style - Should software product release notes be in marketing voice or technical voice? (software documentation)

Typically, the voice of marketing content doesn't match the voice of technical content -- marketing is trying to persuade you that you need something; technical writing is generally instructing you how to use something. (I'm specifically talking about software.)

I have traditionally taken a techcomm approach to release notes -- describing new features and bug fixes in a straightforward manner, focused on the user. The marcomm folks often describe the features with a very different vocabulary. For most content, this distinction is clearer -- software documentation is techcomm; web sites, blogs, press releases are marcomm.

A case can be made for the release notes serving a marketing purpose in addition to a technical purpose -- reaching business decision makers in addition to technician-type users. How do you decide the appropriate voice for the release notes?

Answer

I think that there is a very strong case to be made that this distinction between marketing voice and tech comm voice should be avoided entirely. There are two main reasons for this:

1. 
   

   In ancient times, when tech comm and marketing were delivered on paper, each came to the customer at a different time and through a different channel. Generally they were done with using marketing content before they even got an opportunity to see technical content. But the web has changed all that. Marketing and technical content are all available to the customer online. But since the user is finding this material largely by search, there is no telling if their search is going to land them on a technical or marketing document. A marked difference in style between the two is jarring for the customer.

   
   
   


2. 
   

   There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that traditional ra ra marketing tone simply does not work any more. The web allows people to get information from so many sources that they don't have to subject themselves to blatant propaganda in order to get information on a product. Wise marketers have responded by moving to content marketing, which focuses on producing content that readers actually want, as a means of attracting them to your company's content and of building the reputation of your company as experts in the field. Good content marketing cannot have the old marketing ra ra tone or it simply won't get read. Tech comm, on the other hand, can no longer rely on the customer already having bought the product. Many customers are going to make their purchase decision based on the quality and availability of the documentation. You can't afford to neglect this aspect of how documentation is used. (Besides, once the company catches on that tech docs are generating leads, your stock in the corporation will raise considerably.)

   
   

Unfortunately, there are many impatient marketing people who have a hard time producing depth or substance, and many grumpy old time tech writers who have a hard time accepting that they have to write things that the general public will read while making a purchasing decision. But both these groups are living in the past. In the content marketing era, all content is marketing content, including (and sometimes especially) tech comm content. It is all one thing. It should all have the same tone.