Technical content management helps keep your technical documents organized, managed, and up-to-date. These documents include things like user manuals, help guides, FAQs, knowledge base articles, and instruction sheets. Managing technical content well helps customers understand how to use your products. It’s also much cheaper to manage content instead of letting it go, well, unmanaged.
A content management consulting team can help. We look at many business problems in your environment, including the items in this article.
Content management systems
To manage your content, you need a system to store your technical content. A content management system should make it easy to find, edit, and update documents. Tools like Paligo and MadCap Flare are great for content management because both products help keep everything in one place and make it easier to manage. Publish from these tools into your knowledge base, for example.
All the content must be accurate and useful. This means checking the information regularly to ensure it is correct and up-to-date. Outdated or wrong information can confuse people and cause significant problems.
If you’re working in a product-led growth framework, you’ve lost the chance to support your customer on their journey. You may not get that chance back.
If you’re working in an SaaS environment, you need to show value to your customers day after day so they continue to subscribe to your products. Clear, accurate, and up-to-date content does that.
Technical writing that’s clear and easy to understand
Another key part of technical content management is making sure the technical writing is easy to read and understand. The writing should be clear and simple, following technical writing best practices, so everyone can follow easily. It doesn’t mean to “dumb down” the content — it means to follow principles such as Plain English and Clear Writing. You’ll also save money when it’s time to localize that content if it’s written to these standards.
SEO optimization can also be important. This means using the right keywords and metadata in the information so that people can find it easily when they search online. Good SEO practices help the content show up higher in search results, which means more people see it and use it.
Technical content feedback
Finally, getting feedback from users is essential. This helps you know what is working well and what needs to be improved. Analytics and customer research can help you understand what your customers want and need in your technical content.
Measuring the effectiveness of your information is essential. Information management includes looking at metrics to identify content that’s working and the content that’s not working.
Content management consulting
These tasks are what a content management consulting team brings to your environment. How do you even know you’re doing any of this right? What are the best practices for your specific tool chain? Do you even know what your tool chain is?
Reach out to us for help. We can talk through your specific situation, what problems you’re trying to solve, and where to go from here.