transform tech comm into a business asset
DESCRIPTION
Sarah O'Keefe's presentation from the 2013 STC Summit discusses how to use technical content to achieve business goals.TRANSCRIPT
contentstrategy101.com
Transforming technical content into a business asset
flickr: frikitiki
Sarah O’KeefeScriptorium Publishing
contentstrategy101.com
Sarah O’Keefe @sarahokeefe❖ Founder and president, Scriptorium
Publishing, www.scriptorium.com, North Carolina, USA
❖ Coauthor of Content Strategy 101
❖ Interested in collision of content, publishing, and technology
flickr: johnloo
“They’ll never pay for that.”
They don’t see the value.flickr: jamescronin
Justify your approach.flickr: bagsup
contentstrategy101.com
Business case patterns
❖ Address legal and regulatory issues
❖ Control cost of tech comm
❖ Improve marketing and product visibility
flickr: jdickertLegal and regulatory
contentstrategy101.com
Legal and regulatory
❖ More efficient compliance
❖ Avoid legal complications
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Control the cost of tech comm❖ Efficient content development
❖ Reduce the cost of technical support
❖ Content collaboration
Myth: Cheap documentationflickr: mjryall
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Typical problems
❖ Content is available only in a single output format (usually PDF)
❖ Content is useless:
❖ “In the Name field, type the person’s name.”
❖ Content is hard to understand, not available in right languages
contentstrategy101.com
Cost of bad content
❖ High call volume to technical support
❖ Product returns; lost sales
❖ Regulatory submission delayed or rejected
❖ Contradicts marketing
❖ Huge globalization costs
❖ Content duplication
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Efficient content development❖ Reuse
❖ Formatting and production
❖ Localization
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Reuse
flickr: a_cooper
Formatting and production
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flickr: ezioman
Localization
Scaling your content workflow
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Reducing the cost of technical support
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Call deflection
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Some statistics on technical support❖ 6–20% of revenue (higher number for
smaller companies)
❖ $6–36 per transaction (lower number if outsourced)
Source: Softletter and the Association of Support Professionals, www.asponline.com/tscr.pdf
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$0
$37,500
$75,000
$112,500
$150,000
under $5M $5–$10M $10M+ $100M+
Cos
t sa
ving
s (p
er y
ear)
Company revenues
1% call deflection2% call deflection
Obstacles to efficient phone support
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A troubling pattern
Conflict between tech comm and tech support flickr: jdhancock
flickr: smemon
Content collaboration
contentstrategy101.com
Tech comm plus…
❖ Technical support
❖ Product design and development
❖ Training and education
❖ Software
❖ Online help
❖ Product interface labels
Collaboration workflow
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Marketing and product visibility❖ Supporting marketing with technical
content
❖ Increasing product visibility
❖ Building user community
flickr: shoppeolina
Reinforce the marketing message
flickr: bokchoi-snowpea
http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/wordpress-estore-plugin-complete-solution-to-sell-digital-products-from-your-wordpress-blog-securely-1059
flickr: evert-jan
Increase product visibility
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Content requirements for product visibility❖ Searchable
❖ Findable
❖ Discoverable
flickr: roberto8080
Building user community
flickr: tadsonbussey
Align tech comm with business
flickr: mulmatsherm
contentstrategy101.com
Business cases
❖ The organization’s business goal is A.
❖ Tech comm needs to do B to support/accomplish/improve A.
❖ Doing B will cost X and increase revenue/save Y over n years.
❖ Y > X.
Emergency (chocolate) puppy
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contentstrategy101.com
Sample business cases
❖ http://www.contentstrategy101.com/
❖ 8 case studies
❖ Sample cost calculations
Questions?
Contact me
❖ Sarah O’Keefe, Scriptorium Publishing
❖ www.scriptorium.com
❖ Email: [email protected]
❖ Twitter: @sarahokeefe
❖ Skype: okeefe.scriptorium