Developer Marketing in B2B SaaS where the developer is not the buyer authority - Ripple of Impact

© 2024 Pieter Brinkman - /in/pbrink
OF IMPACT
RIPPLES
Navigating the Unpredictable Waves of
Developer Marketing in B2B SaaS
Midjourney prompt:
a stock image for a presentation with the following title
‘ripples of impact, Navigating the Unpredictable Waves of Developer Marketing'

Our developer community is
about 25.000 developers.
These developers work at
partners, customers or
contractors.
COMMUNITY
Digital Experience Vendor with
Products suite offering solutions
for Content management,
Experience and Commerce.
B2B ENTERPRISE SAAS VENDOR
All implementations are done by
our partners or customer.
Sitecore has a large global
ecosystem of implementation
partners.
IMPLEMENTATION THROUGH PARTNERS
2
3
1
13+ years @Sitecore
20+ years experience in
digital industry
Lives in Rotterdam, The
Netherlands
Loves surfing!
Pieter Brinkman
VP Product Marketing and
Developer Relations
/pbrink

Developer Marketing
SHARED GOALS
• Create awareness and excitement
• Increase adoption rate
• Build, grow and nurture developer community
• Facilitate developer feedback
• Create frictionless buyer's journey
• Improved developer education
• Increased revenue and business growth
• And more…
TOOLS
• Content Marketing (with helpful content!)
• Developer portals
• Events and conferences
• Developer Advocacy Programs
• Open Source Contributions
• Social and Community Engagement platforms
• Developer Experience
• And more…
DIFFERENT TITLES
• Developer Marketing
• Developer Relations
• Technical Marketing
• (Technical) Product Marketing
• Product Evangelism
• Developer Advocacy
• Community management
• And more…

Sales
Marketing
Product
Developer
Marketing
DEVELOPER MARKETING ORGANISATIONAL FIT
EVERYWHERE
NO WHERE

Developer
Marketing
Product Marketing
Product Marketing
Technical Product
Marketing
Product Marketing and Developer Marketing
expertise
product
industry
Marketing
CMO
Marketing specialist
VP, Director, etc.
Content Authors
IT
CIO / CDO
Developers
Architects
VP, Directors, etc.
PERSONA COVERAGE

Developer
Marketing
Product Marketing and Developer Marketing
expertise
product
industry
Marketing
CMO
VP, Director, etc.
Content Authors
IT
CIO / CDO
Developers
Architects
VP, Directors, etc.
PERSONA COVERAGE

Developer Marketing in different organization
impact of departments
Sales
Marketing
Product
Developer
Marketing
PERSONA COVERAGE DEPARTMENTS
expertise
product
industry Marketing
CMO
VP, Director, etc.
Content Authors
IT
CIO / CDO
Developers
Architects
VP, Directors, etc.

Developer Marketing part of Product
Sales
Marketing
Product Developer
Marketing
expertise
product
industry Marketing
CMO
VP, Director, etc.
Content Authors
IT
CIO / CDO
Developers
Architects
VP, Directors, etc.
Developer
Marketing

Developer Marketing part of Marketing
Sales
Marketing
Product
Developer
Marketing
expertise
product
industry Marketing
CMO
VP, Director, etc.
Content Authors
IT
CIO / CDO
Developers
Architects
VP, Directors, etc.
Developer
Marketing
Developer
Marketing

HOW TO NAVIGATE?
If you fit anywhere, you fit nowhere.
Priorities will continuously change by company strategy, new leadership, industry or economic changes,
and/or many other external factors.
Focus on navigating your team and ecosystem!
Midjourney prompt:
A boat that is navigating on troubles water.

Shield your team from the
ever-changing demand
from above.
SHIELD
Create relations and
engage across
departments.
ENGAGE
Learn what success looks
like for your management
and tweak your strategy.
ACCEPT
Embrace the change.
Change will bring new
opportunity.
CHANGE
MAKE YOUR CASE
it’s up to you!
C A S E

DEVELOPER MARKETING
IS A LONG-TERM GAME
Long-term strategies and programs will take time before results show and the expected results might
not always align with company short-term priorities.
Midjourney prompt:
Visualize an investment for the long-term and emphasize on growth over time
Balance your Developer Marketing strategy between long-term programs (60%) and short-term
programs (40%).

B2B sales
Understand
Understand the B2B sales cycle and the role that developers play
Midjourney prompt:
a stockimage for a presentation that emphasizes on B2B software sales cycle

No developer is the buying authority of our software,
No software is bought without blessing of a developer
What role does the developer play in B2B buying cycle?
Developers are key influencers in the decision and have the power to postpone, make or break a deal.

B2B SOFTWARE BUYING CYCLE
IT gathers requirements and initiates vendor selection.
Asks the architect to review the vendors
IT TEAM
Checks out the vendor website, developer portal,
Youtube, community. If needed a POC.
DEVELOPER
02
03
04
01
Each role need to be aligned and
agree with the decision.
Roles can be overruled; this is
never an easy decision and
introduces risk.
MANY ROLES INVOLVED
Marketing needs a solution to address a use case.
They ask IT for a solution.
MARKETING
initiator
Reviews the vendor on technology stack, compliance and other
technology requirements. Ask the Dev to check out the vendor.
ARCHITECT
validator
influencer
buyer

Simplified B2B Customer Journey
1 4
3
2 5
• Ongoing Support
• Maintenance
• Improvements
• Feedback
Operation
• Negotiation and
Contracting
Decision
• Initial contact
• RFI
• Product Demonstration
• Evaluation and
comparison
• Compliance
• Vendor shortlisting
• POC
Consideration &
Evaluation
• Research
• Identification of needs
• Requirements gathering
Awareness
• Design (UX, IA, Brand,
etc.)
• Implementation
• Testing
• Deployment
• Support
Implementation
6
• Evaluation
• Feedback
• Renewal or re-
evaluation
Evaluation &
Renewal
Upsell and Cross-sell
Continuous
improvements
Partner led
Evaluation

1 4
3
2 5
Operation
Decision
Consideration &
Evaluation
Awareness Implementation
6
Evaluation &
Renewal
Continuous
improvements
Partner led
Developers' role in B2B Customer Journey
• Shortlist Product
Evaluation based on
RFI, demo and meetings
• POC
• Presentation of
evaluation outcomes
• Recommendation
• Learn
• Build solution
• Engage with community
• Support request
• Deploy
• New opportunities
• Maintenance
• Community contributions
• Open-Source
Contributions
Customer developer
Evaluation
• Presentation of
implementation and
usage experience
• Recommendation
• Positive feeling with the
brand
• Developer generated
lead

1 4
3
2 5
Operation
Decision
Consideration &
Evaluation
Awareness Implementation
6
Evaluation &
Renewal
Partner led
Developers' role in B2B Customer Journey
• Shortlist Product
Evaluation based on
RFI, demo and meetings
• POC
• Presentation of
evaluation outcomes
• Recommendation
• Positive feeling with the
brand
• Developer generated
lead
• Learn
• Build solution
• Engage with community
• Support request
• Deploy
• New opportunities
• Maintenance
• Community contributions
• Open-Source
Contributions
• Presentation of
implementation and
usage experience
• Recommendation
Developer Marketing supporting activities
• Community channels
• Community engagement
• Content: Best practices
• User Groups and Meetups
• Events: Industry
• Content: Industry
• Brand advocates
• Provide frictionless
product experience;
Trials, Tutorials,
Documentation, etc.
• Sales readiness • Content: Excitement
• Sitecore Events:
Excitement
• Community advocacy
(MVP)
Continuous
improvements
Evaluation
• Content: value
realization
• Content: the future
Customer developer

Explain and measure the
value in a way that they
will “get it” in comparison.
Difficult to articulate
and measure value
Hard to get the
investment.
Developer persona
is not a focus
Success is measured on
personas with buyers'
authority.
Unaligned Company
Measurements
Not offering a free trial is
limiting our ability to
execute 1:1 developer
marketing.
Lack of
Developer CTA
Our Developer Marketing Challenges in B2B
developer marketing challenges for a B2B company where the developer is not the buying authority

Why B2B vendors should care about Developer Marketing
SHIFT OF MARTECH OWNERSHIP
Sources: Dissolving martech? Tech stack aggregation brings more power to marketing, more control to IT (chiefmartec.com)
4 Actions to Improve Martech ROI (Gartner)
Source: The State of decision making (Raconteur)
BUYING COMMITTEE IS GROWING
Technology decisions are critical for business success.
In average 11 people are now involved in the buying
committee.
The committee has extended to more IT oriented
profiles, including Architects and Developers.

UNIQUE DIFFERENTIATOR
Vendor selection
SCALE YOUR ENTERPRISE
DEPARTMENTS
REVENUE
Net New
Product Generated
Lead (PGL)
Marketing
• Brand advocates
• Content
• Events
• Social
Support
• Extended
support
• Ticket deflection
Product
• OpenSource
Contributions
• Product Feedback
• Documentation
Up-sell, Cross-sell
Product Led Growth
(PLG)
Renewal
Product stickiness
Increased value
DEVELOP MARKETING
OPPORTUNITIES
IN B2B Analyst reports

SHIELD ENGAGE
ACCEPT
CHANGE
MAKE YOUR
it’s up to you!
C A S E

YOU
THANK
RIPPLES OF IMPACT
Navigating the Unpredictable Waves of
Developer Marketing in B2B SaaS
Midjourney prompt:
a stock image for a presentation with the following title
‘ripples of impact, Navigating the Unpredictable Waves of Developer Marketing'
Pieter Brinkman
VP Product Marketing and Developer Relations
/pbrink
@Sitecore

Developer Marketing in B2B SaaS where the developer is not the buyer authority - Ripple of Impact

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Similaire à Developer Marketing in B2B SaaS where the developer is not the buyer authority - Ripple of Impact

Similaire à Developer Marketing in B2B SaaS where the developer is not the buyer authority - Ripple of Impact (20)

Plus de Pieter Brinkman

Plus de Pieter Brinkman (14)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

Developer Marketing in B2B SaaS where the developer is not the buyer authority - Ripple of Impact