What are the channels/tactics that are fundamentally unique to developer marketing?

Devs really like to be shown as opposed to be told. Don’t create sales decks - instead, take to social media, build smaller feature videos based on each problem - devs don’t want to sit and read a 3 page blog post. Stick to visual things.

Channels in no particular order:

1. Reddit is a gold mine but you cannot just pop in to reddit. I spent years building my reddit username karma by posting random non work articles, competitor content, industry content, answering questions not related to my company, etc. (Fun fact, I reached number 1 and am part of the exclusive club who has done that ha!) Only then can you earn enough credit to post your content on developer channels. It is also a goldmine for messaging reading through the threads.

2. Hackernews - if you hit number 1, you will get MAJOR traffic. You cannot just ask everyone to upvote though or your post will get banned. But how do I rank number 1 you say?!?! Write good content. NO clickbait.

3. Google: Developers don't want to be marketed to so your best bet is to optimize great content for keywords and get them to rank... I could write an encyclopedia on ranking on Google, and my team is very good at it. The hardest of keywords will need continuous care, and take over a year. Hire technical writers to help here if you don't have dev rel.

4. Youtube - youtube search and google search are not one in the same. Youtube is the 2nd biggest search channel and you have to optimize for Youtube. Meaning, unlike google, youtube wants you to stay on youtube, not click off to your site. Optimize for playlists and subscribers, and time watched vs clicks in this channel.

5. Conferences - but be mindful that conferences are very expensive to get booths. They are a brand play and do not work as well in product led growth land. Save those bucks and just send developers to submit talks vs sponsoring.

6. Community - build a dev community and place to discuss your product. Give customers access to each other, and access to you via office hours (product managers are good here to answer their questions_.

7. Newsletters - almost every developer tells me they hear about our stuff from newsletters, they are not dead.

8. have a regular blog with feature releases and technical demos and customer stories

9. Add a 'new' section in product for devs to self serve that directs to the above ^

10. Slack groups (if you have dev rel)

11. influencer marketing

etc. :)

As mentioned above, the overarching goal of the PMM team is likely the same everywhere (i.e. understanding your audience, messaging, sales enablement etc) developer marketing often involves unique channels and tactics due to the technical nature of the audience and the need to engage with developers effectively. Some channels/tactics I have found success in the past:

1. Content : API/SDK documentations, how-to-guides/videos, best practices, AMAs with CTO/tech staff.

2. Developer Communities and Forums: We really found great success with this channel/tactic. A well run online forum could potentially run itself automatically for e.g. other developers answering questions, discussing best practices even before you could jump in. This did not happen overnight and we had to over engage early on, incentivize participation and seed conversations.

3. Hackathons and Developer Events: Organizing or sponsoring hackathons, coding challenges, workshops, and developer-focused events allows companies to showcase their products, offer hands-on experience, and gather feedback directly from developers.

4. Targeted Advertising on Developer Platforms: Using platforms like GitHub, Stack Overflow Advertising, or other tech-specific ad networks to target ads specifically to developers based on their interests and activities can yield good results.

5. Developer-centric Email/Blogs : Crafting newsletters or emails or medium articles focused on technical updates, product releases, new features, or tutorials can be an effective way to reach out to developers who prefer such communication.

These channels and tactics cater to the technical mindset of developers and emphasize the importance of technical content, community engagement, and hands-on experiences in developer marketing strategies.

Traditional marketing tactics with messaging that highlight what makes your product great simply won't do justice when targeting developers. Instead of "selling," think about how to educate your audience and reach them where they are (think - where do they spend most of their time to find information online?). Make it easy for them to understand what your product and its features do. Educational content can come in various forms such as:

• Up-to-date documentation
• Ungated content
• Access to demos and trials

And last but not least, ensure the barrier to entry is low. Make it as easy as possible for developers to be successful while experiencing your product by providing self-serve resources to lookup and find, and to unblock themselves if they run into problems. 

Just like any other channel marketing, developer marketing requires a fundamental understanding of the developer persona: what is their job, what does their day-to-day look like, what are their needs, goals, painpoints and so forth? 

This also includes - "where" do developers spend their time. 

Consider these activities as the short list: 

- Slack channels/communities/forums

- Gaming communities

- Discord communities

- Targeted social media communities and particularly on LinkedIn and Twitter (though this could change soon)

- Stack Overflow 

- Reading online to help solve immediate challenges

- Reading and studying online to help advance themselves 

- Open source platforms 

- Developer conferences and meetups