Marketing to End Users – May 10, 2017 Meeting Notes

SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. meeting backscroll here.

Main things discussed

Since all marketing subgroups are putting together lists for WCEU workgroups, this group attempted the same. We have a pretty long list of proposed projects (see past notes) and few things in progress so really there’s plenty of choice and opportunity for the contributor day group.

A few which stick out:

  • Fleshing out and creating content for a proposed editorial plan (spreadsheet and related folder for doc drafts)
  • Creating videos for end-users – suggested by @bethgsanders – identifying some top topics and starting outlines for those short videos
  • Updating any Codex documents which have end-user features in them or are introductions for end-users.
  • and many more ideas.

Another discussion we’d love to have in Slack / here in comments / at WCEU Contributor day as well (cc’d @gidgey in Slack):

  • Prompted by the lack of consistent activity in this marketing subgroup specifically – this subgroup is the least-populated (though perhaps largest ‘constituency’ as end users) –@mcdwayne and I discussed whether or not this subgroup should hibernate / needs to be a standalone subgroup / rolled into one of the other, more active subgroups. We’ve had a lack of consistent attendance and contributions in the past few months compared to the other groups, and as I (Sara) will be out on leave for several months I won’t personally be able to stimulate the group myself in the monthly meetings.

Open to your thoughts and comments!

Recap of Goals/Scope: Marketing WordPress to End-Users: this subgroup focuses on marketing to end-users of WordPress: Site Owners, Small Business owners, and Content creators / bloggers / contributors. Information is more focused on the usability of the software, Features and integrations which will help them self-manage their websites, and information comparing WordPress to other website solution. (Read about the other marketing subgroups in The Four Horsemen of WordPress.org Marketing)

#end-users

Marketing to End-Users April 12th Meeting Notes

SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. backscroll (#)

@newyorkerlaura hunted down here example blogs as promised in last meeting (#) and we added her document to the End Users GDrive folder (#)

No apparent additions have been made to the Editorial calendar suggestions (this is a WIP – feel free to continue adding!) (#) but @mcdwayne created docs for each of the existing Editorial calendar suggestions in “Editorial Plan Topic Docs” subfolder here (#). If you’d like to take a stab at drafting them, please feel free to get started (and commenting here or in Slack would help). @mcdwayne is going to start with “5 Helpful WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. presentations you should watch.”

@sararosso asked several people to confirm their .org usernames so they can get a marketing contributor badge for the WCUS Contrib day work on the .org homepage redesign (#).

Recap of Goals/Scope: Marketing WordPress to End-Users: this subgroup focuses on marketing to end-users of WordPress: Site Owners, Small Business owners, and Content creators / bloggers / contributors. Information is more focused on the usability of the software, Features and integrations which will help them self-manage their websites, and information comparing WordPress to other website solution. (Read about the other marketing subgroups in The Four Horsemen of WordPress.org Marketing)

#end-users

Marketing to End Users, March 8, 2017

No one volunteered to take notes so there aren’t any to share. Here’s the meeting backscroll in Slack.

Feel free to add any questions / comments here or in #marketing in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

#end-users

Marketing to End-users – February 8 2017 Meeting Notes

The Marketing to End-users subgroup met for the second time, following up on ideas generated at the WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. US Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. and the initial January 11, 2017 meeting. The Marketing team is open to new contributors, and you may visit the Marketing channel (here’s the Slack thread for this January 11 meeting), and you may comment on this post.

Many project ideas have been generated for marketing to end-users, and we reminded ourselves to focus on single site owners or small business users of WordPress along with content creators and bloggers.

In the meeting, those present determined that the first next step should be to develop an editorial structure for proposing and generating marketing content, before working on how to distribute and share it. Sara @rosso99 said, “We have a lot of ideas, and people need to start tackling things tactically, putting structure / proposals around them.”

We also felt it’s important to identify the end-user personas to target and to craft lists of keywords to accompany them. We should draft sample content to demonstrate the various kinds of content to use. We can also begin to consider how to place content on WordPress blogs, how to invite guest posts, and how to work with some external sites in the WordPress ecosystem.

Recap of Goals/Scope: Marketing WordPress to End-Users: this subgroup focuses on marketing to end-users, those single-site owners or small business users of WordPress, and content creators and bloggers. Information is more focused on the usability of the software, Features and integrations which will help them self-manage their websites, and information comparing WordPress to other website solution. (Read about the other marketing subgroups in The Four Horsemen of WordPress.org Marketing)

**Sara reminds: If you want to work on any Marketing to End-Users project idea not mentioned here, you just have to speak up, and dedicate time to it.

End-users Editorial Plan

We discussed potential topics, who to target, and where the content could go. Here’s a summary of the types of things that may go into the editorial plan:

  • SEO strategy
    • Target personas
    • Keywords
  • Content
    • User stories
      • Success stories
      • Inspirational stories
      • Video interviews shot at WordCamps
    • Instructional tutorials
    • Community events
    • Content samples
  • Distribution
    • WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ blog
    • WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ blog
    • Other sites in Community & ecosystem
    • Guest posts
    • Newsletter
  • Sharing
    • Social Media
      • wordpress
      • @wordpressdotcom

The subgroup will collaborate on the End-users Editorial Plan and follow up on progress in the next monthly meeting.

See you at the next monthly meeting – here’s the full schedule of meetings in 2017.

#end-users, #meeting-notes

Marketing to End-Users – January 11 2017 Meeting Notes

The Marketing to End-Users team met for the first time since WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. US and the completion of the Homepage redesign. We discussed new ideas of ways to better explain the advantages of the WordPress platform for content creators, small-business owners, and other non-developer individuals.

If you’re interested in contributing, please have a read through our chat and the items listed below and leave a comment with which you’d like to help build! You can read the whole meeting in Slack here or the recap below.

Recap of Goals/Scope: Marketing WordPress to End-Users: this subgroup focuses on marketing to end-users, those single-site owners or small business users of WordPress, and content creators and bloggers. Information is more focused on the usability of the software, Features and integrations which will help them self-manage their websites, and information comparing WordPress to other website solution. (Read about the other marketing subgroups in The Four Horsemen of WordPress.org Marketing)

Projects Suggested for the Future

The following topics were shared in the chat. This is not an approved list of projects, just suggestions or places to start! Other suggestions are welcome (please bring them to the next monthly chat).

If a particular suggestion strikes your interest and you have time to work on it, please raise your hand in the comments with a mention about which one so those interested can start coordinating in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

  1. One recurring suggestion was to better utilize https://wordpress.org/news/ on WordPress.org. The question was raised whether people could actually subscribe or receive posts by email.
  2. Publish inspirational stories
  3. Talk about the REST-APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. – case studies/interviews which focus on the results
  4. Post articles or even videos showing a user creating content in WordPress and then attempting to create the same content in another platform.
  5. Post a series of articles that showcase WordPress as the platform behind mobile apps would be great.
  6. Post articles or web content that highlight the Power, Potential, and People of WordPress. Ex: “WordPress solved this problem for me and now I’m a success”- type articles. Showcasing everyday people and how they came to choose WordPress, what they did with it, and how it low-key changed their life.
  7. We discussed how Open-Source is not well understood to a beginner and the benefits aren’t communicated. We could work on “delivering the importance of WP being open”. Some questions: How do we communicate to end-users? Which aspects will they care about the most? (Open data, switching costs, migrations, moving platforms). Potential action item: look at other OS groups and how they do it.
    • A case study or interview with someone who was locked into (unnamed) platform would be great / user who was burned with a closed platform and then they migrated to WordPress.
    • A story on how the open community has changed people’s lives
  8.  Continued redesign of /features page on WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/
  9. “Why WordPress” for content creators / site owners. Similar to the one we created for enterprise or agency-level, we could create something geared towards bloggers and content creators. This could be a flyer but also a landing page. 
  10. Create a compact nutshell of most recent/helpful information to help you succeed on WordPress. 
  11. The home page could ask a question to determine which segment is visiting, so we can better target developers, enterprise-level, and end-users. 

#end-users, #meeting-notes