Product marketing 101: if your mum doesn’t get it, neither will your customers

Whenever we’re working on a new product launch or marketing campaign, there’s one very handy test (or question, rather) that we like to come back to: could you explain your product to your mum? And, more specifically, would she understand how to use it afterwards?

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This sounds like a pretty simple exercise (and maybe a little unfair if your mum happens to be particularly tech-savvy) but the point still stands. If you need five minutes, three acronyms and a diagram to explain what your product does, there’s a good chance the customer will struggle too.

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We see this happen a lot, especially in the smart tech industry. New tech offers new features and product specs, not all of which are easily understandable to the average person. The thing is, brands know their products inside out. After all, they’ve spent months, sometimes years, thinking about how it works, what makes it different and why the technology matters. After a while, the technical detail starts to feel obvious. Though to someone seeing the product for the first time, it often isn’t.

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Don’t fall into the cleverness trap

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Smart tech brands often have a lot to talk about – their products have sensors, protocols, integrations and a myriad of features that can genuinely make a person’s life easier. But the problem arises when the marketing starts talking like the product team. A feature becomes the headline and a technical specification becomes the main reason to buy. Suddenly the customer is trying to work out what any of it actually means for them.

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That’s where cleverness can sometimes get in the way. Marketing teams worry that simple messaging makes a product sound less sophisticated or boring. Worse, ‘the same as everything else out there’. So they add more detail, use more technical language or try to find a clever way of saying something that could have been said plainly. But customers aren't rewarding you for making them work harder. They want to know what the product does, why they should care and whether it will work for them.

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Remember: your customer doesn’t think about your product like you do

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When you work closely on a product launch or marketing campaign, it’s easy to see it through the wrong lens. You know what went into creating it and you understand the technology behind it. You know how it compares to the previous version and why one feature took six months to develop. Your customer probably (most likely) doesn't.

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Where do customers find you? They might have found you through a search. They might have seen the product in a shop. They might be comparing you with two competitors while standing in their kitchen with a coffee in one hand. They’re starting somewhere completely different. That means good product marketing needs to meet them there. The job isn't to tell them everything you know. It’s to give them the information they need to make sense of the product and decide what to do next.

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Start with the thing people actually care about

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One of the simplest ways to improve smart tech marketing is to stop leading with the technology and start with the problem (the overall WHY). A smart heating product might use clever technology to control temperature more efficiently, but the customer may simply want their home to feel comfortable without wasting energy. That is the why.

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A smart security product might have a long list of technical capabilities. The customer may want to know what happens when someone approaches their front door while they’re out. The technology still matters. It just needs to be connected to something the customer understands. That’s where clear product messaging earns its place. Instead of asking someone to work out why a feature matters, tell them. Give the technology a purpose they can picture in their own home.

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Clear doesn’t mean basic

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There’s sometimes a fear that simple language will make a sophisticated product sound basic. We don't think it has to. In fact, the better the product, the more important clarity becomes. If you’ve built something genuinely useful, people should be able to understand its value without needing to decode the marketing first. Think about some of the strongest product brands you’ve seen. Even better, any competitors you might consider your biggest threat. Their communication often feels remarkably straightforward. You can understand what the product does before you know how it does it.

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The technical details can come afterwards for people who want it. That’s particularly important in smart home marketing because you're often speaking to very different audiences at the same time. One person might want to know about compatibility and specifications. Another might simply want to know if the product will make their home easier to manage. Good marketing can speak to both without making either person feel lost.

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For marketers: the five-second test

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One useful exercise is to take your product page, advert or campaign and look at it as if you've never seen the product before. Can you tell what the product does within a few seconds? Can you understand why you might want it? Can you see what you need to do next?

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If the answer to any of those is no, the problem may not be the campaign. It may be the message underneath it. This is where user research can help too. Show your messaging to someone outside the business and ask them what they think the product does. Then listen carefully to the answer. If they repeat your headline back to you, great. If they pick out a completely different feature or can't explain the product at all, you've learned something useful.

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Clarity builds confidence

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There’s another reason this matters in smart tech. People are often buying something that will become part of their home. They want to feel confident that they understand what they're buying.

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If the marketing feels complicated, the product can start to feel complicated too. That can create hesitation, particularly when the customer is already unsure about installation, compatibility or whether the technology will work with what they have. Clear communication removes some of that friction. It helps people understand the product before they buy it, which gives them a better chance of feeling confident about the decision afterwards.

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It’s important to keep in mind that clarity doesn't mean stripping all the detail from your marketing. Smart tech customers can have very specific questions. They may want to know about integrations, installation, compatibility or how a product works alongside what they already have to form a whole-home ecosystem. Give them those answers. Just structure the information so people can choose how far they want to go. 

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Final thoughts

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The best product marketing campaigns make customers feel clever for understanding it. It makes the product itself easier to understand and much more attractive. That’s especially important in smart tech, where the technology can be complicated even when the customer experience isn't, and the market is incredibly saturated.

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Next time you're reviewing your messaging, try the mum test. Explain the product to someone who doesn't know the industry. See what they take away from it. If you have to explain the explanation, your marketing probably needs simplifying.