Technical Communication and Marketing

STC Houston March 11, 2014

Erika Frensley

Technical Communication, even basic reference and user manuals, is often used as a marketing tool for your product, even if you don’t realize it.

Documentation supports the product and helps sell it

Like it or not, we’re part of marketing

Technical Communication◦ Informs the user of the product◦ Instructs the user how to use the product to

achieve their goals

Marketing Communication◦ Describes the product to the customer◦ Persuades the customer to use the product to

achieve their goals

Technical Communication vs. Marketing Communication

How do customers determine if the product will help them? Demonstrations - viewing the product in

action

Documentation – what does the documentation say?

Testimonials – white papers, examples, word of mouth

How is the product sold to customers?Sales shows how the product helps customers achieve their goal by presenting: Online help and documentation Classes and tutorials White Papers and presentation Demonstrations Testimonials and web reviews

How is user documentation developed? User analysis

◦ What is the user trying to achieve? What user problems can be solved with the product?

Product Knowledge ◦ How does the product help the user achieve their

goals? How does the product support software or hardware?

We sell the product! User analysis for customer problems and

goals

Product knowledge for how the user uses the product for those goals

Marketing and Technical Communication are no longer silos Sales departments are no longer the only

source of sales information for a product Technical documentation is no longer the

only information for a product◦ Blogs, forums, reviews, wikis are direct customer

experiences of the product

All this means… Branding of a product is holistic and includes

sales, marketing, support, and technical documentation design and approach

What documentation is used to sell the product? User manuals/Quick Reference –the scope and

instructions for the product Overview guides (Getting Started, Introduction,

Overviews) –the introduction to the product and a summary of the features

Data sheets –the quick summary of the product and the included equipment/functions

White papers – actual case studies and reports on how the product was used

Online help/wikis/forums – web-based help searched for by current and potential customers

Don’t stay in the dark Become part of the product marketing team

Ensure that you know the marketing points for the product

Work with marketing, not against them

Incorporate marketing into your documentation Branding and identity

◦ What is the company branding and the product identity

Benefits of the product◦ How does the product work better than other

similar products◦ What are specific problems that the product solves

Goals for the product◦ What goals does the product help the user achieve

Branding Documentation design that follows the

marketing design/company design Documentation approach and voice for the

product ◦ Write in the suitable voice for the product. A software

product geared to novices needs a friendly voice Main selling/branding points for your product

◦ If the main selling points for your product are security, compliance, and auditing, document the product and highlight how the product provides security, helps with regulatory compliance, and provides an audit trail

Benefits Does the product work more efficiently than

other products because of the approach?◦ New approach allows more flexibility in viewing and

searching the data ◦ For example, the benefits of a seismic analysis program

that more views for the data than other programs Does the product solve specific problems for the

user◦ Creation of views for a different analysis of the data◦ For example, creating a seismic view from data is

solved by the program automatically creating the view from selected data

Goals What is the user trying to do?

◦ Organize information without dealing with innards of a database

◦ For example, create a recipe database

How does the product make life easier for the user◦ The information can be sorted and printed easily◦ For example, a recipe database can be sorted by

ingredient or name, and printed into a booklet

Technical documentation marketing principles User documentation must be accurate, but

optimistic to the benefits◦ The product is supposed to provide certain

benefits, so highlight them in the documentation Excitement matters

◦ The product is a great product that will help the user achieve their goals

Ease of understanding◦ Workflows and diagrams are not just for

instruction, but for understanding the flow and ease of using the product

Yes, you can! It’s OK to add friendliness to documentation It’s OK to add some excitement to

documentation We want users to feel good about and from

reading the documentation

If reading the documentation that you wrote makes you think of a droning lecture, how does the user feel about the documentation and the product?

Technical copywriting Copywriting is advertising – appeals to the

emotions of the customer

Technical communication is information – appeals to the intellect of the user

Technical copywriting – presents information to the intellect while engaging the emotions of the customer

Example

Branding/selling point◦ Independent units for remote areas

Technical information only The FireFly units include a 192 cell lithium-ion

battery that powers the 2.4 Ghz internal radio. The internal radio communicates with the central station.

Technical copywriting The radios and the lithium-ion batteries allow the

FireFly units to be placed in more remote areas while communicating with the central station and maintain power for recording.

Personal Examples PATROL Knowledge Modules (monitor and manage

databases)◦ User documentation used many user scenarios/stories to explain

how the product parameters notified and suggested solutions. ◦ These stories were used in marketing to help sell the product.

FireFly Getting Started/Hawk Overview◦ A complex system using four different equipment staging areas

and three major phases in the project, but using one database. ◦ Desperation in describing system components and how they

worked together led to the Getting Started/Overview.◦ Sales used the Getting Started to present the product to

potential buyers (including sealing the deal on a multi-million dollar project)

Personal Examples

Company web site for an auditing and compliance software product The website information is accurate, but deadly

dull, full of marketing buzzwords but little branding information

Vice President of the company knew sales were lost based on the website and documentation

Explicitly wanted a more technical approach using technical communication principles so that corporations were comfortable with the product