transform tech comm into a business asset

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

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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

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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

flickr: mikecogh

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

flickr: vitorcastillo

Call deflection

flickr: billrice

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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

flickr: pasukaru76

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

contentstrategy101.com

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

contentstrategy101.com

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

flickr: jbrons

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: okeefe@scriptorium.com

❖ Twitter: @sarahokeefe

❖ Skype: okeefe.scriptorium