# GCIF Forum — User Engagement Proposal **Prepared for:** Penny Deen & Ashley Hajimirsadeghi **From:** Rian Bowden **Date:** March 24, 2026 --- Hi Penny & Ashley, Thanks for sharing your priorities — they're spot-on and very actionable. We jumped back into the site and did a thorough review of what's currently set up, what features are sitting unused, and where the biggest engagement wins are. Here's what we found and what we recommend. --- ## What We Looked At We reviewed the full platform setup: theme customizations, all 21 plugins, BuddyBoss component settings, email templates, navigation menus, page structure, the registration flow, and the front-end user experience. The goal was to find quick wins we can enable now and identify what would need a bit of build work. As part of this review, we also took care of several housekeeping items that were overdue (see "Maintenance Already Done" below) and prepared design mockups for the key engagement features so you can see exactly what we're proposing. --- ## What We Found ### Good News — You Already Have Tools We Can Use The platform has several features that are either installed but not configured, or available but not turned on: - **Push notifications** — OneSignal is configured and active with App ID, API key, and forum post types. PushEngage is also installed but has zero activity — we recommend removing it to simplify things. - **BuddyPress Profile Completion** — This plugin is installed and can nudge users to fill out their profiles, which naturally drives engagement. - **Email templates** — BuddyBoss has 31 email templates already set up. The registration email is very bare (just 2 sentences) — big opportunity to improve it. - **Social Groups** — This BuddyBoss component is installed but currently turned off. Enabling it could open up group-based engagement down the road. - **Activity Feeds, Member Connections, Media Uploading** — All active and working, but users may not know about them right after signup. ### The Gap Right now, when someone signs up and gets approved, they get a minimal email ("Thanks for registering! We will look at your application within a week.") and land on the homepage with no guidance on what to do next. There's no welcome message, no "here's how to get started" prompt, and no nudge to post or introduce themselves. That's the main thing we want to fix. We also noticed the registration requires **13 mandatory profile fields** including a biography, multiple essay questions, and references. While these are valuable for curating the community, they create a significant barrier. Something to keep in mind as we look at the full activation flow. --- ## Recommendations We've organized everything into tiers based on effort and impact. ### Tier 1: Quick Wins (Free — Within Prepaid Hours) These are things we can configure or enable right now with no added cost: **1. First-Login Welcome Popup** A friendly popup that appears the first time a user logs in after being approved. It welcomes them and gives them 3 clear actions: - "Introduce Yourself" → links to activity feed to make a post - "Browse the Forums" → links to forums - "Complete Your Profile" → links to profile editor Once they dismiss it, it won't show again. Simple, lightweight, built into the child theme. *(We've prepared an interactive HTML mockup to show you exactly what this looks like.)* **2. Enhanced Registration Email** Update the existing "Thank you for your application" email. Currently it's just 2 sentences with no warmth or guidance. We'd rewrite it to include a proper welcome, what to expect during the approval process, and clear next steps for when they get in. **3. Push Notification Cleanup** Our audit shows OneSignal is the active service (configured with App ID, API key, and forum/reply/topic post types). PushEngage has zero subscribers and zero activity. We recommend deactivating PushEngage and cleaning up a few odd settings in OneSignal (there are some junk UTM parameters and page-publish auto-notifications that shouldn't be on). **4. Profile Completion Nudge** Configure the BuddyPress Profile Completion plugin to prompt users to fill out their profile fields, upload a photo, etc. This is already installed — just needs to be set up. ### Tier 2: Small Project (Quoted Separately) These require some build time but would significantly boost the new user experience: **5. "Getting Started" Welcome Page** A dedicated page with a visual step-by-step guide: - Step 1: Complete your profile - Step 2: Introduce yourself in the Activity Feed - Step 3: Browse and join Forum discussions - Step 4: Share your work (Upload Content) New users would be redirected here after their first login (after the popup). *(Mockup prepared.)* **6. Interactive Onboarding Tour** A guided spotlight tour that walks new users through the actual site interface — highlighting the navigation, activity feed, forums, messaging, and profile areas step by step. Uses tooltips with Next/Back/Skip navigation. We've built a reusable plugin for this that can be configured without code changes. *(Interactive mockup prepared.)* **7. Welcome Email Sequence** A short automated email series sent from WordPress (no extra service needed): - **Day 1:** Welcome + how to get started - **Day 3:** "Have you introduced yourself yet?" + direct link to post - **Day 7:** Highlight popular forum discussions + encourage participation **8. Inactive User Re-engagement Email** An automated email that goes out when a user hasn't logged in for 30+ days. Friendly nudge with highlights of recent forum activity to draw them back. ### Tier 3: Future Considerations Things worth thinking about for later: **9. Enable Social Groups** The Groups feature is built into BuddyBoss but currently turned off. Enabling it would let members form topic-based or region-based groups with their own activity feeds — great for engagement. **10. Onboarding Checklist / Progress Bar** A visual checklist on the user's profile showing their onboarding progress (profile complete, first post made, first forum reply, etc.). Adds a light gamification element. **11. Content Digest Emails** Weekly or monthly email highlights showing popular posts, active discussions, and new members — keeps the community top of mind. --- ## What We Recommend Starting With Given the budget, here's what makes sense: **Use the remaining prepaid time for Tier 1** — the welcome popup, email enhancement, push notification cleanup, and profile completion setup. These are the highest-impact, lowest-cost items and directly address Penny's priority of reducing the "I signed up but don't know what to do next" gap. **Then we can quote Tier 2 as a small follow-up project.** The welcome page, onboarding tour, email sequence, and re-engagement email are all buildable within a modest scope. We'll provide a detailed estimate once we've completed the Tier 1 work and have a better sense of any quirks. --- ## Estimated Hours | Item | Est. Hours | |------|-----------| | **Tier 1: Quick Wins** | | | Welcome popup (first-login) | ~1 hr | | Enhanced registration email | ~0.5 hr | | Push notification cleanup & config | ~0.5 hr | | Profile completion setup | ~0.25 hr | | **Tier 1 Total** | **~2.25 hrs** | | | | | **Tier 2: Small Project** | | | Getting Started welcome page | ~1-2 hrs | | Interactive onboarding tour (plugin) | ~2-3 hrs | | Welcome email sequence (Day 1, 3, 7) | ~2-3 hrs | | Inactive user re-engagement email | ~1-2 hrs | | Registration redirect to welcome page | ~0.5 hr | | **Tier 2 Total** | **~7-11 hrs** | *Tier 1 fits within or very close to the remaining prepaid hours. Tier 2 would be quoted as a separate small project.* --- ## Maintenance Already Done As part of our review, we went ahead and took care of these housekeeping items at no extra charge: - ✅ **Deactivated & removed Mailhog plugin** — this was a development/testing tool that was still running on the live site. - ✅ **Removed Conditional Menus plugin** — was inactive and unused, just taking up space. - ✅ **Renewed Gravity Forms license** — the license was expired on all 3 GF plugins (core + User Registration + Advanced Post Creation), blocking security updates. Now renewed and auto-updates restored. - ✅ **Updated BuddyBoss Platform & all plugins** — updated to latest versions (one GF addon requires manual download, noted for follow-up). - ✅ **Audited push notification setup** — documented that OneSignal is active and PushEngage is unused (see Tier 1, item 3). - ✅ **Audited all 31 email templates** — reviewed content and identified the registration email as a key improvement area. - ✅ **Audited profile fields** — documented all 17 fields (13 required) to understand the registration barrier. ## Maintenance Flag - **Duplicate "Upload Your Content" pages** — there are two versions (`/upload-your-content/` in the main nav and `/upload-content/` newer version). We need direction on which to keep. - **BuddyBoss Profiles Settings page error** — the Profiles tab under BuddyBoss Settings is throwing a critical PHP error. Not affecting the front-end currently, but should be investigated. --- ## Next Steps 1. Let us know if this aligns with your priorities and if you'd like us to proceed with Tier 1 2. We'll knock out the quick wins within the prepaid hours 3. We'll send a formal quote for Tier 2 once Tier 1 is complete 4. Happy to jump on a quick call if you'd like to discuss anything Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! Best, Rian