This article starts a series about common knowledge base content you may be writing. This specific article is about writing knowledge base (KB) content in general and developing the knowledge base content strategy. Many companies are delivering content to their customers in a knowledge base that support staff and others contribute to.
This knowledge base content is written and delivered in Zendesk, Salesforce, or other KB products. A KB tool usually allows different roles and levels of access to the content, based on the role assigned. People who wandered by from a web search are limited to content the company is comfortable with the public seeing. And logged in customers may see more content. And your support staff may see even more content.
This knowledge base strategy of delivering content to customers and support staff is common and not a terrible way to support your products. So, you have 1 silo that everyone goes to for this sort of information, and roles define who can see what.
Audience drives everything
Let’s start by defining the point to knowledge base content. The point is to provide the audience with a solution to a problem, and typically the steps to a task that solves that problem.
In this definition, audience is the important part. Let’s talk about audience for a bit.
Audience drives every detail you include in any communication.
- What does the audience know before they get to you?
- What can you expect them to understand while they follow your instructions?
- What hangers, if you will, do they have in their mental closet that you can put new information on?
Know your audience
For a company writing knowledge base content, you have at least these audiences:
- Beginner (non-domain) customers: This audience is new to your product and to the problem space your product sits in. These people have few to no hangers in their mental closet to put your information on. Few customers live here, although many people start here.
- Beginner (domain) customers: This audience is new to your product. They may not be new to your kinds of products, and they may be domain experts in the problem space your product sits in. These people have hangers in their mental closet to put your information on. Many new-to-your-product customers start here.
- Intermediate customers: This audience have some experience with your product and are also most likely domain experts. They have a closet full of hangers and already have items on many hangers. Most customers live here.
- Expert customers: This audience is as good at your products as your team is, sometimes better. They’re domain experts and know your product inside and out. They often know other products deeply in your problem space as well as your product. Few customers live here.
- Your support staff: Any specific person on your support staff can be in any of these audiences. People start in your support team and learn as they go. You may train them formally on your specific products, and they advance in their knowledge while they work. As they advance, you may move them to Tier 2 or Tier 3 support people.
If you map the customers to this audience grouping, it looks like a bell curve (normal distribution), with more people in the Intermediate audience. If it’s a bell curve, that means about 66% of your customers get to and stay in the intermediate group. That’s the bulk of your knowledge base content.
What kinds of information works for these audiences
The kinds of information we provide to these audiences is different, depending on who you’re communicating to. I use the table as my first cut. You can see the progression expected of the audience.
| Deliverable/ Audience | Concepts articles | Concepts videos | Online training | General How to articles (and videos) | Advanced How to articles (and videos) | Advanced content |
| Beginner (non-domain) customers | X | X | X | |||
| Beginner (domain) customers | X | X | X | |||
| Intermediate customers | X | X | ||||
| Expert customers | X | X |
Every article you create that’s post-sales can be mapped to this table. So using this table can really help when you’re looking at the knowledge base content strategy in the knowledge base content.
Applying this table to your knowledge base content
If you have a video, for example, that covers advanced topics, but you’ve produced it for the Beginner (domain) audience, the video is going to frustrate both groups.
Why?
Because you probably spent a lot of time explaining basic concepts the beginner audience needs explained, but they simply aren’t ready for the advanced thing this video is about. They don’t have any hangers in the closet for this yet. They start the video and then abandon it because it’s too hard.
And then your advanced audience knows these basic concepts–their closet is bursting with things on these hangers. They start the video and then abandon it because it’s the wrong information for them.
All you know is your abandon rate is high. How to solve this issue?
Mapping your content to the audience table
Map your content to the table across the top, then down the side. Then examine the content to see if you are really addressing that audience in each piece of content you mapped. My guess is: You will be shocked at how poorly your knowledge base content maps correctly to the expected audiences. Most places who do this exercise are shocked.
Now it’s time to rework your knowledge base content strategy to be mapped to the right audience.
Some companies put the expected audience at the top of any KB content to help people self-identify if this information is for them. That lets people decide if they are ready for this content. They can decide what hangers they need to get out before they continue.
Some companies make the online training available when you buy the product. If you’re in a product-led growth product release environment, making free online training available is great. And it provides a way to help your customers move to intermediate customers on their own.
More thoughts on knowledge base content strategy
I have more thoughts on knowledge base content strategy with more examples in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
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