A strategic approach to organise your content

Which output channels do you choose?

    Strategic approach content: different forms of output for an outdoor lamp

    Before creating your manual or set of manuals, it is always a good idea to decide on a so-called content strategy. A content strategy basically is your answer to a simple question. That question is: which output channels would you like to use? Would you like to be online or would a printed edition of your manual do? Would offline presence on your smartphone be the solution? Manualise can help you answering these questions.

    Request quote →

    Table of contents

    What is a content strategy?

    Offering the right information

    Organising content

    Diversified output

    What can we do for you?

    What is a content strategy?

    A content strategy is a plan to organise your technical documentation. This sounds rather abstract. Let’s make the term ‘content strategy’ more tangible. Undoubtedly, you are in possession of a lot of technical information. You want to do something with this information. You might want to publish working instructions online. Or you might want to opt for a quick start guide on paper. Or you may consider offline presence on a laptop, smartphone or tablet. Which choices would lead to the most effective solution?

    With a well thought out content strategy:

    • you only offer relevant information to the user.

    • you reach out to your users with different output channels.

    • you reuse technical information automatically.

    • you organise your information efficiently.

    Offering the right information

    Each organisation collects a lot of information. Only think of marketing texts, datasheets, CAD drawings, procedures and so on. However, not all of this information is relevant for your manual. A selection needs to be made. After all, a user is only interested in one thing: to start his machine, his installation or his software. As a consequence, only the relevant information should be included. Also as a consequence, a user manual should have a different character from a maintenance manual. Any manual should be geared to its specific task. 

    Organising content

    If you know where to publish your content, you have to manage your information from that point on. That is where content management software comes in (CMS). Here, your content is stored in order to be reused as many times as you would want.

    It is important to realise that, with a CMS, you only have to create your content once. If created, the CMS automatically takes care of your content in any output format you would like, including the so-called responsive design technology for any smartphone and tablet.

    Diversified output

    Please take ‘diversified output’ literally when working with us. We do not shy away from any output channel! You could not only think of print, PDF files or websites, but also of:

    • online and offline presence on smartphones and tablets,
    • online help in software applications,
    • instruction videos.
    Strategic approach content: overview of cross-media output for a remote control
    You are looking for a partner to discuss your content strategy with? When it comes to technical documentation, Manualise might just be that partner.

    What can we do for you?

    Maybe you consider the organisation of your technical information subject to improvement. Maybe you would like to bring some structure in your content. We can always help you.