Marketing knowledge should be part of a technical writers tool kit

[David Fredericks <davidf -at- APC -dot- NET>]

Why is it, I wonder, that my technical writing colleagues come across so pure, uninformed and pollyannaish about the marketing aspect of technical communications? Marketing, after all, is what gives us our jobs and what America, entrepreneurialism  and free markets are all about. Not for a second can you talk intelligently about creating any business without discussing target markets, demographics, psychographics and arriving at the right media mix. Only at the very low end can you generate user manuals today (especially of bookstore quality) without factoring in marketing elements. Being new to this news group, I'm surprised at the many people who lack sophistication on this subject. Most executives who consider contracting my technical writing services expect me to be a strategic and analytical thinker who can make their technical documentation fit in to an overarching marketing and communication strategy.

 

During my 25-year technical writing experience, I have enjoyed the incredible joy and challenge of using my communications skills to help many entrepreneurs launch technical startups, In fact, this very Monday, I will be talking to the President of a new company about helping his fledgling firm with proposals, articles, brochures, manuals, punchy Web site content, and trade show handouts. Obviously the pay and requisite talents are much greater for making this kind of contribution. The only kind advertising copywriting I haven't done is "broadcast."

 

Now in academia, you expect to encounter the sophomoric notion that all advertising is bad, the glamour side of marketing. Academics often associate boiler-room con artists and back alley swindlers with advertising. But that's only because they lack real-world experience and the moxy that only front line battle experience can give you. And though it's true that there is a dark side to almost every human activity, it's as naive to see only the bad as it is to see only the good. I would think anybody who calls themselves a commercial writer would show more maturation about two subjects as critical as marketing and advertising.

 

Pick up a current copy of Scientific American and read the ads. Drool over the talent of writers who can weave exposition, description, narrative, and persuasion with such subtlety and panache. It takes a lifetime to do it well. It's the emotive power behind all of our jobs.