The Art of Playbooks: Crafting Actionable Guides for Your Business

Playbooks are definitely a rising star in the content space, and many I’ve encountered over the past two years have been incredibly helpful. Unlike traditional guides or white papers, playbooks are short, concise, and packed with actionable advice designed to help you get things done. So let’s dive into the details and explore how to craft compelling digital playbooks that resonate with your audience.

The Essence of Playbooks: Getting Things Done

Simply put, playbooks are actionable guides designed to help you accomplish tasks efficiently. Unlike traditional guides or white papers, which often explore deep theoretical concepts or lengthy case studies, playbooks prioritize practical, immediately applicable knowledge.

In the publishing industry, this format has been well-known for decades. Today, we’re witnessing a resurgence of playbooks in the business world, driven by rapid technological advancements, overwhelming information overload, and the growing need to maintain productivity. In this context, playbooks offer a curated and focused approach, enabling readers to quickly understand key concepts and implement actionable steps.

Playbooks for Any Topic

Playbooks can be created for virtually any topic or field that requires a systematic approach to achieving specific outcomes. They can be used internally within an organization or externally for clients, communication, or (self-)marketing purposes. While playbooks typically focus on a single topic, they can also address multiple topics or serve as a practical guide for an entire organization.

In practice, you will find internal playbooks like Business Playbooks, which provide guidance on a company’s vision, goals, and standard operating procedures, or Customer Success Playbooks, which focus on building strong client relationships. A Marketing Playbook delivers actionable marketing strategies, campaigns, and messaging frameworks to ensure consistent branding and outreach. An SEO Playbook can be used internally or as a successful communication strategy for self-promoting an SEO expert or agency.

Other examples include project documentation for internal team collaboration, Onboarding Playbooks to help new employees integrate smoothly, and training manuals with structured learning paths. Additionally, Software Playbooks are widely used to explain the implementation, features, and best practices for using specific software solutions.

How to Create a Playbook

Creating a playbook is not drastically different from other publishing projects like guides or white papers. However, the key distinction lies in its focus on delivering actionable, concise, and practical outcomes. Here is how to start quickly:

1. Start by selecting a topic that is both relevant and actionable for a wide audience.
2. Define the goal, the scope, and the desired outcomes upfront — this shapes the workload for writing and maintaining the playbook while ensuring its effectiveness and trackability.
3. Collaborate with stakeholders and content designers to gather insights, but always prioritize making the playbook accessible and effective for novices. The goal is to provide simple, step-by-step guidance that anyone can follow, regardless of prior experience.
4. Work iteratively throughout the creation process. Draft, test, and refine your content to ensure it meets user needs and delivers on its intended outcomes.
5. Conduct thorough testing with real users to validate the playbook and identify any gaps or ambiguities before finalizing.
6. Publish the playbook in formats suitable for your audience, such as HTML or PDF, ensuring accessibility and usability.
7. Update regularly to keep the content relevant, reflecting any changes in processes, tools, or strategies over time.

Remember that a well-crafted playbook is not only practical but also a living document that can evolve as needs and contexts change.

Avoid Some Antipatterns

While creating playbooks, it’s important to avoid common antipatterns that can undermine their effectiveness. One classic mistake is allowing only experts to write the content without ensuring it is understandable by novice users. Playbooks are meant to guide beginners as much as experienced individuals, so testing content with those less familiar with the topic is essential.

Overloading the playbook with unnecessary details is another pitfall to avoid. Playbooks should be concise and actionable — packing them with too much information dilutes their purpose and makes them harder to follow. Similarly, skipping user testing is a critical mistake. Without feedback from real users, you risk producing a playbook that looks good on paper but fails in practice.

How to Manage and Produce Your Playbook

Creating and publishing a playbook requires careful consideration of its goals, audience, and the tools available. The format you choose should prioritize accessibility and usability while aligning with the content’s purpose and distribution strategy.

• Websites are often the most practical format, providing seamless access internally via intranets or externally for public audiences. They enable easy navigation, quick updates, and features like search functionality and interactive elements. This makes websites particularly effective for playbooks that evolve over time or require frequent updates.
• PDF Publications complement websites by offering a portable, polished format that is ideal for offline access and archiving. PDFs ensure consistent presentation across devices and are easy to distribute via email or downloads. They are well-suited for formal documentation or when a static reference is needed.

If you choose to offer multiple formats, consider the limitations of each. For example, interactive features like videos or dynamic elements may not translate well to a PDF. Plan your content accordingly to ensure a consistent user experience across formats.

Write Playbooks with Typemill

When you're just starting out with playbooks, it's totally fine to stick to simple tools like Google Docs, Notion, or even your company's intranet or CMS. But if you're planning to create multiple playbooks or need something more flexible, you might want to check out solutions that are a bit more tailored for the job.

One option worth considering is Typemill. Typemill is a lightweight, flat-file CMS that doesn’t need a database, so it’s easy to set up and get running. At only 2MB, it’s much smaller than platforms like WordPress, and it's designed specifically for creating guides and documentation. Plus, with its ebook plugin, you can even generate professional PDFs, making it a solid choice for creating and sharing playbooks.

Having an author-friendly, distraction-free interface is key to getting your playbook done without unnecessary hassle. Typemill organizes content in a simple hierarchy, so it’s easy to keep track of and navigate through your playbook. The drag-and-drop page management lets you quickly create, organize, and reorder pages with minimal effort. A Visual Markdown Editor makes it simple to create content, even if you're not too familiar with Markdown syntax.

Since Typemill is a traditional CMS, you can easily match the look and feel of your playbook to your brand — whether it’s the website or the ebooks. If you need extra features like full-text search, content revisions, or mermaid diagrams, there are plugins available to add them in.

Conclusion: The Power of Playbooks

Playbooks have quickly become an essential tool for sharing practical, actionable knowledge across various industries. Whether you're guiding new hires through onboarding, teaching a team how to execute a marketing strategy, or providing customers with step-by-step instructions on how to use your product, a well-crafted playbook can make all the difference. With their concise, focused approach, playbooks are designed to help users achieve their goals quickly and efficiently, making them invaluable assets for both internal and external use.

Creating effective playbooks doesn't require complex tools or extensive resources. By defining clear goals, focusing on actionable content, and using the right publishing tools you can create playbooks that are both practical and easy to navigate. The key is to keep the process simple, iterative, and user-focused, ensuring that your playbook evolves with the needs of its audience and continues to deliver value over time.