Does your leg ever get that “buzz” feeling where you think it’s a message but it’s not?

Of course, I have to check every time. This one was real, a text from my dad:

I’m halfway through your book. I just have one question. What is a developer?

First, it’s safe to say my dad is not the audience for ​Developer Marketing Does Not Exist​. But knowing the answer to that question would certainly help him complete the book.

In retrospect, I kind of guilted him into reading it with this dedication:

Now he had trudged through almost 100 pages without a key piece of information. Parents will do a lot for their children, no questions asked.

Developers—programmers and others who build and support software (as I might explain to my dad)—are a little less forgiving. They want relevant, accurate content.

We see clients all the time who aren’t sure what their audience cares about. Despite the name EveryDeveloper, that’s not specific enough. You want to attract the right devs to your product.

But it’s one of those things you think you know.

Sometimes we’ll ask “What developers do you want to reach” and we can watch as certainty turns to confusion. Or multiple people at the same company will have a different answer.

It’s like the phantom leg buzz. As certain as I am that my phone is buzzing, many times I check and there are no messages.

That’s a tough way to reach a technical audience, not knowing who it is.

When you have clarity about your audience, you can prioritize your efforts to attract and engage developers—or whoever you want to use your technical product.

Do you know who you want to reach? Are you sure?

Share it with me in a quick reply!