When we first entered the developer marketing industry 12 years ago, very few companies understood developers and even fewer had formal developer marketing programs. As more companies created software products to offer digital services and better meet consumer needs, developers have become a larger and more powerful force.
Two weeks ago, Catchy Agency attended the Product Marketing Summit in Seattle, where some of the brightest product marketers came together and shared their insights, success stories, and best practices. Managing Partner Gary Gonzalez joined the “Agile Your Go-to-Market Strategy” fireside chat session to share Catchy’s experience building GTM strategies for our clients. You can check out the video if you have a bit of free time, or read on to learn more about the insights Gary shared.
Although your ultimate buyer might be the CTO, CMO, or Head of R&D, the end users can be engineers or developers who have a big influence on the buyer’s decision.
– Session “Product Marketing in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.”
What Product Managers Need to Know to Reach Developers
For tech companies offering software solutions or development tools, developers play a critical role in the discovery, adoption, and advocacy of your product. They can be your key path to market and, as a result, “developer marketing” is a keyword that marketers can’t miss.
#1 Give developers what they want, quickly
The average attention span of a modern consumer is only 8 seconds, making it necessary for marketers to tell shorter stories. When it comes to what kind of story to tell, we might focus on brand value, product solution, and personalized info, depending on the stage of the funnel.
– Session “Storytelling in 60 seconds”
For many consumers, stories and emotions drive purchase decisions. But developers are often more analytic minded, and frequently evaluate their options independent of a brand's look or feel. This can make them a challenging audience to reach with traditional marketing.
They don’t want the marketing fluff
As mentioned earlier, developers usually have a specific technical problem that they are trying to solve. As a result, they will be laser focused on finding the right solution. Are you still using marketing jargon, like “best in class”, “industry leading”, “award winning”, and so on? Maybe it’s time to scale back and focus on your product’s key differentiators in the market.
They want to learn by themselves
Developers are self-starters and take pride in solving issues on their own. Are you offering solid information for them to learn and evaluate your product on their own? Robust documentation, use cases, and guides/tutorials are some of the most popular and needed content that developers expect to see and consume.
They want to try with their own hands
Developers are builders and creators who love to get their hands dirty. Instead of trusting you on how fast the experience is, they want to test it on their own. Are you providing an easy and seamless testing experience for developers (e.g., demo, free trial, sandbox)?
#2 Make developers feel supported
As a product marketer, it is crucial to have a pipeline from customer support to you because that’s the easiest way to listen to your customers and possibly address their challenges and frustrations. In addition, showing appreciation and offering rewards are great ways to keep your customers engaged.
– Session “A Closer Look at Defining Your Audience”.
If bland marketing does not bring excitement to the developer audience, how do we create a pleasant experience for them? This is where developer support and the developer community come in. Even if developers are self-starters who want to solve issues on their own, when they encounter challenges, they want to feel supported.
They trust their peers
Building a strong community is a crucial part of your developer experience.The more developers and quality interactions there are in your community, the more confident a developer will feel about succeeding in solving their problems quickly and independently.
They want to be recognized for their knowledge
Developers are craftsmen who take pride in their skills and respect and admire those of others. They build their reputation by sharing their solutions, answering others' questions, and participating in hackathons and contests.
Discover Catchy’s winning developer marketing formula
For the past 12 years, Catchy Agency has supported clients across various industries to build developer marketing programs and drive product growth. We built our own Developer Marketing Guide and continue to evolve our approach and offerings to better service our clients. To learn more about how Catchy Agency can help you with your business, contact us by filling out the form below.
