As a tech PR and marketing agency we’ve seen a number of startups struggling with the same issue – educating their audience about highly technical products.
Cybersecurity companies are no exception.
They often either get lost in overly technical language or fail to humanize their brand in order to connect with their audience.
In this post, I‘ll show how to leverage content marketing and PR to simplify your language, and successfully educate your audience about cybersecurity.
1. Send out an email campaign
Presenting a relevant threat and offering a solution is an effective way to educate your audience via email marketing.
Don’t overcomplicate things. A simple question like “Is your company safe from complex data attacks?” accompanied with a succinct statement and solution can sometimes be much more powerful than a lengthy and technical explanation.
Read through your final copy and delete anything that isn’t vital in order to convey your message. If you’re struggling to make your message clear and powerful, you can always hire a professional writer to do this for you.
Then, segment your audience and send separate emails depending on the threats or problems the different segments of your audience are facing.
This way you can provide personalized communication and better connect with your target audience.
2. Create an interactive event in social media
In social media, you’re able to explore more casual language and a wider variety of formats compared to other channels. This gives your audience an opportunity to get to know the human side of your company.
When it comes to educating your audience in social media – the more interactive your content is, the better. In fact, 93% of marketers consider interactive content as very effective when educating their prospective clients.
Take this virtual event from FireEye for example. It cleverly uses interactive content to engage and educate their audience.
3. Write content that addresses cybersecurity issues
To educate your audience with written content, do the following:
- Identify the consumer pain point
- Hook the audience’s attention
- Solve their problem
Imperva‘s blog is a great example of this. It hits the nail right on the head when it comes to identifying the problem and hooking their audience’s attention.
Once again, remember not to stumble in overcomplicated tech jargon thinking that it’s going to make you sound more credible.
The truth is, the more simply you can explain a topic and more your personality shines through – the better your audience will respond.
In fact, the average American reads at the 7th– to 8th-grade level. To make sure your language isn’t too complicated use YOAST to assess your content.
4. Offer a free risk assessment
Now that you’ve raised awareness, you need to ensure that all your marketing content has a clear call-to-action (CTA).
This means having clear next steps that you want your audience to take. This is often a free assessment, free trial or something else that helps your audience to move along their customer journey.
Here’s an example of Cyberark and their free risk assessment.
Not only does this provide a valuable chance to educate your prospects in-person but also generates those ever-so-valuable warm leads.
5. Win media coverage
Lastly, digital PR is the cherry on top.
It educates your audience effectively and also makes your whole marketing cake look more appealing and more credible.
So how to do this?
Start searching opportunities for expert commentaries, podcast interviews or guest articles around the threats and topics you want to educate your audience about.
Look at this guest article we’ve won for one of our cybersecurity clients for example.
An article in a high-tier publication helped this cybersecurity company to educate its audience and gain the credibility they needed to compete with the bigger fish in the industry.
Sum it up
In order to effectively educate your audience about cybersecurity you need to simplify your language, use multiple communication channels, and tailor your content to fit them.
Once you can create content that showcases your expertise and lets your personality shine through, you’re one step closer to an engaged audience who understands the need and functions of your products and services.
