Selling to developers is like stalking meerkats in the desert. You have to be meticulous in everything you do, move carefully, and not show yourself as needy while also using your best abilities for the perfect outcome.
One wrong move and you’ll show too much too fast, they will hide and ignore you. Move too slow and you may lose your momentum. Be too flashy and you will probably be taken for an enemy and still result in them going away.
But if you’re being methodological, move as they move, and predict the trends in their community you may soon realize they have been all over you for a while already.
In fact, there’s one sitting right in front of you ready for the perfect shot to be taken everywhere as a show of trust.
Facebook ads and pop-ups are some of the most loved options for growth hackers. But do they result in real sustainable growth? Absolutely not.
Do you see yourself clicking on an ad that sells a tool that may help you do your job better?
The first thought that comes to mind is that you’re doing your job just fine without it. The second is how to make it go away in one click.
You may even want to do your job better / faster / your metric but you also probably want someone to recommend it to you. Someone who’s already doing it better / faster / whatever. Have you seen Notion using pop-up ads? No, you probably started using it because your colleague did.
They told you about the features, the endless possibilities, and the opportunity to turn it into a side hustle. Then you trusted it enough to try.
My personal experience with marketing a dev tool on Facebook? 0 leads. I repeat, ZERO.
The best leads and all sorts of connections, honestly, come from LinkedIn. And yes, some still hold some stigma over it since, back in the day, it did become an ultimate place for sales managers.
It’s better now, I promise. It’s gaining momentum back and people are genuinely interested in making meaningful connections there.
Start by Creating a Solid Profile Page.
Spend time creating a good one-liner. Nothing about empowering, bringing ideas to life, and other cliches.
Those are good for a book title, but on social media, people scroll fast and you have about 4 seconds to get your message through. Find the killer feature that adds the most value to your product and emphasize it.
Do the same on every platform you’re using.Consistency is the key. After a while, people will associate this particular feature with you and will come back to try.
Twitter might be your friend here, too. It does look like the Sun’s first page more than anything right now but developers are there, so give it a try.
The next step is to be active.
No need to post what you’ve had for breakfast, make it relevant but also show the human face behind the business.
This Brings Us to One Super Important Point - Having a Brand Persona.
This is someone who your users/customers will associate the brand with. Is it the CEO or the founder? If I’m honest, not necessarily. They may not be the “people” people or just have better things to do.
It may be your CMO or your user who became the evangelist and is ready to be living proof that your product is the best product out there.
Whatever works for you, but having a real person behind the business or better in front of the business, is important.
The only thing to keep in mind here is that, when you’re the brand persona, you’re with it for the good, the bad, and the ugly.The big wins are going to be associated with you but this only means that the failures will be too.
Clg (Community-Led Growth) Is a Fairly New Trend and a Good One Too.
Brands tend to give more power and trust to their community and it means that they want it to be heard and are ready to listen. Are you ready to listen? It’s better if you have a community manager in this case because it will take a looooooot of time.
But what startup can afford a community manager, right? It will probably also fall onto your “brand persona” or founder or whoever else feels like communication with people is their cup of tea.
Let’s Say You Decide to Create a Discord Channel.
Think of it as another social media platform that’s exclusive to your users (or maybe just your mom and second cousins for a while). Here you’ll post whatever you’re posting on LinkedIn and Twitter but maybe with more juicy details.
Maybe also ask for people’s thoughts, comments, opinions (God forbid!), and their experience using your product.
These people are already with you in your circle, they have committed to dedicating some space on their Discord to your channel. Big chance they will stick around and become your super fans; treat them with respect and care.
I’ve got one more for you. Probably the most difficult, definitely the most time-consuming.
Content.
Putting out good content will take time, experimentation, and a lot of patience. You may fail miserably with your first attempts. The key here is to listen again. Base your content on the problems that your users have and the solutions that you’ve got to offer.
Read the comments, engage with them, and write more content based on what people had to say. Better yet, showcase the people that said them. This builds enormous trust and empowers your community to become not just users but contributors.
My move was to create a podcast. I bring founders to share their stories, and step by step, create an image of a company that founders trust. Even if the startup is successful, extra exposure is good at all times.
And for me, it brings an opportunity to learn from other dev tool founders, creates an amazing network, showcases our activities to partners and investors, and builds my personal brand.
It all may look too much and overwhelming, at first. Remember, growth, sustainable growth, is not fast.
Small steps are still steps forward and you never know which one will turn you into an overnight success. So, keep going.