DITA can help both marketing and technical communications teams connect with customers. In a non-technical way, this slide deck (and the associated presentation) shows how and why it matters to connect with your customer using all the tools at your command.
1. DITA Can Help Create Both
Jacquie Samuels & Bernard Aschwanden
www.publishingsmarter.com
Content is Content: End Users
Need Marcomm AND Techcomm
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@publishsmarter
3. Jacquie Samuels Bernard Aschwanden
Jacquie specializes in
DITA CCMS selection and
content strategy
Helps teams write
concise, structured
content with the right tools
and the right strategy
A past President of
www.stc.org and founder of
Publishing Smarter
Helps teams make the case
that content is the key
business asset with a focus
on how content makes or
breaks a relationship
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Who The Heck Are We?
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8. Convergence Summary
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Marketing Technical
End users Identify end users early, target content for their needs. Provide an
always-on dialogue aligned with end users.
Multi-channel publishing Provide content in appropriate formats, including HTML, PDF, and
applications.
Level of technical detail Always high-level, now
increasingly technical.
Always technical, now
increasingly focussed on higher
level, including users’ business
goals.
Type of content Articles, blogs, tweets, case
studies, whitepapers,
advertising, promotions, etc.
Integrated marketing
communications helps
customers understand what
the product does and decide if
the product solves their
problem.
Books, guides, and topics,
where the aim is to provide a
library of content to help users
understand and use the
product.
This discussion explores a whitepaper we wrote for Adobe
Topics range, and questions (via the chat) are invited
If you have a specific speaker in mind to answer a question, let us know (or we’ll just pick one of us!)
Also, like many before us, a quick thanks
To Adobe for sponsoring this annual event
To you for participating and making it a massive success
We all generate content for the same audiences, and the audience is always looking for something more
The distinction between marketing and tech comm is less pronounced than it has been
Managers hire people with similar skill sets to create either type of content
Both are an always-on discussion with users, just at different points of the product adoption lifecycle
This standard process involves(2, 3, and 5 use content, ideally COMPANY content)
Problem Recognition
Information Search
Evaluation and Selection of Alternatives
Purchase Decision
Post-Purchase Evaluation
Pre-sales: Marketing
Provide enough info to inform the consumers
Content is often public
Feedback and opinion of existing customers exist
You SHOULD know what you do well, and where to improve (techcomm)
Post-sales: Tech Comm
Info to help buyers to use product w/ full potential
Meet business goals in a usable and helpful way
Content here becomes part of the pre-sales msg
You SHOULD know what works or not, then fix it
Same core delivery channels but…
Marketing publishes content not used directly by the users
Point-of-sale
Advertising
Brochures
Tech comm publishes to formats not used directly by sales
Online help
Error messages
Code and API guides
Technical specs
End users don’t think of it as “pre-” or “post-” sales, they think of the experience
It’s content. They use it. It should work.
Seamless and consistent means it should work the same
All the time
Same search, filters, feedback, sharing, etc
Gather metrics and learn from it
Use what you learn to ID when/where people use content
ID when they cross silos
Improve and refine your content
Pre-sales readers get a deeper dive into tech comm, and are informed with enough detail to make a valid decision
Newer users may need videos, clear and simple examples, overview of new features
Integration of content provides all content, to all users
Let the user decide what matters based on skill and needs
Marketing and tech comm are two sides of the same communications coin!
Why stop at marketing and tech comm?
Support and Training are also content!
Support the entire user experience from pre-sales to learning, to long-term use.
End users don’t distinguish content by “type” or by “department”
You shouldn’t either
Deliver a seamless, coherent experience
Consider tools that leverage the enterprise
Publishing with FrameMaker
DITA publishing is often discussed with a “you need the toolkit” or “you need custom code” discussion but with FrameMaker publishing can be integrated and hidden
Allows PDF, HTML5, and a lot of other outputs
Adobe Experience Manager
Leverages DITA behind the scenes
It’s both a marketing CMS and a DITA-ready CCMS
Share/reuse
Oh, BTW, yes, you can share the content easily. Drag/drop and DITA can be added to ANY content
Sharing content is invaluable as assets created by one team should be reused where applicable
Don’t write it twice
When anyone updates content, everyone should benefit
Edit, review, approve, and translate your content. Once. Then share.
You need to manage content as a business asset and show good information governance
Build a robust content strategy to take that into account
A consistent user experience of content, no matter where the end user is in the product adoption lifecycle, just makes sense
Let customers flow seamlessly from one type of content to another, both carefully aligned with the business cases and goals of the consumer
We do stuff, and we think it’s fun
Content strategy
Content analysis
Content cleanup
Content migration (to FrameMaker, or to DITA, or both!)
Training, templates, support, development, etc
Basically, we help companies publish better, faster, and smarter
We want people to do less of the “boring” work, and more of the interesting and thoughtful work
Reach out to us: DITAworld@publishingsmarter.com