Summary: Building on our ground game

Over the last two years, we’ve built a strong base of contributors via our learning networks ground game, mostly notably through partnerships, Hives and our Maker Party campaigns. In 2015, we'll capitalize on that momentum to expand our marketing scope to reach individual learners directly in conjunction with the release of an new online learning product and accompanying mobile app.

The assumption is that we can do to two things at once: targeting both an audience of learners and an audience of mentors in parallel, through different channels and with different messages. In 2015, this two-pronged approach to expand our global literacy efforts will focus on:

• Growing a base for a new learning product by appealing to a mass market of individual makers and learners via a simplified, low-bar path to creating something on the Web.
• Expanding and increasing the impact of Mozilla learning networks by growing our global footprint through skill-sharer events, the launch of Webmaker clubs and more Hive Learning Network locations with direct marketing outreach and partnership efforts via our existing sales channel.

Wrapped around this marketing outreach will be an ongoing branding and communications effort that seeks to align more closely with the larger Mozilla brand and establish our leadership in a global digital literacy movement.

Webmaker product marketing: Engagement, growth and impact

Audience Global audience of individual learners seeking web literacy skills who's preferred method of learning is by making and creating.

Positioning Statement Webmaker* is the learning tool of choice for users everywhere because it is localized for their communities and their needs, allows for making and learning on any type of device and it connects them to more extensive learning pathways via Mozilla's global community of fellow makers, mentors and hackers.

Offering to Users Free, simple and fun learning tools that let users create a customized learning pathway, are localized, are available via desktop, tablet and mobile, provide feedback and recognition for their achievements and connect them to a larger community of learners and mentors, both online and offline.

Areas of focus for the learning product include:

• Onboarding and Engagement
• Product-focused Campaigns via Owned and Paid Channels
• Mobile Adoption
• Opportunistic Content Campaigns
• Maker Party
• Viral/Sharing

• A note on Webmaker branding: As we differentiate our existing Webmaker offering aimed at educators and our new learning product, we are embarking on a process to identify optimal naming and branding of each. This means that calling the new learning product “Webmaker” is still to be determined and should be considered a placeholder for now.

Mentor network marketing: Quality, networked growth

Audience Global audience that includes professional educators teaching tech, educators interested in tech, individuals with passion for teaching others and casual mentors who like to share skills with their personal networks.

Positioning Statement Mozilla's connected learning network offers professional educators, mentors, hackers and makers around the globe access to teaching resources, organizational support, recognition and rewards systems and access to a global community of fellow teachers to have greater impact in the world.

Offering to Users Extensive making and learning resources that includes remixable teaching kits and the web literacy map, event management and facilitation, recognition for their achievements and those they are teaching via badges, connectivity to their peer network of mentors and support from Mozilla directly to provide them additional resources and mentor development.

Areas of focus for the mentor networks include:

• Existing Contributor Engagement
• Clubs Launch Announcement/Campaign
• Partnerships
• Content Marketing
• Mozfest

Communications: Broadened awareness & thought leadership

In support of Mozilla’s larger global literacy effort, build and deploy a communications plan that positions and establishes Mozilla as a leader in the global movement to keep the Web open and empowers users in emerging markets to become creators, not just consumers, of the Web. Differentiate Webmaker by highlighting customized skills pathways that can unlock social and economic opportunities for billions of Web users via participative, innovative learning products and teaching programs.

Areas of focus in 2015:

• Improved long-term planning
• More earned media and public recognition
• More strategic use of social media
• MozFest as a signature platform for showcasing our achievements

Branding: One-Mozilla

With the forking of our mentor programs and learning products, take the opportunity to evaluate our branding position across all of the Foundation’s literacy initiatives and come up with a cohesive story that can be told across everything we do. At the same time, sync up with the larger Mozilla and Firefox brands to leverage their established positions and support their push towards more values-based differentiation. In practice, this means moving towards aligning our learning products with the Firefox brand and affirming the mentor network program as the core Mozilla Webmaker brand.

KPI's

• 250K individual, active users of Webmaker Learning Product
• 500 locations with sustained learning activity led by mentor network

Learning Product: Quarterly Targets

Q1

• Growth: Complete 5+ messaging & CTA tests targeting mass market of learners
• Engagement: Increase monthly active user rate to 5%

Q2

• Growth: Increase monthly unique visitors by 25%
• Engagement: Increase 7-day engagement of active users to 10%

Q3

• Growth: Increase monthly unique visitors by 25%
• Engagement: Increase 7-day engagement of active users to 20%

Q4

• Growth: Increase monthly unique visitors by 25%
• Engagement: Increase 30-day engagement of active users to 6%

Mentor Networks: Quarterly Targets Q1

• Engagement: Retain 4,000 aligned and active educators + 10 Hive Cities
• Growth: Establish 40 club leaders and 20 club pilots

Q2

• Engagement: Convert 5% of active mentors to club leaders
• Growth: Recruit 500 new aligned/active educators, expand to 200 clubs and expand to 20 Hive Cities

Q3

• Engagement: Convert 10% of active mentors to club leaders
• Growth: Recruit 675 new aligned/active educators, expand to 300 clubs and expand to 25 Hive Cities

Q4

• Growth: 500 cities with learning activity: expand to 400+ clubs and expand to 30 Hive Cities

Milestones

Q1

• Test learner-focused value proposition messaging for pre-launch optimization (Webmaker product)
• Create a single, low-bar CTA for learning product and refine account conversion funnel (Webmaker product)
• Test and build onboarding program to move unique visitors to active visitors (Webmaker product)
• Launch demo-able version of mobile app at Mobile World Congress and generate pre-launch buzz through earned media (Webmaker product)
• Build privacy-themed content marketing campaign, in conjunction with larger MoCo engagement effort, to engage learners and mentors (Webmaker product + Mentor network)
• Audit existing entry points and evaluate message appropriateness relative to forking of teach vs. learn (Webmaker product and Mentor network)
• Test monthly skill sharer content program as a marketing channel to engage existing community (Mentor network)
• Build a communications content calendar that captures key events, moments and product launches to become more proactive, less reactive + improved syncing with MoCo efforts (Comms)

Q2

• Promote new product via launch campaign in owned channels (Webmaker product)
• Test and build app download campaign (Webmaker product)
• Test and build recontact and retention programs to move active visitors to engaged visitors (Webmaker product)
• Build content marketing campaign model that can be deployed against newscycle (Webmaker product and Mentor network)
• Do small scale marketing test around promotion of clubs (Mentor network)
• Build customized campaigns, activities and content to reach new mentors and new learners via Partnership/Sales channel (Mentor network)
• Improved storytelling about our thought leadership in literacy, resulting in more media hits (particularly in non-tech media), more opportunities to use Mark as spokesperson and more instances of Mozilla being sought out for leadership (Comms)
• Deploy social media plan that supports thought leadership goals and has more clear, consistent calls to action to drive engagement in our core initiatives. (Comms)

Q3

• Run a Maker Party campaign as user acquisition and engagement channel (Webmaker product and Mentor network)
• Build systematic marketing channel to reach new/newly-engaged users with sharing/recruitment CTA (Webmaker product)
• Build sharing CTA into product experience and other existing communications (Webmaker product)
• Promote additional, new features (e.g. social/community features) in launch follow-up campaigns (Webmaker product)
• Test win-back campaign for expired Webmaker users (Webmaker product)
• Test and build pathways to "level-up" learners to additional learning opportunities and mentor level contribution (Webmaker product and Mentor network)
• Update monthly skill sharer content marketing to include higher-level ask of starting clubs, contributing to Hives or participating in our other leadership efforts (Mentor network)
• Launch marketing campaign in support of Webmaker clubs launch (Mentor network)

Q4

• Test viability of paid marketing channels for user growth (Webmaker product)
• Run a more visible "Hour of Code" campaign to grow users and engage existing mentors (Webmaker product and Mentor network
• Build a story and supporting comms plan around MozFest that outlives event itself, demonstrates key product initiatives and is a concrete example of the learning product and mentor networks as thought leadership in action (Comms)

Context

Channels

What tools are we working with? Channels we can use to distribute our message and reach our desired audience:

• Email, mostly to MoFo list, much of which is only subscribed to receive transactional emails.
• Snippet, the famous owned media source that drives incredible traffic but is harder to move up the ladder of engagement.
• Mozilla.org, old faithful in that it’s always “on” and drives steady traffic to webmaker.org.
• PR, leveraging the strength of the Mozilla brand, earned media is pretty consistent though hard to connect to key contribution metrics.

New or relatively un-mined channels

• Partnerships (mainly a sales channel today)
• Social
• Firefox affiliate
• Tiles

History

• There’s good reach within this existing toolkit. But also opportunity to expand.
• These channels have largely been used to promote MoFo’s signature events: Summer Code Party, Maker Party, MozFest
• Mixed-in: product announcements, training opportunities, end of year fundraising
• These have been effective hooks. But short shelf-lives for building an ongoing, self-sustaining marketing program.

Opportunity

Short term

• The immediate opportunity: better focus and becoming more programmatic.
• Better focus meaning: we can’t expect a user at the top of the funnel to be dropped into our (great) tools or (amazing) content and find their way to becoming a contributor.
• We have to simplify the ask – thinking about it as a logical sequence (funnels) and directing users down easy-to-follow paths (wizards and pathways).
• Once we’ve created the paths/funnels, we wrap them with a systematic marketing program:
  • consistent calls-to-action
  • landing pages
  • emails. welcome, drip and reactivation
• This will also allow us more lead time for planning. Plus more rigorous testing and optimization across touch-points.

Longer term

• There are LOTS of people who like us – some deeply engaged today, some on the periphery and many more who have yet to discover us.
• With the right foundation laid in the short-term we set the stage for really “seeding the movement” and “opening the tap” down the line.

Audiences

• The first step in a good marketing plan is defining the addressable market.
• Without it you can’t establish real product-market fit, craft the right message or identify appropriate communication channels.

Six Segments

• Today, we can define our addressable market by six main segments of escalating size, with six degrees of opportunity to turn them into Webmaker contributors.
• Some of these people are already deeply engaged, others are on the verge of crossing over and just need a push
• and even more are where the big, future opportunity lies – people who we haven’t yet reached but we know have the type of affinity we look for before “turning on” a marketing program.
• the smallest segment already gets what we do and wants to contribute to Webmaker.
• The other “teachers” are a larger market segment but we need to prove the value of our tools and value proposition first.
• the largest segment at the top needs a lot of education – we need to establish ourselves as thought leaders in the space to lend credibility to the product and the larger mission before we can drive mass adoption. A little more detail on this view of segmentation:

Six key segments

• 1) I learn:
  • casual learners, curious about lots of things (not just the web)
  • probably not curious about "web literacy" per se
  • NEED: to create a simple entry point into the Webmaker ecosystem
  • then mentor them through a process that will show them the value of web literacy over time.
• 2) I make:
  • deeply committed to making
  • but don’t necessarily connect this making with a larger communal good that can be achieved via teaching/mentoring
  • NEED: to help them make the connection to that larger impact and enable them with our tools.
• 3) I show
  • casual mentors in their personal networks
  • but they don’t identify as institutional educators or "teachers" in the traditional sense
  • NEED: to deepen the level and frequency of engagement, in a more intentional fashion and with a wider audience.
• 4) I teach
  • teachers by nature
  • but they're likely to associate "web literacy" with "teaching to code"
  • NEED: educate them that web literacy is more than just coding; it’s a critical skill like reading, writing and math.
• 5) I teach tech
  • committed to teaching technology
  • but likely a more narrow version of it than our larger web literacy vision
  • NEED: convince this group that the Webmaker version of teaching/web literacy is the best approach.
• 6) I teach tech and am wanting
  • believe in the value of web literacy and are bought into the Webmaker approach
  • they are ready/willing to devote their time to help grow our movement.

Blog posts

• Post 1: Getting to It (the current landscape)
• Post 2: Six Degrees of Webmaker (addressable market)
• Post 3: A Clear Path (path-to-market narrative)
• Post 4: Path-to-Market: Short Form (path-to-market summary)