On one hand, the explosion of digital technologies has offered marketers more innovative and powerful new ways to connect with audiences than ever before. But with so many different marketing channels to choose from, coupled with pressure to deliver results on constrained budgets, deciding exactly where and how to allocate your advertising budget can be enough to give anyone a headache.

Get it right and you can reap the rewards of reaching new developers and growing your customer base. Get it wrong and you could waste a lot time and money only to have your message fall on deaf ears.

So where’s a dev-marketer to go? Blogs? Technical sites? Social media networks?

These are all certainly possibilities, but if you really want to get the best bang for your marketing buck we recommend heading directly to the places where software developers spend time and hang out with each other: Developer-to-Developer (D2D) communities. 

And here are five reasons why:

1. Earn Credibility

D2D communities are built by developers for developers. Places like CodeProject, CodePlex, HTML.net, Hanselman.com, Hacker News and StackOverflow are where developers go to learn, ask other devs questions, have conversations about projects they’re working on and just plain old hang out sometimes.

These are genuine “word-of-mouth” sites where developers go to learn about products, tools, and other technical knowledge they need to do their jobs. Advertising in these D2D communities is like an inherent endorsement for your brand and you will earn credibility by being associated with these communities that developers know and love.

2. Build Brand Awareness

You have to be seen to be heard. That’s just Advertising 101.

It’s been said it takes seven impressions or touch points before someone pays attention to your advertisement. You can’t just launch a new product, slap up some banner ads and expect to have customers lining up in droves the very next day.

Developers also don’t want to feel like they’re being forced or corralled to your website or landing page. They want to discover you organically and encounter you in the places they already spend time online. What better place to make those impressions than D2D communities where developers hang out every day?

And even if you are already marketing in other channels, there’s value in expanding your branding campaigns to reach D2D communities as well. Brand awareness building is a cumulative effort. Advertise in D2D communities and you’ll begin see the performance of your existing advertising channels increase as well.

You need different opportunities to connect with the same devs (seven touch points remember) and it’s beneficial to have your customers see your branding and marketing messaging in different places across the web – without crossing the line over into “annoying”.

3. Opportunity For Authentic Conversation

Some people say that developers can’t be marketed to. That’s just not true. The fact is they just don’t like to be marketed to badly. Devs are logical and have no tolerance for BS. They hate marketing jargon and fluff that doesn’t really mean anything.

In the end, they just want to know why your product or service will help them solve a problem they have in a straightforward, no-nonsense manner. D2D communities are the perfect place to do this.

Talk with developers, don’t talk at them. Engage with the dev community on these D2D sites, actually participate in conversations, be accessible, show you care, demonstrate your expertise, and give technical value without expecting anything in return or trying to shove a sales pitch down their throat.

This is your chance to have a genuine, authentic conversation with your customers. It may take a little more time and effort, but the relationships you’ll build will be worth it and will ensure your brand sticks in the minds of the developers you connect with and help.

4. You’re Supporting the Developer Community

Lastly, when you decide to allocate part of your marketing spend to D2D communities you’re supporting the developers that created those sites and the developers who depend on them. You’re helping to ensure these D2D can continue to thrive and exist, which will garner you goodwill within the wider developer community.

Final Thoughts

The beauty of D2D sites is that they are targeted specifically to developers. Everything from the content to the ads is curated to ensure the experience is both relevant and helpful to the developer community.

At Developer Media we make it easy for marketers to set up and launch a marketing campaign in our D2D communities. We provide ongoing measurement and tracking of every campaign to ensure success throughout its duration and always optimize the placement of your ads so they reach the right audience.

If you need technical content for your campaigns and use on D2D sites we can help with that too. We have a network of authors that work in the software development industry who can take the hassle out of creating content and provide you with relevant articles, blog posts, product reviews and eBooks for your target market. This technical content is not only helpful for campaigns in D2D communities, but can also be easily repurposed and packaged for use on your own website and social channels.

If you’d like to learn more then please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you: https://developermedia.com/contact-us/