5 ways to improve your message
I present the 5 ways you can improve the message about your products and company, in no order of importance, regardless of how you’re communicating it. 1. Pay no attention to the details. Details don’t matter, so don’t worry about them. If it would make your product look better, lie in your marketing materials. Especially about the competition, if possible. No one checks details. It always makes your products look good and people want products that look good. You can also lie about what your product does. Research shows that...
read moreAre you communicating to your audience? Or with them?
I was browsing several vendor websites over the weekend and wound up laughing at the content marketing strategy, which, in this case, was not good. As I was reading one vendor’s site, it occurred to me the reading level was very high. I copied the content into Word and ran the Reading Level scan. I was not at all surprised to find the Flesch score was 8 and the Flesch-Kincaid was 18. (I didn’t have the SMOG on, but I bet that was really high, too.) Scores aren’t everything but they’re a lot So what do those scores...
read moreCustomer Experience and product instructions (part 8)
In previous articles, I covered some business/customer experience basics, such as customer experience and customer churn, and the value of customers and the pyramid of customer experience. I looked at the Customer Experience pyramid and the Content pyramid, the cost of customer support centers as they impact the Customer Experience, the expense of product returns, customer touchpoints and the customer journey. This week, we’re looking at the Customer Ecosystem and product instructions. Customer ecosystem Customer touchpoints are the tip...
read moreCustomer experience and product instructions (part 6)
In previous articles, I’ve talked about some business/customer experience basics, like what is customer experience and customer churn, and the value of customers and the pyramid of customer experience. I’ve covered the Customer Experience pyramid and the Content pyramid, the cost of customer support centers as they impact the Customer Experience, and the expense of product returns and how it impacts the customer experience. In this article, I cover my thoughts about customer touchpoints and how they impact the Customer Experience. Customer...
read moreOpinion poll about product instructions is available!
The annual product instructions poll is available until the beginning of June 2014. You can take the poll right here. Remember to scroll down for some pages. The poll is about 20 questions and should take you about 10 minutes. Share with your friends! Send them a link to this page at the bottom of this page or copy and send it to them: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZN9C87S To find out more about the previous years, click here.
read moreThe cost of developing content (part 1)
(1/16/2014: numbers updated to be much more realistic)Let’s say you have a group of people, all working in Word to develop content. Everyone is heads down, writing content for user guides, policies and procedures, training, and so on. Perhaps the group writes in Word, because Word comes on your standard computer setup, so it’s “free”. Perhaps some of their content is in PowerPoint, for things like instructor led training. Perhaps you are in an industry that must comply with state and federal regulations, such as the...
read moreFree eBook on Amazon from 19 Sept to 23 Sept
If you’re in product development – marketing, development, or project management – you may have heard that “No one reads the product docs”. And that’s true, except it’s also completely false. And for a limited time, you can get the proof for free. No one reads product instructions to see how it all turns out People read the instructions as part of task support. They want to know how to do something or what to do when something goes unexpected. Which means people read parts of the instructions and they...
read moreHow do people find help for products?
As you may know. I have a small poll running, asking 5 questions. As of this date, 111 people have completed the poll. The results are interesting so far. This is preliminary summary. Question 1 When you can’t figure out how to use a product, do you: Question 2 If you find the information you are looking for, do you typically get the help from: Question 3 Do you prefer product instructions as: Question 4 If the information has a few misspellings or other small errors, do you feel the information is less trustworthy or less...
read moreMost companies don’t understand their customers
In my experience, most companies don’t understand who their users are, what problems the company product solve, and what challenges the users are facing. And it turns out, I’m right. Asking questions and thinking it through When I ask most of my clients who their users are and why they want this product, I get everything from blank stares to a litany of basic demographics. Typically, I nod and then start asking specific questions and making general statements, extrapolated from the data and other things that seem obvious to me....
read moreConsumer Opinion Poll 2013 – results are available
As you may know, I’ve run the Consumer Opinion poll about product instructions for the last 2 years. The updated results are available now in two versions: The free version The paid version What’s the difference? The free version shows you the data, compiled into tables and graphs. The free version doesn’t include any discussion or analysis of the content. The free version also doesn’t include the comments people made for nearly all questions. The paid version* is a reasonable $6.99 and includes discussion and...
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