Monetizing the Developer Experience
Developer marketing is about increasing engagement and community building, but with careful planning you can also find opportunities to help drive revenue.
When we talk about the developer experience, we often think of things like documentation and tutorials. We may not realize that there’s a huge opportunity to monetize the developer experience by selling products directly to developers. Don’t underestimate the power of the developer experience, but don’t be afraid to charge for it either
Developer marketing is tightly coupled with the developer experience. You can have the best product in the world, but if no one can use it, then you don’t have a business. And this is true for any company building software — not just ones that are open source or SaaS. But because the developer audience is so hard to please — they have high expectations and seek many different forms of compensation for their involvement — many companies don’t even try to monetize on their services.
But here’s the thing: developers may already be paying for your products by being loyal customers who recommend them to friends and colleagues (and they will continue doing so). The challenge is that they won’t pay directly unless they’re given an easy way to do so. So how do you get them to buy what they already want? There’s no single answer; instead, there are many different ways and tactics that work depending on your particular situation and product.
Developer marketing is about engagement and community building and indirectly drives revenue
Classic marketing is about getting your message out there, gaining awareness and making sales. Ads are taboo and seen with disdain. In contrast, developer marketing is about engagement and community building — not overtly selling to developers directly.
The best way to accomplish this is through engaging with developers directly, listening carefully to their feedback on existing features and product ideas as well as what they’d like added in future releases; responding quickly so that they know how much their input matters; giving them full control over how their favorite features work; offering clear documentation so that anyone can use your software effectively; creating open APIs for external developers using the same platform as part of their own offerings.
Rule: Don’t make it a habit to sell to developers directly — increase the level of interaction and engagement as the mark of developer marketing success and revenue will follow.
Think about premium upgrades and extra features
The first step to monetizing a developer experience is thinking about how you can add value to your product. What features do you want to add? What features will developers want? What features will help you sell more? What features will help you make more money?
This might sound obvious, but it’s important to be intentional and strategic with any feature additions because they’re not free. If a feature doesn’t directly or indirectly support one of those goals, then there’s no point in building it — even if the idea seems appealing on paper or even if someone has requested it.
A less obvious way is by charging for access to the data that is generated by the new feature. If your product helps developers sell more products or make more money in less time, then the data that it generates can be used to better understand what works and what doesn’t. Then charge them for access to this information — it will help them make even better decisions about how they spend their time and money.
Sell Directly To DevOps Teams
While it’s important to meet the needs of developers, you want to make sure your product also meets the needs of DevOps teams. This means making sure you can provide a lot of value to them and that your product is easy to use. You should also be able to provide support if needed, and integrate with other products they are using (like third-party logging tools).
It’s always nice when a company can sell directly to DevOps teams — they’re usually very large and have no shortage of money — but it takes time and effort before they’ll buy from you instead of someone else. Your job is not only making sure your product is good enough but also getting their attention in the first place!
Consider integrations carefully.
Integrations are a great way to increase usage and provide value to your users. However, they can be complex and time consuming to implement.
Before you integrate with any platform, make sure it is something that will benefit both your company and the people using your product.
It’s also important to consider the value of an integration from a user’s perspective. If someone has already set up their favorite social media app on their mobile device, there is no need for them to set up another one in order for them interact with your product — just use the existing account! The fewer steps required for users before they start interacting with a new service or platform, the better it will be for everyone involved (assuming there aren’t any security risks associated with this approach).
Go beyond a free trial or free tier.
Offering a free trial or free tier can be an effective strategy for getting new users on board. When someone is evaluating whether or not to use your product, it can be helpful to let them try out the service for themselves instead of just taking someone else’s word for it.
If they like what they see, there is a good chance that they will continue using the product after their trial period has ended. And if they don’t like what they see? They won’t have any money invested in it anyway.
Ensure that the value of your paid plans is greater than the value of the free plan (and it should be). This means you can offer more features, higher storage limits, or whatever else makes sense for your product. And if you don’t want users who sign up for your free tier to be able to upgrade at any time, there are still options for protecting yourself from this happening too easily (see below).
Make sure no one finds out how good your free plan actually is because then they might not upgrade once their trial has expired or they decide they want more functionality (and revenue).
This can be tricky because unless you’re using some kind of paywall system like Stripe Atlas where new users have to explicitly agree in order use certain features without upgrading first — which I do recommend doing — you’ll need some other mechanism in place so people don’t accidentally stumble across those “hidden” features when trying something new out without realizing what’s going on behind-the-scenes.”
Charge for API usage not access
When it comes to APIs, the value of access is worth less than the cost of usage. That’s because access is not tied to any specific business outcome while usage is.
When you charge for API access, you’re only monetizing a portion of the revenue generation opportunity available through your APIs — you’re missing out on an important part of your business model: charging developers for their use of your API.
Charge them based on the value they receive from using it and they will pay more than if they had simply been given full access without being charged at all (or worse yet paid nothing).
Conclusion
The developer experience is a key part of your product, but finding small but impactful ways monetize certain aspects is not out of the question. If you want to make money off of your product, the developer experience has to be a #1 priority. The more time developers spend on your platform, the better they will be able to integrate it into their workflow and find value in your product.
What does this mean for marketers and DevRel? Continue to focus on the developer experience (DX). Make sure your product is easy to use and has great documentation. Don’t just create a tool, create an ecosystem that can be used by developers across different projects.
The more time developers spend on your platform, the better they will be able to integrate it into their workflow and find value in your product.
I’m passionate about helping people build great and innovative products, and an deep interest in cognitive science. I’ve taken on the communication challenges for startups, entrepreneurs, B2B software companies and organizations working with university researchers. Check out signetscience.com to learn more about me and my team of advisors.
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