conversation is an engine

Yes. And it’s a crime if they don’t. It used to be that the folks scrawling away on technical manuals worked hard to capture what engineering said while being aware of the different needs of their audiences. They necessarily broke engineering concepts down for the folks who operated the device or machine or product. They had to separate themselves from the love affair most engineers have with their product: parsing out just the needed information, thank you. It required that writers have a clear understanding of the device/machine/product and an even clearer picture of the audience and their real needs.

But in this coming age when dialogue is one engine driving brand loyalty, no communication opportunity can be wasted—including the documentation that goes to the users. While it is often true that the users of a product are not the ones who make the purchase decision (thinking of big-ticket capital expenses here), it does not follow that their opinions and experience with the product do not matter. In fact, when it comes to ongoing customer dialogue, their experience with the product will provide the background noise that builds—or dismantles—loyalty. You can see that all sorts of companies are scraping at ways to engage audiences.

How can technical documentation build the brand? Glad you asked.

1.    For starters, collapse the silos and let (force?) the marketing folk to hang with the technical gurus. Break down the compartments they live in so marketers get a sense of the detail involved, and so technical folks get a sense of what the brand stands for. Conversation has a great way of opening eyes and freeing fingers on keyboards.

2.    Establish expertise. Technical documentation goes a long way toward setting up a company—and the people who make up the company—as experts. Naturally, it goes without saying that documentation must be clear, brief, to the point, appropriate and well-organized—all the excellent stuff that sets the expert from someone who just rambles endlessly.

3.    Write to the brand. Logos properly used, of course. Observe graphic standards and color palettes? Check. But even more important is the tone of the brand. Send your marketing copywriters and technical writers to lunch some day and make them talk about the tone their respective communication tools take. These two groups should find shared enthusiasm for their target audiences.

4.    Create even more points of contact with your loyal customer base. Good technical documentation explains operation, theory (a little, anyway), safety, service, troubleshooting and along the way creates multiple opportunities for dialogue. Does this sound like a staffing issue? Perhaps it is, but maintaining brand loyalty is a full-time job and is a vertical movement that runs through an entire organization.

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