It is not uncommon for Technical Writers to be asked to help a company’s marketing department. Why is this? Well, for starters, Technical Writers often command a very strong knowledge of a company’s product or product base.

In the case of a software development company, the Technical Writer is the individual who has composed the User Manuals for the software, and possibly the Online Help System as well.

Therefore, the Technical Writer has the most unified overall understanding of the program or system at hand. So, the Technical Writer can easily become the writer of choice for marketeers, to tap into a strong and very solid product knowledge domain.

There are two main documents that marketeers produce to stay in the game of business. Both documents are complimentary aspects of the business process and by writing one document, you are automatically creating a rough draft for the other one.

One. Requests for Proposal (RFP). When I worked at Rene Perez and Associates, I helped the Marketing Department create this type of document. It basically includes reasons about why a vendor should be given a service contract. In the case of RPA, they have aircraft maintenance software. So, a Request for Proposal from RPA to an airline gives the airline a list of reasons why they should invest money in both the aircraft maintenance software as well as support plan. So, the Request for Proposal is essentially a formal way of selling your product or service, but in the form of a proposal.

Two. Requests for Information (RFI). This is alot easier to write than the Request for Proposal, but nonetheless challenging. Requests for Information are of two types: information requests from the vendor, and information requests by the vendor to a future and prospective client. The first type of RFI is one where the vendor prepares answers to common questions that are received from potential clients. The second type of RFI is a framework in which a vendor can request information about a future client, to know their scope, product or service needs, and things that allow the vendor to qualify itself in terms of its products and/or services it has to offer.

As a Technical Writer, I have often been asked to write RFPs and RFIs because you cannot but help acquire a solid knowledge of a program by writing User Guides and Online Help Systems. At the same time, it is important for marketeers to also collaborate with business analysts because they are many times more familiar with the market than the Technical Writer. Overall, writing RFPs and RFIs is a collaborative effort between Marketing, Business Analysis, and Product Documentation (e.g. Technical Writers).