Where Would We Be Without Plans? Best-practice marketing is built around planning. You can get by in marketing (and in life) without planning, but the results can be messy. Following are some planning considerations: Strategy. What do you want to accomplish with your marketing resources, and where do you want to expend your energy? This includes business goals, marketing Key Performance Indicators, competitive goals, and market share goals. (Check out the D2D Advertising Guide from DeveloperMedia for help defining your goals and strategy.) Budget. Where do you place your bets to get the best return — the biggest bang for [...]

In the Lead… Every sales and marketing professional knows the definition of a sales lead: a person or business who may become a customer. In the thrill of the hunt for a sale, leads are digital footprints of the quarry. They have the potential to create a sale with the prospective person or business. Leads come in a variety of flavors, so for perspective, imagine a pyramid, and at the top, you have the generic sales leads, followed by marketing leads, followed by service leads. Generic sales leads are further split into hot, warm, and cold, qualified, unqualified, marketing qualified, [...]

Strategic Decision Ungated content can often feel like a missed opportunity. Advertisers typically determine when to gate content based on the value of the content versus the behavior or sentiment of the target audience. Advertisers can take the perspective of their clients or target audience when valuing content, but there is bias inherent in being the creator of the content. Brand reputation, content quality, and context (placement) all must be considered when evaluating the value of specific content. Irrespective of the value, “to gate or not to gate” is a strategic decision. Chris Walker, CEO of Refine Labs, in an [...]

Virtual Is The New Face-to-Face Whether your event is happening soon or next year, COVID-19 has opened our eyes to the value of delivering a high-quality virtual conference experience. For those brands needing to reach developers, virtual events can be a great way to help developers stay informed and connected. In fact, hosting or promoting a virtual event can be one of the most helpful and useful actions a brand can take. Like any event, success depends on a strong promotion strategy. Here are the basics for promoting virtual conferences to developers. Build Awareness The good news: Developers are [...]

It’s Complicated Understanding the specific demographics of your content marketing audience is important, and generational segmentation is key. But it’s more complicated than that — 68% of technical content marketers told the Content Marketing Institute their top challenge in 2019 was addressing a wide variety of roles. For technical content marketers, audience segmentation by developer role is critical. Why Segment The Influencers, Users, and Gatekeepers? According to data presented by Developer Media from a CodeProject survey, 35% of the developers who responded reported they rejected tools. Another 30% revealed they don’t have to reject tools — they have full [...]