Best Tools for Marketing Operations Documentation

[jmillerokc]

Hello everyone! 

I'm looking to implement a pretty hefty documentation project for my marketing operations apparatus. I want to cover the automation process, how workflows work, what custom fields trigger in HubSpot/SFDC, FAQs, what to do if, and even documenting issues we uncover and how they were solved, etc.

I know Knowledge Base is awesome, I've used it before. Don't know if I can swing Service Hub, so I'm curious about what other documentation tools you've used. 

[dsecareanu]

I'll share a few tools I think are pretty good for documentation, assuming you also need to share those docs with external folks. Some have already mentioned before, but I'll relist them anyways:

• Notion.so is pretty good at managing documentation as it has rich text and multimedia options, templates and can link documents between them to allow for easy  referencing;
• For the more advanced documentation geeks, there's also Roam Research;
• Some project management tools can also function as documentation tools (Basecamp has a Messages tool where documentation can be built and shared with project team);
• Any shared storage like Google Drive & Docs, Dropbox or similar can also function as a good documentation platform;
• If you're more techie, you can also build full documentation sites on CMSs like WordPress (docs themes or plugins) or Ghost CMS;
• Locally, there's also lots of tools, such as Apple Notes (if on Mac/iPhone/iPad), Obisdian.md (which has a note connection and visualization feature similar to Roam Research), Google Keep or other similar text editors and note taking tools.

Anyways, there's lots of options to choose from (free or paid), but try to use something that you and your target audience are familiar with to not overcomplicate things.

[MRizzo4]

I've asked the MarketingOps.com community this before. Most recently some of the replies were: 

• Miro
• Google Docs / Sheets
• Martech Guru
• MartechBase
• Whimsical

[JenBergren · Accepted solution]

Hi @jmillerokc ! Thanks for tagging me @TiphaineCuisset , documentation is one of my favorite topics, I'm actually teaching a class on it right now!

My #1 tip is to use a system your team is already using daily so you don't have to teach them a new tool IN ADDITION to teaching them new habits about creating, using, and updating documentation.

If you're more concerned about documenting for yourself right now, getting the first draft of all the docunentation done, my advice is use the tool that's easiest for you. You can always delegate/hire someone later to move it into a different system but it would be harder to delegate or hire anyone to do the first draft of it -- for someone else to get that information out of your head!

So as you mentioned, the HubSpot knowledge base would be a good place to store documentation, if your team is using HubSpot daily already, you have reasons to purchase Service Hub it in addition to the knowledge base (HubSpot has a lot of material to help you make a case for that, if needed!). You can use it as the main library and link articles to, or embed, flow charts and other items if an article format isn't as useful.

If you currently use a project management system, ideally one shared across the team or company, that can be a great place to store documentation since ideally everyone is already in that tool daily.

If you use Google docs as a team and people are used to navigating to find information in there, and can find what they need, that can be a good option at least to start with, to build out the documents and get people in the habit of using and updating.

There are tools like Notion or Guru that integrate with Slack, if your team is a big user of Slack as your "home base" for work during your day...I just caution people to not get too wrapped up in spending weeks on researching documentation tools when its a better use of time to spend those weeks completing your version 1.0 of documentation in whatever tool is easiest for you and your team. Using what you have now. Since tool research can be much more fun (and distracting) than doing the documentation 😉

Resources:
Recent HubSpot admin HUG with my previous boss Nicole about our documentation learnings
Talk I did at world certification week
I may have taken over this podcast topic to talk about documentation haha
4 part blog series on HubSpot community blog, starts here
Class

[TiphaineCuisset]

Hi @jmillerokc 

Thank you for reaching out this is a great question!

I want to tag some of our experts in there to see what they think : @LMeert @jolle @christopher-RVO @JenBergren @warrendavey do you have any suggestions for @jmillerokc on this? 

Thank you!

Best

Tiphaine