This article is based on Emma Stratton’s talk at the Product Marketing Summit in San Francisco. As a PMA member, you can enjoy the complete recording here. For more exclusive content, head over to your membership dashboard.

One of the best things about product marketing is how many of us stumbled into it by chance. PMMs come from all walks of life – myself included. Writing messaging for B2B tech? Never crossed my mind!

About 13 years ago, I was living in the UK writing creative copy that helped humanize packaged goods so people would connect and buy. It was a blast getting to work on iconic British brands like the leading toilet paper, a cheeky sausage newcomer, and even the country's top-selling sex toy – yup, I wrote copy for the Rampant Rabbit!

I was loving that consumer branding life until I had a baby and we decided to move stateside. With a little one at home, I needed a short commute, so I figured “Why not give this B2B marketing gig a try? The office is just a short drive away and, anyway,  marketing's marketing – how different could it be?” Oh, how wrong I was...

I went from waxing poetic about vibrators to drowning in enterprise data management jargon. On day one, I'm staring at this 15-page messaging framework full of inscrutable tech gibberish, thinking “What have I done? I'm in over my head here – this was a huge mistake. These B2B buyers must be robots to understand this stuff!”

That launched me into full-blown imposter syndrome. That is, until the CMO pulled me aside and said, “Emma, our messaging is a disaster. We're different, but can't explain how. Can you help us?” That's when the lightbulb went off – I could humanize their messaging!

The power of human messaging

So why does having a human connection in your messaging even matter for tech? I mean, we're talking software and hardware, not touchy-feely consumer products, right? 

Well, here's why it matters: your product and your customers exist in totally different dimensions. You might know every single product detail and be able to reel off a side-by-side comparison of your product’s features versus your competitors’, but meanwhile your prospect is just going about their life, not thinking about your product at all.

It's messaging's job to bridge that massive divide between technology and the human being. 

This is exactly why so many tech companies struggle with messaging today – they're hyper-focused on articulating their differentiation, but that's not enough to cross the huge chasm to the human on the other side, so the message just falls into the void.

Bridge the gap between tech and human

Human messaging goes beyond just product details. It's about truly connecting with the person you're trying to reach. It’s about making them feel seen and understood, so when they read it, they think, "Yeah, they're speaking to me." If you can nail that, my friend, you’ll have an insane advantage.

I know this because, over the years, I've worked closely with over 100 high-growth B2B tech companies like Outreach, Loom, and Miro. I've seen firsthand the immense impact human messaging can have on growth. 

So, I decided to teach product marketers how to do this and scale the impact. I created a curriculum and have taught over 600 PMs to write more human messaging. 

The good news? You don't need to be a magically talented writer to make this work. There are simple techniques you can use to humanize your messaging in ways that will tremendously benefit your marketing. I'm excited to share three of my favorite techniques today.

The best part is these techniques work for any type of messaging - whether you're writing about your company, a feature, a use case, a solution, you name it. These are the techniques we’ll cover

  1. Translation
  2. Keeping it real
  3. Loosening the tie

Let’s dive in.

Technique #1: Translate it

The first technique is about translating your product so people understand what it can do for them. 

A while back, I was consulting with the leadership team at a really cool developer platform. The head of product kept talking about “carrot-based workflows.” I thought maybe that was some developer lingo I don't get – but also, when has a vegetable ever had such a starring role in messaging?

So I asked, “Hey, what are these carrot-based workflows you keep referencing?” He smiled and said, “Oh, that's just what we call our special style of automation. We came up with it – isn't it great?” I had my doubts.

This is something I come across a lot – teams trying to explain what makes their technology so special. The natural reflex is to dive into explaining the intricate details, but then we risk confusing people by bombarding them with abstract language and obscure analogies. This is one of the biggest hurdles we face when writing about tech products.

Let me give you an example. Picture the phrase “high-performance” in your mind. What do you see?

An athlete?

A race car?

An energy drink?

Chances are that everybody pictures something different. That's the problem with abstract language – it’s open to misinterpretation. 

The opposite of abstract is concrete – using specific language. For instance, if I say “V8 engine,” we're all likely picturing a big powerful engine on a race car. Concrete language doesn't leave much room for interpretation, so people can picture what you're talking about. 

You want to apply this same idea to your messaging. It’s about translating abstract ideas into more concrete terms.

How to translate abstract ideas into concrete messages

Let me show a real-world example from a former client. They were describing how their portal “streamlined communications” – a very common but vague phrase you may have used yourself. It's not terrible, but it’s also not clear what it actually means. Will there be more communication or less?  Is all your communication consolidated into one platform? Who knows? 

If we get concrete and specific about what “streamlining communications” entails, it becomes: “Get the constant calls, emails, and texts under control.” That's much more tangible.

"Streamline communications" vs. “Get the constant calls, emails, and texts under control”

So, how can you start translating abstract ideas into concrete language? The key is to see the benefits of your product or features through your customers’ eyes. 

For example, let's say we have a platform for finance pros that offers “real-time visibility” – I kind of know what that means, but I don't really care. So, let’s get concrete: “Get an instant view across all your financials.” Now I can picture someone viewing up-to-date graphs and numbers on a screen. Suddenly, I understand why that benefit matters.

Here are three steps to put this technique into practice:

  1. Think about what your customers' lives look like before your product – what challenges are they facing and how do they think about them? 
  2. Brainstorm concrete examples of what life looks like after using your product. 
  3. Contrast the “before” and “after” in your messaging.