Sarah O'Keefe's presentation from the 2013 STC Summit discusses how to use technical content to achieve business goals.

1. contentstrategy101.com
Transforming
technical
content
into
a
business
asset
flickr: frikitiki
Sarah O’Keefe
Scriptorium Publishing

2. contentstrategy101.com
Sarah
O’Keefe
@sarahokeefe
❖ Founder and president, Scriptorium
Publishing, www.scriptorium.com,
North Carolina, USA
❖ Coauthor of Content Strategy 101
❖ Interested in collision of content,
publishing, and technology

3. flickr: johnloo
“They’ll
never
pay
for
that.”

4. They
don’t
see
the
value.
flickr: jamescronin

5. Justify
your
approach.
flickr: bagsup

6. contentstrategy101.com
Business
case
patterns
❖ Address legal and regulatory issues
❖ Control cost of tech comm
❖ Improve marketing and product
visibility

7. flickr: jdickertLegal
and
regulatory

8. contentstrategy101.com
Legal
and
regulatory
❖ More efficient compliance
❖ Avoid legal complications

9. contentstrategy101.com
Control
the
cost
of
tech
comm
❖ Efficient content development
❖ Reduce the cost of technical support
❖ Content collaboration

10. Myth:
Cheap
documentation
flickr: mjryall

11. contentstrategy101.com
Typical
problems
❖ Content is available only in a single
output format (usually PDF)
❖ Content is useless:
❖ “In the Name field, type the person’s
name.”
❖ Content is hard to understand, not
available in right languages

12. contentstrategy101.com
Cost
of
bad
content
❖ High call volume to technical support
❖ Product returns; lost sales
❖ Regulatory submission delayed or rejected
❖ Contradicts marketing
❖ Huge globalization costs
❖ Content duplication

13. contentstrategy101.com
Efficient
content
development
❖ Reuse
❖ Formatting and production
❖ Localization

14. flickr: mikecogh
Reuse

15. flickr: a_cooper
Formatting
and
production

16. contentstrategy101.com
flickr: ezioman
Localization

17. Scaling
your
content
workflow

18. contentstrategy101.com
Reducing
the
cost
of
technical
support
flickr: vitorcastillo

19. Call
deflection
flickr: billrice

20. contentstrategy101.com
Some
statistics
on
technical
support
❖ 6–20% of revenue (higher number for
smaller companies)
❖ $6–36 per transaction (lower number if
outsourced)
Source: Softletter and the Association of Support Professionals, www.asponline.com/tscr.pdf

21. contentstrategy101.com
$0
$37,500
$75,000
$112,500
$150,000
under $5M $5–$10M $10M+ $100M+
Costsavings(peryear)
Company revenues
1% call deflection
2% call deflection

22. Obstacles
to
efficient
phone
support

23. flickr: pasukaru76
A
troubling
pattern

24. Conflict
between
tech
comm
and
tech
support flickr: jdhancock

25. flickr: smemon
Content
collaboration

26. contentstrategy101.com
Tech
comm
plus…
❖ Technical support
❖ Product design and development
❖ Training and education
❖ Software
❖ Online help
❖ Product interface labels

27. Collaboration
workflow

28. contentstrategy101.com
Marketing
and
product
visibility
❖ Supporting marketing with technical
content
❖ Increasing product visibility
❖ Building user community

29. flickr: shoppeolina
Reinforce
the
marketing
message

30. flickr: bokchoi-snowpea

31. http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/wordpress-estore-plugin-complete-solution-to-
sell-digital-products-from-your-wordpress-blog-securely-1059

32. flickr: evert-jan
Increase
product
visibility

33. contentstrategy101.com
Content
requirements
for
product
visibility
❖ Searchable
❖ Findable
❖ Discoverable

34. flickr: roberto8080
Building
user
community

35. flickr: tadsonbussey

36. Align
tech
comm
with
business
flickr: mulmatsherm

37. contentstrategy101.com
Business
cases
❖ The organization’s business goal is A.
❖ Tech comm needs to do B to support/
accomplish/improve A.
❖ Doing B will cost X and increase
revenue/save Y over n years.
❖ Y > X.

38. Emergency
(chocolate)
puppy
flickr: jbrons

39. contentstrategy101.com
Sample
business
cases
❖ http://www.contentstrategy101.com/
❖ 8 case studies
❖ Sample cost calculations

40. Questions?

41. Contact
me
❖ Sarah O’Keefe, Scriptorium Publishing
❖ www.scriptorium.com
❖ Email: okeefe@scriptorium.com
❖ Twitter: @sarahokeefe
❖ Skype: okeefe.scriptorium