How is developer marketing perceived overall? Is it a well-known role or are people still unsure what it means and what developer marketers do?
In this article, we're looking at how this industry is perceived and whether people feel they're valued in their dev marketing role, as seen in our State of Developer Marketing Report.
The value of dev marketing
Developer marketing is all about promoting and selling products to devs. Seeing as developers are a tough audience with a ton of influence, cracking their code is crucial. What makes them tick? What are their needs and pain points?
By targeting developers, you can tap into the influence they have in their companies and communities, allowing you to reach a wider audience.
In short, it's fair to say developer marketing is valuable because devs are a knowledgable audience who can offer useful feedback and help companies and individuals build relationships with developer communities.
But just how well-known is developer marketing? And do dev marketers feel valued in their orgs?
Do teams and stakeholders understand developer marketing?
As developer marketing grows as a business model and industry, one question arises: ‘Do people in your company know what developer marketing is and what you do?’
When we asked this question to our participants, sadly, 40% of our respondents said ‘No, it’s challenging’, which could be a byproduct of dev marketing barely being out of its infancy. It’ll be interesting to see if this number decreases next year.
However, 16.7% of respondents said their peers have a decent understanding of developer marketing, with 13.3% also saying teams and stakeholders ‘Yes, 100%’ get it.
How valued do product marketers feel at their company?
We asked: ‘On a scale of 0 to 10, how much do you feel like your role as a developer marketer is valued at your company?’
It’s good to see that a significant number of respondents (26.7%) feel valued in their company, as they scored an ‘8’. We also had a few ‘10 scores’, amounting to 6.7% – we’re interested to see if this percentage grows next year.
Overall, the average answer is 6.5.
Contributions to goals and strategy
Everyone likes to feel as though they play an important role in their company, and developer marketers are no exception.
To understand whether dev marketers feel their contributions matter, we asked: ‘On a scale of 0-10, how much influence do you feel you have on your company's goals and strategy?’
The responses generated an average of 7.2. It seems that, while the role’s exact responsibilities are somewhat misunderstood, developer marketers still feel like their contributions are valuable.
We followed up by asking, also on a scale of 0 to 10, how much developer marketers felt their role shaped the direction of the product(s) they market. The answers averaged a score of 6.8, which tells us that respondents feel like they have some input over this direction, even if not a lot.
Are developer marketers invited to leadership meetings?
We asked our respondents: ‘Do you get invited to leadership meetings?’
Our goal was to understand whether developer marketers had the opportunity to provide their input to senior executives. Based on our responses, only 20% of respondents said they don’t get invited to leadership meetings; and, while 26.7% only sometimes get invited, it’s still good to see that the majority (53.3%) attends these meetings.
Of course, this number is still not high enough to show developer marketers are completely understood and valued in their companies, which reveals a lack of cohesion on whether they should be invited to the meetings (and if they should attend each time).
Considering developer marketers can significantly impact their audience’s journey and the company’s goals, their insights at leadership meetings can be invaluable.
It's good to see many developer marketers feel like their role is valued, but there's still a way to go until dev marketing becomes a well-known, widespread discipline.
And the Developer Marketing Alliance is here every step of that journey. We provide you with expert content, including industry reports, so you're always on top of the latest in the field (and understand the current state of developer marketing).
For more expert-led content, why not tune in to our podcast or sign up to a membership plan where you get access to exclusive thought-leadership articles?
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