The Future of Technical Communication is Marketing

by Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler

@scottabel on twitter

The Future ofTechnical Communication is Marketing


marketing

has changedtactics, tools, channels, methods, budget


even the definition of marketing

has changedmarketing 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 CustomerJourney

touchpoints where consumers are open to influence

traditional funnel metaphor

content?


is NOT actually how many consumers decide what to buy

Source: McKinsey.com


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



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


content drives initial

consideration


in the ‘active evaluation’ phase consumers ‘pull’ in content believed helpful to their search


2/3 of touchpoints are

consumer-drivenproduct reviews, social media mentions, word-of-mouth from peers and friends


focus should be on ‘initial consideration’ & ‘post-purchase’


but, most brands are fighting the

wrong battlethey’re still using outdated and under-performing ideas, approaches, and tactics to lure in prospects

first, there’s romance; you woo prospects with sexy content


Shopping for Productsand Services is a lot

Like Dating


your content is no longer sexy and romantic; instead, it is unfamilar, confusing, and boring

once they’ve purchased, you’re in a serious

relationship


your content needs to make customers feel valued, safe, and secure along their journey

like a marriage, customer relationships

require attention ^significant


consistency is the key to profitable customer journeys

the biggest challenge is content

inconsistency


customers don’t feel valued or respected; thus they’re open to change

inconsistent content prevents

brand loyalty


variations in content within company silos dwarfs the differences between a brand and its competitors

variation in content experiences

damages relationshipscontent should differentiate your products/services from the competition, not from other departments in your organization


88% of our customers think “we’re doing great”

but our research shows our customers are

satisfiedcustomer satisfaction survey data often mask important, costly content problems


surveys might seem like great indicators, but they’re not

but survey data can mask costly

content problems


that’s because customers experience variation, not averages


we need to be able to identify the sources of poor and exceptional performing content and manage them

variation in content experiences

damages relationships


we need to know how content performs in order to improve

• the best 10% produced 6:1 ratio !

• the worst 10% produced 3:4 ratio For every six customers who had a positive interaction; only one customer had a negative experience

For every three customers who had a positive interaction; four customers had a negative experience

Source: Gallup

example: customer service variation

A tiny fraction provided every customer with a positive experience. A small percentage of CSRs managed to provide every customer with a negative experience.


increasing operating expenses and revenue loss

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

positive customer experiences are key to sucess


Post-PurchaseExperience Shapes AllSubsequent Decisions


what about post-purchase

content?the stuff created by technical communicators


it’s often the cause of considerble

frustrationwe joke that we create content no one wants or reads


nothing can be further from

the truthpost-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.


Source: Hershey

• buyers of technology report that interacting with technical content is the second-most-important pre-sales activity that they do

more important than interacting with marketing/advertising


Source: ThomasNet

• buyers of industrial products report that ‘the only information more highly influential than pricing was detailed product information and specifications’

detailed content influences purchasing decisions


Source: Hershey

• 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’

decisions are often made long before first contact


Source: American Express

• 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

55% of consumers have intended to purchase, but decided not to do so based on a poor customer experience


it’s not just

the numberstechnical communicators are increasingly responsible for

creating blogs, webinars, infographics, white papers, videos


it’s not just

the numbersnew roles and responsibilities: information developers,

content designers, content experience managers


in some companies, tech comm is part of

marketingin 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

mattersprospects and customers don’t care

how your company is organized or managed


it costs a lot less to make a repeat sale to a happy customer than it does to make the first sale

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

what is content marketing?


it’s about acquiring new customers and increasing business from existing customers

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

what is content marketing?

getting content right is the differentiator that matters most; it demonstrates that you ‘get it’

technical content must become part of the sales process


Why Do We NeedTo Change?


the customer is left to wonder, ‘What happened?’

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.


it tells consumers a lot about organizational health

the magnitude of inconsistency is a critical

measurecontent inconsistency signals to customers that you’re ill-prepared to help, listen, serve, and solve problems


bleeding off revenues and profits; resulting in anemic growth

causes of inconsistency go largely

undiagnosedto find the problems we have to take an honest, critical look at the way we produce, manage, deliver customer-facing content


‘managing performance’ of content is our new job

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.

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 salespersuasive, problem-solving content can lay the groundwork

for future sales to happy, long-term customers


and, if we’re connected to sales,

we’re valuableroles that increase sales are seldom cut;

the opposite it usually true


and, because it’s time to

changetechnical communicator is no longer

an adequate description of the scope of our work


we’re ideally positioned for this

changemany technical communicators can add significant value to the

customer experience if they’re invovled in the process

technical communication must be tied to the sales process


What NeedsTo Change,Exactly?


product, price, promotion, place, processes, policies

first, we must search for the

root cause


the lack of a unified process introduces variability

primary culprit: lack of a unified

content strategy


one that will ensure consistent customer content touchpoints throughout the customer journey

90% of organizations don’t have a formal

content strategySource: Gartner


your speciality isn’t a business reason to create incongruent content

second, we must remove silos that create

inconsistency


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

silos create

losses


53% say it’s critical to work with other communications departments; 75% intend to increase content output

95% of marketers say they need to

work with othersSource: Incite


content-creating departments can benefit from our knowledge

third, we must share our lessons and

best practices


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

multi-channel publishing and

personalization


using data to make business decisions about content is critical to long-term revenue growth and profit

fourth, we must learn from the experiences

of others


marketing = dating everything else = relationship

we need to do

the math


inbound: average cost of lead $143 outbound: average cost of lead $373

we need to do

the math


what is the cost of inbound techcomm vs outbound techcomm?

which begs the

question


is our content part of dating or part of a great relationship?

which begs a second

question


story x voice = impact

fifth, we must find

our voiceusing a clearly-defined tone of voice is not about decorating your ideas


get it right and you’ll be 10-100 times more convincing

we need a unified

voice

questions

#ContentTECH

@Robert_Rose informationdevelopmentworld.comTwitter: @InfoDevWorld

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by Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler


The Future ofTechnical Communication is Marketing