drive your docs with data

ed marshstc pmcapril 1, 2017

20+ year technical writer▪ currently associate @ major financial

firm content creator▪ contentcontent.info▪ content content podcast –

edmarsh.com/podcast stc ny metro newsletter editor▪ currently developing stc ny wordpress

site homebrewer ▪ mmm beer

@edmarsh▪ #CONDUITdata

why we are heredata will make your:• life easier• content more user-focused• users more engaged• management able to track your progress• value to the company increase• already good looks even better*

*your mileage may vary

every single web server has built-in analytics.

use this as a selling point with management if you haven’t moved to html-based help yet

don’t forget low-performing contentwhy is it not performing?• obsolete?• poorly written?• using wrong keywords?• confusing title/content?• just plain unimportant/irrelevant?• is this topic cluttering search results?• is it a candidate for archiving?• what else can you learn from it?

robohelp and madcap both have analytics products

google analytics

google analytics code you put in master pages in robohelp, flare, and wordpress

wordpress

http://edmarsh.com/2016/08/17/wordpress-plugin-changed-thinking-about-technical-writing/

twitter

research what are your customers

doing/thinking? what are their pain points? what are your competitors doing?

analytics.twitter.com

facebook

mobile appall the data.

before

after

but.

advertising gives you an amazingly bad targeted audience

support tickets

find out how your users write and think are you speaking the same language as

your users? are you considering misspellings/typos? are there additional keywords you can add?

generate new topics

help your technical support teams are there recurring topics that can be

addressed? share best practices/war stories

most importantly create connections break down silos!

google trends.ohhhhh, the data.

excel (or google sheets)is your friend. really.

content inventories

pivot tables

let’s wrap-up.

edmarsh.com @edmarsh edmarsh.com/podcast contentcontent.info http://www.linkedin.com/in/edmars

h/ http://www.slideshare.net/theedma

rsh/

thank you.questions?yes, please.