The new marketing funnel for software and other technology products
Prospective customers today know more about products than they have ever done. Many people tend to search for the solution to their problem on the Web and through Social Media before they buy a product or service, and many of them never even touch the product before buying it.
The communication channels you use, and the information you provide, are having an increasing effect on your results. Information is often now part of the user experience itself. What’s more, the subscription, “try before you buy”, sales model means users can stop being one of your paying customers in just a few days.
This means all of the information you provide, both pre- and post- sales, needs to provide the same consistent, high quality, experience to the user.
Listen to our podcast: Unifying pre- and post- sales content
We ask, should marketing and technical communications be unified?
Cherryleaf can help you meet this challenge
Cherryleaf can help you meet this challenge, so you’re providing the right information in the right format, at the right time, and appropriate to your different types of users.
This can involve two main aspects: information design and content writing.
Information design
You can use Cherryleaf to help you determine:
- A holistic content plan that covers the entire customer journey and the deliverables. (What content is needed where, the purpose of each deliverable etc.)
- How different deliverables integrate with each other.
- What content can be shared across deliverables.
- The different navigation routes for the content.
- The categories for different navigation routes.
- Metadata.
- Which tool to use, so users get a unified experience.
Content writing
You can use Cherryleaf to create the content. This can include:
- Creating a central repository of content that can be re-used.
- “How to” information.
- A Glossary of terms.
- Avoiding silos of information in different information deliverables.
- Developing the deliverables (for example: knowledge base, embedded Help, onboarding screens, online Help and videos).
- Creating a simple set of standards for voice and tone, formatting etc.
- Importing existing content.
- Training your contributors and writers in how use the tools and create content.
The goal is a seamless customer journey, where the Help is integrated with the product or website and integrated into the buyer journey.
Learn more
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See our published articles in Germany, the UK and USA:
- The Changing Nature of Content (article in tcworld).
- How to use Affective Assistance to create more loyal customers (STC Intercom magazine).
- See also When everything “just works”
Design-led documentation
Design-led documentation is the term used by IBM to describe a new approach to developing user documentation. It involves treating the content as part of the product itself, and part of the design process. The goal is to provide the right content, to the right user, at the right time. This involves understanding their needs, and assisting them through the whole customer journey.
This means a more immersive user experience, where content can be delivered in the User Interface itself, and through a range of channels, rather than only delivered as online Help or a user manual.
However, this approach does have challenges of its own. With content delivered across different information deliverables, there is the risk of information silos, and different writers creating the same content more than once.
Contact us
Need help in developing your content? Cherryleaf can help. Use our project services contact form to tell us more.