BRAND COMMUNICATIONS HANDBOOK – Turning user guides into marketing gold

Our age of technology has reached unprecedented heights where a deluge of information is accessible at our finger tips. Employees are increasingly challenged by an expanding volume of information. Gartner reports that 27% of employees and 38% of managers feel swamped by this rising influx of data. On the flipside, the same innovative technologies that have made data ubiquitous, have reduced people’s attention spans to those of a goldfish on a caffeine binge. In this climate, it’s not surprising that tech firms face growing difficulties as they try to make a lasting impression and drive customer engagement through effective brand communications.

Software documentation: Where marketing meets utility

One underrated, yet incredibly powerful marketing resource lies within the realm of user guides and software documentation. What if I told you that these, ostensibly humdrum documents hold the potential to act as potent marketing copy? That’s right, these often-forgotten items have the power not only to educate existing users but also attract, convince and convert prospects into loyal customers. As customer engagement platform Pimster puts it, the user manual—250 years old and still going strong—remains a powerhouse for tackling common questions and offering fixes before things even go wrong. All the marketing gold you need is already in there, just waiting to be unleashed.

User manuals are overlooked assets gathering dust

So, why overlook a procurement tool that’s already at your disposal? In fact, most products come with user guides—you simply need to refresh them to transform them into a compelling customer acquisition tools as part of your brand communications strategy. But let’s back pedal for a second. In many tech firms, user guides are often treated like that one sock that always disappears in the laundry. They remain mysteriously left out, while developers embark on ambitious quests to conquer software challenges. In most offices, they’re frequently neglected in the daily hustle of meetings, development and bug fixes, rarely noticed again until it’s too late.

User guides and insights: What you can expect to gain from this handbook

In this paper, I’ll show you a range of innovative and totally doable strategies that can convert seemingly mundane user guides and other user documentation into compelling brand communications collateral. Join me as I expose the potential that exists within these prosaic instruments and outline practical steps that leverage their strength. The result may surprise you. You’ll discover how to harness the power of user manuals whose generation your company is already paying for. Why not optimize them to deliver greater benefits?

User guides are the company’s forgotten treasure maps

As a technology copywriter and blogger, I admit I’m biased. From my perspective, considerable utility exists in transforming raw data provided by subject matter experts into compelling, user-friendly content tailored for clients’ needs. Alas, user guides remain vastly undervalued and almost completely underutilized. All the hard-earned knowledge gathered by developers often remains stashed away in the remote, corners of the company. If they were paper user manuals, they’d be tucked away on a book shelf, collecting dust and covered in cobwebs like hidden gems waiting to be rediscovered.

There’s a lack of faith in the value of user guides

Several factors contribute to the mismanagement of user guides, including inconsistent standards, insufficient feedback, a lack of belief in their value, and tension between writers and developers. Employee attrition and resistance to change can also hinder user documentation efforts. But the biggest contributing factor is that user manuals often take a back seat to development, which leads to outdated and inaccurate information. This happens because developers and managers tend to consider the maintenance of technical specifications, tutorials and other user guides as boring tasks that don’t generate any meaningful return on their investment.

As a result, these documents get treated as such. So, instead of investing in them so that they meet performance benchmarks, instruction manuals languish in untapped obscurity. This occurs regardless of how often user guides need to be reviewed; some may only require an annual check, while others might necessitate more frequent assessments—monthly or quarterly—because of the rapid pace of change.

Unearthing brand communications potential from instruction manuals

Tech firms and their marketing departments need to view user manuals as an extension of their brand and an avenue for customer engagement. Once they make a shift in the way they think about instruction manuals, it’s easy to start treating them as valuable marketing opportunities. Knowledge base software company Document360 said it spot on: Software products need user guides to reach their full potential. Effective communication with customers is crucial, and development teams shouldn’t rely solely on marketing and sales to handle this responsibility.

It’s not difficult to recycle user guides as part of an effective brand communications strategy to showcase the value of your solution and services to prospects, whether through your company website, blogs, direct mail campaigns or other sales tools like advertorials.  These marketing materials present an amazing opportunity for you to demonstrate:

• Key attributes and capabilities. By unpacking various features and functionalities of your solution you can illustrate how your offering meets unique needs or overcomes specific challenges. These can include boosting productivity, efficiency or performance.
• Use cases specific to your industry. User guides contain an abundance of practical data that can serve as a persuasive tool for bridging the gap between prospects’ needs and your product’s capabilities.
• Case studies. These can be especially convincing because they’re tangible evidence of how your solution has helped other industry players gain a competitive edge.
• Solution-oriented content. If you structure content from your user manuals around your target clients’ pain points, you’ll demonstrate all the ways your offering delivers useful solutions and adds value to their business.
• Thought leadership. User guides can serve as excellent learning material that helps clients without a background in coding to grasp overarching concepts related to technology. This can help position the organization as an industry leader and build trust with prospects and partners.
• Tailored marketing. By personalizing user guides for specific clients, you empower them to see how your solution would work for their organization and no other. A personalized touch like this may take a bit more time to create, but it can strengthen your marketing message.
• Visual walkthroughs. Merely adding screenshots, diagrams and progressive learning modules in user guides already makes them appear as brand communications collateral. Visual walkthroughs showcase the simplicity of operation and functionality of product, making it more attractive to prospects.
• Compatibility and integration. Demonstrating compatibility reassures customers that your solution aligns with their needs, mitigating potential pitfalls and enhancing the user experience. What better way to showcase how your product benefits clients’ workflow than by explaining how it integrates with other tools?

Repurposing user documentation into brand communications assets

Tech firms that struggle to unlock the value of user guides need to do two things. First, they have to tweak existing internal processes or introduce new ones that will better integrate user documentation into the development cycle (the latter may require an investment of additional resources). This includes assigning ownership, setting clear standards, promoting cross-functional collaboration and possibly earmarking portions of their budget towards user documentation or how-to guides.

In this handbook, I’ve mainly referenced user guides as a general term for the sake of simplicity. I should point out that companies can repurpose any internal documents or instruction manuals that provide guidance to users, employees or customers on how to use their product, service or a system. Depending on the type of user documentation you have generated, these could include:

Tutorials and how-to-guides

These documents typically highlight specific features of products and contain a wealth of data that can be plucked for various brand communications objectives ranging from enhancing user engagement to showcasing the product’s versatility and functionality in real-world scenarios. They’re great for positioning the company as an expert in its field due to their educational approach. A how-to guide can also help generate organic traffic from search engines and reach more users interested in your product.

Innovative use cases

As detailed descriptions of how your solution will be utilized in a real-world scenario, use cases hold the potential to serve as powerful testimonials that build trust and credibility. Take a storytelling approach to every step-by-step interaction between an end user and the system by illuminating real-world success stories and emphasize how your solutions address specific challenges. Craft narratives that vividly showcase the tangible benefits and positive outcomes experienced by users. This strategy humanizes your brand and positions your offerings as practical, results-driven solutions.

API Documentation

If your company provides APIs, you can use it to capture the interest of developers and inspire them to integrate your technology into their initiatives. This can help you expand your user base and promote your service offer as agile, adaptable and developer-friendly.

Technical reports

Why write a white paper or an eBook from scratch when you have in-depth software documentation at your service? A professional writer, whether it’s your in-house marketing professional or a freelance writer, can use instruction manuals as a foundation to showcase the company’s thought leadership and industry expertise. Technical reports written by developers tackle complicated issues, suggest innovative solutions and solidify the company’s reputation as a reliable information provider.

Release notes and updates

This is a biggie. In my opinion, these are the most underutilized tools for building powerful marketing copy. I cannot emphasize this enough. When I worked as a technical writer in a software company, it was always challenging to transform them into other resources because they were poorly written. They were so poorly written, in fact, that no one was able to decipher them except for the developers who wrote them (and even they encountered difficulties when it came to older notes and updates). If I wanted to consult these documents, I’d have to request a meeting with the author to explain them to me. This was difficult to achieve because developers were always busy and saw little value in unpacking release notes and updates to a writer.

And yet, they remain overlooked gems for helping demonstrate the company’s dedication to continuously improving the user experience. Release notes accentuate new features, document tweaks made to existing code and chronicle large-scale progress. They also address bug fixes, which can go a long way in illustrating the company’s responsiveness to user feedback.

Knowledge bases and community forums

These repositories provide spaces for users to share experiences, hold discussions and scour content for solutions. Due to the wealth of first-hand user information, they’re valuable environments for gathering material to craft compelling marketing copy.

Video guides and webinars

Visual content delivers opportunities for dynamic and interactive explanations of products. As such, they can drive user engagement more effectively than pure information. They’re also easily sharable on various platforms and can help the company enhance its visibility.

Tech firms leading the way: User manuals conversion case studies

If you think that the principles outlined in this handbook make for an appealing proposition that’s too ambitious for real life, don’t be discouraged. This concept may appear unorthodox on the surface but progressive tech firms recognize the intrinsic value in this transformation. I wrote this guide because I cannot overstate the extent to which user guides remain an unmined brand communication resource for so many tech firms. I’m not describing a candy-coated horizon. On the contrary, my goal is to shed light on the practicality and success of this method because numerous tech firms have applied their user guides to create powerful marketing copy.

So, what tech firms are these and how did they do it? The following case studies reveal a glimpse into the strategies, tactics and outcomes achieved by companies that have decided to step outside of their comfort zone. They have succeeded in repurposing user guides, usually consigned to the domain of internal user documentation, into powerful, client-facing marketing copy that engages audiences, drives growth and bolsters their bottom line. Prepare to be inspired!

• Salesforce: This leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform showcases an exhaustible downloadable library of user guides for the benefit of its prospects and clients seeking to leverage its CRM solution towards sales, brand communications and customer service.
• HubSpot: HubSpot, an inbound marketing and sales platform, features a range of tutorials and user guides in its Free Tools folder as part of the company’s education resources. It explains how HubSpot’s tools can be used to attract, engage and amaze customers.
• Shopify. As an e-commerce platform, Shopify shares its user guides on migration and getting started with Shopify to assist potential customers who want to establish and operate online stores. Check out some of the company’s webinars here.
• Mailchimp: This email marketing service harnesses user guides and tutorials to illustrate how clients can connect with their customers by creating, optimizing and automating their email marketing campaigns.
• Microsoft Azure: Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, Azure, provides extensive user documentation and user guides that you can view here. It demonstrates all the ways clients can create, deploy and manage applications in the cloud, underscoring the platform’s capabilities and functionalities.
• Atlassian: Known for delivering products such as Jira and Confluence, this development and collaboration software company provides in-depth user manuals that demonstrate how its solutions can be applied towards team work and project management.
• Stripe: This payment processing platform has made numerous guides available to its prospects and clients, highlighting its service offering’s functionalities and ease of use. Check them out here to learn how to integrate Stripe into your website and apps.
• Adobe Creative Cloud: Adobe Creative Cloud, a subscription-based platform, empowers creative professionals by offering a suite of creative software applications. It’s complemented by an array of tutorials and user guides to help them achieve their goals.
• Twilio: This cloud communications platform includes a host of how-to-guides and other user documentation to explain how developers can incorporate SMS, voice and other services into their applications for enhanced functionality and better user experiences.
• DocuSign: DocuSign, an electronic signature and agreement platform, offers a variety of video tours to assist customers in optimizing document workflows and increasing efficiency.

Why tech firms struggle to turn user guides into marketing gold

You may be reading this and thinking, Well, that sounds nice and dandy. But things are too unorganized in my organization to get everyone on board in order to deliver this kind of output. If so, don’t despair.

Many tech firms lack clear processes and coordination between technical and marketing teams. Smaller tech firms that lack official marketing departments may just have a general writer on staff who acts as a technical writer as well as a copywriter (in startups, developers are often in charge of writing instruction manuals themselves).

The $240M knowledge gap: When teams fail to align

If developers are casually told that they need to help with the development and/or repurposing of user guides, they may find themselves uncertain of their roles and responsibilities, contributing to a climate of disarray and inefficiency. Just thank that inefficient knowledge sharing for large US businesses results in annual productivity loses that span from $2.4 million for tech firms with 1,000 employees to $72 million for companies with 30,000 employees. Tech firms employing 100,000 workers lose $240 million annually due to poor knowledge dissemination. When there’s poor alignment between cross-functional teams, it can also cause friction in interpersonal relationships.

Does this sound familiar? It’s a common scenario in tech firms where subject matter experts (developers) and writers grapple with the problem of bridging the gap between technical and brand communications objectives and functions. This lack of structure and synchronized teamwork is what often results in overlooked opportunities to leverage user guides as valuable resources. Due to the absence of cohesive collaboration, many tech firms fail to enhance their brand and generate additional revenue through effective brand communications.

Establishing user documentation procedures: Overcoming obstacles

If the previous section articulated anything, it’s that changing internal user documentation processes can be challenging. Many employees, including managers, directors and other levels of leadership and authority, can be resistant to change that can be difficult to overcome. Some internal processes, such as user documentation practices, may be especially hard to break because they organically emerged as a result of employee collaboration, peer influence or interpersonal relationships.

Other routines may have developed purely as an ad-hoc problem-solving impulse or last-minute adaptability in crisis situations. Once they become habitual, it’s hard to change course. And yet, academic research has shown that a company with 100 employees could lose 333.33 hours in working time annually, equaling $834,000 a year as a result of poorly written user guides.

Breaking informal habits: Ad hoc user documentation fails big

For these and other reasons, employees may be comfortable with existing routines or there are cultural barriers and fear of change which can hamper progress. In a culture where many processes are informal, individuals may be hard to persuade into establishing processes through formal channels, such as standard operating procedures, company policies and organized meetings.

If you’re trying to change existing user documentation practices in your organization, remember that informally established processes may work well for addressing immediate, routine tasks on a day-to-day basis. Still, they’re rarely the result of big-picture thinking. When processes evolve rather than develop as a result of a formal structure and long-term strategic planning, they lack institutional mechanisms that help with resolving big problems and putting out major fires. As a result, they usually encounter limitations when it comes to:

• Scalability. Informal practices are unlikely to easily adapt as the company grows or changes. They’re often unique to certain teams or people and may not be successfully replicated in other environments to meet the demands of a larger operation.
• Resource allocation. It’s hard to allocate optimal resources and prioritize projects as part of strategic objectives based on casual procedures that lack formal user documentation.
• Consistency. The outcomes of informal practices can show significant disparities depending on who is participating in them. Also, a lack of uniformity in the way tasks are performed can lead to inefficiency and compromised quality control.
• User documentation in general. Informal practices are seldom kept track of properly, making it difficult to share expertise and train new hires.
• Risk management. These practices are unlikely to adhere to risk management or compliance requirements, which may put tech firms in jeopardy due to unforeseen liabilities and regulatory issues.
• Long-term strategy. Unofficial practices usually focus on immediate problem-solving instead of aligning with the organization’s mission and vision. As such, they’re unlikely to be part of the company’s guiding principles that define its purpose and future aspiration.

How to obtain leadership approval for improving user guides

It would be nice if we lived in a world where company leaders intrinsically saw value in the processes and output that we consider valuable. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Especially when it comes to internal documents. Leaders often need a little nudge to recognize the value of user documentation – and the idea of converting user guides into brand communications collateral. The reality is, leaders are often too busy focusing on short-term goals or they’re tied by resource constraints.

They often lack the awareness about existing software documentation challenges and have too many competing priorities to deal with. Some leaders aren’t aware of the documentation’s ROI potential. In many companies, leaders are resistant to change or they feel powerless against the prevailing inertia within their organization. Now and then, communication gaps are the primary underlying issue.

Pitch perfect: Selling leadership on smarter user guides

If you’re tasked with convincing leadership to implement new user documentation processes, including collaborative processes between writers and developers, you need to start with a comprehensive proposal. What you’re aiming for is securing buy-in for a broader change management initiative. You’ll have to provide clear, data-driven explanations of the benefits such as customer satisfaction or cost savings, while aligning your proposal with your organizational goals. You’ll also have to showcase how the proposed changes align with market trends, address customer needs and follow industry best practices.

Prove it or lose it: Make your case for smarter user guides

At this point, you should demonstrate how new user documentation initiatives will lead to greater efficiency and financial outcomes. Whenever possible, present quantifiable data or case studies that showcase the impact of collaborative processes on other companies’ brand communications efforts (preferably your competitors’). Emphasize success stories and metrics that support your argument about increasing conversion rates. Don’t forget to identify pain points that crop up as an upshot of disjointed content creation. It’s the crux of your argument; illustrate how these problems hamper productivity and negatively affect brand consistency. This should grab their attention. If it doesn’t, maybe you’re working for the wrong company.

Revamping software documentation: A change management guide

Let’s assume that you’ve secured the green light from leadership to transform user guides into compelling marketing copy. Your next step is to implement new processes that bring user manuals out of dormancy, and propel them into the action-packed arena that they deserve to be in.

Before kicking off the initiative for converting user guides into marketing copy, ask yourself the following questions:

• What are we trying to achieve with the new brand communications collateral? Define your goals for the conversion process, including identifying user guide sections that will undergo the conversion.
• Who plays which role? Clarify roles and responsibilities of the developers’ and writers’ teams.
• How do we track the success of the new process? Establish a timeline and milestones for the conversion process.
• What clients are we trying to reach and how? Determine the target audience and marketing channels.

Once you’ve answered these questions, start addressing the core of this initiative, which is to strengthen collaboration between developers and writers. The catch lies in recognizing the ingrained complexities and challenges in coordinating their efforts for greater efforts for greater synergy.

Bringing software documentation into the marketing fold

Before internal documents start generating value for your company, you must start treating your writers as your allies. If you’re asking yourself what this means, it means increasing credibility of the writing process itself. Here are time-honored methods for doing exactly that:

• Involve writers in your meetings. Doing so will boost their visibility in the company, enable team leaders to gather their input and expose developers to writers’ perspective.
• Set up weekly meeting timetables for developers and writers. During these meetings, writers will interview developers to gain a deeper understanding of the solution’s intricacies which will result in accurate and user-friendly documentation.
• Ensure a distraction-free interview environment. Interview meetings between developers and writers should be conducted in conference or other dedicated rooms.
• Empower writers to use recording tools. Their application will boost clarity and accuracy and minimize the need for additional inquiries. In a nut shell, recorders optimize the time invested by writers and SMEs who are busy working on products that are essential for the organization’s operations.

Don’t forget to monitor the performance of your marketing copy regularly by checking click-through rates and conversion ratios. This is best achieved by holding periodic assessment meetings to talk about results and decide whether any iterative tweaks are required. If, for example, a particular how-to guide is not ranking in the expected clicks, it may be time to shake things up. Revamp the content, spice up the visuals or hit different platforms to give it a jolt. Experiment with bold headlines or fresh formats – don’t be afraid to play around until you find the sweet spot.

Unlocking user guides: Key takeaways

1. In the contemporary digital era, promotional overload competes with short attention spans, making it challenging for tech companies to engage their customers.
   In the pursuit of more effective customer engagement, user guides remain a poorly explored brand communications frontier but tech firms that recognize their value have transformed them into potent marketing copy.
2. The mismanagement of user guides stems from inconsistent standards, lack of feedback, and an excessive emphasis on development at the expense of user documentation.
   It’s no surprise that the final outcome is often neglected instruction manuals with outdated, inaccurate information.
3. Tech companies should see documentation as a partner in their quest to enhance brand visibility and drive customer engagement.
   User guides brim with wisdom and possibility, which positions them as ideal candidates for powerful brand communications resources that demonstrate attributes, integration, case studies, thought leadership and personalization, among others.
4. Various types of documents such as API software documentation, release notes, video manuals, how-to guides, webinars and tutorials provide an untapped possibility to showcase industry expertise.
5. Although the task of repurposing user guides into marketing copy seems ambitious, the principles for doing so are achievable and practical.
   A number of progressive tech giants, such as Shopify, Mailchimp and Salesforce, have demonstrated their practicality, offering valuable insights into their successful transitions.
6. In many tech firms, disorganization is to blame for the weak collaboration between developers and writers, which impedes the conversion of user guides into valuable brand communications assets.
   This lack of structure often results in missed branding and revenue opportunities.
7. Employee resistance, established routines and cultural barriers can hamper the improvement of user documentation processes.
   Documentation practices need to be formally initiated in order to drive scalability, consistency, risk management, efficient resource allocation and alignment with long-term strategy.
8. Leaders often fail to recognize the potential of user guides.
   Convincing superiors to implement new user documentation procedures demands a comprehensive proposal supported by data and case studies.
9. To extract full value from internal documents, prioritize teamwork with writers.
   Include them in meetings, establish regular interviews with developers and monitor the performance of marketing copy.

After exploring all the insights in this handbook, don’t forget to revisit the summary of this document for a quick recap of key takeaways. This will reinforce the key points and help you unlock the hidden potential of your user guides as high-impact marketing copy.

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