By Sherri Simmons, President and CEO

The language of technology is much like a dialect. Those who have an ear for the language can pick up the nuances and engage in a conversation.  Those who do not will tune out and disengage.

Bridging this language barrier is the make or break point when marketing complex technology to a diverse range of vertical industries and audiences.

Many companies try to verbally describe their technology.  But when you start trying to explain mechanics to a person who doesn't even speak your language, you've lost your audience.  They don’t understand a word you’re saying.

So how do you get past this barrier?  Take a step back in time to the oldest form of communications – pictorial language or in simpler terms – visuals.

There was an interesting article in the August 2013 issue of National Geographic, entitled “World Without Words.”  It features a timeline of pictorial languages dating back to cave paintings, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Maya calendar icons and American Indian petroglyphs to the iconic emoticons we use in text and emails J  – and the Noun Project, a Web collection of icons.

Visuals were vital to communications more than 40,000 years ago – and are still so today. Whether infographics, charts or video – pictures tell a story – and help a prospective customer grasp a number of critical points without getting mired in linguistic jargon.

When in doubt remember …