Regulatory compliance is not an option
Regulations and certifications are critical for businesses to access multiple markets, particularly in highly regulated regions like the EU. At a minimum, organizations must document key aspects, such as:
- Setting up and operating products.
- Processes for customer communication.
- Resolution expectations, such as service level agreements (SLAs).
Failing to meet these basics can jeopardize certifications and limit market access.
Regulations are dynamic, with certification boards frequently updating requirements. Compliance isn’t a ‘set it and forget it’ task—it requires ongoing attention and timely reviews to keep your content aligned with changing standards.
Improving overall quality
Regulatory standards demand accuracy, clarity, and unambiguity in your content. While this seems straightforward, explicitly defined terms and a clear structure significantly reduce errors and enhance reliability. Establishing a consistent framework for terminology, tone, and structure not only ensures compliance but also improves your users’ experience and fosters trust.
Regulations often include guidelines for keeping content up-to-date and relevant. Regular reviews to meet these requirements help maintain the content’s utility and credibility. Collaborating with non-regular audiences, such as the legal team, during review cycles can uncover gaps in clarity or effectiveness. These reviews provide writers and product teams with valuable insights, while also raising awareness about the legal implications of their content.
Meeting regulatory standards demonstrates responsibility and professionalism, boosting audience confidence in your brand, product, service or organization.
Supporting your company’s strategy
As a content leader, you’ve streamlined processes for content creation, review, and publication. You’ve established clear guidance for structure, tone, and terminology and built strong cross-functional relationships. But why does this matter beyond your immediate team?
Supporting your compliance with regulatory requirements means that you are supporting functional, organizational goals. Access to markets, whether new or existing, is enabled through your content’s compliance with regulations.
Fulfilling legal obligations allows your organization to minimize liability while supporting reputation management goals to establish trust and build long term customer loyalty – a minor differentiation in highly regulated markets but always a positive representation for your company in any market.
The basics are powering a lot. Your compliant content is helping to drive your company’s success. Maintaining compliance is one way to build structure into your day-to-day operations and cross-functional relationships; improving efficiency and benefiting your organization. When your content is supporting compliance and in turn, your company’s success, you are going to be ready when existing rules change, or new regulations show up.
Obligation or opportunity?
In some organizations regulatory compliance is treated as something to be secured by the lawyers. I get it. Writers want to work on the “cool stuff” and legal copy is rarely, if ever, cool. However, the misunderstanding that all content is not subject to regulatory compliance is common and needs to be fixed. The best way to “fix” this is to:
- Educate your teams on the regulatory framework that your company operates within
- Demonstrate how their content supports your company’s compliance, and
- Build cross-functional teams and processes to become or remain compliant.
By leveraging regulatory compliance as an opportunity, you ensure that your content not only meets legal standards but also delivers exceptional value to customers while advancing your organization’s strategic goals. Compliance isn’t just an obligation—it’s a competitive advantage waiting to be embraced.
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