I’ll start by saying that the business focused tagline didn’t phase me in the slightest and none of my websites are “business” ones. That said, for the number of times that business focused has come up as a road block for people, I’d agree that it could do with a rethink.
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For marketing- CP meets ALL your needs FUN, pleasure and business
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We all seem to be more concerned with attracting more users in order to grow and are totally overlooking the “glove for the other hand”!
WordPress’ popularity didn’t come from the user base but came from the user’s access to 3rd party developers. It was the innovation of those developers that built WP. CP needs to work harder to find and attract developers in order to grow.
When users know they have access to an array of themes and plugins to build a site upon they will adopt in high numbers. At the moment the default answer of “If it works with WP 4.9.x then it will work with CP” is just not good enough.
The “business focused” tag/catch phrase is not the problem but as a business owner I still have to go over to WPORG in order to build my business site with CP and that, is the problem!
ClassicPress needs to start with it’s own default theme and commission or build some plugins to get the ball rolling. The theme will need to be a business centric theme rather than a general blog type one and once you throw in a couple or so of business focused plugins then the game is on.
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Exactly! Which is why one of the focal points for CP version 2 is the creation of a plugin directory.
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Understand your reasons. I have dozen of WP sites with 1-5k custom posts (tours, products, goods etc.) and support terms are 5+ years. Switching to ClassicPress is a bit risky for me too. So I plan to wait and watch the project’s evolution for about a year before make any global steps.
But there is an important notice. Popularity among mass users is not the most trustfull and appropriate indicator for a business-oriented fork. I don’t expect CP to get millions of downloads anyway, as it target audience is narrow (comparing to WP). But. Each business-client can be more profitable for a plugin maker or theme developer than 100 or even 1000 bloggers sometimes. So download numbers might not be the primary KPI at all. It depends on project positioning and strategy.
I think, the main taks for CP is to survive for 1-2 years without loosing enthusiasm. If it shows stable and obvious evolution by regular commits and releases, devs would like it. Regularity is much more important in this case than counters etc. The date of the last commit tells me more than formal community size. CP could really be a nice «pro» fork.
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This is really encouraging. Thanks for sharing this perspective. Personally, I think Scott’s original desire for a million installs is possible, but more toward the end of 2021 when the Classic Editor clock runs out. I don’t particularly mind that we’re starting small, as it gives us a chance to get a firm foundation under us before we scale. Too much + Too fast = Failure. I’m not willing to accept failure, so I am happy to have slower growth to create a greater chance for success.
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I must say I’m a little concerned when I read so many comments about people being put off using CP because of that “business focussed” tagline.
It might be wise to change «business» positioning to a bit more common and not associated with money and payments. But still ambicious. I’d try “CP is a professional WP” or something similar. Advanced, expert, clean… Keep the straight connection to WP: a fork + %for chosen ones% :). Mentioning it would encourage people to try and migrate. Later, after 2.0, WP associations should be removed.
Unfortunately, can’t offer an exact slogan. English is my third language, I don’t feel it. But the advice bases on my ex-copywriter skills. The principle should be good enougth to work properly)
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Thanks everyone for your input. I am happy to revisit this – we’re continuing to evolve and define ourselves in the marketplace.
As Wade mentioned in the other post, please share your discussion and suggestions here and we’ll come up with a more fitting focus and tagline.
In my own discussions with people, when I talk about ClassicPress I find myself sharing more about the stability of the platform, and how when people make the switch, they are grateful that there is this “safe haven” to come to. I think that over time, that will become one of the most attractive features of ClassicPress – that here you will find a welcoming community and a stable platform that you can bring your website to. (cue clichéd images of a lighthouse against a stormy sea 
)
All kidding aside, I do think our stability is one of the biggest selling points for anyone looking to get out of WP.
However… we want to think bigger picture as well. This is about more than just being a WP alternative, this is about being a best choice as a CMS. Period. The comparisons to WP are unavoidable right now because we are so close to the fork, but with V2, that will start to change and we’ll be moving out of WP’s shadow. Absolutely, let’s provide a new home for every ex-WP site we can! But… keeping the long game in mind, is it possible to also position ourselves well for V2 and beyond?
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Something like “the user friendly CMS” would sound infinitely more inviting. Or if you are seriously intent on having the word ‘business’ in there “the user friendly business CMS”.
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I haven’t seen Why Choose ClassicPress for Your Business / Pro Website CMS? linked from here, it’s useful context for how we originally chose “business-focused”.
My suggestion here is “professional-quality” rather than “business-focused”.
I would leave “Powerful. Versatile. Predictable.” exactly as it is, these are great qualities in a CMS. The only other thing that would need to change is the “ClassicPress is a modified and enhanced version of WordPress (without Gutenberg) that serves the business website market” line - I’m not so sure what to do with that one.
If we are going to change this, I would like for us to be sure about it. There is a cost to making the change because it needs to be coordinated well and done in a lot of places (core code, official website, and probably a good number of other marketing materials).
I’ve also seen this come up lots of different times.
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Please do not dilute the “business-focused” vision for ClassicPress. To my mind, the whole concept of ClassicPress centers on taking content management seriously. Whether that seriousness involves a fun recreational site or a stone-cold business site, the same should apply: the coding and planning is taken seriously.
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I think my “definition” hits the mark far better than everything else I’ve read. As evidenced by the continuing discussion, nobody seems to have a solid, 100%-agreed-upon interpretation…so the idea that said definition is being diluted is, well, a stretch. This post represents my opinion as an end user and plugin developer – I’m sticking by it.
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I like this one too.
I agree with this too, but I don’t think professional-quality is any less of a “serious” title than business focused. The nice thing is that “professional” is a broader, more inclusive word than “business”. Not everyone runs a business, but everyone wants a professional-grade product.
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My point, exactly. ClassicPress can be used for any purpose, but its philosophy is to build a “professional -” or “business -” centered product.
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I’m OK with either ‘business-focused’ or ‘professional-quality’. And I’m pretty sure that, whichever we use, someone will feel it excludes them. ClassicPress is not trying to be exclusive. It’s trying to raise the standard for the CMS platform. Anyone who is actively involved in managing their website can benefit.
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I realise that ClassicPress is not trying to be inclusive, but if the perception is there, then it’s there.
I’ve read a number of comments now from people who were initially put off by that “business-focused” tag. They eventually gave it a try, but who knows how many more people have been permanently put off by it. I agree that whatever the tag used, someone will probably feel excluded. But I have a gut feeling (based on zero evidence of course) that “professional-quality” would be more widely embraced.
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Once upon a time when I was a littler Klein, CP attracted me with its business-focussed tag line. But I can see how some people were scared off. Looking as objectively as I can, professional-quality would probably have had the same effect on (people like) me, while maybe being a bit more open to others. I like it as a tag-line and we should really think about making it official.
I don’t know what the procedure for this would involve? Should it be brought into a committee meeting? @BlueSkyPhoenix as marketing team lead and director, I want to ask you how this should be put into practice as youre the person I think can get this information. How do we set up a vote?
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I have no formal marketing qualification but I have read lots of books, attended conferences, webinars etc. and have helped promote many small businesses online, and was in MLM for many years.
On thing I did learn was that the “product description” and the “sales line” are rarely the same.
Some examples,
The drill bit: people do not “buy” drill bits based on a description they buy a means to creating a holes.
The lawn mower: people buy the mower to get their ideal lawn, two stroke, four stroke, electric is of less importance at least at the sales stage, on going use and maintenance is a different matter.
With regards to ClassicPress should the tagline be sales (get new users) oriented or descriptive.
As a statement - “ClassicPress is a business focused CMS” might be true and descriptive, but as a sales line it does not do it for me.
If I came across the line “ClassicPress the versatile and easy to use professional CMS” I would be much more tempted to investigate.
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Good thoughts Mark, thanks. So we should be promoting what it does, not what it is.
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