The State of Developer Marketing: Key Takeaways

Developer Marketing Alliance recently published its annual State of Developer Marketing report for 2023/2024. Managing Partner Gary Gonzalez shares his thoughts on the report’s findings and what they mean for the future of the industry.

Gary Gonzalez

Managing Partner

Developer Marketing

Much like a holiday greeting card, every time a new developer industry report comes out, I send a copy to just about everyone I work with. However, unlike my holiday cards, these reports are usually over 50 pages long and typically don’t get read by anyone I send them to. As such, I’ve gotten into the habit of writing short, skimmable recaps that contain what I think are the most valuable findings from the report and commentary explaining how it applies to our work at Catchy.

The latest one to come across my desk was the 2023/2024 State of Developer Marketing Report from Developer Marketing Alliance (DMA). The report includes data from the annual survey of developer marketing practitioners conducted by DMA and shows the state of the industry across a range of categories. Here are a few things to be aware of before we begin:

Catchy has been a paid sponsor of Developer Marketing Alliance events. This recap is not a paid partnership; our thoughts are our own.
The report does not share the number of participants in the data set. As such, Catchy cannot vouch for the statistical significance of the findings.
90% of the respondents were from North America and Europe, so the findings are likely relevant only to those regions.

Key Takeaways

1. The Product-Led Growth Challenge

“Just like in 2022, the vast majority of developer marketers who participated in our survey describe their company as product-first (52%). Customer-first (24%) and sales-first approaches (20%) came second and third, while marketing-first companies only accounted for 4% of responses.”

Source: Page 14

It’s no surprise that most successful programs follow the product-led growth (PLG) playbook since developer marketing is inherently a product-first discipline. However, there’s an interesting shift taking place as more legacy technology companies (banks, manufacturing, telecommunications, etc.) start opening their doors to developers.

In many cases, PLG goes against the principles of how these companies have operated for decades. A considerable amount of organizational change is needed for their developer programs to succeed, and this process can be fraught with barriers, resistance, and complications.

A Note on Developer Transformation

“Developer Transformation” is the process a company goes through to open itself up to developers. This process is typically a large-scale organizational change that includes evolving and adapting practices, strategies, and culture to build the necessary foundation for a developer marketing program.

For any company that needs to generate awareness, interest, and loyalty among a developer audience, a “Developer Transformation” is essential to build trust, foster loyalty, and create a positive relationship within the relevant developer communities.

2. The Search for a Meaningful Measure of Success

“There are many things to love about developer marketing, but the industry also comes with many challenges that professionals have to overcome. We asked our respondents about the challenges they face in their role, and the top answers were measuring success (24%), choosing the best type of marketing (16%), and understanding customers (12%).”

Source: Page 24

It’s unsurprising to see “measuring success” at the top of the list of challenges. Developer marketing success relies on a complex combination of metrics, not just “awareness” or “qualified leads.”

We’re seeing a number of the leading developer programs implement unified reporting initiatives such as “Developer Acquisition Cost” and “Developer Lifetime Value” aimed at capturing overarching metrics.

3. The Blurred Lines Between Developer Marketing and Developer Relations

“Our respondents have many different core responsibilities in their day-to-day. The top five are managing the developer community (68%), content creation (64%), product positioning and messaging (52%), collaborating with sales (44%), and planning events (44%).”

Source: Page 27

It’s alarming to see community management at the top of a developer marketing list when this is a developer relations role in practice. The lines between developer marketing and developer relations often blur at the organizational level, meaning professionals from one side often take on jobs better suited to the other.

The approach Catchy takes to “Developer Transformation” focuses on restructuring teams, talent, and resources so companies can more appropriately balance these two functions. It sounds simple, but the right people in the right seats will produce the best work.

4. The Importance of Developer Marketing Fundamentals

“In 2023, the overwhelming majority (72.2%) chose selling to developers instead of educating as the most harmful activity. Making it hard for developers to access products (11.1%) and going for an early sale (11.1%) were the second and third.”

Source: Page 45

Industry trends change over time, but the fundamentals of developer marketing continue to apply across any developer-facing organization.

In short:

Don’t sell to developers
Don’t block their access to your product
Make it easy for them to learn how to use it
Communicate on their terms

5. Developer Communities as Growing Sources of Information

“There are many different developer communities, as developers hang out in many different spaces. So, we wanted to find out where developer marketers were finding developers.

The answers were varied and included community groups (50%), social media (44.5%), events (33.3%), organic search (27.8%), and online forums (22.2%).”

Source: Page 48

The outreach data backs up one of the biggest trends we’ve tracked over the last three years: the rise of focused community groups over other channels like social media and events.

Developers spend more time than ever in niche groups sharing highly specific information. It takes a lot of leg work to research and find these groups, but once you’ve done the work, you can focus your marketing and community efforts accordingly. This process can achieve a fivefold ROI increase on ad spend because of how hyper-focused these groups are.

What’s Next for Developer Marketing?

As the developer marketing industry grows in size and complexity, front-line practitioners continue to drive innovation forward. It’s shaping up to be a big year as more companies embrace open ecosystems, AI continues its rapid evolution, and Web3 makes its long-awaited return to the spotlight.

Technology is changing the world faster than ever, but the savvy developer marketing professional can thrive by getting ahead of the trends and focusing on the fundamentals.

Here’s to a great 2024!

Need developer marketing guidance? Get in touch!