RE: Marcom as TechCom

[Kim Roper <kim -dot- roper -at- pixelink -dot- com>]

Robin Johnson pondered:

> Some technical documents could use an infusion of marcom,
> IMHO. Especially software manuals. In fact, I'd almost
> prefer knowing the benefits of a particular feature or
> function rather than instructions on how to use that
> feature or function. Tell me why I'd want to use it, don't
> tell me how to use it, since a well-designed interface
> obviates that kind of information anyway. 
> 
Absolutely.  One of the first things I did when I started here was to add a
little marcomm to the introductory material to our user's manual.

If the end users are technical people, keep the marketing stuff brief.  In
general, these folks already know why they have the product, so their
patience with marcomm in a manual is likely to wear thin pretty quickly.
Put it there, but be quick and to the point.

As for shelf life, yes, I think marcomm helps.  Chances are, sometime down
the road, some poor schmuck that had nothing to do with the original product
acquisition will have to make a decision about what to do with it.

Cheers ... Kim


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