[drupal-docs] [task] Creation of a new marketing leaflet /
brochure / pamphlet
Andrew Hoppin
andrew at civicspacelabs.org
Fri Jun 17 06:06:56 UTC 2005
The #1 benefit of open-source software to many end-user organizations
that use it is not being locked-in to a particular vendor-- you could
call this freedom, and yes, for non-technical end-users at least, it is
exceedingly important.
On Jun 16, 2005, at 11:54 AM, andremolnar wrote:
> Issue status update for http://drupal.org/node/24384
>
> Project: Documentation
> Version: <none>
> Component: Marketing
> Category: tasks
> Priority: normal
> Assigned to: andremolnar
> Reported by: andremolnar
> Updated by: andremolnar
> Status: active
> Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/rough-idea.png (67.5 KB)
>
> Attached is a very very rough inner layout.
>
>
> Obviously there are balance and other serious design issues here. But,
> it does illustrate how much content there is... how much room
> remains...
> and may spark immagination for alternate layouts.
>
>
> In response to Steven's comments:
> Given the space - it does look like we could include some his
> suggestions: A definition of CMS - AND what is Drupal - (possibly
> along the top)
> A quote or two (testimonials).
>
>
> Under - or near the architecture diagram - we can include the names of
> a few features with one-liners describing what they do.
>
>
> ***
>
>
> Notwithstanding a certain country *cough* (as Steven put it) -
> bastardizing the word 'freedom'. Would the word 'freedom' not resonate
> with this OSCON croud. Or since its the "Open Source" conference
> should
> we opt to use that term instead.
>
>
> My personal feeling is that 'freedom' is a benefit of open source - and
> Open Source is simply a proper noun? Thoughts?
>
>
> andre
>
>
>
>
> andremolnar
>
>
>
> Previous comments:
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
> June 5, 2005 - 23:47 : andremolnar
>
> Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/brochure idea.html (5.8 KB)
>
> Background:
> Dries approached the Press and Marketing group to come up with a new
> leaflet to be used at the OSCON conference as well as other conferences
> that key Drupal community members will be attending this summer.
>
>
> The original request is found here:
> http://lists.drupal.org/archives/drupal-docs/2005-06/msg00010.html
>
>
> Scope:
> The mailing-list thread noted above includes some preliminary
> discussion about project.
> The main goal of this particular project is to create a general
> brochure that is not targeting at any specific industry or user type.
> The reason for this is the the deadline for completion will not allow
> for multiple brochures. It has also been determined that the audience
> at OSCON is quite varied - from non-technical people (including press)
> to hard-core techies and system admins.
>
>
> The idea is not to sell Drupal to 'everyone', but the document should
> speak to some of our key targets including personal site admins (e.g.
> bloggers), corporate site developers, and community site developers.
>
>
> The overall goal is to have multiple brochures created - each one
> targeting a specific industry or user type, but that is beyond the
> scope of this particular project.
>
>
> Time line:
> The text/copy for the brochure must be completed no later than June
> 15th, 2005.
> The preliminary graphic design must be completed no later than June
> 22nd, 2005.
> The FINAL deadline is June 28th, 2005.
>
>
> Call for help:
> A forum topic has been created to enlist contributors to this project.
> See: http://drupal.org/node/24174
>
>
> Preliminary progress report:
> Attached is a mochup / visualization tool/page I have created based on
> some suggestions from Josh in the forum, and inspired by Steven's
> response to Josh's post. It is very rough and not meant to be pretty.
> It is hoped that the file will inspire some discussion. Feel free to
> edit and resubmit the file to this project with your additions.
>
>
> andre
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
> June 9, 2005 - 08:06 : andremolnar
>
> I've tried to come up with some text for the brochure and was hoping
> for
> some feedback. I was thinking that something like this could be
> included in the first fold-out of the brochure. It is a general
> description of a CMS and goes through some benefits of CMS's and Drupal
> in particular. (Standard disclaimer, I am not a writer - I hope that
> if
> people feel that this text is in the right direction, someone more
> skilled than I could re-write or improve the text).
>
>
> ***
>
>
> What is Drupal?
>
>
> CMS is web development speak for "Content Management System". And that
> is just another way of saying, "a really simply way to create, update
> and maintain your own web site without any prior programming or
> web-design experience."
>
>
> Drupal offers all the benefits of a typical CMS. For example:
>
>
> - never having to call someone to add, update, or delete content from
> your site. Doing it yourself is no more difficult than sending
> web-based e-mail - and like web-based e-mail you can do it from
> anywhere in the world provided you have an Internet connection.
> - Allowing you to delegate the creation of content to others, but still
> leaving final approval for publication with you or someone you trust.
> - Allowing you to decide who can or cannot view content on your site.
>
>
> Drupal keeps your site visitors in mind:
>
>
> - Implementing content categorization and search tools means that
> finding information on your site couldn't be easier for your visitors.
> - Interactive features keep visitors of your site engaged and provide
> simple means for your target audience to communicate directly to you
> and each other.
> - Drupal has been designed to be 100% accessible. Accessible design
> means never closing your door to visitors with special needs and
> maximizing your potential audience.
>
>
> - and because Drupal is both modular and scalable, as the number of
> visitors to your site grows and their needs change, your Drupal powered
> site can accommodate those changes quickly and seamlessly.
>
>
> Because Drupal has striven to maximize your site visitor's experience
> while minimizing the effort required to provide that experience, Drupal
> is often referred to as a "Community Management System" or "Community
> Building System."
>
>
> Why Choose Drupal over another Content Management System?
>
>
> Besides the fact that Drupal is much more than a 'CMS' consider the
> following.
>
>
> Drupal is Stable:
>
>
> If Drupal powered sites like Spread Firefox can handle 50,000,000
> visitors (and counting), you can count on Drupal to keep your site
> running well after your 100,000,000th visitor.
>
>
> Drupal is Supported:
> The community of developers from around the world investing their own
> time to improve Drupal is growing as is the community of people that
> volunteer their expertise to support new users.
>
>
> Drupal is Here to Stay!
>
>
> In short, you can count on Drupal. Any investment you make (in time or
> resources) to implement Drupal is secure and is sure to be returned
> many
> times over.
>
>
> And if that wasn't enough - Drupal is Free Software released under the
> GNU Public License. Free refers to much more than just price. You are
> free to modify the software, free to improve the software, and even
> free
> to sell the software if you wish.
>
>
> ****
>
>
> andre
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
> June 10, 2005 - 15:20 : cel4145
>
> Some ideas and suggestions. Realize that these are based on how I would
> do it personally:
>
>
>
> * Anyone who does not know generally what a content management systems
> is--either an IT administrator, corporate type, developer,
> etc.--probably is not ready for Drupal. Even journalists covering OSCON
> should know the term (and if they don't, I don't think we want them
> writing and publishing a review).
> * Given (1), rather than beginning by defining Drupal as a content
> management system in which you define CMS, begin with defining what
> Drupal is (I know, I'm biased against the sole term of CMS applied to
> Drupal :) Or if you do define it as a content management system,
> immediately go for a more robust definition. So here are two different
> openings (taken from elsewhere). One tries not to pigeon hole Drupal as
> a CMS.
>
> * A dynamic web site platform which allows an individual or community
> of users
> to publish, manage and organize a variety of content, Drupal integrates
> many
> popular features of content management systems, weblogs, collaborative
> tools
> and discussion-based community software into one easy-to-use package.
> * Drupal is an open source Content Management System (CMS) which allows
> an individual or community of users to publish, manage and organize a
> variety of web content. Drupal integrates many popular features of
> content management systems, weblogs, collaborative tools and
> discussion-based community software into one easy-to-use package.
>
>
> * Overall, the text seems too long. I don't believe people will read
> that much. I'm not even sure it can fit in a readable font size.
> * I'm not sure the ordering of the pages/text flow is correct for how
> people read (looking at the brochere example). I think that most
> people, after looking at the front page, open a brochure all the way
> up. If you take this approach, realize that the interior three pages
> don't have to be three columns but can be formatted as one large
> landscape oriented page. Also, if it's not columnated this way, it will
> encourage people to open it up. That would leave the page with "
> inside: (Continues discussion from oposite facing page)" on the back.
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
> June 10, 2005 - 18:07 : andremolnar
>
> Thanks for the feedback.
>
>
> The text IS long. Way too long. In fact it is exactly 2x too long
> (based on a single 1/3 landscape column at 11pt text). I put it all
> out there to get the ball rolling and initiate some discussion about
> some of the messages we might want to include. I don't think we can
> include all of it - or at least not as it is written now. (But, maybe
> we can use some of this in a Drupal handbook page or other marketing
> materials when we are all done ;-)
>
>
> I also agree that defining and selling Drupal as 'just another CMS' is
> the wrong idea.
>
>
> The idea was:
> Communicate what a CMS is - and what some benefits of CMS are.
> Communicate that Drupal offers all those benefits AND much much more
> Communicate: Content Community! Management System
>
>
> The reasoning for this approach was based on feedback Steven's friends
> and family gave him when reviewing the old brochure.
> "That's great, but what does it do?"
>
>
> Regarding Layout:
> I think you may be right about people opening the brochure up all the
> way. Ultimately I think it will be the responsibility of the graphics
> team to decide what works best given the text we produce. Once again I
> was just putting an idea out there.
>
>
> andre
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
> June 11, 2005 - 04:50 : andremolnar
>
> Laura wrote:
>
>
> "Speaking for myself, for me it was about 6 days from learning what CMS
> meant and having a Drupal site up and running. I don't think knowing
> acronyms, abbreviations and jargon is a prerequisite to being able to
> grok what Drupal offers. So while I do not agree with your point about
> CMS, I do agree that it's best to simply focus on what Drupal does.
>
>
> Sales 101: Features vs. Benefits
>
>
> Features: What it does.
> Benefits: What you can do with it.
>
>
> Which approach is more likely to appeal to this OSCON audience?
> Figuring that out might be a way of picking out the copy to keep and
> the copy to cut.
>
> "
> I would say a little from column a) and a little from column b)
>
>
> What we can assume about the OSCON audience:
> Probably know what a CMS is in a general terms - and many of the web
> people may already be using a CMS - but maybe have never thought about
> what makes one CMS better than another. Also, they may not have
> thought about all their needs that could be met by using a CMS beyond
> the immediate need they see being filled (e.g. needed something to make
> a blog with, or needed something where it was easy to write an article
> and attach files and publish them on-line, or needed something to help
> organize a project development community.)
>
>
> For those that already know what a CMS is and are shopping for one -
> features can be a selling point and a way to compare products.
> For those looking for a web solution and are vague about CMSs - its the
> benefits that will capture their imagination.
> For techies its almost always about the features and details - not so
> much what it is, but 'how it works'.
>
>
> And this is the dilema with the OSCON audience - there is going to be a
> broad spectrum of 'types'
>
>
> So - if we do assume that most people there already know what a CMS is
> - then its all about what makes Drupal better than all the rest. What
> are Drupal's 'better' benefits? Which means that we can trash the
> entire bit about 'what is a CMS'. We can also drop the general CMS
> benefits - and go with benefits that are unique to Drupal.
>
>
> I think we can assume that there will be quite a few techies. So the
> existing architectural diagram is something that they would
> appreciate... and a couple of blurbs about some techie feature/benefits
> (like caching systems, and templating systems, and multi-site
> deployment
> from a single code base) would go over well.
>
>
> Advertising 101b:
> I like to think of benefits as what a feature means to the client... or
> a response to "so what". Also, anything that meets a need is a
> benefit.
> Drupal has a powerful taxonomy system. So what. The answer to 'so
> what' is the benefit.
>
>
> Just some more food for thought.
>
>
> andre
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
> June 12, 2005 - 20:39 : andremolnar
>
> Another attempt at a first page:
> Here is another go. I think that the consesnus is that the audience at
> OSCON will know what a CMS is. So, if they know what one is and are
> considering implementing a CMS solution the focus should be on: what
> makes Drupal better than all other CMS'.
>
>
> All the research and documentation about 'how to choose a CMS' says
> that people are looking for the following:
> Stability, support, multiple authors with granular access control to
> both authoring and content, scalability, modularity and themeability
> (templating).
>
>
> This page covers:
> What is Drupal.
> Stability and support
> And has two competative advantages (standards compliance / accessiblity
> and 'freedom')
> (Essentially this is a re-write of the existing first page - with a
> little added focus on benefits).
>
>
> The existing diagram of Drupal architecture addresses modularity and
> scalability.
>
>
> We will still need content on access control, and templating. I'm
> still in favour of including some geeky features like multiple site
> deployment and caching (and its benefit of speed - Drupal is faster
> than most CMS').
>
>
> A note about the following: I did check for length and this would fit
> in a 1/3 landscape column at 10pt.
>
>
> ****
>
>
> Drupal is a Content and Community Management system which affords a
> broad range of individuals and groups the power to publish, manage, and
> organize a variety of contributed content.
>
>
> Drupal integrates individual and community blogging, collaborative
> writing, community discussions, content aggregation and friend of a
> friend modules into a single easy-to-use package.
>
>
> What Sets Drupal Apart?
>
>
> Caring about your community: Accessible + Standards Compliant
> Drupal has been designed to be 100% accessible. Accessible design means
> never closing your door to visitors with special needs and maximizing
> your potential audience. This accessibility is achieved by embracing
> standards such as XHTML, CSS and separation of content from
> presentation which have the added benefit of improved search engine
> ranking.
>
>
> Stability
> If community sites like SpreadFirefox(tm) can handle 50,000,000
> visitors and the slash-dot effect, you can count on Drupal to keep
> your site running well after your 100,000,000th visitor.
>
>
> Support
> Very few products like Drupal can boast about the size and expert
> knowledge of their support community. Drupal.org is home to hundreds
> of developers and thousands of users regularly contributing to support
> forums and an already extensive documentation library. Several
> organization also offer specialized Drupal hosting and consulting
> services.
>
>
> Freedom
> Drupal is Free Software released under the GNU Public License. Free
> refers to much more than just price. You are free to modify the
> software, free to improve the software, and even free to sell the
> software if you wish.
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
> June 15, 2005 - 10:08 : andremolnar
>
> Another Section for review:
>
>
> ****
> Feature Rich: Drupal adapts to your needs.
>
>
> With dozens of core features and over 100 contributed modules there are
> literally millions of possible configurations available with Drupal.
> And, enabling or disabling core functionality is as simple as a mouse
> click. This means that as your site needs change, Drupal adapts to
> meet those needs quickly and painlessly.
>
>
> Whether you would like to add image galleries, a full e-commerce store
> or simply enhance your community's experience, Drupal has the tools you
> are looking for.
>
>
> ***
>
>
> A section for power-users and IT admins to come shortly.
>
>
> andre
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
> June 15, 2005 - 10:28 : andremolnar
>
> More text for review:
>
>
> ****
>
>
> Drupal is powerful: Features power users and IT administrators demand.
>
>
> How is it that time and time again Drupal sites survive slash-dotting?
> Drupal has been built for speed and is smart enough to adapt quickly to
> the load visitors put on your site. Drupal's built in chaching and
> throttling mechanisms keep your site responsive even when faced with
> massive surges in the number of visitors.
>
>
> How fast is Drupal? Drupal consistently ranks near the top of its
> class in benchmark tests regularly performing many times faster than
> other popular CMS products.
>
>
> ****
>
>
> andre
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
> June 15, 2005 - 10:51 : andremolnar
>
> And Finally - some more text. This needs work - but it represents a
> real benefit to power admins.
>
>
> ****
>
>
> Multiple sites - One Installation - One code base to maintain.
>
>
> Imagine running dozens of unique sites dozens of unique site
> configurations without having to maintain dozens of installations.
> Imagine upgrading several sites to the latest version of the software
> at once. With Drupal this is a reality. Adding additional Drupal
> powered site to your servers is as quick as uploading a single file.
>
>
> How much time and resources would that save you and your IT staff?
>
>
> ****
>
>
> andre
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
> June 16, 2005 - 00:55 : andremolnar
>
> Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/brochure draft 1.1.txt (2.9
> KB)
>
> After a number of off-line discussions attached is some updated text
> and
> wording.
>
>
> Still to do:
> Select a few key features and write short to-the-point descriptions of
> the benefits they provide.
> Alternatively we can keep the use-cases from the existing brochure.
>
>
> If you would like to make changes, upload a new version of the attached
> file indicating the changes you have made.
>
>
> andre
>
>
> p.s. yes - next time we will wiki.
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
> June 16, 2005 - 11:15 : andremolnar
>
> Robin Monks wrote:
>
>
> "I think the themes section, or a node edit view would be good
> canidates for screenshots. And what about these modules:
>
> "
> +1 for the themes section screen shot.
>
>
> "Buddylist Banner E-Commerce Event Organic Groups Privatemsg Recipe
> SiteMenu Textile Wiki
>
> "
> I'm okay with any of these + taxonomy + localization. I haven't used
> many of the extensively so we would still need a volunteer to write a
> single sentence that describes the feature and its benefit.
>
>
> What is the consensus?
> Should we name off a few of these key features
> OR
> Keep the use cases (e.g. corporate, community, campaign, education,
> personal)?
> OR
> Somehow include both by possibly including names of some key
> features/modules that each use-case makes use of.
>
>
> andre
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
> June 16, 2005 - 13:51 : andremolnar
>
> Just getting this into the project page:
>
>
> "Some quick comments:
>
>
> - The opening doesn't tell me anything if I'm not at home in the world
> of CMSes. I think this is an important aspect, and something that I
> noticed myself when I showed the old brochure to others. They said:
> "Nice, but what does it DO?". Phrases like "establish online presence"
> or "manage online activities" are a lot more vague than "build your
> website". I participated in a student-organised website contest at my
> university a while ago: most sites were simple, plain, non-interactive
> affairs. When polling the other contestants about this, most of them
> said "yes, but I'm not a programmer and I don't know anything about PHP
> / MySQL / ...". When I talked to them, I tried to make it clear that
> with systems like Drupal, you can set up complicated features without
> touching a single line of code.
>
>
> - Mentioning "friend of a friend" in such a prominent position at the
> top seems wasteful: it is not a core feature and very few people are
> familiar with it. Perhaps it should be "user identity" modules.
>
>
> - Search engine optimization should mention clean URLs. They are an
> important feature. And not only do we have clean URLs, but we also
> allow arbitrary custom URLs. And with pathauto module, automatic,
> meaningful URLs derived from the content. We could add a bold claim:
> "Drupal sites consistently rank high in search results.". It is what
> several of our users have said:
> http://drupal.org/node/20033
>
>
> - The "stability" "speed" and "power" sections seem to overlap a lot.
> Even if there are subtle underlying differences, it is my experience
> that this is lost on unfamiliar readers and perceived as repetition
> instead. Perhaps they should be merged into a single section
> "Performance and stability", while "power" should be aimed more at
> modularity and flexiblity.
>
>
> - A title like "Power that expert users and IT administrators demand"
> is completely ineffective and near-impossible to use in a nice design.
>
>
> - The "feature rich" section seems to mention Drupal's modularity as a
> side-effect... in the last brochure this was a very important section
> covering one full "flap". It illustrated effectively how many features,
> which would be hardcoded and/or inflexible in a traditional CMS, are
> removable and customizable in Drupal. Now it's more like "yeah, you can
> turn stuff off if you don't like it, and modules have something to do
> with it". This hardly describes what Drupal modules are and the way
> they can hook into every aspect of the CMS and integrate every feature
> with every other feature, or how most features (like the profile
> module) are built as a flexible system rather than a fixed set of
> functions. While underlying architecture is not directly important for
> end-users, it is important for customizability and flexibility. If you
> don't include a big "architecture" section, at the very least you
> should
>
>
> - All in all, I think many people are a lot more familiar with the term
> "open source" rather than free. "Free", to me, reminds me more of how
> Drupal doesn't tie you down to fixed things, but how every component is
> built as a flexible, customizable system. "Freedom" as a section header
> just doesn't strike me as effective (especially when you consider how
> that certain country *cough* has been abusing the word recently).
>
>
> - The text introduces a lot of concepts, but lacks concrete
> illustration and examples. The last leaflet's use cases were nice in
> this, but we could improve it by tying examples directly into the
> listed points.
>
>
> - Perhaps we could include a "what do people say about Drupal?"
> section. There are plenty of nice quotes on the forums, like the one
> about search results.
>
>
> - The text needs a definite proofreading: "Bryte" "several
> organization" ...
>
>
> And as a graphics person, I think it is really a bad idea to write the
> text, then have it 'poured' into a brochure. Brochures have a very
> specific design to them and are read in a certain fashion (I tried to
> illustrate this in the brochure thread on drupal.org). This text
> doesn't seem to be written with presentation in mind, and that's a
> pity: presentation and content should go hand in hand. It also seems
> too short to fill a whole brochure..
>
>
> To be honest I can see no remains of the last brochure in this... it
> feels as if you started from scratch! A lot of discussion preceded the
> creation of the last brochure with some nice ideas and try outs to
> learn from:
> http://drupal.org/node/7782
> The last brochure had several problems, but it did many things right as
> well. It would be silly to ignore all that...
>
> "
>
>
> --
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