[Epo-marketing] Thoughts on writing marketing stuff

[Mike Whitaker]

- Be positive.

	If you say 'Perl is not dead' people won't hear the 'not', they'll  
hear the punchy word 'dead'. (Example - ever wondered why no-one stops  
running if you yell 'don't run'? That's why the police are trained to  
yell 'walk!' at crowds... must try that one on my son!)

- In a similar vein, promote Perl, rather than knock down other  
languages.

	Comparisons are fine. Fact corrections are fine - "Actually, Perl  
does do X'... We're not in the business, I don't believe, of selling  
Perl as the best language ever (even thought it is :) :) :) :) ), but  
of repairing the perception of Perl as an enterprise language.

- Fact check your stuff

	This should go without saying. A factual error will invalidate the  
rest of your arguments in some folks' eyes.

- Think about your target audience!

  	EPO effectively has three target audiences:
         - the already enlightened Perl community (the IRC etc  
regulars). We want these folks as members, evangelists, activists,  
working group contributors
	- the folks still writing Perl 4 in Perl 5, or rejecting Perl in  
favour of PHP/Java/whatever because their perception of Perl IS Perl 4  
or early 5.
         - CEOs/CTOs/CIOs/other tech management/architect roles

         They're different groups, and they need to be addressed  
differently.

- Be sure you know what you're trying to sell, and stay focussed

    	If you're (for example) plugging the extended core working group,  
don't digress onto who we're giving grants to...
--
Mike Whitaker - mike at altrion.org