Look at the website of any business selling enterprise services or technology, and I’m certain you’ll find libraries of e-books, white papers and other content for download. There’s debate about the exact figure, but it’s been estimated that around two-thirds of the buyer’s journey is complete before they think of calling a sales rep. That’s because they’re checking out content before assembling their short list. You’ll find a lot of it is repetitive, almost just “copyscraped” filler, designed to simply capture eyeballs. That kind of thing. I suppose some of that is temperamental, but it’s also because the nature of their work means fuzzy content offers them very little value. Great developer marketing (like any effective marketing) is full of empathy for the needs of your audience. So, instead of trying to shoehorn the content we marketers like to read into a developer space, instead think about the kinds of content developers actually use. DON’T be too generic: They’ll happily accept highly technical, detailed content that’s specific to their job and challenges. About The Author Josh serves as the CMO at SparkPost. With over 15 years of growth & marketing best practices experience, Josh has led teams at MarTech platform companies including Marketo, Lyris, EmailLabs.
Look at the website of any business selling enterprise services or technology, and I’m certain you’ll find libraries of e-books, white papers and other content for download. Fill out a form that asks for your name and email address to get access to all the PDFs and infographics you’d like.
Ideally, you’ve found information that helps you get new insight into a strategic challenge or that provides really practical solutions to an ongoing business need.
When done right, that’s content marketing in a nutshell. You’ve traded something valuable (your contact info) for something else valuable (great content). It’s a win-win for you and for the business that published it.
Too many times, the outcome isn’t as ideal
In fact, I’ll bet you (like me) have had the unfortunate experience of feeling like you just made a Faustian bargain — trading your soul for something that wasn’t quite as worthwhile as you’d imagined. And now you’re hounded relentlessly by Mephistophelean sales reps who don’t seem to understand your needs.
This frustrating situation is one we’ve all experienced, and it’s something that developers, in particular, say they encounter more often than not. In fact, more than one dev friend has told me they simply ignore that stuff when they see it on websites. And it’s why tech marketers who put up gated white papers or similar content, hoping for developer leads, usually wind up disappointed with the results.
So, is content marketing a hopeless exercise for businesses like mine that sell primarily to developers and other technical users? In my experience, if you use a cookie-cutter approach to content marketing, the answer may well be yes.
But when done the way content marketing really should be done, I think you’ll find connecting with developers through content can be a very effective way to nurture the growth of your technology platform.
Content marketing is essential in B2B
Let’s take a step back to remember why content marketing has become the de facto strategy for connecting with B2B prospects.
When the business world migrated online, there was a power shift from the marketer to the prospect. Advertising and other push strategies lost ground, because the “self-directed buyer” is interested in useful, relevant and valuable content, not in selling messages — especially so in B2B. Marketers are naturally obliged to feed that need.
Today, 93 percent of B2B firms use content marketing (PDF), largely because it just plain works in an environment where prospects rule the purchase decision process. There’s debate about the exact figure, but it’s been estimated that around two-thirds of the buyer’s journey is complete before they think of calling a sales rep.
That’s because they’re checking out content before assembling their short list. According to a CMO Council study, 90 percent of B2B buyers say online content has a moderate to major effect on their vendor selection.
But. As important as content marketing is to reaching prospects, it’s even more important to use the right kind of content, properly targeted against your specific audience. Especially if you’re trying to engage developers.
It’s a mistake to try to engage devs by defaulting to content strategies that may have worked with other audiences, even if those were also within the tech/IT space.
With devs, value trumps vision
If you’ve ever got the time or the patience, you should browse through a random cross-section of the content that’s published for B2B. You’ll find a lot of it is repetitive, almost just “copyscraped” filler, designed to simply capture eyeballs.
Even when it’s got originality and value, it’s very often devised to express “thought leadership,” written as though aimed at the CTO or CIO level, revolving around big-picture strategic concerns or industry…
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