[drupal-docs] Marketing subset of Team Documentation

[Andrew Hoppin]

Great thread.  Thanks Kieran for alerting me to it.  With regard to 
audience / personae, we're looking at a spectrum of roles (developer, 
technology purchasing decision-maker, non-technical community 
organizer, etc.) and also a spectrum of thematic focus crossed with 
functional focus that we think of as "market verticals" (tools for 
student organizations within a University, grassroots communities for a 
political campaign, eCommerce sites for networks of artists, fan-sites 
for music bands, web site for church community, etc.).

Each of these roles and each of these "verticals" would be best served 
by their own set of customized documentation, but we will never have 
sufficient time or domain expertise ourselves to do a good job creating 
such customized materials.   Therefore I think the role in the 
CivicSpace and Drupal communities should be to:

a) identify the categories of documents/materials/collateral that would 
be generally useful across all of these areas (white papers, logos, 
proposal templates, advertising brochures, training curriculum text, 
FAQs on best practices for using CivicSpace effectively in that 
vertical).

b) develop the generic / general interest material that can be drawn 
from to create customized documents-- this is mostly "features" in the 
context of the discussion below, benefits of Drupal that are of general 
interest (e.g.: reliability), and document templates.

c) encourage people that have domain expertise in an identifiable 
"vertical" to take responsibility for refining the generic materials 
into customized materials for their vertical, and encourage them to 
share the resulting documents publicly, even if they're running a 
for-profit business.

Andrew


****************************************
Andrew Hoppin
1.212.464.7665 (m)
andrew at civicspacelabs.org
****************************************


On May 14, 2005, at 11:37 AM, Kieran Lal wrote:

>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: Andre Molnar <mcsparkerton at yahoo.co.uk>
>> Date: May 14, 2005 10:02:06 AM PDT
>> To: drupal-docs at drupal.org
>> Subject: Re: [drupal-docs] Marketing subset of Team Documentation
>> Reply-To: drupal-docs at drupal.org
>>
>>
>> Charlie Lowe wrote:
>>
>>
>>> This may not be the best list or might be too many. And each of these
>>>  cases may also overlap in their discussion since the assumption is
>>> that people may only read the sections relevant to them. But the goal
>>> is to have different short sections that target a variety of
>>> interests found in the more general audience of people looking at
>>> Drupal. Whether this works or not, we need a document that can target
>>> multiple audiences.
>>>
>>
>>
>> Our posts just missed each other - and we ended up saying pretty much
>> the same thing. I'm clearly in favour of what you suggest here.
>>
>>
>>> About Drupal (general introduction)
>>>
>>
>>
>>> - Drupal is for everyone
>>>
>> -1 Nothing is for everyone - trying to market to everyone is a big
>> mistake... just focus on the following
>>
>>
>>
>>> - Drupal is for bloggers and communities
>>> - Drupal is for project management
>>> - Drupal is for education
>>> - Drupal is for web activism
>>> - Drupal is for web designers
>>> - Drupal is for open source code developers
>>> - Drupal is for ?
>>> - Drupal is for ?
>>>
>>
>> andre
>> -- 
>> [ drupal-docs | http://lists.drupal.org/listinfo/drupal-docs ]
>>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: Andre Molnar <mcsparkerton at yahoo.co.uk>
>> Date: May 14, 2005 9:51:24 AM PDT
>> To: drupal-docs at drupal.org
>> Subject: Re: [drupal-docs] Marketing subset of Team Documentation
>> Reply-To: drupal-docs at drupal.org
>>
>>
>> Charlie Lowe wrote:
>>
>>> Boris Mann wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> I was just reading through some recent edits to the "features"
>>>> section and came to the realization that the writing for that
>>>> particular section needs to be completely different than 
>>>> documentation.
>>>>
>>
>>
>>> These key terms probably target web designers and developers only. 
>>> For
>>> other audiences--an IT administrator interested in implementing 
>>> Drupal
>>> for his infrastructure but not sure what it does, an individual user 
>>> on
>>> the web looking for a personal weblog or community blog who may know 
>>> a
>>> little about blogging and wants to find out how Drupal is similar to
>>> what she knows, a casual visitor who keeps hearing of Drupal but 
>>> doesn't
>>> know anything about it--these are probably not their mostly like main
>>> interests first. That doesn't mean they aren't important, but I think
>>> there's a better pitch.
>>>
>> <snip>
>>
>> Here is one major point to keep in mind. You have a market - and 
>> within
>> that market you have segments. No single message is going to
>> effectively target all of your market segments.
>>
>> All marketing is about the providing unique value proposition to
>> potential customers. What are the needs of your customers? What is the
>>   benefit of your product that meets those needs? NOTE THAT BENEFIT IS
>> VERY DIFFERENT FROM FEATURES.
>>
>> The needs and corresponding benefits are different for each of your
>> market segments.
>>
>> What a web-designer is looking for is different from what a web
>> application developer is looking for. What a forum admin is looking 
>> for
>> is different from what a blog admin is looking for. And so on.
>>
>> The great thing about the web of course is that it doesn't cost more 
>> to
>> add more copy to a web site that covers each and every one of your
>> target market segments. In fact there is nothing stopping you from not
>> only providing a pitch to each segment, but a pitch to different
>> personality types within each segment.
>>
>> The personae being developed as a guide on how to write documentation
>> are even more useful in developing marketing strategies. Each persona
>> is a different market segment with different core needs. There are
>> unique benefits of Drupal that resonate with ALL of these segments, 
>> but
>> there are other unique benefits that will only resonate with each of 
>> the
>> individual personae.
>>
>> Stable
>> Supported
>> Here to Stay
>>
>> These are the three primary factors for CONSIDERING Drupal (or any 
>> other
>> open source project) as a solution. If these three points are not
>> communicated, then people won't bother to read on. All three offer the
>> same 'benefit' to people i.e. "Reliability"
>>
>> Open Source
>>
>> This point is important but is not a deal maker. The connotations of
>> Open Source appeal more to some people than others. More importantly
>> "Open Source" is not a benefit - its a feature. What are the benefits
>> of Open Source? That is what needs to be communicated! Luckily there
>> is more than one benefit of open source - so you can target the
>> different benefits to the different segments.
>>
>> Standards Compliant
>>
>> Once again this is a feature and not a benefit. What is the benefit of
>> a standards compliant product? Which segments of your market does that
>> benefit appeal to the most? If your are doing this exercise in your
>> head right now it should be obvious that this particular feature and 
>> its
>> associated benefits are not globally applicable to all segments - and
>> therefore it might not be the kind of thing you go on about in your
>> primary pitch. (yes use it, but don't make it front and center).
>>
>> ***
>>
>> Off the top of my head I could likely rattle off 50 different Drupal
>> features. Which likely means that there are 200 or more individual
>> features of Drupal if I sat down and really thought about it. These 
>> all
>> need to be boiled down to benefits - and those are what need to be
>> communicated in the marketing material.
>>
>> Sorry for the rant - I think that this is important.
>>
>> I'm sure the bryte guys and the civic space folk have already done 
>> many
>> of these exercises (determining benefits and developing their own
>> marketing strategies based on that). I've done a few myself. Its
>> certainly in all our mutual benefit to contribute our work to market
>> Drupal in general. More Drupal users = more paid work for Bryte,
>> Civicspace, Be Circle and everyone else that has Drupal in part (or 
>> all)
>> of their business model.
>>
>> So, I'm willing to make a contribution by helping identify the 
>> benefits.
>>   I'm not the best copy writer in the world - so I can't provide pages
>> and pages of polished pitches - but those that are talented copy 
>> writers
>> will have a much easier time if they know what they should be writing
>> about :-)
>>
>> andre
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> [ drupal-docs | http://lists.drupal.org/listinfo/drupal-docs ]
>>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: Charlie Lowe <cel4145 at cyberdash.com>
>> Date: May 14, 2005 9:50:57 AM PDT
>> To: drupal-docs at drupal.org
>> Subject: Re: [drupal-docs] Marketing subset of Team Documentation
>> Reply-To: drupal-docs at drupal.org
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Boris Mann wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> But I just wanted to point out that DIYers would not be the #1 target
>>> for me, at least not for the features part. Much like the 
>>> documentation,
>>> the features section should focus on the 
>>> power/flexibility/capabilities
>>> in a user neutral way. For instance, I would still like to see more
>>> developers and web designers choosing the platform. Especially
>>> designers/consultants who would deploy a lot of sites for clients -- 
>>> I'd
>>> love to have another Development Seed participating in the Drupal 
>>> ecosystem.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> To achieve your goal of attracting more designers and consultants, it
>> might do good to consider a suggestion Dries made a couple of years 
>> ago:
>> Drupal needs a white paper. This way, the opening sections of the 
>> About
>> section can be written for a general audience. Then, clearly visible 
>> in
>> that section and perhaps featured elsewhere (maybe even a link on the
>> home page) would be a text that targets developers and web designers 
>> in
>> the genre for the IT field that is specifically used for that purpose.
>>
>> Now a white paper might be more effort than anyone is willing to put 
>> in
>> right now, but both your and Liza's concerns do suggest another
>> structure for the documentation. How about something along this line 
>> of
>> thinking:
>>
>> About Drupal (general introduction)
>> - Drupal is for everyone
>> - Drupal is for bloggers and communities
>> - Drupal is for project management
>> - Drupal is for education
>> - Drupal is for web activism
>> - Drupal is for web designers
>> - Drupal is for open source code developers
>> - Drupal is for ?
>> - Drupal is for ?
>>
>> This may not be the best list or might be too many. And each of these
>> cases may also overlap in their discussion since the assumption is 
>> that
>> people may only read the sections relevant to them. But the goal is to
>> have different short sections that target a variety of interests found
>> in the more general audience of people looking at Drupal. Whether this
>> works or not, we need a document that can target multiple audiences.
>>
>> I also think what it does do is focus on what I would say is Drupal's 
>> #1
>> selling point: Drupal is a unique, flexible platform which can well 
>> suit
>> the needs of many. Perhaps others might not agree that this is 
>> Drupal's
>> #1 selling point. If not, then figuring out what that is would be an
>> important step toward best figuring out how to create this marketing
>> section.
>>
>> Charlie
>> -- 
>> [ drupal-docs | http://lists.drupal.org/listinfo/drupal-docs ]
>>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: Boris Mann <borismann at gmail.com>
>> Date: May 14, 2005 9:23:13 AM PDT
>> To: drupal-docs at drupal.org
>> Subject: Re: [drupal-docs] Marketing subset of Team Documentation
>> Reply-To: drupal-docs at drupal.org
>>
>>
>> Liz:
>>
>> On 14-May-05, at 5:42 AM, Liza Sabater wrote:
>>
>>> The foundation of good marketing for any CMS is not the technology, 
>>> it's the DIYability of the system. We are targeting "do it 
>>> yourselfers"; people taking control of their publishing and 
>>> community building "destinies". So if I can have a site running in 
>>> less than an hour and in less than a week an "out of the box" 
>>> community, I need to know that. I need to know this product is going 
>>> to give me that.
>> We agree on the "changes needed/let's do some re-writes" part, and 
>> thanks for the great response.
>>
>> But I just wanted to point out that DIYers would not be the #1 target 
>> for me, at least not for the features part. Much like the 
>> documentation, the features section should focus on the 
>> power/flexibility/capabilities in a user neutral way. For instance, I 
>> would still like to see more developers and web designers choosing 
>> the platform. Especially designers/consultants who would deploy a lot 
>> of sites for clients -- I'd love to have another Development Seed 
>> participating in the Drupal ecosystem.
>>
>> P.S. And if you think the aggregator is powerful, wait until you see 
>> John VanDyk's Publish-Subscribe architecture...
>>
>> --
>> Boris Mann
>> http://www.bmannconsulting.com
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> [ drupal-docs | http://lists.drupal.org/listinfo/drupal-docs ]
>>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: Liza Sabater <blogdiva at culturekitchen.com>
>> Date: May 14, 2005 5:42:36 AM PDT
>> To: drupal-docs at drupal.org
>> Subject: Re: [drupal-docs] Marketing subset of Team Documentation
>> Reply-To: drupal-docs at drupal.org
>>
>>
>> On May 13 2005, at 02:38, Boris Mann wrote:
>>
>>
>>> I was just reading through some recent edits to the "features"
>>> section and came to the realization that the writing for that
>>> particular section needs to be completely different than 
>>> documentation.
>>>
>>> As an example, check out the blogging features page:
>>> http://drupal.org/node/22728
>>>
>>
>> Actually, Boris, everything needs to be changed starting with "Why 
>> Drupal?"
>>
>> When people contract me to create a site for them using a CMS, they 
>> know nothing about standards, open source and all that geek speak. 
>> They come to me asking --what is going to make my life easier while 
>> giving me the most power and control. People want bang for their 
>> money. They want to know if it is flexible, easy to learn and easy to 
>> use.
>>
>> The foundation of good marketing for any CMS is not the technology, 
>> it's the DIYability of the system. We are targeting "do it 
>> yourselfers"; people taking control of their publishing and community 
>> building "destinies". So if I can have a site running in less than an 
>> hour and in less than a week an "out of the box" community, I need to 
>> know that. I need to know this product is going to give me that.
>>
>> I happen to be both a user and marketer of Drupal and CivicSpace 
>> --and I spent four years as the lead documentation developer for the 
>> Consumer Affairs department of Colgate-Palmolive. My job was to 
>> create not scripts but "conversation" documents the Consumer Affairs 
>> Representatives would use to better capture consumers' rants and 
>> raves about Colgate-Palmolive products. Reps needed to know inside 
>> out all the uses and abuses of the products plus how they compared to 
>> other brands. They needed to be "fluent" in the language of the 
>> company's products.
>>
>> This documentation needs to capture exactly that : a fluency about 
>> most of the ways it can be used easily, effectively and powerful; as 
>> well as how it compares to other brands and products. So, for 
>> example, CivicSpace and Bryght would have to be included in a 
>> comparison chart as well as Movable Type, Mambo, WordPress, etc.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> I made some edits and inline HTML comments on suggested changes and
>>> added some notes to the log....but basically that whole page needs to
>>> be re-written in a way that hi-lights the cool blogging things that
>>> Drupal does. And the news aggregator deserves an entire feature page
>>> all to itself! Drupal is the *only* software that has such amazing
>>> aggregation capabilities.
>>>
>>
>>
>> ABSOLUTELY!
>>
>> First reason why I moved away from blogging software to 
>> Drupal/CivicSpace. No question about it. Why? Think of the 
>> possibility of creating "affinity networks" using this feature.
>>
>>
>>
>>> I'll volunteer to do a bunch of writing for this section, just wanted
>>> to bring it to everyone's attention that this is a part of the
>>> handbook that warrants a very different writing style. In fact, it
>>> might be good to have it very visually pleasing, maybe even with
>>> (gasp!) screenshots.
>>>
>>
>> Count me in as well.
>>
>> Liza Sabater
>> Blog Publisher
>> www.culturekitchen.com
>>
>> culturekitchen network
>> www.blogsheroes.com
>> www.brownbloggers.com
>> www.dailygotham.com
>>
>> AIM - cultkitdiva
>> SKYPE - lizasabater
>> Liza Sabater
>> Blog Publisher
>> www.culturekitchen.com
>>
>> AIM - cultkitdiva
>> SKYPE - lizasabater
>> -- 
>> [ drupal-docs | http://lists.drupal.org/listinfo/drupal-docs ]
>>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: Charlie Lowe <cel4145 at cyberdash.com>
>> Date: May 14, 2005 12:49:09 AM PDT
>> To: drupal-docs at drupal.org
>> Subject: Re: [drupal-docs] Marketing subset of Team Documentation
>> Reply-To: drupal-docs at drupal.org
>>
>>
>> Boris Mann wrote:
>>
>>> I was just reading through some recent edits to the "features"
>>> section and came to the realization that the writing for that
>>> particular section needs to be completely different than 
>>> documentation.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I know I'm a little late to responding to this, but in looking at the
>> newest pages added to About Drupal v.2, I'm wondering what the target
>> audience is? For instance, after the intro, the first key terms
>> introduced (via "Why Drupal?") are
>>
>> Standards Compliant
>> Stable
>> Supported
>> Here to Stay
>> Open Source
>>
>> These key terms probably target web designers and developers only. For
>> other audiences--an IT administrator interested in implementing Drupal
>> for his infrastructure but not sure what it does, an individual user 
>> on
>> the web looking for a personal weblog or community blog who may know a
>> little about blogging and wants to find out how Drupal is similar to
>> what she knows, a casual visitor who keeps hearing of Drupal but 
>> doesn't
>> know anything about it--these are probably not their mostly like main
>> interests first. That doesn't mean they aren't important, but I think
>> there's a better pitch.
>>
>> Then, on the main Features page, I get a list of some key individual
>> features, but not a feeling for what Drupal can do globally. If we 
>> think
>> of the About Drupal section as the hook, the main intro marketing 
>> piece
>> on the site for someone that's looking to find out more about Drupal,
>> then what are the key pitch elements to throw out first? What are the
>> things that will make the target audience read on? I've read the main
>> features page. I still don't have a clear idea of what Drupal can do
>> other than the opening paragraph at the beginning of the book. Maybe I
>> don't read on anymore?
>>
>> This might also help. Here is the Drupal home page with the short
>> description at the top and the general information about Drupal page
>> from a couple of years ago:
>>
>> http://web.archive.org/web/20030618024051/http://www.drupal.org/
>> http://web.archive.org/web/20030603213720/drupal.org/node/view/1
>>
>> The feeling was two years ago that they had to be rewritten for a much
>> more general audience, to avoid the developer-centric approach. It 
>> feels
>> like these revisions are heading back there.
>> -- 
>> [ drupal-docs | http://lists.drupal.org/listinfo/drupal-docs ]
>>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: bryan kennedy <digital at mysteryexperience.com>
>> Date: May 13, 2005 8:29:16 AM PDT
>> To: drupal-docs at drupal.org
>> Subject: Re: [drupal-docs] Marketing subset of Team Documentation
>> Reply-To: drupal-docs at drupal.org
>>
>>
>> On May 13, 2005, at 1:38 AM, Boris Mann wrote:
>>
>>> I'll volunteer to do a bunch of writing for this section, just wanted
>>> to bring it to everyone's attention that this is a part of the
>>> handbook that warrants a very different writing style. In fact, it
>>> might be good to have it very visually pleasing, maybe even with
>>> (gasp!) screenshots.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I think that's great Boris. It's awesome you picked up on this so
>> quick. I just got that page up last night. Please go crazy on it.
>> I am all for images in there. Maybe the aggregator should be part of
>> the main features page (http://drupal.org/handbook/drupal/features)
>> since like you said it is unique to Drupal. I fixed on HTML problem
>> with a list you had in there.
>>
>> bryan
>> -- 
>> [ drupal-docs | http://lists.drupal.org/listinfo/drupal-docs ]
>>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: Boris Mann <boris.bryght at gmail.com>
>> Date: May 12, 2005 11:38:53 PM PDT
>> To: drupal-docs at drupal.org
>> Subject: [drupal-docs] Marketing subset of Team Documentation
>> Reply-To: drupal-docs at drupal.org
>>
>>
>> I was just reading through some recent edits to the "features"
>> section and came to the realization that the writing for that
>> particular section needs to be completely different than 
>> documentation.
>>
>> As an example, check out the blogging features page:
>> http://drupal.org/node/22728
>>
>> I made some edits and inline HTML comments on suggested changes and
>> added some notes to the log....but basically that whole page needs to
>> be re-written in a way that hi-lights the cool blogging things that
>> Drupal does. And the news aggregator deserves an entire feature page
>> all to itself! Drupal is the *only* software that has such amazing
>> aggregation capabilities.
>>
>> I'll volunteer to do a bunch of writing for this section, just wanted
>> to bring it to everyone's attention that this is a part of the
>> handbook that warrants a very different writing style. In fact, it
>> might be good to have it very visually pleasing, maybe even with
>> (gasp!) screenshots.
>>
>> --
>> Boris Mann
>> Vancouver 778-896-2747 San Francisco 415-367-3595
>> SKYPE borismann
>> http://www.bryght.com
>>
>> -- 
>> [ drupal-docs | http://lists.drupal.org/listinfo/drupal-docs ]
>>