good products deserve good content
DESCRIPTION
When an organization invests in product lifecycle content, it can become some of the most convincing marketing content around. Can't explain a product's benefits? Loss of sales. Can't explain its use? Needless returns. Can't shine at post-sales support? Bad reputation. No traceability from specs to testing? Problematic. From specs to technical documentation to support knowledge base, harnessing the potential of product lifecycle content is Good Business.TRANSCRIPT
Good ProductsDeserveGood Content
© Intentional Design Inc.www.intentionaldesign.ca
Presented at Confab 2011May 2011
Content Strategy
Business communicationsTechnical communication IA/Usability Content/info management
Who am I?
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Content is NOT in pre-or post-sales silos. It’s ALL part of marketing.
• Product descriptions
Define product content
• Instructions for installation • Instructions for use• Training material• Troubleshooting tips• Maintenance• User assistance posts
Why is product content important?
• Part of the new marketing paradigm• Part of the customer conversation• Contributes to operational efficiency and
savings
Look at the customer lifecycle
Identify problem or need
Present and differentiate solutions
Demonstrate expertise / validate
reputation
Post-purchase familiarization
Long-term support
Relationship renewal / upgrade
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Consumers use all sorts of content to make buying decisions.
Pre vs Post: Tearing down silos
• Pre- and post-sales are connected• All content used to make buying decisions• Documentation and training and user
assistance are multiple sides of the same die
What we want
• Customers want a single source of truth– Credibility – Trust
• Organizations want a single source of truth– Brand– Efficiency
Harnessing product content
• Moving control upstream• Convergence, integration, syndication• Good quality content• Good structure, good attributes• Meaningful metadata
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
“The company evaluated its call center volume and found that 25 to 35% of the four million calls received a year were from customers who did not understand their monthly bills. Using the rule of thumb that a call center inquiry costs $5 to $50 per call, you can easily calculate the costs associated with this issue.”Source: http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/04/content-marketing-data/
Software Vendors
“We’re getting our docs in order because we found that people are looking at them before they decide to buy.” (Sales exec, tiny CMS vendor)
“Never mind justifying savings due to process. What is effective with management is seeing how when the content supporting the product isn’t up to snuff, it means lost sales.”
(Practice lead, gigantic multinational technology and consulting firm)
Malaspina Labs
(Founder, Malaspina Labs)
California Consumer Electronics
Returned products due to failure to understand operations: over $1 billion annually (reported a decade ago)
(Bonni Graham Gonzalez, Manual Labour Inc)
Dyson
homeappliance.manualsonline.com
Dyson Air M
ultiplier
Roomba
Text option
Graphic option
User feedback
Related content
Print option http://www.irobot.com/uk/support/
Maintenance content
© Intentional Design Inc.
Former hom
e page
Strategic question
How do people buy an inverter?
© Intentional Design Inc.
Answer: Search the specs May 2005
© Intentional Design Inc.
But where are the product specs?
New
home page
Novice (educate and browse)
Intermediate(fast browse)
Experienced(search)
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Under-the-hood aspects of content raise its value as an asset.
A world without silos
• It’s a governance issue• Sharing content• Playing nicely• Productivity• Customer delight
What about mobile? Plan for new output channels
Under the hood
Source content
User experience
Content variation
Formatting variation
Interaction variation
Business requirements
Content planning
Publishing pipeline
Connecting @rahelab
http://www.google.com/profiles/rahel.bailie