We launch into our 2015 Mozilla Learning plan with lots of momentum. We have a strong, engaged base of contributors built on the ground through solid partnerships, strong and growing Hive learning networks, and our popular annual Maker Party. Our marketing objective in 2015: capitalize on this momentum and expand to reach a broader audience.
It’s worth noting that there are important elements of both marketing and sales in our approach. Marketing will be used to reach individuals through our broadcast channels – think Mozilla’s equivalent of a super bowl ad, the snippet – and have them engage with our Webmaker product. Sales will be used to take our program offerings to new and existing partners and demonstrate the value to them of incorporating the Mozilla Learning network approach into their work.

Our Goals

We’ll implement a two-pronged approach, building on what’s been working within our sales and partnership channels while reaching for a new, mass market of individual learners through marketing. The assumption is we can do two things at once and do them well: target an audience of learners and mentors in parallel, likely in different channels with slightly different messages. With this approach we aim to:

• Have 250,000 people actively making and learning with the Webmaker desktop tool and mobile app through increased marketing activity.
• Expand our the global footprint of our learning networks to 500 cities by running a Maker Party campaign, launching the club model, and adding more Hive Learning Network locations through successful sales and partnership engagements.

Branding: One Mozilla

Wrapped around this marketing and partnership 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.
With our on-the ground programs and online products, we’re taking the opportunity to evaluate our branding position across all of the Foundation’s initiatives. In practice, this means moving towards aligning products and programs in a way that is more similar to the Firefox-Mozilla architecture. The working version of this is Webmaker as our product tied to an individual’s desire to make and Mozilla Learning Network as the product tied to a community’s desire to change how digital literacy education works.
There are nuances of course — brand architecture questions to be worked through and naming and positioning to be established — but an efficient, thoughtful process that leads to a crisp, cohesive brand framework is the P1 this quarter.

Communications: Broadened awareness & thought leadership

With a working version of branding sorted out, another key umbrella for all product and programmatic activity is building and deploying a better communications plan. One that positions and establishes Mozilla as a leader in the global movement to keep the Web open, empowers users in emerging markets to become creators, not just consumers, and differentiates our literacy efforts as innovative, unrivaled and impactful. To get there, we’ll be focused on a few specific things over the next few months:

• Improved long-term planning
• Expanding our capacity by adding a Comms Manager
• Better integration with Mozilla-wide opportunities
• More earned media and public recognition
• More strategic use of social media

Webmaker product marketing: Engagement, growth and impact

Our goal for the Webmaker product this year is to achieve real scale by reaching a mass market, defined as anyone who wants to make something on the web. That’s quite a “mass” when you consider the number of people already creating blogs, making .gifs, selling goods on Etsy, or editing and sharing photos on Instagram.
In our experience the best way to equip people with skills for this digital age is to empower them to become makers. Learning and skills development is something that happens as part of the experience. With this in mind, the Webmaker product team is building a free, simple-to-use and fun tool for creating on the web. It’s localized for their communities, relevant to their social, economic and cultural needs, allows for making on any type of device, and enables them to learn new skills.
As the new tool emerges over the next 3 months, we’ll engage in a variety of marketing activities to hone our go-to-market approach and kick-off a new era of learning with Webmaker. Here are some of the specific projects and initiatives taking shape over the next two quarters:

• Honing a maker-focused value proposition
• Testing and optimizing conversion and onboarding
• Successfully launching beta at Mobile World Congress
• Building buzz and attention around new Webmaker product
• Testing new App acquisition channels
• Better integration and prominence within Mozilla-wide campaigns
• Localizing our marketing

Learning Network sales: quality growth

Foundationally, our learning network presence on the ground works. We continue to have a compelling offering that allows us to reach a 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.
Mozilla’s connected learning networks offer 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. We want to continue to build upon what’s working and try some new ways to expand our reach and footprint along the way.
Working off two tiers of engagement — the developing “Webmaker clubs” model currently being piloted and the established Hive network model —  the Learning Networks team is already busy growing this area of our work. As those plans take shape, we can grow sales of our learning netwok offering to partners and support ongoing promotion and engagement through marketing by focusing on:

• Building ongoing engagement campaigns for existing contributors
• Creating buzz and attention around the launch of Webmaker Clubs inside the teaching community
• Taking better advantage of existing and new partnerships by building out a robust sales pipeline
• Using 2015’s Maker Party campaign as a way to attract new partners and re-engage existing mentors

Looking Forward

There are lots of moving pieces to wrangle, tough branding questions to be resolved, and new messages to be honed. In many ways, we are approaching Q1 as a test-bed to get these things right. With a methodical approach to testing, optimization and planning in the next few months, we’re optimistic we’ll be in a strong position to launch our new products and programs in a big way — bigger, better and more impactful than anything we’ve done before.