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Subject:RE: Why marketing should make the user manuals From:"Damien Braniff" <Damien -dot- Braniff -at- asg -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 4 Sep 2006 08:33:30 +0100
Marketing is about selling and creating an impression - that's fine but
once you've done that you've got to deliver the goods. If you don't,
then customer satisfaction drops and, potentially, you lose customers.
When I did my MA some time ago it involved a (relatively small) survey
of both users and creators of documentation. The majority (not all alas)
of those creating the docs saw them as an integral part of the product
and saw the benefits of having them professionally written and edited.
Users said that 'professional looking' docs were more likely to be read
- the impression being that if it looked professional then it was more
likely to be 'good' (not always true!). They rated the usefulness of
docs (+ to -) in this order - good design, good content; poor design,
good content; good design, poor content; poor design, poor content. In
all cases, a negative view (from design and/or content) tended to bias
them against the product AND docs in general.
Writing for marketing can be both good and bad (like writing for
development!). At one place I worked where I produced both the user docs
and datasheets the information I was being provided by marketing
contradicted the info I had from development. Basically some of the info
I was told to put in the datasheets was wrong - not even 'upcoming'
features but features that were never going to be there. I left soon
after that!
At another place the company provided designs for CODECS etc - there was
no physical product as such and the docs were the prime sales tool. Not
only did we produce datasheets for each 'product' we also produced
databooks. The datasheets were traditional sales docs (our product X can
do...). If people showed an interest then they got the databook - these
provided a lot more detail and were designed to show that we actually
knew what we were talking about :-) They were an integral part of the
sales process and were printed, full color, on demand. They were highly
technical (for a very technical audience) but with as much attention
given to the look and feel as to the content giving an overall very
professional product. The aim was to get customers, keep them and get
them coming back for more.
I guess what I'm saying is that there is no generic marketing - like
anyone else, marketing can produce the full range of manuals - excellent
to rubbish!
Damien Braniff
Sr. Technical Writer
damienb -at- asg -dot- com
Waterfront Plaza
8, Lagan Bank Road
Belfast, N. Ireland BT1 3LR
Tel: +44 (0) 28.9072.3124
Fax: +44 (0) 28.9072.3324
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