Software developers aren’t buying it

When I was just starting out writing code, the market for developer tools was small. It mainly consisted of compilers, debuggers, and IDEs. The advent of visual development brought about the sale of component sets, but ultimately, the market wasn’t all that big and the marketing was straightforward.

But today? Today is a different story. The arrival of the Internet and SaaS has caused the developer tools market to explode. In addition, the software development world has become a lot more sophisticated. Deploying used to be as simple as “compile, slap it on a floppy disc, and ship it in a box.” No longer.

Because the market is so large, there is a lot of money sloshing around, and to attract that money, vendors need to attract the attention of developers. This, of course, means that every tool vendor employs a marketing department that strives to draw the eyes of developers to their wares.

There is only one problem here—developers refuse to be marketed to. Let’s take a look at why that is, and what they want from tool vendors instead. 

Spare me the marketing spiel

First, as a general rule, the users of development tools are not the people who hold the purse strings. Developers rarely control the tools budget; their managers do. Some development teams have their tools chosen for them from on high. Other more fortunate teams have their recommendations taken by management. But ultimately, the users of the tools don’t write the checks. 

Second, developers distrust and dismiss hype. If you want to get your developer product dismissed from the get-go, tell your potential customers that you are “excited and thrilled” to announce a launch.  Products that claim to “kill all the bugs in your software” will be set aside because, well, all software will always have bugs.

Developers are straightforward and respond to straightforward claims. They quickly swipe aside outlandish statements and flowery language that reeks of marketing-speak. They leave the “buzzword of the day” advertising to their managers.

Third, developers value peer recommendations over slick advertising. Upon hearing about a new tool, developers will usually go to Reddit or Hacker News looking for opinions rather than to the product’s website. This means that the traditional marketing campaign that you learned to do in your marketing classes in college are not effective. 

And the really fun part is that “astroturfing” a thread about your product on Hacker News or Reddit is just about impossible. If you go to the places where developers hang out and try to promote your product, you will be shot down faster than Mark Zuckerberg at a privacy conference.

Fourth, developers want hands-on proof rather than marketing pitches. They absolutely do not want to be sold to. No developer will even look twice at something labeled a “white paper.” And whatever you do, do not try to set up a sales call with a software developer. That is an utter fool’s errand. 

Just let me try the tool

Instead, developers want to do their own research, try things out, and read the documentation. Thus, a developer tools website should optimize for that by making it easy to find the things developers really want to see. 

You can work for weeks fine-tuning the words and messaging on your product website, but the developer eye will be drawn to the free tier of your application and the documentation. Make those things easy to access, and you’ll be ahead of the game. A “Developer” menu item with quick links to sandbox environments, working code demos showing your tool in action, and free APIs that we can tinker around with are what developers are really looking for.

Finally, make your pricing clear and prominent. Developers will definitely follow the “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” principle and move on to a competitor if your site has a “call and set up an appointment with our sales team” schtick on the pricing page.

The real key to all of this is to provide the things developers want and to leave them alone to try out your tool. Don’t try to gather the typical marketing data, don’t try to get them to sign up for a webinar, and don’t try to get them on a phone call. Just let them play with your tool.

Hype, marketing-speak, and fluff will find no purchase in a developer’s brain. Create a marketing campaign that is simple, straightforward, and easy to access. Allow developers to try your product for themselves. Make your product sell itself. Sure, that’s a tricky proposition, but a developer tool that can’t sell itself will struggle in the marketplace.