Details Matter in Creating Content for Engineers

Are you paying too much attention to content marketing strategies and not enough to the details?

Strategic planning and analysis does sound a lot more glamorous than writing content filled with nitty-gritty product details.

It is easy to justify leaving the details to others. After all, we’ve all heard that time-starved decision makers don’t really care about the details; they just want you to cut to the chase.

Industrial marketers, who use content that is light on product specifications and heavy on benefits, may have a difficult time engaging with engineers. Why?

The reason is simple; specifying comes before buying in industrial purchases.

Engineers do the specifying but may not always be the final decision makers. In order for them to specify your industrial products with confidence, they need lots of product details.

Engineers are known to be information junkies who crave specifics. Superficial product information and marketing fluff won’t cut it with this audience.

I can just hear content purists groaning because product specifications and features lack emotional hooks.

That is not true when it comes to writing for engineers. The single biggest emotion involved in an industrial buying decision is risk aversion.

The more hardcore product specifications you can provide in your content, the higher the confidence an engineer has in specifying your products and components. You lower risk for engineers by helping them justify their choices with facts and data.

Let’s face it, if a bridge fails or a safety valve in a power plant malfunctions, there are catastrophic consequences. Engineers do not take that responsibility lightly and will not respond well to marketing content that doesn’t address their needs and fears.

That is why it is absolutely essential that industrial marketers pay a great deal of attention to details in creating their content.

Here are two examples of content that speak to engineers in their own terms:

• Our electric fail-safe device is a battery backup power supply that delivers 115V/1Ph/60Hz power automatically to the actuator upon loss of main utility power.
• These EL Series Electromagnetic Flow Meters provide extended linearity and a measurement range of up to 1000:1 without the aid of linearization software. They create an electromagnetic field profile that ensures accuracy in turbulent, transitional and laminar flow regimes and are available in line sizes 1-16 inches.

How can you create content that will appeal to engineers? Here are some ideas:

• Save engineers time by providing easy access to CAD drawings of standard parts that they can simply plug into their own designs
• Create an online product configurator that engineers can interact with in real-time to aid in rapid prototyping using different design parameters
• Show line drawings of exploded views that provide details of specific parts when you mouse over or click on hot spots
• Create short videos of how your product is used in various industrial applications
• Prove claims of “low maintenance” by using how-to videos for assembling and disassembling your products
• Use online interactive product demos to demonstrate complex functionalities
• Provide engineers the capability for creating digital Bill Of Materials (BOMs) with the right part numbers that can be easily reused in RFQs/RFPs (Request for Quote/Request for Proposal)
• Provide access, preferably without requiring registration (ungated) to an online library of engineering data, charts and graphs of performance characteristics and Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS)
• Make it easy to download PDF versions of your product data sheets, safety and maintenance manuals, again ungated
• Validate your claims of quality by stating in your content, industry-accepted standards and certifications achieved
• Help engineers make a strong business case to their C-level execs (final decision makers) by arming them with case studies, white papers and PowerPoint presentations

“The devil is in the details” may apply to the rest of the universe, but to seal the deal with engineers, I say, “The money is in the details.”

Do you agree with me?