Send regular newsletters

[jenlampton]

We need to do a better job of keeping our peeps up to date with what is going on in Backdrop. We started this by doing a better job with social media and writing regular blog posts but we should also send newsletters for those who prefer to get news in their inbox.

Every newsletter should include:

• Main topic (for example, 1.13 release)
• List of 3 next upcoming events w link to https://backdropcms.org/news/events
• Call to contribute at https://backdropcms.org/contribute
• thank you to whoever created the newsletter :)

Topic ideas:

• Software Freedom Conservancy
• Services that support backdrop / Partnership announcements
• Showcase sites (technical - how? / human - why?)
• What's new on backdropcms.org
• Info about the latest releases
• Best practices? / How-to / Tutorials (w/ video!)
• Community spotlights

Past Newsletters:

• 08/30/2017 - CiviCRM
• 07/27/2017 - Our First Community Spotlight!
• 06/30/2017 - Have You Checked the Backdrop CMS Blog?
• 06/01/2017 - Check out Backdrop CMS 1.7!
• 02/13/2017 - Backdrop CMS 1.6 is Here!
• 11/04/2016 - What's in Backdrop 1.5?
• 09/09/2016 - Backdrop CMS on the rise
• 04/22/2016 - What's new on backdropcms.org
• 03/18/2016 - What's new in Backdrop 1.3
• 09/24/2015 - Backdrop 1.2 Released!
• 05/27/2015 - Backdrop 1.1 Released!
• 01/20/2015 - Backdrop CMS 1.0 is out!
• 12/19/2014 - Backdrop CMS: initial release Jan 15th
• 11/20/2013 - Backdrop CMS Update

And here are some notes for the person drafting the newsletter: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aMToiPOzhSpAKPmKk2nCq5zITUFGRiT6HZBSltPE5Ec/edit?usp=sharing

[quicksketch]

As this issue is linked from our weekly outreach meeting agendas, could we update it with any new suggestions? We sent out the 1.6 newsletter obviously, and I think Facet Interactive is putting together a new newsletter with some kind of feature-callouts. Is there another place we are tracking that besides ad-hoc?

[jenlampton]

I've updated the main ticket with a list of past/future newsletter topics.

In order to figure out what content should be in our newsletters, Facet has started on a content strategy map: backdrop-ops/backdropcms.org#349 We could use thoughts/feedback on that issue.

[oadaeh]

Hello.
I'm somewhat reluctant to say this, simply because my time is already overbooked, but I have been studying email marketing as a facet of redirecting my business down a different path, and it occurred to me 2 or 3 weeks ago that I could use the skills I'm developing to help out here.
If that sounds like a good idea to whomever cares, let me know. :)

[jenlampton]

Yes!!!!

[klonos]

I recently started using https://getstation.com ...it asked me if I wanted to receive some tips via email. Here's one of them:

I think that It'd be great if we sent out such "did you know that you could do this/that" emails. Keep them short and sweet.

[jenlampton]

@oadaeh yes please!!! :)

[oadaeh]

Sorry for the lack of follow through here. I have not entirely forgotten or ignored this, but I have been rather busy working 55-65 hours a week trying to get some things going. I'm hoping I will be able to allocate/prioritize time for this starting in October or November.

[oadaeh]

Where are all the past newsletters stored, and is there any sort of template to use to keep them all looking and feeling the same?

[jenlampton]

@oadaeh they are all in mailchimp, along with the template. And there should also be drafts in google docs, but finding those could be trixy. I'm not sure they are linked anywhere.

[ghost]

I've volunteered to do the newsletter; at least each minor release (every 4 months), but possibly monthly if I can get the hang of it and find enough interesting things to add.

@philsward posted some good suggestions in Zulip which I'll copy here for future reference:

With everything, I look at things like "What would I want?"

"What would I want in a newsletter? (not in order)"

List of 1-5 recently ported modules - Link to module pages
A spotlight module that isn't well known but maybe worth checking out - Link to module page
Latest past release and 1-3 top features or reasons for the release (brief mention about major bugs that were taken care of or features that were added) - Link to release notes
Upcoming planned release, exciting features or fixes and expected date of release - Link to details if available?
Link to latest blog post or helpful tutorial / article (if any) with a shout-out to the author
Give or take, those are pieces of information that I would find "useful" in an ongoing backdrop newsletter. Keep them short, sweet, to the point with only the most relevant information. These would be nice to get monthly.

Additional Newsletter Content Ideas
Whenever a milestone release has dropped, a fanfare announcing its release and the top issues that were added/fixed with a link to the full release notes.

6-mo mark, a quick overview for the roadmap of what the next six months will look like:

Projected module ports (if any)
Projected features / fixes
Projected releases and dates
Start of the year, a roadmap for the year of what is projected to be accomplished for the platform and the organization.
This one would probably be the most in-depth and could be written in a blog style. Maybe throw in some Kudos to folks who made things happen.

[oadaeh]

A lot of those items sound very developer-centric. If the newsletter is supposed to go to a larger audience, like to site owners, then I would order and word things with that audience in mind.

[philsward]

My perspective:

@oadaeh we need to start somewhere. As the demographic grows and evolves, additional newsletters or content that deal with non-dev topics can be created / added later.

Right now though, the main demographic is going to be site builders, themers and engineers which is also the demographic we want to help contribute.

My points are merely ideas of info I would be interested in as a site builder and I feel others would be interested in as well.

My thoughts on the newsletter for now is to make a template that is easy to follow of 5-10 things the responsible party can find info on in 20min or less to generate the content. Cut-and-paste with a little flair. Additional info can always be added as necessary.

In the weekly meetings, the problem doesn't appear to be content, but rather time. So one answer to solving time is to make the content generation cut-and-dry to shave off time for those who create it.

@BWPanda is it worth adding a theme showcase bullet point to my previous idea? This is something that could be sprinkled among the newsletters if there's chatter about it. (I wouldn't showcase a theme every letter unless there truly are enough themes to warrant it.)

[docwilmot]

I found "code snippet" type articles very helpful in my early days. As simple as how to "programmatically create a node". Seems simple but very appreciated when you have no clue what you're doing.

[ghost]

Now that newsletters are being sent out monthly (so far), should we close this issue, or does it need to stay open?

[stpaultim]

I would say that we should leave it open until we have made it more than 2 months in a row. Maybe at 4-5 months, we can be a bit more confident that we've got a sustainable system in place.

I think we have done 2 months in a row before, only to have it breakdown (speaking from personal experience).

[stpaultim]

I'm going to work on the next Newsletter this week. Does anyone have anything to contribute?