We held the Marketing BoF - thanks to all the participants!
- Chelsee Grafton
- Louis-Philippe Bellerose
- John P. Weiksnar
- Michel van Velde
- me, Iuliia Gapunenko
- Marina Paych
- Artyom Zenkovets
- Alexander Kuznetsov
- Doug Ouverson
The initial goal was to uncover the painful Drupal marketing challenges and share the experience.
Mister Weiksnar summed up the discussion excellent:
“The takeaway was that each member of any user group has to market Drupal, using consistent language to brand the project, articulate its value, and bring in new members. More on that and how the DA is also planning the same, down the line. It's all a big, positive step. Thanks!”
Other than that, we covered the topic of a personal brand creation - people buy from a persona, and what transmits the company’s success the best - awards, nominations, etc.
We were happy to have Michel van Velde - the Board Member of Drupal Association - present. We tickled the topic of the Promote Drupal Initiative, what the main obstacles are, and what the solution there is.
Obstacles:
- No integrated marketing strategy for Drupal
- Local Drupal Associations websites aren’t updated often, the message translated to Drupal wannabees and beginners is either absent or unclear/contradicting the other messaged created
- No focus on non-technical decision makers (before)
Problem:
Newcomers and non-technical decision makers don’t understand what Drupal is, they don’t choose it as a technology to work with and to promote to their clients
Solutions:
- DA’s fundraising initiative to onboard the staff to promote Drupal “through a coordinated marketing effort”
- The usage of the exact Drupal profile provided with the help of the Dutch DA.
- Develop one “compelling and consistent message”
All in all, we should start taking care of our local communities: help our nationwide Drupal Association promote Drupal right, involve newcomers.
P.S. If you’ve seen Driesnote you must remember that promoting Drupal to non-technical decision makers is becoming one of the priorities now. We’re witnessing the interesting changes!
Join us on Drupal Slack marketing channel to chat about the BoF, outcomes, and just keep in touch with the fellow marketing colleagues and those in charge of promoting Drupal.
Comments
Thanks so much!
This is really useful to read and aligns quite nicely with a few different efforts. Sorry I could not make it to the Marketing BoF, but will be joining the Slack channel.
No problem, glad you found it
No problem, glad you found it handy! Will be happy to chat in the marketing channel!
Thank you! And some thoughts.
Thank you for this. I enjoyed the Driesnote. I do subscribe to the view of improving the product, especially easier installation and overall experience when using Drupal.
What regards reaching the non-tech decision makers, I would like to propose to consider as one of the target groups young, first-time users although that may sound a bit odd at first. They do not have switching costs, the fatigue of "learning something new" or existing portfolios of properties already running on other frameworks. Plus, winning this group would probably add to the coolness factor in the perception of older and established market participants.
Hi Vasco, Thank you for
Hi Vasco,
Thank you for reading all of this! I do agree with you when it comes to newcomers. Locally, we try to involve and educate young students who haven't decided yet what technology to stick to. It's rewarding: we teach them Drupal at Drupal GTD events and it seems they don't think Drupal is that hard and scary anymore :)
Anyway, that would be a great topic to discuss if we ever hold an online BoF (as it was suggested in Slack).
Thanks again!