Reference documents are already approved, high-quality company documents. They serve as a guide for new content and show how a company uses specialist information, terminology and corporate communications in practice.
As reference documents have already been reviewed and are used in the day-to-day running of the company, they are often among a company's most reliable sources of knowledge. They help create new content consistently and maintain existing quality standards.
Which reference documents are particularly suitable?
- Product brochures: Describe products, services and their benefits.
- Technical documentation: Convey specialist knowledge, processes and technical relationships.
- User manuals: Demonstrate a consistent structure as well as clear and precise wording.
- Marketing and sales materials: Illustrate corporate communications and brand messages.
- Training materials: Contain established knowledge, internal standards and best practices.
A practical example:
A company regularly creates new product information. Instead of reformulating each description from scratch, already published brochures and technical documentation serve as references. This ensures that the language, structure and specialist content remain consistent, even in new documents.
Good to know:
Reference documents should be reviewed regularly. Outdated or no longer valid content is only suitable to a limited extent as a knowledge base and should be replaced with up-to-date documents.
✅ In short:
Reference documents are among a company's most valuable sources of knowledge. They help create new content consistently, clearly and to a high standard, based on information that has already been reviewed.