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You’ve put your blood, sweat and tears into creating your finished product but something’s missing. You’ve got plenty of marketing material that’s helped create a buzz and promote your products, but what about the coverage of their benefits, features, and specifications?
A Technical Content Writer will make sure your audience knows your product inside out which is why hiring one means no expense is spared.
At Embarque, we know the importance of having content writers that understand your business and its goals. So, if you’re questioning whether or not you need to hire a Technical Content Writer, keep reading this article.
What is a Technical Content Writer?
Technical content writers are responsible for taking complex product details, instructions, and features and turning them into an easy-to-understand user interface.The types of content they produce include:
- Instruction booklets
- Product manuals
- Whitepapers
- Tech-based articles
- Developer guides
- eBooks
- Product reviews
- Software tutorials
They liaise with internal teams to make sure their content is accurate and clarifies the product’s benefits and features. Technical content writers commonly create literature for SaaS, cryptocurrency, web development, programming, and tech companies.
So, if your business falls into one of these categories, you’ll need a Technical Content Writer to help sell your product or software.
They have a special skill set that helps them to understand your products and use your tone of voice and style to help your customers understand them too.
Technical Content Writer job requirements
When it comes to putting your job description together, you should only include must-have requirements to encourage all suitable applicants to apply. Preferences like an interest in gadgets and technology for example are beneficial, but should be saved for the interview stage.
Education
A bachelor’s degree in English, journalism, communications or a similar field-specific study is preferred because they specialize in delivering complex information to a specific audience.
You might want to look at candidates who also have knowledge in technical fields like IT and computing, engineering, web development, etc.
Skills
Research
Technical-specific research involves gathering data, looking at studies, and analyzing hypotheses, so they need to have strong research skills to be able to present this information in a way that’s interesting and easy to digest.
Writing
Your Technical Content Writer needs to be a technical storyteller. They’re responsible for piquing your audience’s interest, keeping them engaged, and influencing them to take action. All of these require solid writing skills that can only be gained through experience.
Communication
Your Technical Content Writer needs to be confident in speaking to industry experts. This skill plays a huge role in creating original, in-depth, and detailed content and it’s what sets you apart from competitors. To be factually correct and accurate, your writer should be comfortable liaising with developers, engineers, researchers and analysts.
Clear product or software understanding
Before writing about your product, the Technical Content Writer needs to know it like the back of their hand. Below are some of the questions your Technical Content Writer should be able to answer before they start writing:
- What was the creation process of our product or software from start to finish?
- How does it benefit our target audience?
- What problems has our product solved for our target audience?
- Why did we create this product or software?
- Who was involved in creating it?
Design & IT
Remember, your Technical Content Writer will be presenting information and data in an easy-to-understand way, and that means being visually communicative. They’ll include graphs, infographics and charts in their content, so having basic design and IT skills is crucial.
Technical Content Writer salary benchmarks
Your Technical Content Writer’s salary will vary depending on experience, expertise, location, and the specifics of your content.
However, Glassdoor estimates that the average salary you can expect to pay is $60,142 plus $3,571 additional pay which includes things like commission, bonuses, tips etc.
The pay scale ranges from $50k-$80k so when deciding on how much to pay your Technical Content Writer, always factor in their level of experience.
Best practices when creating and posting your job description
Highlight the must-have requirements early on
Let your applicants know if they’re qualified from the get-go. You don’t want to lead anyone on and you don’t want to receive resumes from people who lack the specified criteria. If potential candidates read your must-haves early on, they know whether to keep reading or not.
CloudBC Labs include a clear bullet point list outlining their requirements that stands out in their Technical Content Writer job description:
This bullet point checklist lists all the must-haves first and a preference right at the bottom.
Introduce your company
A job description promotes an available vacancy but it also promotes your company. People want to know who you are. Some of the key business features you could include in your job description include your:
- Employee demographics
- Achieved awards and certificates
- History
- Mission and vision
- Clients
Take Jobu Studio’s job description as a perfect example:
In just two paragraphs, applicants know where they’re based, what their mission is, what type of clients they work with, and where they can expect their career to go.
Use growth-mindset language
Potential candidates want to know where your company will take them in their career. Using growth-mindset language in your job description will show that you invest in employee development and growth which will help persuade qualified people to apply. To incorporate growth-mindset language into your job description, try:
- Listing the available courses, funded classes, and continued education opportunities in your benefits section.
- Highlighting your diversity culture and your beliefs in the ‘About us’ section.
- Covering your growth-focused initiatives in your ‘Our mission’ section. This includes using phrases like “problem-solving” and “innovation.”
Sanford Co-op has used growth-mindset language in their job description by including phrases like “ongoing success” and “ensuring leadership involvement.”
Call out company perks
A survey by Glassdoor revealed that nearly half of U.S employees (48%) look at company benefits when applying for a job. By calling them out, applicants will not only consider applying, but they’ll also assess the longevity of their employment. Employee benefits help boost morale, make you an attractive business, and are a great way of retaining your staff.
QA Source highlights their employee benefits right at the start to grab their applicant’s attention and draw them in.
So if you offer a gym membership, healthcare contributions or paid parental leave, it’s definitely worth mentioning in your job description.
Finish with a strong call to action
Your call to action should prevent applicants from navigating away from the job description and continuing their job search elsewhere. It should be a clear instruction so potential candidates know what their next steps need to be.
To apply, do they need to:
- Call your company?
- Send an email to your internal recruitment team?
- Fill in an online form?
You also need to be clear on what they need to include in their application. Common requirements are things like a:
- Resume and cover letter
- Portfolio of recent work
- Answered questionnaire (if you decide to include one)
It’s important to consider how visually clear the call to action is too. Before publishing your job description, ask yourself: “Does my call to action stand out?” You can always A/B test placement, colors and copy to see what call to action encourages more applications.
Technical Content Writer job description template
We’re on the lookout for an experienced Technical Content Writer to join a team of talented writers.
About us
[Company name] was founded in [date] and has since taken on new heights. We believe in reaching for the stars and we’ve touched a few over the years as we’ve achieved [list awards]. As part of our expansion, we need a passionate Technical Content Writer to join our content team to help promote our products/services.
Perks of working with us
- Competitive salary of up to $$$ with bonus opportunities
- Funded tech courses to further develop your knowledge
- Annual progression and pay reviews
- Contributions to your health insurance, dental care, and pension
- 30 days paid leave including Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year
About the role
Some of the daily responsibilities you can expect to take on board include:
- Working with internal technical teams to ensure content accurately reflects our products.
- Reaching out to field experts to gather original information.
- Researching for up to date statistics, data, and theories.
- Reporting into the Head of Content on deadlines and KPI’s.
- Self-editing your own work as well as providing feedback on others so technical content is free from poor grammar, spelling and punctuation.
Mandatory requirements
To be suitable for this role, you’ll need:
- A degree in journalism, english, or communications
- Two year’s previous experience in a similar role
- Strong IT skills especially working with Microsoft Office, Google Analytics, and Wordpress.
- Basic design knowledge because you’ll be expected to produce your own charts, graphs and tables to present your information.
- An interest in engineering, software development, or computer science (change these depending on the nature of your business)
If you meet the above requirements and would like to join our dedicated content team, please apply by filling in the below application form and attaching three examples of previous work.
We look forward to hearing from you!
How Embarque can support you
We know that finding the perfect Technical Content Writer is crucial for business growth so getting the job description right is essential.
However, the hiring process can be time-consuming, challenging, and expensive which is why we’d like to offer our support.
Here at Embarque, we’re home to over 30 experienced, qualified and dedicated content specialists who work with a wide span of clients across all different industries. We work closely with all of our clients and provide them with SEO-optimized content to drive traffic to their website and boost their sales.
So instead of hiring one professional, why not benefit from a team of 30+ at a fraction of the cost? To find out more, check out our different packages.
