The Future of Technical Communication is Marketing

@scottabel on twitter
The Future of
Technical Communication
is Marketing
by Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler

marketing
has changed
tactics, tools, channels, methods, budget

even the definition of marketing
has changed
marketing is now anything that “gets” customers

tactics no one previously decribed as
‘marketing’
turned out to be ‘marketing’ on steroids

Examples
Craigslist integration Refer-a-friend Shares to Facebook
These brands didn’t have the money to launch traditional marketing departments so
they had to broaden the definition and leverage the creativity of their team

3 Step Marketing Plan
1 Product > 2 Demo Video > 3 Viral Hook
In less than 3 years, Dropbox became a multi-billion dollar brand by leveraging
straightforward content and providing referral bonuses of extra storage space

today, whatever works is marketing
and what works is post-purchase content

businesses fail to deliver content that addresses
the day-to-day realities that customers face

The Customer
Journey
touchpoints where consumers are open to influence

traditional funnel metaphor
content?
Source: McKinsey.com
is NOT actually how many consumers decide what to buy

it actually looks more like this

brands in the ‘inital consideration’ set are three times
more likely to be purchased than brands that aren’t in it

content drives initial
consideration
in the ‘initial consideration’ phase consumers make a short
list of the products/services they are likely to purchase

2/3 of touchpoints are
consumer-driven product reviews, social media mentions, word-of-mouth from peers and friends
in the ‘active evaluation’ phase consumers ‘pull’
in content believed helpful to their search

but, most brands are fighting the
wrong battle
they’re still using outdated and under-performing ideas, approaches, and tactics to lure in prospects
focus should be on ‘initial consideration’ & ‘post-purchase’

Shopping for Products
and Services is a lot
Like Dating
first, there’s romance; you woo prospects with sexy content

once they’ve purchased, you’re in a serious
relationship
your content is no longer sexy and romantic;
instead, it is unfamilar, confusing, and boring

like a marriage, customer relationships
require attention ^ significant
your content needs to make customers feel
valued, safe, and secure along their journey

the biggest challenge is content
inconsistency
consistency is the key to profitable customer journeys

inconsistent content prevents
brand loyalty
customers don’t feel valued or respected;
thus they’re open to change

variation in content experiences
damages relationships
content should differentiate your products/services from the competition, not from other departments in your organization
variations in content within company silos dwarfs the
differences between a brand and its competitors

but our research shows our customers are
satisfied
customer satisfaction survey data often mask important, costly content problems
88% of our customers think “we’re doing great”

but survey data can mask costly
content problems
surveys might seem like great indicators, but they’re not

that’s because customers experience variation, not averages

variation in content experiences
damages relationships
we need to be able to identify the sources of poor and
exceptional performing content and manage them

example: customer service variation
• the best 10% produced 6:1 ratio
For every six customers who had a positive interaction; only one customer had a negative experience
!
• the worst 10% produced 3:4 ratio
For every three customers who had a positive interaction; four customers had a negative experience
Source: Gallup
A tiny fraction provided every customer with a positive experience.
A small percentage of CSRs managed to provide every customer with a negative experience.
we need to know how content performs in order to improve

The presence of variability on
critical performance metrics is
a threat to the vitality of an
enterprise because it’s prima
facie evidence that the business
is not being managed effectively.
The greater the range of
performance, the more costly
the business is to operate.
Source: Management Consultants, Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran
increasing operating expenses and revenue loss

Post-Purchase
Experience Shapes All
Subsequent Decisions
positive customer experiences are key to sucess

what about post-purchase
content?
the stuff created by technical communicators

it’s often the cause of considerble
frustration
we joke that we create content no one wants or reads

nothing can be further from
the truth
post-purchase content is the most useful and sought after

let’s look at
the numbers
‘Telling the Right Story: Proving the Business Value of Content’
Source: STC Intercom, May 2013. Article by Alyson Riley, Andrea Ames, and Eileen Jones.

• buyers of technology report
that interacting with technical
content is the second-most-important
Source: Hershey
pre-sales activity
that they do
more important than interacting with marketing/advertising

• buyers of industrial products
report that ‘the only
information more highly
influential than pricing was
detailed product information
and specifications’
Source: ThomasNet
detailed content influences purchasing decisions

• buyers in general make buying
decisions in which up to 70% of
the decision is made based on
‘information he or she finds
online well before a salesperson
has a chance to get involved’
Source: Hershey
decisions are often made long before first contact

• 2/3 of consumers are willing to
spend more money with a
company they believe provides
excellent customer experiences;
they’re willing to spend 13%
more, on average
Source: American Express
55% of consumers have intended to purchase, but decided
not to do so based on a poor customer experience

it’s not just
the numbers
technical communicators are increasingly responsible for
creating blogs, webinars, infographics, white papers, videos

it’s not just
the numbers
new roles and responsibilities: information developers,
content designers, content experience managers

in some companies, tech comm is part of
marketing
in others, management of all customer-facing content
creation are reporting to a chief content/experience officer

keynote speakers will talk about how their companies are
working to create unified customer experiences with content

that’s also why Intelligent Content Conference has new owners

the right content is critical to success
in every step of the customer journey

it’s content that
matters
prospects and customers don’t care
how your company is organized or managed

what is content marketing?
Content marketing is the marketing and
business process for creating and
distributing relevant and valuable
content to attract, acquire, and engage a
clearly defined and understood
audience — with the objective of driving
profitable customer interactions.
Source: Content Marketing Institute
it costs a lot less to make a repeat sale to a
happy customer than it does to make the first sale

what is content marketing?
Traditional marketing and advertising
is telling the world that you’re a rock star.
Content marketing shows the world that
you are one.
Source: Content Marketing Institute
getting content right is the differentiator that matters most; it demonstrates that you ‘get it’
it’s about acquiring new customers and
increasing business from existing customers

Why Do We Need
To Change?
technical content must become part of the sales process

Once a prospect buys a product or service,
the content they interact with is no
longer familiar. The instructions
provided to them as a customer don’t
look, feel, or sound anything like the
sales and marketing materials that
introduced them to your brand. Neither
does the contract, the warranty, the
support website, the product
documentation, nor the training
materials.
the customer is left to wonder, ‘What happened?’

the magnitude of inconsistency is a critical
measure
content inconsistency signals to customers that you’re ill-prepared to help, listen, serve, and solve problems
it tells consumers a lot about organizational health

causes of inconsistency go largely
undiagnosed
to find the problems we have to take an honest, critical look at the way we produce, manage, deliver customer-facing content
bleeding off revenues and profits; resulting in anemic growth

The extensive variability in
customer experience — and each
customer touchpoint — creates a
different and inconsistent version
of the brand, some that bear little
or no resemblance to the brand that
executives believe they are
building. There are often as many
brands as there are touchpoints.
‘managing performance’ of content is our new job
Source: Gallup

why does this
matter?
after all, we’ve been working this way for years and
this hasn’t stopped us from being successful

because, satisfied customers
lead to sales
persuasive, problem-solving content can lay the groundwork
for future sales to happy, long-term customers

and, if we’re connected to sales,
we’re valuable
roles that increase sales are seldom cut;
the opposite it usually true

and, because it’s time to
change
technical communicator is no longer
an adequate description of the scope of our work

we’re ideally positioned for this
change
many technical communicators can add significant value to the
customer experience if they’re invovled in the process

What Needs
To Change,
Exactly?
technical communication must be tied to the sales process

first, we must search for the
root cause
product, price, promotion, place, processes, policies

primary culprit: lack of a unified
content strategy
the lack of a unified process introduces variability

90% of organizations don’t have a formal
content strategy
one that will ensure consistent customer content
touchpoints throughout the customer journey
Source: Gartner

second, we must remove silos that create
inconsistency
your speciality isn’t a business reason
to create incongruent content

silos create
losses
lack of awareness of — and lack of familiarity with — one
another creates alignment issues and prevents collaboration

95% of marketers say they need to
work with others
Source: Incite
53% say it’s critical to work with other communications
departments; 75% intend to increase content output

third, we must share our lessons and
best practices
content-creating departments can benefit from our knowledge

multi-channel publishing and
personalization
61% of consumers say they feel better about a company that
delivers personalized content; more likely to buy from them

multi-channel publishing and
personalization
90% of consumers find personalized content useful;
78% of them believe brands that do value their relationship

fourth, we must learn from the experiences
of others
using data to make business decisions about content
is critical to long-term revenue growth and profit

we need to do
the math
marketing = dating everything else = relationship

we need to do
the math
inbound: average cost of lead $143
outbound: average cost of lead $373

which begs the
question
what is the cost of inbound techcomm vs outbound techcomm?

which begs a second
question
is our content part of dating or part of a great relationship?

fifth, we must find
our voice
using a clearly-defined tone of voice is not about decorating your ideas
story x voice = impact

we need a unified
voice
get it right and you’ll be 10-100 times more convincing

#ContentTECH
don’t miss this event
Twitter: @InfoDevWorld
@Robert_Rose informationdevelopmentworld.com

email: scottabel@mac.com twitter: @scottabel
follow me! thecontentwrangler.com 415.857.2235
join The Content Wrangler Community on Linkedin

The Future of Technical Communication is Marketing

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