developer advocates

ENGAGING
DEVELOPER
ADVOCATES
ARE YOU
TALKIN’ TO ME?
When designing and running any effective and engaging marketing program or
campaign, it’s key to know who your audience is and speak their language, so to
speak (pardon the pun).
Most companies have already developed personas to help them better understand,
market and sell to their buyers. But they often stop there. What about existing
customers, partners and employees who have not only already invested in a
relationship with your company, but who have also become enthusiastic advocates
for your brand?
BUYER PERSONAS VS. ADVOCATE PERSONAS
Developing a framework with which to better understand your advocates is just as
important as understanding your potential buyers – especially if you’re going to invite
them into an advocate marketing program. While there are often some similarities
among these personas, what motivates someone to buy isn’t the same as what
motivates them to advocate for your brand over the long-term.
1
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADVOCACY
When considering implementing an advocate marketing program, an objection that
many marketers have is: “That sounds great and all, but my customers, partners or
employees would never do that.” Those marketers are wrong.
Here’s why: It’s simply human nature to advocate for things you love, whether they’re
restaurants, movies, smartphones or enterprise business-to-business software.
People become advocates because they’re hardwired to connect with others,
establish relationships and build social capital.
WHO ARE YOUR ADVOCATES AND
WHAT MAKES THEM TICK?
Beyond human nature, however, there are unique qualities among individual
advocate types that marketers must take into consideration. What motivates and
engages an IT professional in an advocate marketing program is likely to be very
different from what will appeal to a marketer or a salesperson, for example.
Understanding the persona(s) you are targeting with your program and the individual
activities within it can help you design invitations, challenges, rewards, and messaging
that appeal specifically to that audience, generating higher levels of engagement.
Here, we’ll look at developers, what defines that persona, and how to position
your message to address the key challenges they face. More and more companies
(including SaaS vendors like Acquia, MuleSoft, Atlassian and others) are starting
to build developer relations and advocate marketing programs within their
organizations. These programs not only help companies build better, stronger
relationships with developers, but they also mobilize them to write genuine product
reviews, provide peer-to-peer referrals, recommendations and references, and
participate in content creation and social conversations.
COMING SOON: HOW TO ENGAGE…
• Executives
• Educators
• Consultants
• And more!
Sign up now to receive more information about what
motivates your advocates as it is released.
2
THE DEVELOPER
PERSONA
If you’re not a developer yourself, it’s easy to fall into the trap of stereotyping all
developers and programmers as geeky solitary introverts who spend every waking
moment glued to a screen. The reality is, of course, that they are complex individuals
with diverse interests. In addition, the developer community – both online and off –
is a highly social, tight-knit group that loves to collaborate.
The most important thing I’ve learned about
“ developers
is that they love to collaborate with
each other. There’s no individualism at all.“
LUCA FILIGHEDDU
Manager of the Global Developer Ecosystem
at BlackBerry
Similar to other specialized professionals, however, one thing they have in common is
that they eager to learn and improve their skillset. But like a good baker or furniture
maker, they view the complex strings of code they write as things of beauty. They aren’t
just writing code – they’re honing a craft.
A study entitled An Improved Assessment of Personality Traits in Software
Engineering that appeared in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge,
and Management confirms this, noting that software programmers rank high in
personality traits like agreeableness and cognitive capabilities, but low in extraversion,
neuroticism, and openness to experience.
3
IT’S NOT ALL GREEK TO THEM
To you and me, the complex strings of letters, numbers, and symbols that a
programmer or developer works with look like an indecipherable mess – almost like
someone handed the keyboard over to a toddler and let him or her type away! But
these characters make up numerous programming languages that developers speak
fluently, such as C++, Ruby, Python and Java.
Since they have to constantly keep up with the latest technologies and trends, an
eagerness to learn is an often-found trait in the most successful of them. In its list of 10
traits to look for in a good programmer, Tech Republic cites qualities like being a quick
learner outside of programming, self-learning, and adaptability among them.
I HAVE A VERY SPECIFIC SET OF SKILLS…
But beware about looping programmers and developers into the general IT bucket
– they hate that. Like the words Liam Neeson so famously utters in the movie Taken,
they have a “very particular set of skills.” Humorously, Larry Wall – creator of the Perl
programming language – names hubris, laziness, and impatience as the three great
virtues of programmers.
But it’s not what you think: the “laziness” leads them to create great programs with
which they can easily reuse the code. Impatience results in programs that are written
with minimal code to avoid having to answer too many questions. As for the hubris,
programmers/developers have an inherent need to be admired by peers, and that
means working hard to build code that absolutely can’t be picked apart. They’re
perfectionists down to their very cores.
SHOW ME SOME LOVE!
All this said, programmers and developers are well-respected in their professions, but
they are also often underappreciated. They are rarely the ones being publicly recognized
for creating an incredible piece of software. It’s like giving all of the kudos to someone
who made a scrumptious meal and forgetting to ask who actually devised the recipe.
The best way to reach this persona, then, is to make them feel special. Do this, and
they’re much more likely to stick around.
4
KEY CHALLENGES
AND HOW TO ADDRESS THEM
COOL IT ON THE MARKETING FLUFF
Clever marketing jargon, fluff, and hyperbole won’t work on this group. They don’t
want to be sold to. Approach them openly and candidly, and work to develop trust. Try
as much as you can to understand their challenges. As soon as you can be relatable
on some level, it will help break down their guard and build a strong relationship.
According to Luca, one of the biggest mistakes you can make when engaging
developers is taking for granted that they may not necessarily be customers or even
end users of your product, so their motivations are different.
SO. MUCH. NOISE.
While on the one hand, developers are very focused on the task at hand, they are
also handling lots of noise coming at them, from forums, communities, and other
technologies. To penetrate through that noise and have your program noticed, you
need to deliver direct value to them.
BUILDING LOYALTY
The good part is that once you deliver this value, programmers and developers tend to be
a loyal bunch. Once they feel you’ve actually taken the time to understand their craft, they’ll
appreciate the content you provide, and its ability to help them perfect, or at least improve, it.
you have established trust, developers can be
“ Once
some of the hardest working, most loyal advocates
you will ever have. Their desire to grow in their
field, share technologies, and change the world is
unparalleled. If your technology does this, they will
be at the front line singing its praises.
“
MICHAEL STOWE
Developer Relations Manager at MuleSoft
5
POSITIONING
So how can you best position yourself to developers?
BE HONEST
Because of their extreme skepticism toward marketing, the more direct and to the point
you are with this persona, the better. Be honest, factual, and concise. And don’t be
surprised if they call you out on inaccuracies if you aren’t!
important that, when you interact with developers, you try to
“ It’s
understand where they are coming from, their passion for creativity,
and most importantly remain honest and forthright. Don’t pretend
to be someone or something you are not.
“
MICHAEL STOWE
DO YOUR HOMEWORK
A programmer or developer will appreciate how much time you put in to actually
learning about what they do. Not to mention that building up your knowledge of the
industry will help you to provide the most valuable insights, tips, and tricks to help them.
The more you know, the better you can serve them.
The only way to keep pace with their interests in continued learning is for you to do the
same. Naturally, you can’t be expected to understand everything – it may not be your
forte. Try to pick the brain of a developer friend or colleague who might be able to at
least break things down into easily digestible bits you can understand, and leverage in
your outreach to this persona.
6
ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE
Just because someone is quiet doesn’t mean they don’t have anything valuable to
share. And chances are, programmers and developers have plenty of opinions on
plenty of matters – they just need to be asked. Once you open up those floodgates,
they’ll happily and actively participate to fulfill their desire to be heard. Ask for their
views on hot topics. They are often immersed in online communities and forums, so
that’s a great way to reach them. But you can also consider tools like surveys, which
also fall right into their wheelhouse.
RECOGNIZE THEIR SUCCESSES
While anyone would be honored to be considered an expert in his or her field,
programmers and developers in particular love to be labeled as such. Giving them a
platform to share ideas and mentor others feeds that need to not only be educated,
but to educate others.
“They are eager to show how successful they have been with your platform and be
rewarded for that,” Luca says.
7
CASE STUDY
TURNING DRUPAL USERS INTO ACQUIA ADVOCATES
Commercial open-source software company Acquia was recently named the fastestgrowing private company in North America on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500.
Acquia, which provides products, services and technical support for the content
management system Drupal, saw five-year sales growth of more than 84,100% and
ranked second overall on the list. The company grew its revenue from just $200,000
to $70 million during that time.
One of the reasons why Acquia has been so successful is that there is a huge
community of over 28,000 developers out there who love Drupal. Every Drupal user
is also potential Acquia customer.
KEEPING ACQUIA’S ADVOCATES ENGAGED
Acquia created an advocate marketing program called the Acquia Insiders, designed
to engage various stakeholders in the broader Drupal community, including
developers.
TARGETED, RELEVANT ACTIVITIES: Acquia Insiders are segmented into various
groups depending on their relationship with the company, such as developers. This
segmentation allows Acquia to target each group with only the advocacy activities
that are most relevant to them.
REWARDS FOR DRUPAL GEEKS ONLY: Acquia offers rewards and recognition that
are especially valuable for Drupal users, such as getting the opportunity to meet the
founder of Drupal, Dries Buytaert, or a complimentary ticket to attend DrupalCon.
8
FRIENDLY COMPETITION: “People are competitive: every
time we issue a new challenge, our top advocates scramble
to complete the challenge as quickly as possible,” explains
Acquia CMO Tom Wentworth.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ACQUIA INSIDERS
It’s easy to see why customer advocacy has quickly become a company-wide priority
at Acquia: the early results from the Acquia Insiders program have been incredible,
benefiting everyone from the marketing and communication teams to the sales and
product teams.
SALES REFERENCES: 47 net new customer references
PEOPLE’S CHOICE: Crowd sourced votes for CMS Critic’s People’s Choice Best
Hosted/Cloud CMS Award
MEDIA RELATIONS: Identified 14 “hot opp” media references, including
a spokesperson for the Drupal Commons-Lingotek integration
CASE STUDIES: Sourced the company’s first two case studies for Drupal Commons 3.0
EARLY ADOPTERS: Recruited 24 beta testers, and solicited early reaction
and feedback from 40 advocates during the early beta of a new initiative
REVIEWS: Placed customer reviews and testimonials on Quora and B2B software
reviews site TrustRadius.
To learn more about Acquia’s advocate marketing
program as well as Tom’s 4 most important “lessons
learned,” read How Customer Advocacy Fuels North
View Case Study
America’s Fastest-Growing Company
9
CHALLENGES
“Developers can be given complex challenges that you may not be able to give to nontechnical crowds, such as utilization of your technology or building applications that
use your API, extending your software/ hardware, or using your software/ hardware in
a creative way,” MuleSoft’s Michael Stowe suggests. “In general, they thrive on puzzles,
although code is daunting and can burn them out mentally (making fun and comical
challenges a win).”
THE MOST POPULAR CHALLENGES IN MICHAEL’S
MULESOFT CHAMPIONS PROGRAM INCLUDE:
Answering community questions, such as on StackOverflow
Building new software features
Education, including tutorial videos, how-to articles, demos and blog posts
Writing and speaking engagements
Fun, creative activities that are unrelated to MuleSoft
Community engagement and networking opportunities
10
Broaden their knowledge,
share current content.
Get their input.
Make them feel heard.
Channel their inner geek!
Create relevant fun challenges.
11
INVITE, MOBILIZE
AND RECOGNIZE
YOUR ADVOCATES
Now that you know more about what motivates Developer professionals to advocate
for your company, it’s time to take action with Influitive’s powerful advocate marketing
software.
Influitive’s AdvocateHub is a complete advocate
management platform that helps B2B marketers
capture customer enthusiasm, and use it to
turbocharge marketing and sales efforts. With
AdvocateHub, B2B marketers build advocate
communities where customers, fans and evangelists
can complete “challenges” like referrals, reference
calls, product reviews and much more.
VISIT INFLUITIVE.COM TO LEARN MORE