Marketing Ideas?

Just thought I’d start a new topic called “ideas” and see if there is interest. I’m an “old school” marketing guy who’s worked for several agencies and volunteered as a certified business mentor for SCORE for almost a decade so just offering to help if that’s oaky.

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We are always looking for input/advice with marketing, @scott is the @Marketing team lead and he should be on tomorrow morning!

In the meantime, if you have any suggestions it would be great to hear them :slight_smile:

First thing I’d do is put together a multiple-tier marketing plan, what we used to call our “plan of attack” with the different tiers being kind of like the US Army, Marines, Air Force, Navy, and so on. Different tiers would address different levels of marketing approaches and the plan would focus on achieving the larger objective. That’s what I used to do for agencies along with web design work and copy writing and strategy.

So for now all I could really speak to would be the tiers or some random approaches (since I’d obviously have to get broader feedback on appropriate plan scope).

Some random ideas for now would be:

Reaching out to WP meetup groups by email wherever possible with a bulk email introducing ClassicPress and offering to supply basic information, maybe a tutorial and so on. If there is local support for meetup groups in some areas with ClassicPress core team or devs, that’s a possibility that’s low cost and easy to execute on.

I’d certainly create a FB group for ClassicPress since that’s free and with the right terms can bring more devs over and casual WP users.

I would stalk/haunt WP support groups on LinkedIn and advocate ClassicPress as a solution to the Gutenberg blues/corporatization of WP.

I would post comments about ClassicPress on Gutenberg forums - although of course I would do so only occasionally and only as a FYI type of statement to people with legitimate concerns related to that type of content. I know there are some bot programs that can harvest topics so replies can be more targeted but never used them.

I’d definitely do that same for Twitter if possible. Maybe one person per social media sharing platform?

Facebook ads are low cost and easy to put out and I personally see no harm at all in blitzing WP Expert and WP support and Gutenberg groups on FB. LinkedIn is more expensive but if it’s possible maybe do that later down the road as a possibility but I’d certainly put ads in FB groups - Divi, Beaver Builder, WP support, WP Experts, I’d reach out to WP Elevation, Ugurus, and many of the other FB WP support groups and web dev support groups. They need ClassicPress so I’d tell them about it and do so proudly.

Just some thoughts while recovering from Thanksgiving dinner…

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This is fantastic, thank you for taking the time to send this through! I am sure @scott will be chiming in tomorrow morning :smile:

Those are just some random thoughts, not a cohesive plan or a complete tier.

I’d also spend some time producing YouTube videos and posting those on social media “WordPress that’s stable,” “WordPress without damaging updates,” “WordPress without Gutenberg.” Right now most hosting companies like Blue Host don’t know what Gutenberg is. Same with most small business owners and most hobbyists and many amateur web developers and WP users, but once Gutenberg comes out, they’ll know. When their sites start going to white screen after updating, or formatting breaks and so on, that’s when it’s (from a marketing perspective) relevant to mention Gutenberg. Before that, most people don’t even know it exists or what it means. So “WordPress without Gutenberg” is only really relevant (in my humble opinion) after it’s dropped or day of release.

But…anyway, just my thoughts for now…

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The community that ClassicPress seeks to serve is 100% of the community at Desktop Servers “ServerPress.”

See:

Being in front of that community immediately adds not only credibility but gets name awareness every single time ServerPress is run.

I’m a longtime user. With one-click, I deploy local dev WP sites, which, when complete, I can deploy just as quickly for production. Site sync is now available. It was a game-changer for me when I first used it.

I would very much like to see a contact made with the team at ServerPress so that ClassicPress is an option in the list of WP Blueprints.

I would be happy to make that contact if others vote this idea up.

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Hi @easternwawoman, this is an excellent idea. In general we are happy to get our software available as an option and we would be happy for you to contact the folks at ServerPress.

This should be a very easy change for them, it shouldn’t require anything more than adding a new release file to the list.

OK. I wil take this on as my responsibility. I do need to ask a few questions as I want to head off from them a response of "just use the blueprint blank as can be done with Drupal. " I’m feeling a bit under the weather so let me sleep and then I’ll return tomorrow, with my thoughts gathered. In a prior lifetime, I was the founder/President of a PR agency. So I’m kinda of an interesting package of PR professional, business consultant and techy.

Talk soon

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I’m not familiar with Desktop Servers, having only used hosting companies such as Go Daddy and Blue Host and Host Gator up to this point. I’m sure it’s great and getting ClassicPress in front of their eyes and onto their offerings has to be good as more exposure in and of itself is positive.

I wonder if ClassicPress could just openly sponsor a WordCamp since it’s paid? Or appeal to hosts like Go Daddy (after?) Gutenberg drops? Something to quickly level the playing field…

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Very valid point when promoting something new. If it’s possible for people to take the path of least resistance they will every time. It’s how to speak to a need, like working with clients who want more leads. How does it fulfill a need or resolve a pain point? I’m not familiar with Desktop Servers so can’t honestly speculate on it.

(To me) the lowest hanging fruit are the WP users, WP developers, WP hobbyists, small agency staff and developers who are anxious about Gutenberg. That’s an open vulnerability and need that can be used to our advantage very openly and honestly as an alternative to something that will ultimately be problematic. I’d want to go through WP Tavern, ask Yoast for input or help, ask them about advertising through their channels, go to their FB groups, support networks, Gravity Forms’ support system, and so on. The infrastructure is there, all we have to do is say “here is the problem, we have the solution.” So the challenge is putting together a multiple tier/column marketing plan with strategies for each tier and then execute on that with resources available - whether it be one person per social media platform or per plugin or per ecosystem or something else as long as it’s coordinated.

Just thoughts for now as the Rockstar is wearing off and Thanksgiving shenanigans wearing me down…but hope some of these thoughts make sense and seem on point.

These are some interesting ideas - I would be cautious about using terms connected to war though, it will create the wrong impression in the public eye!

I’d like to talk about creating a framework which allows people to take action on behalf of ClassicPress without needing our input. If we try to oversee everything nothing will get done and we’ll miss opportunities to raise awareness.

We need our community to be our advocates, and we should embrace and support them at every turn, but we need some clear guidelines as to what we support and don’t support in terms of approach.

For example, we don’t support deception (creating fake accounts/personas) or spammy practices (bots), but we do support active outreach to potential partners.

If we then have enthusiastic people such as those involved this thread, we can direct them to a best practices page which could include helpful resources such as copy/pastable explanations of ClassicPress, graphics, social media posts and so on.

Perhaps this needs it’s own thread…

Edit: ClassicPress marketing advocacy framework thread created!

I just use the military metaphor since I’m familiar with military personnel. It helps sometimes to conceptualize a marketing plan that reaches its goal through multiple tiers or strategic channels. I hope the military metaphor or analogy doesn’t turn people off from the concept of building a robust marketing plan with different strategic channels.

An example of this would be a very basic marketing plan that would be to simply increase online exposure for ClassicPress with one tier being to reach WP users who would benefit directly. Tiers of that could be to find and address WP hobbyists in those related FB forums and simply let those know about ClassicPress who express anxiety about the impending changes. Another would be to find WP developers and hobbyists and do the same, another would be to address WP users in top plugin support forums such as Gravity Forms, All In One SEO Pack, Yoast, and so on. Depending on resources one person could participate in one set of forums as a ClassicPress advocate for 2 hours per day, for example while another person could contribute two hours per day visiting or advocating in another. Another person could advocate in other forums related, and so on.

A different tier could be for Instagram, another Twitter, LinkedIn groups, and so on with the same approach.

Of course these are just ideas as to what could be done.

The second point is a fine idea of course, and I think could use a sub-thread addressing conduct going forward representative of ClassicPress. One way to address that point might be to make a list as to what’s acceptable and what’s not, what paths are fine and what are not, where profits can be generated and where not, where there’s “wiggle room” and not and then from that type of brain-storming it’d be relatively easy to put it all together into a one page “Our Approach” or “Our Philosophy” type of statement.

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I am periodically performing Google News searches for Wordpress (especially the 5.0 launch), and (where possible) mentioning the ClassicPress fork with a link to the ClassicPress site.

(Are there any objections to doing this?)

I have also posted to social media. I used the suggested newsletter subscription link, but be warned that it looks like a solicitation when I posted it in some social media. My LinkedIn post received 131 reads so far, but I think more publicity and broken sites will be required before people understand what this is about.

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Hello. I’m forming a Divi Nation Meetup Group in San Diego and would like a ClassicPress rep to give a presentation at our February or March meeting.

The Divi Nation Network is a steady-growing worldwide group of users of the Divi Theme that is supported by the developer, Elegant Themes based in San Francisco.

Locally, we are in the early planning stages for a once-a-month Meetup to be held at WeWork located in downtown San Diego at 600 B St, San Diego, CA 92101 on a regular day of the month, yet to be determined.

The presentation could be in person or via Skype or other live video.

Please excuse my intrusion if my reply was to the wrong topic.

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I think @Scott needs to see this.

Thanks - already responded via email and suggested that @rasmarcus start a forum thread :slight_smile:

I have a million marketing ideas. I am a professional graphic designer and marketer for my day job, and a solutions provider with a number of projects that I have bootstrapped and market in my spare time.

One idea that I think would be great is a banner campaign where supporters add an small island ad or half-size island add on their website sidebar with a “I Support ClassicPress - Do You?” or something like that. I can easily create a batch of banners. Then we display them proudly on our websites such as in the sidebar or footer. It doesn’t matter if it is a WordPress site, a supporter will still display the banners.

Regards,
Damian Baker

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@damiebee as you see in this thread, reaching out to meetup groups is one way to spread the “gospel” of ClassicPress. What message do you give them? How is that message articulated? Just tell them it exists, first of all. This is one way that WordPress/Automattic was able to spread to so many users so quickly. In military strategy it’s the “ground game.” Facebook groups, posting on social media, going to developer groups, contacting hosting companies, giving presentations to Chambers of Commerce, offering to help agencies with “fixing Gutenberg,” and so on. All are variations on the “ground game.”

If every site that uses ClassicPress had “powered by ClassicPress” as WP does, that’s better than nothing. Again, another element of a ground game. A WP site can show “supporting ClassicPress” and linking back to it.

My site is very small, with fewer than 100 followers, but I changed my footer to Powered by Classic Press a few days ago :slight_smile:

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Just a random marketing thought, the “community promotion ads” on WordPress StackExchange show things like WP CLI etc., perhaps than is a good regular avenue to get free ClassicPress advertising out there. Reset every year, so will be coming up next month or two? eg. this years: Community Promotion Ads - 2018 - WordPress Development Meta Stack Exchange

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