How do you approach messaging for developer audiences vs non-developer b2b audiences?

No one likes being marketed at, but, when done well, we typically don't mind being marketed to. Generally speaking, we've found there's far more nuance to this dichotomy than simply drawing a line between audiences. I've also noticed many companies shift away from the divided messaging approach (i.e., dedicated landing pages for developers or non-developers) toward a single page that speaks to both features and values. Since we can't reasonably control 100% of who lands on a given piece of conte ...Read More

One of my first jobs in tech marketing was promoting Amazon's software development kits (SDK) to developers. What I learned from everyone at Amazon is the power of using "plain English" when talking about anything. If you look at Amazon's site, you'll notice they use very simple language to talk about everything from shoes (on the retail site) to highly complicated software tools (in Amazon Web Services). The idea, I think, is that everyone can benefit from the writer working really hard to unde ...Read More

I have done many messaging projects for both developer and non-developer audiences. The process is the same regardless of audience: understand the personas and their needs, develop a unique value proposition that meets those needs, create key messages. The differences come in the content of the messages and language used.  It's true that developers are not at all tolerant of "fluffy" messaging. But neither are other buyers. You need to do enough research and deeply understand your buyer's needs ...Read More

The best way to approach product marketing is to become intimately familiar with your personas. Having said that - remember also that developers are human beings. As such, when at work - they value (each prioritizing individually of course) the same things that everyone else does: - success at your job/the task at hand - finding the right code for the right goal - productivity and the ability to solve immediate issues as fast as possible - debugging easily; identifying points for improvement in ...Read More