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Content Marketing Matters

· 6 min read
Liz Argall
Liz Argall

High quality documentation is one of the most important pieces of content marketing an organization has, and I know I'm not the only one to hold this view. In a world over saturated in marketing material, well written and complete support documentation helps your organization feel trustworthy, shows how you sweat the small stuff and what sort of after market support people can expect.

Will your organization be defensive if someone complains about a product? Do you have a paper trail of known issues and actions to resolve known issues to show you listen, observe and act? Perfection is impossible, how you handle imperfection, how reliable and trustworthy you are when issues emerge, these are things well within an organization's control.

Appropriate levels of transparency also serve staff morale, pride and ease of customer support. Documentation can provide a central source of truth, a place of discussion as the implicit understandings become explicit and free up executive function for other activities!

All too often I've seen user support teams get isolated, when they are at the heart of so many significant customer interactions. Effective release notes and updated documentation can help user support agents feel more included and supported. This is especially important with globally distributed support teams. I've had numerous support agents thank me for timely and easy to read release notes. It's both pleasing and troubling that this should be remarkable. They can't provide effective support if they're in the dark. Support agents work with people on their unhappiest days and play a substantial role in user retention and word of mouth. And word of mouth is still one of the most effective marketing strategies there is!

Ngombor's First Year​

The habits of clear, effective, trustworthy content have been essential for maturing Ngombor as an organization. This can be internal documentation and minutes (especially important when working with a globally distributed team) and external facing content. In our largest publication to date, I'm excited to announce that Ngombor's First Year has been published. It's one thing for a nonprofit to do great work, but to be supported in these endeavors, being able to share that work with others in a way that is engaging and trustworthy is vital.

This last year, I've been co-founding Ngombor Community Development Alliance in Uganda, which is substantially changing the lives of people in a very remote part of the world near the DR Congo border. My skills as a writer have been just as valuable as my experience as a non-profit consultant.

Rooted in rural Nebbi, Uganda, Ngombor Community Development Alliance is led by local leaders empowering smallholder farmers. We are a community-led movement, blending permaculture and holistic grassroots development. As part of Ngombor's mission we want to show that agriculture and technology, white collar jobs and blue collar jobs, city and country, don't need to be in opposition. We can mutually support each other and thanks to the ability to work remotely, people won't have to leave their families and land to be programmers and participate in the global stage.

We've made enormous strides building the sustainable agriculture aspect of our program. Already it's inspiring local farmers to develop new farming practices, supporting people to collectively raise seedlings together and planted over a thousand trees.

The world of work is rapidly changing, there are many unknowns in the world and the disparities between the global north and south are large. Things we have higher levels of control over are what we give our attention to. I encourage you to read Ngombor’s Year in Review and look at positive work that often does not get seen.

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