3 Pillars of Developer Marketing: Awareness, Adoption, and Advocacy.
Tags: devmar, devrel, marketing
Published: 2024-02-16 10:00:00

## Introduction
Developer marketing is a field that wears so many hats; it handles marketing, promoting, and advertising of a company’s products, tools, or services to its target developers. Every tech company needs developer marketers to reach their audience and promote their tools to fit the audience’s needs. 

Like a developer may require an IDE, a programming language, and a database to build a product, a developer marketer needs to rely on three pillars to craft a successful marketing strategy. These pillars serve as a guiding framework, enabling developer marketers to identify focus areas and establish relevant metrics, as each pillar addresses a distinct aspect of marketing. The Pillars are Awareness, Adoption, and Advocacy, which will be discussed further in this article. 

 

## Pillar 1: Awareness
During the awareness pillar, developer marketers should devise strategic initiatives to generate interest and attract the attention of their target audience. This pillar's purpose is to inform developers about the existence of a tool, even if they don't use it directly.

### Strategies for Building Awareness
Awareness can be achieved by doing the following:

- Promoting the product within relevant developer circles or groups, 
- Creating informative content around the tool, 
- Hosting webinars or workshops, and 
- Leveraging social media platforms. 

By actively engaging with the developer community and showcasing the value proposition of the product, marketers can effectively capture the attention of potential users and drive awareness.


## Pillar 2: Adoption
The adoption pillar follows the awareness pillar. After developers are aware of the product's existence, the next objective is to encourage them to incorporate it into their daily workflow. In this pillar, the developer marketer's primary goal is to increase active usage.

### Techniques for Driving Adoption
To drive greater adoption among developers, it's essential to approach the process thoughtfully. Developers are generally averse to traditional marketing techniques, so it's important to employ strategies that resonate with their preferences and needs. 

Here are some useful techniques that could be effective:
- Ensure a solid developer onboarding process is established for new developers.
- Improve developer experiences by collecting feedback on the onboarding process.
- Establish and maintain a vibrant developer community around the tool.
- Promote diversity and inclusivity within the developer community.

By fostering a vibrant developer community centered around the tool through building, interacting, and assisting, users will feel valued, acknowledged, and appreciated, increasing the likelihood of frequent tool usage.


## Pillar 3: Advocacy
After the awareness and adoption phase, the next step is to encourage users to advocate for the tool based on their positive experiences. To achieve this, the developer marketer must ensure that the tool is user-friendly, accompanied by up-to-date documentation, and offers easy navigation and valuable resources. These elements contribute to keeping new users engaged and informed about the tool.

The essence of this pillar lies in leveraging existing users who have experienced the product's benefits to spread the word organically rather than relying solely on direct marketing efforts. People are more likely to trust the recommendations of their peers and friends than traditional marketing tactics, making this approach highly effective.

### Methods for Fostering Advocacy
Here are some excellent ways to foster advocacy within the developer community or around the tool:
- Encourage user-generated content and feedback from existing users.
- Build trust by being transparent and responsive to feedback.
- Create opportunities for developers to contribute to the project, such as through open-source contributions or beta testing.
- Highlight and celebrate the contributions of developers who have significantly contributed to the project.
- Provide developers with resources and support to help them be successful, such as documentation, tutorials, workshops, and a developer community.

By being transparent, engaging users in the product's journey, and offering valuable resources, adoption is simplified.

## Conclusion
In essence, developer marketing is comprised of three distinct pillars, each possessing its own purpose and strategic approach. Identifying the appropriate pillar for your company's needs can significantly reduce wasted effort in crafting ineffective marketing tactics and enhance your overall focus. Furthermore, these pillars are interconnected, meaning that success in one area can positively impact others.