Creating a Compelling Developer Value Proposition
Developer marketers should test, evaluate, and iterate their value propositions.
A developer value proposition is a concise and powerful statement that defines the value of your product or service for your developer audience.
It is no secret that developers are sensitive to marketing fluff and time-wasting. Therefore, your value proposition must convey:
- What is the motivation for a developer to use your product
- Why your product or service exists
- Who it’s for
- Why it succeeds
Though creating a value proposition may sound easy, it takes thought, testing, and iteration to create one that is compelling. It can be challenging to convey the essence of a product or service to developers in a few sentences. Taking the time to compose a clear and focused value proposition statement pays dividends over time.
We highlight some examples of companies creating a single sentence value proposition, a tagline in effect. Your value proposition may not be that. It could be a paragraph or few sentences, or even a bullet point list. Your value proposition, in this case, is used to define your marketing messages across all of your materials.
A value proposition is vital in communicating internally to your team and externally to developers. It can also play a key role in product and service development. As you define your development roadmap, you should evaluate how it aligns with your value proposition. Ask yourself, “Does feature X enhance or undermine our value proposition?” Sometimes the most straightforward questions can cut through hours of debate on resource allocation and investment decisions.
To illustrate this point, let’s look at some examples from the world of developer marketing.