Leading PR agency shares their top tips for transforming technical jargon into media triumphs
With technology growing at rates never seen before, we’re surrounded by breakthrough innovations that make life easier, transform industries, and even save lives.
This revolutionary tech boom has resulted in groundbreaking ideas. But in a busy, ever-growing market, many innovations go unnoticed as potential customers become puzzled by technical language that makes little sense outside the industry.
With over 20 years of experience in the public relations industry, our experts at leading PR agency, Holyrood PR, have worked with a wide range of tech clients, transforming complex concepts and innovations into powerful and persuasive stories that engage a wide audience.
We know how to take technical jargon and turn it into journalist-ready stories. That’s why we’ve pulled together our top tips for transforming your complex tech business into a compelling story that captures hearts and headlines.
- Highlight the people behind your business
In a complex industry where outsiders can often be left feeling confused and disconnected by tech-savvy language, finding a way to connect with a wider audience can be a challenging task.
With over twenty years’ industry experience helping tech firms crack the code to media success we’ve found that highlighting the people behind the business is key to building connections with your audience.
Whether it’s sharing the personal journey of the founder, from small start-up to industry leader or profiling the engineers whose innovations are shaping the future shining a light on the people behind your business transforms the mundane into feel-good content.
This people-first approach to storytelling is what helps brands build lasting reputation and stand out from the competition.
It’s often the everyday moments that deliver the biggest impact when framed with the right narrative. For example, Holyrood PR has consistently brought these moments to life through campaigns that turn ordinary business activity into memorable media stories, such as:
- Turning a care home photoshoot into a viral good-news story
- Sharing a family butcher’s journey to win sustainability awards
- Celebrating a long-serving staff member’s 30-year anniversary as a story of loyalty and culture
In a crowded, competitive market where customers can become confused and products can blur into one another, it’s the human stories that create genuine differentiation and lasting emotional impact.
- Think outside the box
In an industry often defined by lines of code and glowing screens, finding a narrative which connects with a broad audience can be difficult.
But tech firms don’t have to be defined by laptops and technical jargon. In fact, across the years, designing and delivering award-winning public relations campaigns, we’ve found that the most compelling stories come from finding creative ways to connect with people in the real world.
From engaging in community events such as providing your services to classrooms or charity events to sponsoring a local basketball league, thinking outside of the box and creating stories which resonate beyond the tech press help to humanise your brand and establish it as an active member of the community.
These moments of genuine connection create powerful, relatable stories that journalists, customers, and stakeholders are far more likely to share and have a lasting impact on your business, producing measurable results, increasing your brand’s visibility and generating an abundance of potential new customers.
- Harness the Power of the Local Media
Increased engagement with the wider community also provides further opportunities to build relationships with the local media- a powerful tool for building a strong brand reputation.
While national headlines are always exciting, local newspapers, radio stations, and community platforms can be just as influential. Local media boasts strong engagement and loyalty from its readers with Pew Research suggesting that people tend to trust local news outlets more than national ones, particularly when it comes to getting the facts right and covering their community fairly.
This is why community engagement and building a strong reputation with local media outlets is crucial to building a strong brand reputation and guiding potential customers away from confusion over complex technology toward confidence in choosing your product.
Because local media outlets are trusted and respected by their communities their recommendations and endorsements carry weight. When your brand appears in a trusted community space, you’re meeting potential customers where they feel most comfortable, and making it easier for them to understand and connect with the real-world value you offer.
Through our decades of experience in the industry we’ve found that localised media campaigns, with locally relevant stories can produce fantastic results:
- Highlighting how your firm has benefited the local community: for example, donating tech to community spaces, or hosting tech classes for older people in the area
- Tapping into regional events and milestones, creating a timely, relatable message rooted in the city
- Positioning your team as go-to tech experts for media comments in the local industry, further establishing your brand as a trusted, credible authority in your field.
By engaging with the local media and actively participating in community events and regional milestones, you can embed your business into the community’s everyday conversation — building trust, strengthening your reputation, and ensuring you remain front of mind when customers are ready to make a decision.
- Show don’t tell
Technology can be intimidating, especially to those who don’t work in the industry or feel left behind by rapid change.
All too frequently, we see technology firms attempt to win over their audience with lengthy product explainers, jargon-heavy scripts, and glossy videos crammed with complex diagrams, lines of code, and buzzwords only an engineer would love.
The problem? While the intention is to inform, the execution often alienates.
Instead of simply explaining how clever the tech is, firms should show them. For a general audience who do not understand deeply technical language being told your cloud data will be “linking in 15 new ways” means very little to most people. But show them a short, straightforward video highlighting five simple, real-world ways this technology could speed up their day — with clear, relatable examples — and suddenly it becomes far more appealing and easier to understand.
Through story-led videos, relatable real-world examples, and demonstrations that quickly make the benefits obvious, you can ensure your audience understands what your product does and feels genuinely excited to use it.
By demonstrating the tangible ways your product will improve your customers’ lives it stops being an abstract concept and starts to become a product that they see as part of their everyday routine.
Conclusion
In a world where groundbreaking innovations risk getting lost in a haze of jargon and complexity developing a strategy to make your firm stand out from the digital noise is no easy task.
However, these tips make one thing clear: nothing beats genuine human engagement. From shining a spotlight on the people who power your business, to actively supporting and contributing to your local community, and demonstrating in simple, relatable ways how your product can make a difference — these are the actions that set brands apart.
By giving your tech company a human face, you transform it from a name in the market to a trusted part of people’s lives and convert this media success to real-world business results, boosting sales and creating lasting customer relationships.
