As technology progresses today, so does the way we do business. It’s already common knowledge that no matter how small or large your business is, investing in technology and using it well helps them move forward. For example, small businesses are now using social media and require software to determine the rate of traffic their business should accomplish.

This leads to one problem though, not everyone’s a techie. People sometimes have this complex to avoid anything new that’s hard to understand.

It’s the new language barrier of the 21st century. It comes in two kinds and it will pose problems for software marketing:

  • The Common Language Barrier – Let’s face it, no matter how common a language can be or how fast you can rely on tech to translate, it’s pointless for the common man who never interacted with said technology in the first place.
    Suppose you’re marketing to a country where English is more of a second language. They may recognize your brand through logos but that’s as far as they’ll understand because there’s not enough support for the language that they prefer. It results in half-hearted avoidance where all they can do is glance back at the product. Never underestimate this barrier when you’re targeting markets overseas.
  • “Would you speak in ‘English’ please?” – Have you ever felt a teacher’s explanation just go through your head like a passing breeze? It might be the same for some of the audience you’re trying to reach. No matter how accurate your explanations are, you won’t grab their attention if their expertise isn’t on the same level as yours. Long explanations that are laced with technological jargon are a major waste of breath and time. Skip the sage-sounding techie vocabulary and choose words that a man on the street would understand. You can explain them in greater detail in your FAQs corner or in the product’s manual later anyway. When marketing, you need to catch their immediate attention with words that are simple but enough to level your prospects with your product.

Aside from the language, you get the same bad results when your presentations are overloaded with information and not enough personality. Just as you need language, you’ll also need a sense of connection when appealing to small business owners. Mistakes in this area also fall under two types:

  • Misunderstanding Business Culture – Culture is a major thing that many small businesses like to establish. All of them just have this look and feel that permeates all throughout management, employees, and customers. Thus, it’s not just your clients you should be concerned with but how they interact with their own customers. Read the environment before you try to read your technology into it.
  • Misidentified Needs – Translation isn’t total protection from misunderstandings. Such things can sometimes come from deeper within the message. There are times that the solutions you believe are justifiable but only in your own sense and ends up mismatched with the demands of your customers. Just because you got feedback from them doesn’t mean you will automatically understand it from their perspective.

Marketing is a two-way street (and not just in terms of communication). Everyone needs to learn a little bit more about tech but tech vendors also need to know a little bit more about everyone.