159
custom rules set up in the style guide
30+
pieces of content published per month
92%
of early style guide users wished to retain access
When the written word is the primary way your company communicates, it’s essential to ensure consistency. In order to seamlessly work across time zones, grow relationships with partners, take care of customers, and build a solid brand, individual team members need to act as one.
The team at Zapier, which helps customers connect thousands of apps through customized, automated processes, used a number of documents that stored names, phrases, and terms to help them create a consistent experience for both customers and partners. These documents served as references for team members when creating internal materials or external marketing assets.
As the organization grew, the number of documents increased, resulting in multiple style guides being used across teams. Team members found it challenging to know which information was accurate and updated.
Janine Anderson, Managing Editor at Zapier, turned to Grammarly Business to solve these challenges. She was not only able to add relevant branded terms to a dynamic style guide, but she was also able to consolidate style guides across the organization. The result? More consistent and on-brand writing across Zapier’s teams.
The Challenge
Zapier has a number of terms that always need to be right. For example, the word Zap is used to describe a specific type of automated workflow that customers can create using Zapier. Marketers need to be consistent in how they describe this feature, so users are prepared when they move from content about the product to working within it. Support team members need to make sure they’re using the same terms users see in the product.
Ensuring that branded terms like Zap or the names of partner apps are used consistently—and correctly capitalized—requires a robust writing and editing process. Zapier team members relied on a number of internal resources but found it challenging to maintain a single source of truth.
During the editing process, team members often had to take time to fix errors. Partner names were especially important to review as mistakes stood to diminish trust, deteriorate relationships, and create additional editing work for the team if they were not addressed before publishing.
Janine knew there had to be a better way. The style guide capability of Grammarly Business was an important addition that supports her team, as well as the company.
The Solution
Within the administrative panel of their Grammarly Business account, Janine created a company style guide, which consisted of custom rules. These rules ensured that team members received writing suggestions based on branded terms, partner names, and stylistic choices specific to Zapier guidelines.
Zapier had an existing style guide for the blog, a playbook for the support team, and a larger company-wide resource for writing. As her first order of business, Janine moved quickly to consolidate these resources into one place.
“Grammarly Business helped us consolidate all of our existing guides into one place, which included suggestions on how to spell and use our branded terms, and partner names.”
Zapier now has a living and dynamic style guide that provides suggestions in real time. Team members no longer need to track down the right terms– these terms appear instantly in the tools they use to write. It’s also easy for Janine to make updates and adjustments to their style guide rules when necessary. This ensures the style guide and suggestions that team members receive are always relevant and never outdated.
“If a company’s branding changes or we no longer want to use certain terms, we can go into Grammarly and fix it right away. The update is live instantaneously for everyone on our team.”
Grammarly Business also offered seamless integration with the core tools used by Janine’s team, serving up suggestions in Google Docs, Gmail, and Quip. Janine saw the inherent value and knew that other teams at Zapier would benefit as well.
For example, it was particularly nice that Grammarly Business worked in Help Scout, Zapier’s customer support solution. Support reps need to have access to product terms and partner names in real-time, and Grammarly Business provided these style guide suggestions instantly.
The Results
Implementing a style guide from Grammarly Business has helped Janine improve consistency in written communication across the Zapier team. Knowing that the team is receiving real-time writing suggestions, she can rest assured that their messaging will help the brand look good and build confidence with its customers and partners.
“It’s easy to customize the suggestions our team receives with the words and styles that are important to us. The style guide ensures that our message is always on brand and coming across the right way, no matter the channel we use to communicate.”
The real-time suggestions from Grammarly Business have also saved time for editors who can rely on it to meticulously check every term.
Following the team’s first use of the style guide feature, 92% said they wanted to retain access. Janine and her team have continued using the style guide suggestions since. Now, content creators across multiple teams are using Grammarly Business.
Keys to Success
Consolidate existing materials
Before Grammarly Business, Zapier had a collection of different style guides across the organization. Janine’s first order of business was to consolidate these different resources into one style guide. Grammarly Business made it easy to do that.
Empower your team in real time
The dynamic nature of the style guide feature ensured that Zapier team members received suggestions the moment they needed them. Wherever they were writing – Google Docs, Gmail, or Quip – team members could rely on Grammarly for accurate, up-to-date information about branded terms, partner names, and other important terms.
Promote your program across teams
Janine invited many Zapier team members to use Grammarly, not just people on her own team. This ensured that everyone, no matter where they worked in the organization, was consistent with how they used terms.
