Online Manual Creator is Simple, Easy, Powerful and Free!

Product documentation or writing a user manual is the first step to go to market.

No matter how simple it may seem, any product, be it a physical one, a service, software, or SaaS, needs its own documentation.

While there are many places to gradually introduce and advertise different features of your product, a thorough yet brief presentation can only take place in your product manual, where you can include all those concerns in one place.  You will never get a chance like this, moreover, in many cases having a user manual is legally required.

So why not get the best out of it?

Let your users learn all about your product, teach them how to use the it, and troubleshoot. So not only does it help you stay out of legal troubles, but it is practically beneficial to your users and your business and marketing.

This is how you save your business a lot of time by avoiding answering too many repetitive questions while getting a chance to use this comprehensive documentation to apply your marketing strategies.

Not having a good manual or creating a poor one could seriously damage your business. In contrast, a professional user manual brings you and your users a win-win situation that promises a more prosperous business with happier users.

Making sure your user manual is accessible to your users is the next step.

The accessibility of a user manual is crucial. Well, that’s simple; it loses the whole point if the users can’t access the manual written for them.

You need to make sure that your product manual will reach out to the biggest circle of your audience; we can mainly categorize them as the (present) buyers, potential customers, and the existing users.

Or else you won’t get neither the user satisfaction you expect nor the proper introduction, no matter how hard you try to create a perfect user manual.

What makes user manuals not accessible?

User manuals are usually delivered to the buyers of a product when they make a purchase.

But they won’t be easily accessible to all this way. So it doesn’t exactly unveil your product to a big audience and fulfill all manual’s potential. Let’s see why?

Potential customers usually don’t have access to user manuals

Besides the product users, many potential customers would be happy to know about your product to make their final decision about buying it.

A brief introduction to the technical points of your new product and the highlight of its advanced features can help a lot with deciding to choose a product over another.

But user manuals are not always accessible to the potential customers (not before they buy the product). 

Existing users rarely have access to the updated versions of the user manuals

Writing a user manual is a continuous process. Improvements and updates always occur with the product documentation.

However, your former customers, who already purchased and received a manual, would find it hard to access the updated versions of your manuals.

Delivering the user manual to the buyers of a product is not the solution

You may think that at least all the buyers of your product have good access to your manuals if you deliver them when they make a purchase. But that’s not necessarily true.

Those who already bought your product may look at your manual to get an idea about their new purchase, which is good. But of course, they won’t memorize everything about it. They usually need to refer to a user manual when they face a problem.

They want to know how to fix an error, use a specific feature, or even get it installed. It’s not like you always assemble and install a new product just the day you buy it. So will all users have access to the manuals when they actually need them? From personal experience, I don’t think so. Take the following cases for instance.

Some users don’t save the user manuals for a rainy day

As all questions regarding a product may not arise on the very first day, many users get rid of your precious manual booklet inadvertently just along with the product’s package.

That’s a pity. You’ve probably put a lot of effort, but they didn’t even get to the good parts. And when the day comes, they desperately look for help.

The help you already included in the manual they threw away. How disappointing; another call to your customer service, the same questions.

The keepers don’t always have the manuals with them at the right time

Ok, but not all buyers are like that. Some are aware of the value of user manuals and never throw them away. They keep all manuals in a closet to feel safe. But chances are they don’t have the manual with them when they need it.

Imagine you bought a new camping tent, a fishing rod, a portable shower, or something like that. Unless you got a fancy pond in your backyard, or a river flowing right at your door, you’ll need your fishing rod or even other camping tools when you go out, probably to the countryside to enjoy yourself. And to set up your camping stuff you may need a manual.

Well, you’re pretty sure you’ve got them all. But there’s a small problem; they’re just in the closet, at home, safe and sound, together with other manuals. Aww, bummer.

Even the most cautious users may not find what they’re looking for

Your wife may be more cautious. She’s got the manual with her. Still, it’s a little tricky to find what you’re looking for. The titles don’t exactly sound  like what you want. Either you can’t find the words you’re looking for, or they’re completely useless.

You probably end up calling the customer service or getting together with your friends and set the tent as you think sound OK. You might end up hiding the two extra sticks that don’t seem to be matching anywhere.

Well, that doesn’t seem quite safe. You wish you could search for a query and, just like that, find what you need.

So even those who pile up everything for a day to come may not simply find what they’re looking for or have it with them.