You can choose to argue my point; I’ll respect that….But I’ll say it: legacy marketing channels are getting far less capable of handling modern marketing demands. With a quick look, you’ll instantly notice that the current customer bases for diverse brands and industries are becoming more and more unpredictable.
Las time out, I did keep an eye out for newer and flexible solutions around marketing that appeared quite scalable, even as time went by. My search took me back to nothing else…. but open-source communities, aha!
Of course, I put in some work to see how well I could harness these communities and use them in my marketing efforts. I came out on top, and proud, and also discovered that it was a goldmine that many marketers are sleeping on. No wonder many companies invest in open-source development.
Here is everything I learned, wrapped in five whole points!
1. You’ll Get No Better Flexibility Elsewhere
As I dived deeper into open-source communities, I was shocked by the level at which I could experiment with new ideas and fast-track my campaigns. Did I believe that I could actually explore code and get serious inspiration just by messing around on GitHub? Well…. not exactly.
I used the applications I needed in a very simple way: start with the free version available to the community, then scale up with time, only if need be. Another thing I absolutely enjoyed in terms of flexibility was the serious customization options. Chill, will get to that in a bit.
The proprietary applications I had worked with in the past did not offer nearly enough flexibility. With more flexibility, I could quickly integrate new technology and tools. The timing was another thing I found really great. The result? I beat my so-called marketing competitors in the productivity department. Don’t blame me, it’s the game!
2. Teams Are as Transparent as They Come
In these open-source communities, I kinda learned that people, marketers in my case, who adopted tools early enough did enjoy unfair advantages. Let me not forget to mention that the internal operations are really really efficient.
Switch to the part where onboarding these open-source marketing software is quite easy and does not require so much training. I was able to work smarter and collaborate more with my co-marketing guys.
I did observe that this increased transparency allowed me and my team to perform far better than I expected. Another thing: since I got insights from the community, my marketing efforts were rather open. This open-source culture makes the job easier anyways!
3. Virtually Unlimited Prospects From the Available Data
As a marketer, one of the biggest problems I faced was getting access to the data I needed. I handle most of my campaigns in a simple but effective fashion: I look for info on buyers’ behavior or where store traffic comes from. Luckily for me, open-source communities dealt with the data-deficiency problem. I’ll explain how!
All businesses, online, mobile, or brick-and-mortar ones, typically look for a source of information regarding their customer experiences. They can choose to wait for reviews, social media comments, blah blah, and blah. No doubt, those channels can be helpful, sometimes.
But what if I told you that open-source communities, in my experience, have handled the issue around how you access customer feedback? Through these communities, you can quickly access multiple data streams and see how people react to different features, modes, and uses on an application, simple!
4. Way Way Cheaper
Before I jumped into marketing, “open-source” sounded so much like “free” to me. Maybe that was one reason why I didn’t appreciate these communities so much at first. Down the line, I got the businesses I worked for to purchase the licenses for the software they needed.
One thing struck me! The prices were really low, given their value. Besides, everything I needed was out in the open for me to accesss in these communities. No one had mentioned this perk to me when I was starting. I did learn my lesson. The marketing departments I subsequently worked with had to invest in the required applications.
5. Security? It’s a Tricky One
Before jumping into open-source communities as a marketer, I had noticed a lot of skepticism regarding security. People were unsure how open-source applications were kept secure if everyone had access to the code. Valid concern if you ask me.
However, after I joined up, what I saw was quite the opposite, in a way! Devs, let’s call them open-source citizens, collaborate with business users to fix gaps and leaks in the security frameworks of open-source apps. The all-people-on-board approach seems to win most of the time
I noticed the following strategies at play regarding security:
- Peer reviews
- Rapid vulnerability patching
- Diverse use of security tools
- Community-driven audits
- Collaborative threat modeling
Let’s Round Up, Quickly
Until the day I stepped into an open-source community and looked at things from a marketing perspective, I was unsure how I needed it. Well, if you’re a similar guy, sorry to break your bubble. These communities offer tons of value. You’ll learn that these open applications offer serious flexibility, transparency, and data. I found out how cheap these apps are and that security is not always a concern anyways!