What does it mean to go all the way in a customer relationship with the modern developer? It's more than just asking them to pay. Anything from asking for information like phone numbers up to and including asking for surveys to be filled out, feedback to be given, or APIs to be written all qualify as big commitments in your customer’s eyes. These asks require a high-trust relationship. Maybe it’s time to date your customer. Why You Need Trust First We learned a lot about how developers behave from Evans Data Corporation’s Developer Marketing 2017 and 2018 surveys. Surprisingly, [...]

Why use contests to drive modern developer engagement? Unlike hackathons that attract a wide range of developers, often mainly students, online events like contests can engage developers with jobs, including those who influence or make purchases. However, what drives developer engagement? There are several knobs you can turn to create successful developer contests. But within the context of experimentation, managing expectations, and creating a memorable experience, there are a few guidelines that we learned by talking to developers. Based on Evans Data Corporation’s Developer Marketing 2017 survey results, we know that contests advertised on newsletters from D2D communities are likely [...]

The modern developer loves newsletters. Developers click on newsletter links. Are pigs flying? Did hell freeze over? Nope. Developers like to receive information about the tools and services they can use in their developer-to-developer communities, pure and simple. Say it loud, say it proud, because it’s just true. Developers Like Newsletters Who says? Well, besides the comments we received when we interviewed developers, Evans Data Corporation—that’s who. Evans Data Corporation Developer Marketing 2018 survey data showed that more than 40% of developers subscribe to three to five newsletters. Only 5% said they subscribed to none. That means 90% of developers [...]

When we interviewed developers, several indicated they would only click on product advertising if they recognized the brand. So before you launch your product marketing ad campaign that invites them to click through to a trial or an API, it’s best that they recognize your brand. That’s why it’s so important to put brand awareness first. One-Two Punch Content and promotion. Give developers content they want to consume and share, and also promote it. The most effective way to become known to developers is to help them learn something. Sonko, as he’s known to his friends, will click on [...]

Whether you are speaking to the modern developer, modern IT, or the DevOps engineer, public documentation may be the first content they consume. As the first face of your product or company a developer prospect sees, it needs to be a good one. That’s why your public documentation deserves to be part of your content marketing strategy. It also deserves to be written by a practitioner from outside your company. Public Documentation is Practitioner Content Marketing Undoubtedly you have documentation already written by your product team. However, it was probably written for another member of the product team. They already [...]

Calling Them What? And that is the question. If you are marketing to developers, you already know that there is no generic “developer.” Undoubtedly, your tool or service is meant to be wielded by a very specific developer persona. But thanks to DevOps, that persona may be employing multiple tools. So when your persona also identifies as DevOps, what does that mean? Why should you care? To understand this, Developer Media posed a very simple question on CodeProject.com: “Are you a DevOps engineer?” Yes, But... At least one developer responded, “Yes, but I don’t want to be one.” Harrr. [...]

Content marketing may be king, but it sure doesn’t feel good to be the king, particularly when you are asked to justify the performance of your blog. Any marketing team can struggle with keeping their blog traffic high and the market-qualified leads flowing, but it is an inestimable challenge when that blog is for the modern developer. Challenges Perhaps the most daunting part of creating a relevant, compelling blog that satisfies the modern developer or modern IT audience is that it must be technical. On the surface, this seems easy to solve—after all, you are responsible for marketing a [...]

A new year begins! When all the celebrations are over, we are faced with all our aspirations, goals, and objectives for the new year in many areas of our lives. In a role that means marketing to developers, that means making developer marketing resolutions and keeping them. For 2019, that means making sure that the developer you have in mind includes the Modern Developer. Mod·ern·De·vel·op·er /ˈmädərnˌdəˈveləpər/ Noun A person who uses a broad assortment of tools and technologies to create a work. Typically skilled in multiple languages, frameworks, and techniques, utilizes DevOps methodologies, Continuous Integration, and Continuous Delivery, and is [...]

We recently posed the question to the CodeProject.com audience: “How often do you shoot down product tool choices your manager / team lead presents to your team?". From this, we learned that 34.5% of the developers who responded very often, often, or occasionally reject the choices the purchaser has already made. In addition, approximately 30% never have to reject a product from on high because they choose their own tools! However, this first survey did not dig into the reasons why developers had rejected or disliked tool selections made by their manager, team lead, or other leaders in their organization. [...]