Hey! Where’s Our Content?

Don’t leave content managers for intranet, extranet and support out in the cold

Part IV of this series of articles that share useful insights and practical guidance to troubleshoot underperforming self-help and learning systems

Our company is rolling out a new version of a key product. The Board and C-level leaders have been privy to the program manager’s presentations for months. The marketing team has been hard at work and there is snappy new copy and artwork for the public web site and sales materials. Expectations are high and almost everyone is enthusiastic as the launch approaches.

Perched on the outside looking in are the content managers for intranet, extranet and customer support. Though they operate on the front lines supporting colleagues, partners and customers, they've been stiff-armed on much-needed content for their knowledgebases. They are burdened with many unanswered questions but, due to the predictable crush of last minute tweaks, the product & marketing teams have no time to spare. Oh sure, there will be a last-minute demo to the customer-facing personnel and a breezy e-mail from our VP heralding the new item, but this is just info-lite. No one has yet collaborated with the experts to develop the in-depth guidance and instructions needed for self-help and troubleshooting, much less the nuanced information needed for non-standard installation, compatibility and customization.

Left with no choice and no time to edit, test and tweak content for their target audiences, an ad hoc effort ensues to publish the minimum guidance needed. Presentations and sales materials are culled for reusable content that is cobbled together in a rush. Despite contributors pedaling as fast as they can, the launch is initiated absent much-needed and vetted high-quality problem-solving resources. Moreover, no one has taken the time to flag existing resources that will become outdated nor modify those resources that ought to alert users to the new solution. Worse yet, this pattern is likely to repeat until leadership recognizes that piecemeal content development results in increased cost, rework, missed opportunities and damage to our brand due to:

• Undiscovered errors
• Gaps in coverage
• Inconsistent messaging
• Confused users

This article contends that the term, “Content Strategy,” has been misappropriated by our colleagues in marketing & sales to narrowly focus upon the messaging to attract new customers. One need only peruse content strategy related job descriptions on LinkedIn to confirm the premise:

Director, Content Strategy: “This position within Marketing organization will be responsible for content strategy and marketing across our corporate website as well as other digital channels.”*
*Top “content strategy job in USA” LinkedIn search result for 1 March, 2016

Among the many problems stemming from a myopic content strategy is that leadership is misled into assuming that the organization is focusing heavily upon producing the very best content, when content other than marketing suffers from the lack of a professional publishing process and executive support in the Boardroom. For those readers not yet sure if their organization has instituted a truly enterprise content strategy, characteristics of an ineffective content strategy include:

• Disproportionate investment of time, effort and expertise into one target audience to the detriment of others, e.g. significantly more energy was invested into one-off leadership briefings than was spent preparing the customer support team for the launch.
• Large variances in quality due to inconsistent production, e.g. copy for troubleshooting resources contains errors a professional editor would catch and correct.
• Uncoordinated publishing and gaps in coverage, e.g. announcements are released before key resources are available and/or the support team is prepared.

Put more affirmatively, the return on investment (ROI) for knowledgebase content increases when the various audiences for information related to the new product or service have access to timely, high quality content oriented to their needs. Factor in increased efficiency and productivity along with enhanced risk mitigation and one can make a compelling business case for an enterprise content strategy that streamlines how the organization develops, publishes and maintains content for all target audiences.

Major content initiatives require a spectrum of related content to serve target audiences ranging from the boardroom to the call center and beyond. Absent a content strategy that emphasizes quality, consistency and usefulness, some audiences will be short-changed resulting in avoidable problems. Moreover, low quality content is a significant risk to the organization’s brand that is surprisingly difficult to mitigate. A content management approach that invokes professional production and coordinated publishing for all channels offers opportunities to optimize outcomes and sidestep risks.

Next Topic: Facing The Risks of Online Publishing

Part V addresses how to mitigate the risks we face from online publishing.

Directory of All Topics

Browse this directory to discover how to troubleshoot the often thorny problem(s) preventing our self-help, intranet, training, support and/or extranet knowledge bases from being incredibly useful.