Does "developer marketing" even work?

Question

Hey everyone,
I’d like to ask you about your experience of  marketing in development companies. I’m working as marketer in software development  company and comparing to "classic" marketing, it feels like playing a whole different game.
Tight-knit communities, niche audiences, and Facebook algorithms throwing tantrums (seriously, finding the right devs?!) 
So, I'm curious... have you struggled with marketing in your dev company? What felt impossible, and what unexpected hacks did you pull off?  And how have you overcome it?

Syed Riyaz Uddin · Accepted Answer

@istiakahmad Good but I fear cold e-mails, I'm from a development company and I always overlook e-mails from other companies who want to sell their software or other services. And due to their unwelcome nature, they may, get blacklisted or worse, added to spam filters. How would you counter this?

Anna Starodub · Answer

@fmerian thank you so much for such great and helpful information.  That is exactly what I needed! 🙌

Answer

Yes, developer marketing can be effective when tailored to developers' needs, providing valuable technical content, tools, and support within their ecosystem.

flo merian · Answer

> I’m working as marketer in software development company and comparing to "classic" marketing, it feels like playing a whole different game. fully agree. I've spent the last years working specifically in developer tools, experimenting with what works and what doesn't work. you can put down your B2B marketing playbook. when I started learning dev marketing, I found these resources really helpful:

- developer markepear - strategies and tactics by @kuba_czakon;
- every developer - stories by @adamd to nail technical content;
- awesome-developer-marketing - hand-picked by @ronak_ganatra1.

also, you may enjoy reading these blog posts for more insights:

- a guide to developer marketing by @nickparsons (Clerk);
- dev tool marketing for early-stage startups by @piemets (PostHog).

FWIW I maintain this collection of marketing, growth, and UX ideas from dev tools like Stripe, Linear, Vercel, and more. hope it helps! enjoy!

ISTIAK AHMAD · Answer

Hey anna, continuous marketing and sales are the core components to scale any business. However, different marketing tactics should be practices since the target audience are available in different channels. For dev companies, most target b2b as they are more likely looking for a development solution. So i would say outreaching could be a better choice for dev companies. You can choose cold emailing as your main marketing channel and Whatsapp outreaching software ( which i'm working on and will be launching in 2 months). Hope this make sense to you.  ( : 👊

flo merian · Answer

> You can choose cold emailing as your main marketing channel @istiakahmad respectfully disagree. I've spent the last years working in dev-first companies, experimenting with what works and what doesn't work when marketing to developers. cold outreach doesn't work. developers hate spam and they might be the most spammed audience. as dev marketers, we have to learn how to market to developers in better ways.

ISTIAK AHMAD · Answer

@syed_riyaz_uddin Well, i would say you should get it done by a cold emailing expert because cold emailing itself has a learning curve and many best practices has to be followed. Normally people get 2-5% conversion ration from a campaign. Secondly, have you ever thought about whatsapp outreaching? ( i'm building a software around it and will be launching in 2 months) Lets keep in touch ( :

ISTIAK AHMAD · Answer

@fmerian Executing cold email campaigns is an art that demands authenticity over spammy tactics. Success ratios naturally vary across industries, but if conversions are happening, why not embrace cold emailing as a potent marketing channel?

Genuine cold emailing requires meticulous preparation, involving the creation of an ideal client avatar, lead generation, clean list,  crafting authentic email copies, strategic follow-ups, and utilizing the right tools. The more finesse applied to each phase, the greater the results.

In essence, the simplicity lies in effectiveness. If a genuine approach to cold emailing is yielding positive outcomes, it becomes a no-brainer to integrate and leverage its power for continued success.

Does "developer marketing" even work?

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