During 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 2024, @illuminea (Miriam Schwab) facilitated an open discussion rethinking how to market WordPress. This idea stemmed from a discussion on WP Product Talk.

Below are notes of the meeting. We recorded the meeting but are also observing Chatham House rules by anonymizing some participant information.

00:00:00 – 00:00:30

• Introduction

00:00:30 – 00:01:34

• Marketing WordPress: Overview and History
  • Why WordPress needs marketing: it has relied on early momentum but must adapt to changes in user needs and competitors.
  • Competitors heavily invest in brand awareness, while WordPress is often overlooked.
  • Importance of WordPress’s ecosystem, particularly contributor-created products like themes and plugins.

00:01:34 – 00:02:41

• Product Marketing Necessity
  • The myth that a great product will market itself no longer applies.
  • Example: Elementor continues marketing despite having market share.
  • WordPress requires similar marketing to remain relevant.
  • Frustrations around marketing WordPress are discussed, including declining WordCamp attendance.

00:02:41 – 00:04:47

• Decline in Event Attendance and WordCamps
  • Attendance at WordCamps is decreasing.
  • Personal anecdote: Speaker noticed fewer new faces at WordCamp Europe.
  • Discussion on how lower attendance affects sponsor interest.
  • Suggestion of creating a marketing consortium to neutrally promote WordPress and support the ecosystem.

00:04:47 – 00:06:56

• Case Study: Drupal’s Marketing Consortium
  • Drupal’s business alliance serves as a successful example.
  • How structured strategies and clear roadmaps boost marketing efforts.
  • Relevance of adopting similar tactics for WordPress, such as ToDo group’s Marketing Open Source Projects

00:06:56 – 00:08:29

• Challenges Marketing WordPress
  • Recognition of the diverse contributors and marketing verticals within the ecosystem.

00:08:29 – 00:10:06

• Roadblocks in Marketing WordPress
  • Outdated showcase pages and unresolved GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ issues impede marketing efforts.
  • Call for momentum and reducing barriers to move marketing ideas forward.

00:10:06 – 00:12:45

• Defining Success and Marketing Goals
  • The need for a unified marketing goal.
  • Focus shifts from market share growth to increasing current user engagement.

00:12:45 – 00:14:53

• Analytics and Traffic Decline
  • Declining traffic to 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/ over the last three years.
  • Lack of concrete analytics data hinders marketing efforts.
  • Need to improve traffic and visibility on WordPress.org.

00:14:53 – 00:17:31

• Difficulty in Measuring Success
  • Challenges in defining marketing success without clear analytics.
  • Need for measurable metrics, such as tracking installs of WordPress versions.
  • Perhaps look at traffic numbers to WordPress.org as top-level funnel indicators

00:17:31 – 00:18:41

• Broader Market Context
  • Concern over whether WordPress’s declining market share is due to a shrinking market or other factors.

00:18:41 – 00:22:37

• WordPress’s Engagement Problem
  • Perception of WordPress as outdated, especially among younger developers.
  • Competition from platforms like TikTok and YouTube diverts attention from WordPress.
  • Fostering excitement through innovation is necessary.

00:22:37 – 00:25:33

• Defining Engagement and Success in Marketing
  • Discussion on what drives excitement and engagement for WordPress today.
  • Importance of aligning WordPress messaging with current tech trends.

00:25:33 – 00:28:15

• Meetups and Events as a Key Marketing Strategy
  • Meetups historically serve as a powerful marketing strategy.
  • Challenges in organizing meetups targeted at specific groups.
  • The need for measurable outcomes like increased attendance.

00:28:15 – 00:30:53

• Educational Programs and Youth Engagement
  • Efforts to engage younger audiences through educational initiatives like WordPress Youth Camps.
  • Slow progress in North America compared to other regions.

00:30:53 – 00:33:38

• Training and Career Development in WordPress
  • Emphasizing training standards to foster future contributors.
  • Addressing the gap between WordPress education and job readiness.

00:33:38 – 00:36:49

• Expanding to Global Markets
  • Success stories of WordCamps in places like Bangladesh and India, where enthusiasm for WordPress remains strong.
  • Contrast with North American markets.

00:36:49 – 00:39:11

• The Value of Owning Your Data
  • Importance of educating younger generations on data ownership.
  • Explaining why proprietary solutions like Canva appeal to younger users.

00:39:11 – 00:46:45

• Product Complexity and Opportunities for Youth Engagement
  • WordPress’s complexity as both a challenge and an opportunity for young developers.
  • Positioning WordPress as a customizable, open-source platform.
  • Strategies for combating the perception of WordPress as outdated.

00:46:45 – 00:53:52

• Marketing Tactics
  • Potential of identifying WordPress with the open web and digital freedom.
  • Discussion of video ad campaigns showcasing diverse users and cases.

00:53:52 – 01:00:45

• Wrapping Up and Next Steps
  • Agreement on narrowing the conversation and defining unified goals.
  • Suggestions for forming committees, creating communication forums, and continuing the discussion.
  • Closing comments on moving forward with solutions for WordPress marketing.

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Key Takeaways

• WordPress Needs Modern Marketing: Early momentum is no longer sufficient; to stay competitive, WordPress must adapt to modern marketing practices.
• Declining Engagement: Both event attendance and general excitement about WordPress are declining, particularly among younger developers.
• Analytics Gaps: The absence of robust analytics data makes measuring marketing success and planning effective campaigns difficult.
• Marketing Consortium Opportunity: There is interest in creating a neutral consortium to promote WordPress collaboratively.
• Youth Engagement and Education are Critical: Engaging younger users through educational initiatives and emphasizing the value of data ownership are key to future growth.
• Global Market Opportunities: WordPress enthusiasm remains strong in markets like India and Bangladesh, offering lessons for North America.
• Meetups and Events: Revitalizing meetups could help re-engage users and foster community involvement.

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Expanded Section: Next Steps and Focus Groups

Next Steps: Some Proposed Actionable Initiatives

Focus Areas:

1. Creation of Focus Groups:
   • Event Revival: Revamp meetups and WordCamps where participation is low.
   • Youth Engagement: Create programs that introduce WordPress in schools and universities.
   • Enterprise Marketing: Partner with agencies to market WordPress at scale.
   • Open SourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. Advocacy: Build awareness around data ownership and digital freedom.
2. Unified Marketing Goal:
   • Define a central marketing objective for WordPress, focusing on re-engaging users and improving brand awareness.
3. Collaboration and Communication:
   • Create a forum (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/. or GitHub) for ongoing collaboration among contributors and stakeholders.
4. Publish and Share Notes Transparently:
   • Summarize and share notes with the broader community, inviting feedback and collaboration.

Forming and Structuring Focus Groups

• Establish KPIs for each group (e.g., attendance growth, youth engagement).

Group Formation:

• Identify leaders and set clear objectives for each focus group.
• Regular check-ins to track progress.

Defining Success Metrics:

• Establish KPIs for each group (e.g., attendance growth, youth engagement).

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To stay informed about upcoming discussions, focus groups, and further developments regarding marketing WordPress, comment on the post. This will ensure you receive updates on the next steps. The discussion, which took place during WordCamp US 2024 and was facilitated by Miriam Schwab, focused on rethinking WordPress marketing and exploring solutions to engage users more effectively.