publishing tools and editing tools are required for marketing content writing.

Content Inception Helps You with Both Technical and Marketing Writing

At Content Inception, our objective stands clear to achieve the end objectives of a client in their marketing endeavors. Our value-added content writing services involve writing web content, blogs, white papers, marketing collaterals, and much more. Whether it is text, visual, or video – we suggest and create the content in the appropriate form so that it will yield the intended results.

Our team is well-versed and updated with the day-to-day changes in the industry, and our content is backed by extensive research to be appealing and effective. We are here to help you with powerful content crafted by our specialized writers. Let’s connect!