[Typo3-marketing] Another marketing paper

[Daniel Hinderink [TYPO3]]

Hi Georg, hi Michelle.

Nice list Georg!

> Thank you for your suggestions.
> 
>> I'd like to suggest:
>> 
>> DO:
>> ===============
>> - Create and take constantly care of a local/nationwide network of and for
>> OpenSource- / Webdevelopement- / TYPO3-"affin"-persons / -organizations
>> - Programmers, Web-Developers, SysOps, eBusiness- / Online-Managers,
>> Marketing-Persons, OpenSource "affin" clientele (which-ever those are in
>> your market
>> [seems SME's])
>> AND
>> - organize meetings, events, and PR around it,
>> AND
>> - DO co-operate between agencies, rather than kicking each other's butt,
>> AND
>> - DO focus on professionals, rather than amateurs
>> [ a Boing 747 is neighter flown nor landed by amateurs ]
> 
> I agree with this. I am pretty active on different lists -- open source,
> cms, higher ed, etc. My biggest problem with the network idea is finding
> professional agencies (as opposed to what you call "amateurs") in the US to
> embrace T3. 
> 
> For most professional consultancies, TYPO3 would be a gamble for them add to
> their list of services, when they can use established commercial systems
> instead and probably make more money. In the US, people think of open source
> as "free" and don't want to pay too much for implementation.


Even more so it is important to offer some platform for TYPO3 interested
developers in the US. I already wrote to Reuven, that you just need to ask
Michael Stucki for a new mailing list for a start. It would be no problem to
make that a front page item on .org or write a general announcement mail.


>> - Team-Up with, or establish a DECENT Hosting-Service (with Help-Desk),
>> offering the ASP-quality and cost-effiiency required by your clientele, AND
>> make sure they "support" TYPO3 in professional manner.
>> [ in AT, we feature qualified (following certain standards) TYPO3-Hosters
>> in a special way on the TUGA-site ]
> 
> Hosting is a tricky thing. You have to be clear on *why* you are offering
> hosting and *what* you are trying to accomplish. Are you trying to appeal to
> individuals, small businesses, or enterprises?
> 
> Let's examine. Who signs up for hosting? Someone that doesn't know anything
> about TYPO3 and wants to try it out without worrying about installation.
> Someone that is in an agency that wants to use T3 for a project and thinks
> they will be able to master it in short amount of time. Those people tend to
> quit in a few weeks.
> 
> Does a small business sign up for TYPO3 hosting? Not usually. They aren't
> going to sign up and create a T3 site for themselves. Are enterprises going
> to sign up? Probably not and if they do, they won't last long. From my
> experience, they will sign up for a year, more or less, but eventually, they
> will want to host their site in-house. Why? Because it makes their IT dept.
> look bad if they are not hosting their own website.
> 
> This is why I mentioned targeting SMBs and hosting their T3 websites as part
> of a whole package. We need to guide customers to T3. T3 is too difficult
> for someone in an SMB to learn. That is what consultancies are for.

I don't agree looking at our market. Many developers tried TYPO3 in free
test accounts that are available and small consultancies value the service
of pre-installed TYPO3 very much.

Of course I can't guarantee, but why should that not apply in the US?


>> - Group up with OpenSource-, Linux-, PHP- ... minded people.
>> [ translates into "business by likeminded spirit" ]

That is a very important point. Other established systems can become
business enablers and valuable strategic partners, if only to let you in on
valuable information they have access to.
In Europe we have lot's of Open Source fairs that lead to that kind of
coaltions. Especially attending a US PHP Conference seems like a very good
opportunity to me.


>> - Offer white-papers for and hold speeches at ALL web-related conferences /
>> fairs / gatherings, attended by local IT- & management-staff.
>> [ and push OpenSource and TYPO3 there ].
> 
> Maybe not all at first, but we will definitely start working on the top
> ones.
>  
>> - Do active PR (viral AND classical).
>> [ it's not THAT expensive, you might be surprised ]
> 
> I don't mind paying for T3 marketing. I love helping out the group and in
> turn, it helps out all of our businesses. That's the beauty of working
> together. In the past, I've paid for distributing the T3 press releases on
> the newswire and I've received an increased interest and communication from
> people because of it.

Regarding viral marketing: I have agreed to coach a diploma student on a
thesis on viral marketing, hoping that we could use it for sparking and
measuring some impulses in US media. I will return to you about that matter
after Friday, when the planning has been made.

The research program will (hopefully) lead to a competition analysis
measuring the use and throughput of various channels and helping us to plan
further efforts in PR and direct communication.

 
> This leads to another question, which I think only Daniel can answer.

I guess that is not an exclusive right, but open for public interpretation.


> How
> much should a typehead market TYPO3? I've been a little wary of advertising
> T3 too much because there isn't really any guidelines for using the name.
> For example, I've been very careful to separate marketing TYPO3 as a
> typehead and marketing TYPO3 as a business. The typeheads are in a unique
> position because they are also in consultancies. When I market TYPO3 as a
> typehead, I don't want people that hear me speak at conferences, or read my
> press releases to think the T3 community is in any way endorsing my company.
> That's just not professional.

Yes. In a way the idea is that what is good for TYPO3 will eventually
benefit TEKDevelopment. On the other hand, that effect might come too late.
I think the answer lies in what phase a product is in regarding it's market
presence. Where you are in the introductory phase, the return might be not
sufficient, efforts like those of TUGA are actually kicking in at another
phase, where the product is spreading at a high rate and everybody wins.
We don't have any saturated markets yet, but if that would happen, a
typehead would be a problem and should step back.

Until then, I think it is best to do as the Austrians, if that is at all
possible in a country as large and heterogeneous like yours: build a joint
force for pushing the product into the market and make your task one
fulfilled by many, instead of just one person. That will share the risk,
cost and will not make the benefit any smaller.


>> - Write articles and offer them to local & national it- and
>> business-magazines on ALL web-realted subjects you're expert in and TYPO3
>> and its possibilities especially:
>> [ that is "opensource" your know-how ]
> 
> I've done a little of that, but I could do so much more. I love to write so
> that's not a problem. I just haven't found that perfect US T3 project to
> write about. A "big" company name is a plus, but people want substance. They
> don't care about the quantity of projects someone has done, but the quality
> of the projects. Most web development consultancies in the US make claims
> that they have worked with big companies, so people aren't necessarily
> impressed by that. Instead, they want to see a project that actually
> "solves" a bunch of problems. They want to know what TYPO3 will do for them.

That's interesting. This might be important for refining the choice of
references on .com in the next step.


>> - Talk to major advertising agencies, offering the perfect
>> no-strings-attached CMS, called (you guessed it);
>> [ I dislike this approach, but I do know it works ]
>> 
>> - Talk to major IT-companies
>> [ offers quite a lot of fun, experience and even more good contacts &
>> sometimes deals ]
>> 
>> - GO for larger / wellknown clients, nationwide-brands, organizations,
>> rather than the S(M)B, who's requirements might be covered by something
>> like Frontp*** or Contrib*** ....
>> [ or start with a subsidiary of such larger clients ]
> 
> I still think that's too hard of a sell right now. Problems would be: (some
> I've already mentioned)
> 
> 1. Lack of US support. With only two small consultancies listed in T3.com,
> enterprises would not want to go with a project where they didn't feel that
> they would get the support they needed.
> 2. Most are already locked into contracts with US based CMS vendors.
> 3. T3 is missing key features: LPE and workflow. These are almost always
> contract killers.

Why LPE?


> 4. Open source is not looked upon favorably. Mention PHP/MySQL to
> enterprises and most don't even want to consider it. That's why I'm working
> to integrate T3 with other open source solutions.
> 5. Commercial CMSes have brought down their prices -- some slashing them in
> half which is making them more attractive.
> 
> For example, Zope has had 2 or 3 large clients in the past, but they haven't
> had any real large ones since. Why? In my opinion, the implementation costs
> for these projects were more than if they had purchased a commercial system
> and they pretty much had to build in all the features they needed from the
> ground up. 
> 
> There is nothing worse than "pushing" a system to a market before it is
> ready to be pushed. That is why I recommended small businesses, colleges and
> universities, non-profits, and government agencies, where workflow and lack
> of other features won't be a problem. If you are looking for large names,
> there are plenty of smaller companies that fit the bill.

SME's are also more profitable customers for your size of a consultancy and
the size that is most likely to first adopt the system.

I would like to drill down a little on what you wrote before:
What are the problems with a European system that have a technical nature,
besides the date-problem?

  
>> - ACT professional in all aspects of your TYPO3-related business and PR;
>> [ clear to many, ignored by even more ]
> 
> Well, I hope I do that. I try to answer all the emails from people
> interested in the software (and there are many!). Daniel -- any word on a
> separate typehead mailbox??

What do you need?


> 
>> CAUTION:  ;-)
>> ===============
>> Following the above steps, you might be faced with a vibrant
>> TYPO3-enthusiatic market withing 12 month - no guarantees, though ;-)
> 
> Well, I'm hopeful! That's my goal!
>  
>> THINK:  [ a courageous outlook ]
>> ===============
>> - A major nation-wide copmpany would launch a press-release about a recent
>> project done with TYPO3 ( where the TYPO3 part was yours );
>> - A major IT-company (Redhat, IBM, .... ), would bundle (or recommend)
>> TYPO3 with their product.
>> 
>> 
>> Hope you enjoyed the reading;
>> 
>> 
>> regards Georg, ( again, heavily tempted to move his place of residence back
>> to the US; unfortune the current "nations spirit" does not match mine )
> 
> Or mine either, unfortunately... :(

I would like to suggest to leave politics out of here. Even if we had very
contrary views that should not stand in the way of advancing TYPO3. It's
best we don't give that subject room here.



> So my next steps:
> 
> 1. Research conferences and trade shows. Make list available to US
> consultancies. (It will be in .ics format)
> 2. Start building a network of US based consultancies. I'd like to start a
> US TUG based on the work of the TUGA. I think they've done a great job with
> their group and I want to start the tug right. I think I'll begin with one
> TUG but have the consultancies in other areas branch it out into subgroups
> to cover the US. Are there any guidelines for tugs that I should know about?

No, but looking at TUGA is definitely the way to go. I don't know if
something similar is at all possible nationwide in the US, because you might
never actually meet, but it is a start before (hopefully) branching out to
the coasts and regional groups.
Anyway I think it would be advisable to team up with people in Canada and
the UK.


> 3. Complete my non-profit project in the next 2 months. Begin writing case
> studies and papers geared to different markets and groups. Present at
> conferences. I'll also offer up my materials to others that are willing to
> present at conferences as well.

I'll send you some ppt-slides that might be useful.


> 4. Research other venues for advertising (sponsorships, ads - both print and
> banner, etc.)
> 5. Get even more involved in lists and orgs that pertain to open source and
> CMSes
> 6. Funnel all information back to the marketing group, ie Sabina and Daniel.
> 
> Anything I'm missing, besides time for sleep?

Organising the release party for TYPO4 on pupukea beach Oahu should get a
more prominent spot.

> With all this in mind, I need the help of any consultancies on this list
> that are based in the US. So please get in touch with me if you want to
> help. ;)

I can export + send you the mails of registered US-contacts from the service
offerings-page on .org.

Cheers,

Daniel


> 
> 
> Michelle
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Vice-Chairman
TYPO3 Association
http://association.typo3.org