Introduction
What makes a landing page developer-worthy? If you are struggling with getting developers there, parsing your messaging for your advertising, and trying to come up with a clever catchphrase to get a click, you might be focusing on the wrong part of the bait. It’s likely that what your landing page is offering simply isn’t what developers want.
Begin with the end in mind
Are you seeking to convert developers to leads? Or do you need them to try your product so they can make a recommendation to the decision-maker in their company? Perhaps you are looking for adoption of your API, and you are trying to build out a developer community around your product. Are you new to the market and simply seeking awareness so your brand is familiar?
Hopefully, your landing page is doing more than lead generation, and you need more than just a click-through rate. Regardless of your needs, starting with the end goal means that you start with what is on that landing page.
- Brand awareness. Don’t just hawk your product. Brand the page, then give the developers content they want to consume. The MOST popular link that gets clicked in an email newsletter is for conferences and events, according to Evans Data Corporation’s recent Developer Marketing Survey.* Create a virtual conference around a topic area that excites developers, featuring tutorials that will help them learn. Hint: the most-shared content between developers? Tutorials.*
- Market qualified leads. Offer information that will help them do their jobs, and only gate with a name and email address. A nice “how-to” article for something that is dev-sexy (think AI, machine learning, or trustless networks) will fit the bill. Keep it tactical, code-level, and most of all, don’t ask for anything else beyond a name and email. Brand the content so they know who you are (in case they share it), but don’t wallop them with your product pitch. You got what you wanted — Make sure they get what they want.
- Developer advocacy/API adoption. Documentation is your friend. Create a landing page that highlights the benefit(s) to them, and the content to reduce their time to Hello, World.
Keep your message simple
Links get clicked. That’s the overwhelming message that developers gave Evans Data Corporation. And 30-40% of developers click on most types of content. To get your audience to click, make sure what you are offering them is clear. “Learn how to create trustless networks for enterprise” is a clear message with a call to action and a value proposition for your audience. It is short and easy to understand. Don’t overburden the developer with industry words they don’t care about, like your clever name for case studies. (If it’s a case study, call it one. If it’s a tutorial, say so.)
Deliver on your promise
If you are offering content in the link, don’t mess around when they arrive at the destination. Your landing page should clearly offer that content. Don’t have distracting pop-ups for other actions you want them to take, or unexpected barriers. In our “Meet the Developer” series, we learned that many developers understand that good content requires them to give up some information — name and email is OK with them. Anything more, and they bounce without interacting with your page. So, you may get a visit, but no downloads, info, or engagement.
Once you have delivered on your end of the bargain, you can ask their permission for the next phase of the relationship. A second date, if you will. (But only if you have some confidence the first date went well.)
Offer to stay in touch
If they had a good experience, helping your audience stay in touch with you is acceptable. At the end of your content, it’s reasonable to offer ways for them to get more information, to try out their test project on your platform, or to get more documentation or tutorials for your product or platform.
Let’s review
Start with a landing page that offers developers something they can’t resist. Generally speaking, they want to learn. Conferences and events also attract them. Create a conference-like experience complete with shareable tutorials and watch the traffic on your page increase. Keep the message on your link simple so they clearly understand what you are offering. Deliver exactly what you promise, with minimal to no gating. And once you think you’ve delivered, offer up a way for developers to stay connected to your valuable content stream.
