How To Create Awesome Datasheets With Simple Touches
The datasheet is the ID of your product serves as an important communication link between companies and customers with diametrically different needs, i.e., between the seller and the buyer. To a potential customer, the data sheet represents the company itself.
Connection point with customers
Data or product sheets are the last documents to reach your customers at sales point. They must, therefore, be designed perfectly, with a clear product description and incentive to purchase. Giving customers access to product information reduces barriers to purchase and gives you a polished platform to showcase your product.
Engineers, purchasers and potential customers largely rely on online search engines when conducting desk research. As we all know, accessing online sources is easier than accessing hard copies, so too are internal search tools, where datasheets can easily be stored and saved for use at a later date. Your technical documents represent both your product and your company. This means they are key sources and tools through which to improve ROI.
Steps to perfectly designed datasheets
A datasheet should:
- Identify your product
- Describe its application
- Describe how your product works
- Summarise the product benefits upfront
- Use bullet points and bold key phrases
- Give analysis if needed
- Add images or graphics
- Indicate storage conditions
- List your certificates
- Identify your company information
Make your business stand out:
- Choose a distinctive logo
- Target a need, a customer and a sector
- Customers need to feel that they are getting value from your product
- Have a precise target market. Some products or services are more precisely targeted than others
- How does it work from a technical perspective? Consider!
- Look for ways to highlight the unique aspects of your business
Corporate template design
All companies design their own corporate template for technical sheets. These sheets are customised using a special layout with a logo, company name, contact information, product name-code, content design, etc. While some companies do receive support for template designs form design agencies, other companies have their datasheet templates designed by their own employees.
Old methods increase the possibility of errors. Copy and pasting content from old documents cause an increase in visual and content errors. The most common errors are, for example, invalid expressions from other documents, font differences and misspellings which adversely affect professional appearance. To minimize the mistakes made by people, documents must be checked and corrected, but this can take up your valuable time. To save time and stay up to date, transfer information to the template.
When compiling information on technical data, the specific usage area of the product and other essential user information, the collaboration of more than one department may be required (dependent upon the organization structure of the company). Datasheets of similar products and experimental results are also used in content creation. Many companies put this data into corporate templates, typically designed with Microsoft Office tools, Word and Excel. Companies that use PDM software take the product information from the software and then transfer it to the template.
The Problems
Although datasheets are mostly considered a simple document with a summary of a products technical aspects, their indirect costs to companies show big differences. Factors that increase the cost of datasheet management are:
- Number of products
- Product circulation
- Number of languages
- Organisational structure
- Sector
- Customer profile
Old methods increase the possibility of errors
Copied and pasted content from old documents increase visual and content errors. The most common errors are, for example, invalid expressions from other documents, font differences and, misspellings, which adversely affect the professional appearance. To minimize the mistakes made by people, documents must be checked and corrected, but this makes one lose valuable time.
Translations take time and add extra costs
International companies can’t reach customers by only providing datasheets in one language. Therefore, datasheets are written in different languages according to the market and region. Datasheets are technical documents, so the translation of these documents differ from simple documents in terms of expertise and associated costs.
A Fresh Breath — A New Solution
TDSmaker is the best option for datasheets and technical documents.
- TDSMaker is a SaaS product to design and create datasheets.
- Because TDSmaker is a cloud-based data sheet creation and management system it reduces the time and cost taken to create and edit data sheets by over 85%
- Depending on the number of products and company organisational structure; creating a datasheet for a new product publishing time varies from 1hour to 1 week.
TDSmaker provides:
- A clean, professional look
- Free templates in multiple languages
- Easy to use interface — no training required!
- No need to hire a graphic designer. Your creative instinct can take the reins.
- Integration with your current website for automatic updates
- Data tracking for viewed and downloaded datasheets
- Accessing and sharing your datasheets with just one click
Originally published at blog.tdsmaker.com.
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