How to trick a developer

When I was young, a network of commercial campgrounds would send us offers for free stuff: a giant tent, a portable TV, and other objects that would attract kids. Every time I begged my parents to take this place up on the invitation. It was free!

But my parents knew it wasn’t free.

When I finally wore them down, they brought me along to get the “free” item. For what seemed like hours to a child, we listened to their campground timeshare pitch. All I could think about was that TV they promised.

When it comes to marketing, developers are as skeptical as my parents were about that campground.

Typical promotion tactics don’t work for developer audiences. They see right through them. Or, worse, they hold them against you. Don’t try to trick a developer.

Instead, you want to speak to the technical problems you solve. Educate developers on the problem itself and help them see the fix. Arm them with the research they can bring back to their team, where they’ll have to explain their recommendation.

To connect with developers, you need to use the right words, the ones that show you authentically understand their situation. Usually this means you want someone with a development background to write your articles, guides, and other dev-focused material.

Addressing the larger benefit is honestly something every marketer should do, even with non-developer audiences. The difference is that, for developers, it’s the only thing that works.