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Engineers are not swayed by emotion and make objective decisions.

Participants generally agreed that emotion is not a major factor in their decision-making. Objective engineers often use a formal process to make fully informed analytic decisions, citing decision-making tools like analytic hierarchy process. Most emotional or subjective factors in a decision are related to personal feelings about a particular company, often driven by previous positive or negative experiences in their dealings.

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Showing how a product works can reinforce functionality or performance claims.

Recognizing a product as a possible candidate for the design, engineers appreciate having additional information about how it works. Trust or goodwill is gained by showing the functionality or features that deliver performance or a competitive advantage, particularly if it is posed as a solution to the current problem the engineer is trying to solve. Make feature-related images and videos available as downloadable assets for use in presentations where the engineer sells their product decision to his or her project managers.

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Write at an appropriate technical level, but do not use jargon in an unnatural way.

Engineers have strong ‘BS detectors’. Commenters noted that technical terms, when used properly, help communication and make the presenter appear more authoritative. However, the risk of losing credibility is significant, particularly if using jargon for jargon’s sake or not properly reviewing content for technical correctness. One survey participant equated improper use of technical terms to a parent trying to awkwardly use slang to talk to their teenager.

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Detailed and information-rich content adds value to the consultative sales process.

Engineers prefer a wealth of information from which to make a decision, and are therefore willing to sift through a lot of content, but the tone of the overall message must be a consultative one. Offer useful information in well-organized text, graph, and video content, and avoid a sense of urgency in your sales pitch, as this can be counterproductive. Help the engineer qualify your product as a potential solution, and if the outcome is negative for your product, keep the engineer's experience positive for future design opportunities. If you help an engineer quickly get to a yes/no decision, they will appreciate this and return in the future, even if your product was not a fit for their current need.

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Engineers keep information close and generally avoid social media.

Engineers are not likely to spontaneously share content with their peers, especially using social media. An email within the department is one of the better possible sharing outcomes. Articles or videos offering useful background information in a particular design industry or application may be a helpful resource and offered to peers or newly hired engineers, and can position you as an expert in that particular field. Strong content marketing pieces can still be seen by a wide range of engineers, but discoverability is through search engines and articles, not social media.

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Presentations should be visually appealing, but need to have substance.

Engineers appreciate quality visual design and presentation, but only if the informational content of the presentation is of similar quality. Highly polished presentations are not effective if the engineers sense a lack of content, and are perceived as a waste of time. Some engineers acknowledged that visually appealing presentation graphics resulted in a positive first impression about a product or company, whether as part of a website, PDF sell sheet, or PowerPoint or video presentation.

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Corporate identity or messaging from executives are not significant considerations in a design decision.

A company's identity is not typically an important part of the engineer’s considerations, so it goes largely ignored in presentations. Some aspects of identity or strategic messaging may affect a design decision, such as a company’s commitment to a new market or product line that will be incorporated into long-term product designs. Other corporate initiatives such as a commitment to environmental or social responsibility may have a secondary influence on a design decision.

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Offer a wealth of information in many content formats with an efficient, well-organized, text-first presentation.

Marketing copy is crucial for technical products and should be newspaper-style, using the inverted pyramid technique to keep content short, focused, and search-engine friendly. Textual information should be accompanied by high-quality visual representations of products as images and, where applicable, videos. Provide depth of information in the form of performance charts, complete specification lists, look-up design tables, detailed illustrations, product demo or feature videos, and external feature 3D CAD models.

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