A new service line for CMSMS

[kendo451]

I read Ted's post about his frustration that CMSMS has not getting the publicity and credit it deserves as an excellent CMS. Some neophyte user reviews, like the one he quoted, have been not too great.

I suspect the problem comes partly from the fact that CMSMS has a tagline, or "unique service proposition" that is aimed at the wrong audience.  The tagline I am referring to is "so easy, it feels like a holiday..."

This tagline appears to be aimed at users like the people who use Joomla and Wordpress. However, CMSMS is not a great fit for that kind of do-it-yourself one-website user who doesn't know squat about web design, CSS etc. When people like that try to use CMSMS and have no clue what SMARTY is, they think it is proprietary to CMSMS.  They simply don't understand the power under the hood.  It is a very big learning curve for them to learn how to customize their own site.

Calguy1000 put well when he said:

CMS Made Simple is not designed for my father or grandfather, or even my girlfriend to build websites with (as I get slapped).  If it was designed for them it'd be alot simpler (think frontpage, but that's already done).  It's primary target is people who develop websites for a full time, or part time living.  People who know about (at least most of) the concepts like XHTML, CSS, Cascading CSS, separation of design from content, re-use of design. Know about databases, and the advantages and disadvantages thereof, know some things about pretty urls, SEO, re-use of code, and what it takes to develop a professional semi-static website.  These are the people we're marketing towards: The people that know the output they want, they just want to be able to do it quickly and easily.  Not my brother, not my mother, father, grandmother, aunt or girlfriend...

CMS made simple is, or should be, The CMS of Choice for Web Designers/Developers. Once we professionals have used CMSMS to build a site for a client, the interface is very easy to use for the client!  So perhaps the service line should be directed at the web developers group if we want to get more attention and recognition for this very powerful system.  We are the ones who choose or recommend this CMS for our clients.  So sell to the decision makers - web professionals.

I suggest we use this thread to brainstorm some alternative service lines for CMSMS, please add to mine:

CMS Made Simple - The Ideal CMS for Web Designers

CMS Made Simple - Whip Out Dynamic Sites in Notime Flat

CMS Made Simple - The Web Developer's 1st Choice

CMS Made Simple - Powerful for Designers, Easy for Users

CMS Made Simple - Power meets Simplicity

CMS Made Simple - Powerful, Flexible, Usable, Simple

[kendo451]

CMS Made Simple - Made by Web Developers for Web Developers

[calguy1000]

CMS Made Simple - Power meets Simplicity
I like that.

[westis]

This is a great thread!

Indeed our current tagline doesn't give the right impression. "Power meets simplicity" is excellent. Short and telling. And in the description about what CMSMS is: "The CMS of choice for web designers/developers".

Personally I don't really belong to the target audience, although I'm involved in the dev team... But I'm in the category of those willing to learn about CSS, Smarty, databases etc. knowing that those are requirements for being able to customize CMSMS.

What the current tagline may say, however, is that for the *user* it's that easy. There must be an administrator/designer/developer doing the customizing, but then any of those calguy1000 mention could maintain the content of the site.

That's where I think the real power of CMSMS lies, flexible and powerful for those who know what they're doing, and easy and simple for those doing nothing more than adding and editing content, with no other knowledge of any of these terms.

Let's do some more brainstorming and we could later on even run a poll for a new service line for when the new design will see the light of day!

[kendo451]

As a web designer, I find that CMS Made Simple is a real competitive edge for selling my business.  I am able to offer my clients a website with a control panel that is easy for them to use.  They don't have to buy a maintenance contract.

But clients who love this feature are not the kind of people who know what a content management system is.  Most of them are probably unaware that their site runs on CMS Made Simple. In my sales pitch on my web site, I have to dumb down "content management system" to something they will understand like, "We design your website with a system that makes it easy for you to update. No programming skills or special software are needed."

So web designers and web developers are the people who need to get excited about this product and sell it as part of their services.  Promote this to web designers and who gives a rip what the Joomla community thinks...

[moorezilla]

CMS Made Simple - as fast as Floyd Landis but a whole lot cleaner!
CMS Made Simple - the party plopped on top of Smarty!
CMS Made Simple - not yo granmama's cms!
CMS Made Simple - so easy, but not as easy as yo mama... errr... as easy as yo mama needs it for her to use it as her cms!
CMS Made Simple - if you rtfm!
CMS Made Simple - built by socialists for socialists!
CMS Made Simple - powerful enough for Britney's fan site, especially now!
CMS Made Simple - rm -rf meets Joomla!
CMS Made Simple - Shizzle Yo Pixel, Biznitch!
CMS Made Simple - we voted Joomla off the island!
CMS Made Simple - the biggest revolution since the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor!
CMS Made Simple - wget a piece today!
CMS Made Simple - Blame Canada! Blame Canada!
CMS Made Simple - Chicks dig simple, not hard... not that we're flaccid or anything.
CMS Made Simple - Virile AND easy!

[Signex]

I really agree with Kendo451.

Although installing cmsms is indeed so easy that it feels like taking a holiday. You are nowhere near a finished website when having a default installation.

I also believe that if cmsms heavily targets on the learning curve to be as small as possible, it will not ever be as good as it can be. I dont see a reasonable or even a steep learning curve as a negative thing, it keeps the community helpful because most people who will use cmsms are willing to take the time to learn the system because they know its a good product. Maybe it wouldnt grow as fast as Joomla but it will attract webdevelopers en designer, on which I agree should be the target audience.

Basically only the webdeveloper/designer needs to know what cmsms can do and he will know when he delivers a website for a clients he knows the "updating management" is as easy as it gets.

I really like your "CMS Made Simple - Power meets Simplicity" qoute, it says exactly what needs to be targeted; The webdevelopers & designers almost everything with the power cmsms has, his/her client has the simplicity for the content management.

[kendo451]

It might not be a bad idea to make this a self-conscious principle for ongoing development:

• Powerful for the developer
  Simple for the Site User

It would help keep clarity in the development goals...

[westis]

It might not be a bad idea to make this a self-conscious principle for ongoing development:

• Powerful for the developer
  Simple for the Site User

It would help keep clarity in the development goals...

Power and simplicity - power for the developer, simplicity for the site user. Flexibility could be added to that, for the designer. But maybe Power, flexibility and simplicity is too long?

Although it's not as punchy as simply "Power and simplicity" that would target the three main groups: web developers, web designers and site users.

Indeed CMSMS as a system should aim at the first two, although the simplicity for the user is as important as a marketing tool, since anyone can maintain the content of the site once it's up and ready. But sure, that is still targetting the first two groups: hey web developers and web designers, you can create sites with this system that the rest of the fellas at work can maintain!

[calguy1000]

I don't even mind our current 'slogan' as long as we qualify nice and obviously, somewhere what our target audience is.

[Pierre M.]

Hello all,

sorry, some off topic stuff :

(my customers) don't have to buy a maintenance contract.

If the end user is IT clueless (s)he should buy at least a little maintenance contract providing software upgrades (to current official stable release) (for security fixes).

BTW, I like "power for the developer, flexibility for the designer, simplicity for the site end user".
And I think CMSms is simple for the developer and the designer too

Pierre M.