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HOWTO Go About Marketing to Developers?
byrnereese asks: "My company has finally realized that one of the keys to our success will be to create a strong developer program (IBM's Developer Works, and Palm's PalmSource come to mind as examples). It just so happens that I have been appointed to lead this program. Now I have a lot of my own ideas, but I wanted to ask a large developer community directly the one question I know I am going to have to articulate a coherent answer to at some point: 'What is the most effective way to market a toolset, or development platform, to a developer in order to encourage them to build products using your product, without turning them off at the same time?'"
Show how your product solves problems that developers face when implementing their solutions. Describe how the product works in terms of how a developer sees it. At the same time, describe how it works in terms of the business benefit it provides since the developers will probably influence their manager to purchase the product. Perhaps issue an evaluation guide for developers, and one for their managers.
IntegrationShow how your product integrates with programming languages, dev tools, and platforms. Focusing on productivity gains, for example, that result from using the product can help developers and their managers make more informed choices - it also gives your product a tangible result (cost savings) that just about anyone can appreciate.
SamplesProvide lots and lots of samples - Samples for really simple things and samples of complete, working systems. A lot of a developers' product's success lies in its samples since the samples can be easily modified and integrated into an application, or in some cases, used as the basis of a new application.
1. No lock-in. Make it easy to switch between tools from rivals, to prove that you care about the developer and want them to try it.
2. Non-crippled evaluation - No time limits, no nags, none of that. If someone sends me software thats crippled, I let them know thats what I think of their software! (Its crippled).
3. Downloadable, or overnight shipping - Dont put artificial limits between me liking the idea of trying it and getting to try it.
4. Unbiased, widespread public reviews of the software. Dont buy reviews. Just hand it out, let em try it and write about it. Stand on the value of the product.
5. Open-source. I prefer open-source software. I *DEEPLY* prefer free(dom) software, but I know thats rare in the commercial sector. At least let me know that the source is well formatted, well designed, and open to contributions from outside your company by opening the source.
6. Standards-compliant. I dont care WHAT the product is, there are standards it should follow. Html editor? You betcha. Perl IDE? Absolutely. Follow standards, and shout about it!
7. Price - Make the price compatible with a developer budget. In other words, super cheap to use at home, and fairly pricey for commercial use. Get me hooked on a product at home, I *will* tell my boss I have to do it to get work done.
8. Freebies - shameful but true, companies that send me cool freebies do get a little bit extra attention, or at least get a look. I'm NOT talking about magazines. Think toys. Think polo (business) shirts. Think posters.
9. "The spokesman effect" - Ensure that your company has good spokesmen. Whether in sales, in service, on the phone, or even corporate spokemen.
10. BABES - I love booth babes.
GPL'd web-based tradewars themed space game
That brings up a good point: if you have good documentation that's also open, so developers can see before they pay, than I think coders will be much more likely to adopt your product. After all, one of the great advantages to Java is the excellent documentation that Sun freely provides.
credo quia absurdum
They are also quite open with the specs, Palm provides/helps with free tools (GCC) to compile. This helps the student/hobbiest not feel guilty about spending hundreds for development tools that they haven't used as much as they thought they would.
Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com
2) If there are file formats, document them.
3) If there are APIs, expose them.
This is especially important. Good documentation is the best you can offer to developpers. Ok, most of them won't read, but eventually they will, and they expect good docs to be available, when they need it.
Also, publish examples, a lot of examples, and nice examples too. Publish advanced tricks to do things with your tools. The worst thing I hate about some vendors is, they try to keep everything secret, and hope that you will pay $3K for a 2-day introduction
As soon as I find out this, I don't use their products, period.
Last, and not the least, make your knowledge database searchable on the web, and accessible to everyone, including people who have not paid for the license (yet).
1. Avoid strong ideological statements in your marketing ("We believe OSS is the wave of the future", "Free software forever"). I don't care about your politics, I want to know technical details about what your software does and how it will benefit me.
2. Be realistic in your marketing jargon - if it will improve produtivity, don't beat me about the head and shoulders with it, just say so and provide concrete reasons why.
3. Copious examples.
4. Reasonable price - I'll pay for something if I don't feel like I'm getting ripped off for something that is only used occasionally.
5. Multi-platform is nice (if possible), with equal levels of support.
6. Good technical documentation - consider having a third-party writer for this. The third-party books are usually much better than the company documentation for real world use.
7. Printed documentation. It's always a good idea to kill a few trees for our convenience. It shows you love us. (Seriously, a detailed reference manual is a good thing).
8. Download on purchase, and ship a CD later.
9. Good illustrations (if necessary). Sometimes a picture does say a thousand words, especially if it clears up a really wierd conceptual knot.
There's probably more, but that's all for now. Thanks for asking.
To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.
Not to mention they provide great drivers for both Windows and Linux. There is a CVS repository you can download other great stuff from. They support open standards such as OpenGL (we won't mention the whole Cg fiasco...I mean nothing).
Now compare that to the competition.
Disclaimer: I do not work for nVidia, nor own any stock.
Well,
....
above this thread is the thread about the new wireless option for the Zaurus.
When the Zaurus came out I was keen to get one as fast and soon as possible.
The price was not that high and they offred a developers discount and free training for the development environgment and/or OS.
However: they put me imediatly on a "hey he is german, lets forward him to our german department contact list".
Unfortunatly the german version of the Zaurus is about 30% more expensive, came at least 3 month later into the developers program and I lost intererst.
Most disappointing: they did not even let me buy the american version.
We do not deliver to europe
Sorry folks, no one can get here why american products cost us more than we would pay if we buy them on our own and pay the taxes at customs.
angel'o'sphere
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.