A Curated List of Marketing Resources for Developers

It’s a tale as old as time - developers, well let’s just say aren’t that fond of marketers!

It may or may not be completely based in fact, but it’s what we’ve been hearing for years now. It’s not difficult to imagine why. Developers and marketers are innately different, and the radical differences in their job profiles just don’t make it any easier!

Some of the reasons cited by irate developers are that marketers don’t really understand the products, end up overselling them, and cannot fathom that ‘easy features’ are actually a lot more complex to add!

Phew! So, it’s established that developers do have lots of bones to pick with the marketers!

One particular thought that seems worth chewing on is, do developers just hate marketers because they don’t ‘get’ marketing?

Think about it. Developers spend so much time perfecting the product, that they don’t really understand the other side of the picture - making it work for the customers! Maybe, if they understood marketing, they wouldn’t be so jumpy around marketers!

Of course, given the grudges they bear against marketers, waving a ‘Marketing 101’ at a developer might seem as dangerous as waving a red cloth at a raging bull! Then again, it could just as well act as a white flag for a truce between the sworn enemies!

Come to think about it, learning the ropes of marketing could have a lot of benefits for a developer!

For one, it’s not rocket science! Fundamentally, it’s just about finding out what people need, get their attention cost-effectively, communicate what your product does, and choose the appropriate price!
It could help your career a great deal - People with an in-depth understanding of software and marketing skills are scarce. Being one of them can be an incredible plus on your CV!
You could find common ground with marketers - you’d understand their point of view better, and also convey your own ideas with more conviction!
It’s interesting - and needs number crunching! Your analytical skills will come in handy, and you get to learn something new.
Let’s face it - every field has a point of saturation. You may become the very best in your field - what then? Learning marketing skills can bring forth a whole new set of opportunities!
Finally, what if you decided to branch out and set up your own business? Marketing skills could be a lifesaver, in the initial years, when you’d have to depend on your own wits to survive and grow your business!

However, a developer’s life is already swamped with enough work - there’s always a last minute feature to add, or technical glitches with the prototype, or some other pressing need! And now we tell you, you’ve got to learn marketing as well!

Leave it to us… We’ve got this!

Through our journey of getting the product right, ensuring it’s the right fit for the market, scaling the product, and making it profitable - we’ve come across a lot of stuff like blog posts, videos, interviews, essays, podcasts, etc. that could help developers get all the marketing education they’d ever need!

To make it simpler, we’ve collated a list that developers can access, bookmark and internalize, whenever they have some time on their hands!

Here’s the laundry list of resources developers can use to crack the marketing puzzle!

User Research
Market Research
Content Marketing
SEM
Influencer Marketing
Marketing For Product Hunt Launch
Social Media Marketing
Email Marketing
Psychology In Marketing
Minimum Viable Launch
App Store Optimization
Outbound Marketing
Retargeting
Influencers To Follow

User Research

User research essentially puts people at the center of your design process and all your products. It helps you create designs that are truly relevant to the users, are easier to use, and to understand the return on investment (ROI) of your user experience (UX) design.

Complete Beginner’s Guide To UX Research - UX Booth
How To Create A Concrete Buyer Persona - Mary Fernandez, a professional blogger
How To Create Customer Profiles To Reach Your Target Audience - Greg Ciotti, Lead Content Marketing Manager, Help Scout
How To Create A Persona - John Lincoln
What Is Customer Discovery - Steve Blank

Podcasts

The UX Blog - Nicholas Tenhue, Orion Health
I Have An Idea, Now What? - Sarah Doody
Dollars To Donuts - Steve Portigal

Books

Observing the User Experience, Second Edition: A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research - Elizabeth Goodman
Quantifying the User Experience: Practical Statistics for User Research - Jeff Sauro
Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights - Steve Portigal

Market Research

Market research relates to seeking answers to the questions about the proposed, anticipated or projected market. Whether you want to enter the market with a new product, increase the market base of an existing product, or give a unique offering to your customers, you need market research.

Business Guide To Market Research - Andreas Riviera
How To Do Market Research - Debbie Farese
Market Research For Your App Idea - Reinder de Vries, professional iOS developer
Seven Great Podcasts For Market Researchers - Plotto
10 Market Research Tools You Should Be Using - Justin Ethington

Podcasts

Audible Insights With Paul Kirch - Insights Association
Data Gurus Podcast - Data Gurus
Answers In Action - American Marketing Association

Books

Hacking Growth - Sean Ellis
Statistical Rethinking: A Bayesian Course - Richard McElreath
Weapons of Math Destruction - Cathy O’Neil

Content Marketing

Content marketing is an approach focused on creating, and distributing, valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. Instead of pitching products and services, you provide useful content to your prospects and customers, to help them solve their issues.

It’s important for your content to stand out, provide unique value, build a dedicated readers’ community, and convert those into leads!

A Simple Content Marketing Playbook For Software Developers And Creators - John Saddington
5 Content Marketing Tips For Developers - Kyle McKinnon, Digital Marketing Consultant & Tech Enthusiast
The 8 Main Different Types Of Content And How To Use Them - Hootsuite
The Complete Online Guide To Content Marketing Success - i-scoop
How To Retarget People Who Click On Curated Content - social media examiner
The Complete Guide To Blog SEO - Ryan Stewart
How To Rank Your Blog Content On Google - Marko Saric

Podcasts

Smart Passive Income - Pat Flynn
Problogger.Podcast - Darren Rowse
Mark Schaefer - Mark Schaefer and Tom Webster

Books

Building A Story Brand - Donald Miller
Hit Makers - Derek Thomson
Everybody Writes - Ann Handley

SEM

SEM, or Search Engine Marketing, involves marketing a product or business using paid advertisements that appear on search engine result pages (or SERPs).

These ads, often known by the term pay-per-click ads, come in a variety of formats. Some are small, text-based ads, whereas others, such as product listing ads (PLAs, also known as Shopping ads) are more visual, product-based advertisements that allow consumers to see important information at-a-glance, such as price and reviews.

Five SEM Hacks For Developers - Ted Carstensen
SEO vs SEM: Lead Generation For Web Designers & Developers - Dat To
What Is SEM? - Sherman Standberry
How To Use Video To Improve Your Paid Search Campaigns - SproutVideo

Podcasts

MozPod - Moz
Calls With Chris Smith - Curaytor
Search Engine Nerds - Search Engine Journal

Books

Winning Results With Google Adwords - Andrew Goodman
50 Ways To Make Google Love Your Website - Liam McGee
The Art Of SEO - Eric Enge, Stephen Spencer, Jessie Stricchiola

Influencer Marketing

An influencer is a social media user that can have anywhere from several hundred to several million followers. They drive conversation and engagement around a particular topic, discussion or niche area.

Influencer marketing is marketing that uses key content creators to drive authentic conversation and engagement around a brand’s products and message.

What Is Influencer Marketing And Why It Matters - Greg Swan
10 Influencer Marketing Strategies You Need To Know - Frederic Gonzalo
Influencer Marketing For Developers - devrel.net
Influencer Marketing - Bethany Johnson
The Exact Email Scripts I Use To Connect With The VIPs - Alex Turnbull, Founder Of Groove
How To Find Influencers On Twitter - 123 Reg
How We Got 1000+ Subscribers From A Single Blog Post In 24 Hours - Alex Turnbull, Founder Of Groove

Podcasts

The Influencer Podcast - Julie Solomon
Julius: Influencer Marketing Unleashed - Julius Works

Books

Pre-Suasion - Robert Cialdini
Influence Marketing: How to Create, Manage, and Measure Brand Influencers in Social Media Marketing - Danny Brown

Marketing For Product Hunt Launch

Product Hunt (PH) is a place to discover, share, and talk about new products in tech. Submitting your product there is a good way to gain visibility.

After submission, the product will participate in the daily race. The race starts PST 00:00 and finishes PST 23:59. You have to get as many upvotes and comments as you can by the end of the day! The most successful products appear on the Homepage and can get a lot of honest feedback, downloads, users and PR buzz.

How To Launch On Product Hunt - Product Hunt
Product Hunt 101 - Robleh Jama
Master Checklist For Launching On Product Hunt - SpreadShare
Is Product Hunt Useful For Developer Tools? - Flawless

Podcasts

Product Hunt Radio - Product Hunt

Social Media Marketing is the process of gaining attention or traffic from social media sites.

7 Steps In Creating A Winning Social Media Marketing Strategy - Alex York
How To Create A Social Media Marketing Plan - Hootsuite
How To Choose Your Channels And Create Your Strategy - Digital Marketing Institute
7 Step Facebook Marketing Strategy - Alex York
Standout Social Media Marketing Examples - Dominique Jackson
The Difference Between Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, Youtube & Pinterest - Karisa Egan
Social Media Marketing Made Simple - Neil Patel

Podcasts

Social Media Examiner - Michael Stelzner
Social Media Lab - Agorapulse
Social Pros - Jay Baer, Adam Brown

Books

Don’t Make Me Think Revisited - Steve Krug
Digital Marketing For Dummies - Ryan Deiss and Russ Hennesberry

Email Marketing

Email marketing is the use of emails, not just to promote products and services, but also to develop relationships with potential customers and clients.

What Is Email Marketing? - The Balance
How To Run A Successful Email Marketing Campaign - optinmonster
10 Best Email Marketing Software And Automation Tools - Venture Harbour
13 Types Of Emails You Need To Be Sending Your Email List - optinmonster

Podcasts

Rainmaker.FM - Sonia Simone
LiveIntent - LiveIntent
Email Design - Litmus

Books

Email Persuasion - Ian Brodie
Email Marketing Rules - Chad White and Jay Baer
Email Marketing Excellence - Kevin Hillstrom

Psychology In Marketing

Many successful marketers employ psychology in appealing to customers.

The Intersection Of Psychology And Marketing - Entrepreneur
How Brands Can Use Psychology To Improve Marketing Techniques - Adweek
11 Ways You Can Use Psychology In Your Marketing - Smart Insights
Emotional Marketing - Nick Kolenda
Scarcity In UX - David Teodorescu, Senior Product Designer @ Fitbit
18 Ways To Use Social Proof To Boost Your Results - Alfred Lua, Buffer

Podcasts

The Web Psychologist - Nathalie Nahai
3 Questions That Determine A Customer’s Buying Behaviour - Rebecca Costa
How To Leverage Consumer Psychology - Michael Fishman

Books

The Ten Principles Behind Great Customer Experiences - Matt Watkinson
What Customers Crave - Nicholas Webb
Non-Obvious 2018 Edition - Rohit Bhargava

Minimum Viable Launch

A Minimum Viable Product is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for future product development.

The Key To A Successful First Launch? Defining The MVP - Mark Khachaturian, CTO, Vital USA
How To Market Your Startup’s MVP - Britt Armour, Director of Marketing, Kibii
The Minimum Viable Marketing Strategy - Jesse Williams

Podcasts

How To Find Out Fast If Your Idea Is Legit - TheStartupChat

Books

21 Tips For Getting A MVP - Paul Vii

App Store Optimization

App Store Optimization, or ASO, is the process of optimizing mobile apps to rank higher in an app store’s search results.

The higher your app ranks in an app store’s search results, the more visible it is to potential customers. That increased visibility might eventually translate into more traffic to your app’s page in the app store, so searchers can download the app.

App Store Optimization - A Crucial Piece Of The Mobile App Marketing Puzzle - Neil Patel
24 Rank Improving ASO Tips - Appster
App Store Optimization Tips & Checklist - Marcus Kay

Podcasts

App Store Optimization Podcast - Gabriel
Hacking Mobile Growth With ASO - Chino Lex

Books

App Store Optimization Bible - Gabriel Machuret

Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing, also referred to as interruption marketing, involves getting your marketing message to the largest number of people possible through advertising, cold calling, direct mail and other aggressive techniques that interrupt people in their daily lives.

Outbound Marketing Campaigns You Should Be Using - Ryan Zetterberg
6 Ways To Attract More Customers Through Outbound Marketing - Thomas Smale
Outbound Marketing 2.0 - Neil Patel
Creating An Effective Outbound Marketing Plan - Peter Caddick

Podcasts

Amy Porterfield - Amy Porterfield
Gary Vaynerchuk - Gary Vaynerchuk
Marketing Over Coffee - John Wall and Christopher Penn
MarketingProfs - Kerry O’Shea Gorgone
Marketing School - Neil Patel

Books

Marketing: A Love Story - Bernadette Jiwa
The New Rules Of Marketing & PR - David Meerman Scott
Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business - Gino Wickman

Retargeting

Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a form of online advertising that can help you keep your brand in front of bounced traffic after they leave your website. For most websites, only 2% of web traffic converts on the first visit.

Retargeting is a tool designed to help companies reach the 98% of users who don’t convert right away.