This looks like it is written by someone who knows marketing but still doesn't quite get developers. They have developed some guidelines for what works, likely through trial and error, but don't quite understand why.
Devs simply want transparency. Marketing tends to come from a perspective of having to "capture" the market, instead of just informing the market.
Look at how it works on HN. People say, "I'm self promoting: Fixing pain X with solution Y. Here's is some info."
Don't over-do marketing. Just state the facts. Don't try to be coy about the fact that you are marketing a product. Just say so. And don't waste our time. Start with the pain that your product solves so we know whether to even spend 3 seconds looking at it, and then just say how it solves the problem.
But if you are giving bulleted lists of dos and dont's and saying things like 'devs love swag' you've already missed the mark. Just talk to us as if we are fellow human beings.
This is really refreshing to hear someone say out loud. I've worked in marketing for a couple of decades, but my first love was computers (and I have half a CS degree). I program (poorly) for fun, and I end up back-up IT by default at a lot of places. So I feel like I at least have a foot in both worlds. And it's a constant battle at every ad production job I've had to get clients/companies to focus on the facts. Just tell people what they want to know, ffs! Everyone's so sick of being sold-to that we all appreciate/respect straight-forward communication.
Developers hate marketing that feels like marketing. We love product launches because you learn about new tech. Learning about new tech doesn't feel like marketing for developers (although that's what it is).
I feel like the author captures it in the section "Developers Can Love Marketing But Will Always Hate Spam". Are we the most targeted segment like the author says? I doubt it. But we are targeted nonetheless.
Devs simply want transparency. Marketing tends to come from a perspective of having to "capture" the market, instead of just informing the market.
Look at how it works on HN. People say, "I'm self promoting: Fixing pain X with solution Y. Here's is some info."
Don't over-do marketing. Just state the facts. Don't try to be coy about the fact that you are marketing a product. Just say so. And don't waste our time. Start with the pain that your product solves so we know whether to even spend 3 seconds looking at it, and then just say how it solves the problem.
But if you are giving bulleted lists of dos and dont's and saying things like 'devs love swag' you've already missed the mark. Just talk to us as if we are fellow human beings.