DavidAs a developer marketer with 20+ years of experience in the SaaS industry, I understand that developers are a unique audience, that require a different approach when marketing to them. Most marketing teams (especially at PLG companies) stumble and still use the traditional playbook and wonder why they can’t get much traction.
I will share my insights into why developers are different and provide examples of how to effectively market to this persona. My goal is to help other marketers learn how to engage developers, foster trust, and ultimately increase the chances of success in marketing SaaS products aimed at developers.
1) Developers are problem solvers at ❤️
At the core of every developer lies a desire to solve problems and create efficient solutions. They love puzzles, writing efficient code, and building things. I remember back in the early 2000’s when I built a website that connected to an Oracle database (using PL/SQL) and generated dynamic data. I was amazed. I thought it was the coolest thing ever and that really became my starting point down the developer path.
As a marketer, it’s essential to recognize this mindset and align your marketing approach to resonate with their needs, ultimately driving interest and adoption in your product. They prioritize finding efficient solutions to complex challenges. They value tools that make their work easier and more productive. Address their pain points.
👉🏽 Example #1 - Pain point - Slow build times
A developer working on a large project may experience slow build times, which can be frustrating and hinder their productivity. To solve this problem, they might go search Google for “how can i speed up build times for my react app”. This is where you want your content to appear.
🎯 Marketing Approach
Provide TOFU content that showcases how your product can significantly reduce build times for developers. Provide real-world examples of how other development teams have successfully used your product to accelerate their build process. Include testimonials from satisfied customers and a case study that demonstrates how your product has improved the efficiency of a development team in a similar industry.
👉🏽 Example #2 - Pain point - Managing dependencies
Developers often struggle with managing dependencies (aka dependency hell) in their projects, leading to version conflicts, potential vulnerabilities, and other issues that can cause delays and affect the overall stability of their codebase.
🎯 Marketing Approach
Assuming your product has a solution to this, you’d want to emphasize how it would simplify dependency management for developers, allowing them to focus on writing code instead of troubleshooting dependency issues. Provide examples of how your product's features, such as automatic dependency updates and conflict resolution, have helped other developers in similar situations.
Github did a great job to solve this problem by creating a Dependabot which alerts you (and can even automatically update) when your repo has dependencies with vulnerabilities. Then you don’t have to constantly run:
npm outdated && npm update2) Developers have a strong sense of community 👨👩👧👧
Developers aren’t just solitary coders working in isolation; they are part of a thriving, interconnected online community that values collaboration, knowledge sharing, and mutual support. They rely on social networks, forums, and online groups to share knowledge and collaborate. They also value open-source projects and peer contributions.
This strong sense of community plays a significant role in shaping developers' preferences and choices when it comes to the tools and technologies they use. Understanding this aspect of developer culture and how to leverage it in your marketing efforts is crucial for successfully promoting your product to developers.
👉🏽 Example #1 - Open-source contributions
Many developers contribute to open-source projects, allowing them to share their expertise, learn from others, and give back to the community.
🎯 Marketing Approach
Sponsor and recognize relevant open-source projects, demonstrating your commitment to the developer community. This can include funding the project, providing resources, plugging it in blog posts, listing it on your website, offering your product for free, etc.
By doing so, you'll build trust and establish your company as a valuable member of the community, making your product more appealing to developers. You definitely don’t want to just throw money at it and expect things to just “work”. Your DevRel team should be involved, contribute, and show lots of interest.
👉🏽 Example #2 - Forums and online groups
Developers frequently engage in online forums, discussion boards, and social media groups to ask/answer questions, share knowledge, and seek advice from their peers. Sites like the Stack Overflow network, HackerNews, subreddits like /r/Coding and /r/AskProgramming, to name a few. Some of these sites have a badge system which gamify’s things to encourage engagement. It works really well.
🎯 Marketing Approach
Actively participate in these online communities by answering questions, providing helpful tips, and sharing valuable content related to your product or the challenges developers face. Avoid overt self-promotion, and focus on genuinely helping others. This approach will establish your company as a trusted resource, ultimately leading to increased interest in your product.
👉🏽 Example #3 - Hackathons and developer conferences
Hackathons, meetups, and conferences hold significant value for developers as they serve as hubs of knowledge exchange, networking, exposure, inspiration, and collaborative problem-solving. These events also provide opportunities to learn about the latest tools, technologies, and best practices, as well as connect with like-minded individuals who share their passion for coding and innovation. Some of the most popular annual conferences include: AWS re:Invent, Google I/O, Microsoft Build, GitHub Universe, and PyCon.
🎯 Marketing Approach
Sponsor, attend, speak at, or host such events to engage with the developer community directly. Ideally you find a smaller event that better suits your ICP and persona. Going too broad with a shotgun approach will give you brand awareness but usually nothing more than that.
Offer workshops or presentations that showcase your product's capabilities and how it addresses developers' pain points. Include real-world examples with code samples and with your customers doing the presenting. This should not be a sales pitch. Think of it at TOFU awareness and helping them solve a problem. By doing so, you'll foster relationships with developers, gain valuable feedback, and raise awareness of your product within the community.
3) Developers are highly technical 🧠
They stay on top of the latest technology trends, programming languages, and dev tools. They appreciate in-depth information and technical tutorials and have a low tolerance for marketing fluff and buzzwords. As a marketer, recognizing and catering to their technical mindset is essential for effectively promoting your product.
👀 Example #1 - Technical blog posts and tutorials
Provide valuable in-depth technical content that delves into the intricacies of a topic, whether it's a specific programming language, development framework, or technology trend. Walk through building a simple app or setting up a new server step-by-step. Digital Ocean is a great example of this and I’ve personally followed several of their tutorials. Here’s an example of setting up a fresh instance of Ubuntu.
🎯 Marketing Approach
Publish technically rich blog posts, tutorials, guides, code snippets, etc that address the challenges and interests of your target audience. Focus on providing valuable insights, best practices, and detailed explanations. For example, if your product is based off Python, create a step-by-step tutorial with your product using Python and connecting to a database.
You can also do SEO keyword research to see what people are searching for which drives traffic to your website. For example, “How to build an app using Python using <your product name>” Then create valuable tutorials that answer these This approach will help you establish your company as a thought leader in the industry, attracting developers who value expert knowledge.
4) Developers appreciate hands-on experiences 👐🏽
Developers are hands-on learners who prefer to “kick the tires” and experiment with new tools and technologies before making any sort of commitment. They value the opportunity to download and install a product by themselves, play around with it, and assess its suitability for their specific needs. They prefer to try products before making a commitment. They also value clear and concise documentation to help them get started quickly.
Providing this is a crucial aspect of marketing your product to developers and is typically the biggest mistake companies make. Here’s an example: Marketing is measured with driving leads. Sales has a quota they need to hit. The old playbook requires visitors to fill out a form before they can download anything (gated content). It today’s PLG world, this is a HUGE mistake.
Here’s a great analogy: Imagine the next time you went to download a new app on your iPhone (or Android device) you had to fill out a form. How likely would you do it? If so, would you use real information? I doubt it. There are so many other options in the app store that you’d probably move on to another app instead.
That’s exactly how developers think when it comes to any tool or technology they want to test out. You’ll lose them before they even get a chance to try your product. Or they’ll just provide false information which Marketing then counts as a “lead” but sales can’t even follow up on.
👉🏽 Example #1 - Free trials and freemium models
As mentioned before, devs appreciate the chance to try a product before committing to a purchase, ensuring that it meets their requirements and is worth the investment. The most successful PLG companies (Zapier, Slack, Twilio, Atlassian, etc) do this and it keeps developers and users engaged.
🎯 Marketing Approach
Offer a free trial or a freemium version of your product (ideally un-gated) that allows developers to test its features and functionality without any financial or personal info obligation. Promote this trial offer on your website, social media channels, and email campaigns, highlighting the benefits developers can expect to gain from using your product. Don’t try to sell anything to them this early! Make them successful and hooked on your product instead. Then they’ll come to you to buy.
👉🏽 Example #2 - Interactive demos and sandbox environments
Developers enjoy exploring products in a risk-free, controlled environment, where they can experiment with features, test integrations, and assess performance. Have a live demo or a place with pre-populated data so they can tinker around and see how everything works.
🎯 Marketing Approach
Create an interactive demo or sandbox environment for your product that enables developers to experiment with its features without affecting their own projects. Ensure that this environment is easily accessible and equipped with sample data, code snippets, and pre-configured integrations to facilitate a smooth learning experience. You also want to consider using a wizard-style onboarding product like Userflow or AppCues to assist in the demo. Do not have a “Request a Demo” CTA on your website and expect developers to come running. They won’t.
5) Developers value thought leadership & influencers
Developers appreciate thought leadership and look up to influencers who share their expertise, best practices, and insights. They often turn to these trusted sources for guidance, inspiration, and innovative ideas. That’s why it's especially crucial to understand the importance of thought leadership and influencers within the developer community and leverage their influence to promote your offering. You also don’t want to get on their bad side because of their influence to potentially alienate your product. When Microsoft acquired Github for $7.5 billion in stock back in 2018, some of the developer community was upset and/or scared off because of privacy issues, etc.
👉🏽 Example #1 - Thought leadership blog posts
Developers enjoy reading content authored by industry experts, which provides valuable insights, best practices, and informed opinions on relevant topics. They especially listen when it’s written by influencers in their realm.
🎯 Marketing Approach
Collaborate with respected thought leaders and influencers in your target domain to create expert-authored blog posts and articles that discuss your product, its applications, or related industry trends. Not sure who to ask? Start with this list of 50 developer influencers and also ask your existing customers. If you have a DevRel team, they would certainly have a few ideas. By associating your product with these respected voices, you'll enhance its credibility and appeal to developers who follow their work.
👉🏽 Example #2 - Influencer Webinars
Industry influencer webinars are an excellent way to attract the target persona of developers because they combine the knowledge and credibility of respected industry figures with an interactive learning format that appeals to the developer community. By partnering with dev influencers who have established expertise and a dedicated following on social media, you can showcase your product while tapping into the trust that developers place in these thought leaders.
Furthermore, webinars enable developers to engage directly with the influencers, asking questions, and receiving real-time feedback, fostering a sense of connection and personal investment in your product. When I worked at Postman, we reached out to Kin Lane for a joint webinar. He’s very well known in the API community space so this was a perfect fit for our audience. This ended up being a huge success.
Webinar results:
- We had the highest number of registrations for a webinar. Ever.
- We generated an insane amount of net new leads which eventually turned into pipeline and closed deals.
- The Postman leadership team saw the value that Kin provided so he was hired on full-time.
🎯 Marketing Approach
Organize webinars that feature industry experts and influencers who can speak about your product, its applications, or related development trends. These events will attract developers interested in learning from the experts and demonstrate your commitment to providing valuable educational resources to the community. Make sure to record each webinar so you can repurpose it later for TOFU content.
Conclusion
Hopefully you better understand why marketing to developers requires a deep understanding of their unique characteristics and needs. The easiest way to seduce them with your product is by focusing on problem-solving, community engagement, technical trends, hands-on experiences, thought leadership, etc, you can effectively market your product to them and build lasting relationships which ultimately turn them into evangelists.