This document discusses the rise of content marketing and the importance of technical content and documentation in the modern "content era". It notes that businesses are drowning in the amount of content produced every day, but that content marketing is proving successful for many companies. It argues that technical content now plays a crucial role in driving customer satisfaction, revenue, and establishing relationships with B2B buyers. The document advises technical writers to position themselves and their work to executives by speaking in terms of business goals like customer experience, aligning more closely with marketers, and providing relevant metrics to demonstrate their impact.

1. TechComm 2020: Get Ready to be Part of the
#tmaldous #LavaCon
Content Era
Tom Aldous, Acrolinx
http://www.linkedin.com/in/tmaldous
http://twitter.com/@tmaldous
http://tmaldous.com

2. Great Job Jack!

3. About Predictions

4. We Were Promised This

5. We Finally Got This

6. They Predicted This

7. We Finally Got This

8. They Predicted This

9. We Finally Got This

10. Now It’s My Turn, But First

11. We’re Drowning in Content
Every Sixty Seconds
 140 blog posts
 600 new YouTube videos
 570 new websites
 168,000,000 emails
 98,000 tweets

12. But for Marketers, It’s Not Enough
in 2013

13. “Content Marketing” Definition
“Creating & distributing great content – findable,
relevant, valuable, engaging – to attract and acquire
a target audience in order to drive profitable
customer interactions.”

14. And They’re Succeeding
since 2013

15. This won’t end well…
“Crap. The Content Marketing Deluge.” by Velocity Partners

16. Why Has Content Become so Important?

17. Relationships Now Built on Content
B2B buyers complete from two-thirds
to 90% of their buying decision before
they engage with the vendor.
– Forrester Research
Until then, buyers rely only on content to influence what they think
of you.

18. Technical Content Matters
For almost 89 percent of buyers,
high-quality technical content is
either important (33 percent) or very
important (56 percent) to their initial
purchase decision.
– IBM Survey
Your technical content influences buyers even before they become
customers.

19. Technical Content Directly Drives Revenue
Documentation “is actually feeding
top-of-the-funnel activity… Some
companies are reporting that
documentation is bringing in over 50
percent of their qualified leads.”
– “The Evolution of User Manuals,” Forbes
Your technical content may even matter more than promotional
content.

20. We’ve Entered the “Content Era”

21. Technical Content Drives Customer Satisfaction
Too
According to a survey, 72 percent of
respondents indicated that they
would rather find help on their own,
without calling a help line.
– Forrester Research
Technical content matters more than ever to satisfy our DIY
customers.

22. Are Customers Satisfied? Nope.
Only 1 percent of consumers feel that
their expectations for a good
customer experience are always met.
– Harris Interactive Survey

23. What do Customers do about it?
89 percent of consumers began doing
business with a competitor following
a poor customer experience.
– Harris Interactive Survey

24. Your Time Has Come!

25. Technical Information at Point of Sale
“How documentation will save the world of CXM” by Digital Clarity Group

26. Social Engagement
“Professional writers now have
tools to collaborate with their
audience easily…
“… we are witnesses to the age
of information shifting to the age
of interaction…”

27. Titles are Changing
 Content Designer
 Content Developer
 Information Experience Designer

28. Why? Because Responsibilities are Changing:
 At EMC, technical writers create blogs &
white papers to promote their technical
content
 At Microsoft, technical writers develop
videos & infographics
 At Juniper Networks, technical
documentation has merged with marketing
to become the company’s “content engine” Lines between TechComm & Marketing are blurring – even
disappearing.

29. Marketers Need Your Expertise
They need what you can do for content:
 Intelligent
 Multichannel
 Dynamic
It’s time to build alliances with Marketing.

30. Position Yourself to Your Executives

31. Speak to Executives in Their Terms, Not
Yours
You should offer:
 Better customer experience
 Better customer support
 Greater customer
satisfaction
 Geographical expansion
 Accelerating time-to-market
 Lower exposure to liability
 Lower costs/higher
productivity
You can back it up with:
 More consistent touchpoints
 Improved findability &
comprehension
 Higher content quality: more
understandable & consistent
 Lower translation costs
 Faster editing & translation
 Greater content accuracy
 Less work for SMEs, editors,
reviewers & translators

32. Cutting Costs is Not Enough
Almost every internal request for investment promises to
cut costs.
More important is your proposal’s contribution to your
company’s high-level goals.

33. Deliver Relevant Metrics
Driven by Facts, Interviews & Surveys
Not this:
 How many words we write
 How many pages we
publish
 How many rewrites we
endure
 How many releases we
support
 How much more work
we’re doing than before
This:
 Customer satisfaction
 Customer surveys
 Customer engagement (e.g.,
page views, time on site)
 Comparisons to industry
benchmarks
 How we could serve
company’s goals even
better

34. My Prediction
 The Content Era is finally arriving
 Your ability to communicate clearly, objectively, and
appropriately for your audience is more important than
ever
 What we do is going to be most valuable to Marketers
 Get ready to ask for that big raise

35. Thank you!
tom.aldous@acrolinx.com