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- 🍐#20: Why go to conferences, amazing docs header, and a 7k-like promo video
🍐#20: Why go to conferences, amazing docs header, and a 7k-like promo video
Jakub Czakon
May 20, 2023
Hey,
Had a really nice week, some would say pear-fect.
So I:
Started reading a non-work-related book for the first time in months (you should try it sometime).
Went on a long walk on a rainy day with my daughter.
Made a top-notch mousaka (ok it was barely etible but still ;))
Here are my insights this week.
Developer marketing insights
1. Why do you go to conferences (by Gonto)
Martin Gontovnikas (Gonto) is one of the best startup dev marketers I know about. He was VP of marketing at Auth0 from the very beginning till they got their unicorn status.
Definitely a person to follow. He knows his stuff.
Anyway, on the Build by OpenView podcast, he shared why they went to conferences early on.
It wasn't to get leads or to "build awareness".
This is what they did instead:
They interviewed devs to figure out where they hang out, how they find out new technologies etc.
They realized a lot of their target devs follow certain influencers on Twitter
And that a large chunk of them focus on AngularJS
They figured that if they built relationships with AngularJS influencers they may share their content on Twitter
That would obviously be huge as it would build their brand in the authentication space
So they went to every AngularJS conference in the world to build relationships with AngularJS influencers
And later those folks shared their content about authentication on Twitter
And so Auth0 blog became a go to place for all things authentication
So they didn't go for the attendees. They went for the speakers.
Brilliant!
2. Docs header diagram from Hopsworks
A docs header worth a thousand words.
For a dev platform or infrastructure tool it is hard to explain where you fit, what you do quickly, and how you connect to existing components quickly.
The Hopsworks docs team does a great job here.
So instead of using words, they use a diagram:
You get a solid overview of where your tool/platform fits a larger context
It shows you which part of the workflow/infra the platform solves
Every part of the diagram is a clickable docs link
Shows where you can deploy it
Shows what backend you can use
All of that in a single diagram.
Now that is a dev-focused header visual.
3. GitHub event promo video
I don't think I've ever seen 7k likes on a developer company post on Linkedin.
7k likes on an event promo post to the dev audience.
Ok, this is Github, but still.
This is a 26sec video where they go:
"What happens when a CEO..."
"... builds an app LIVE in 18 minutes ..."
"... in front of 15000 people..."
"... with Copilot X for the first time?"
"What could go wrong?"
"What it Live"
This is a job well done:
Super slick but minimal design. Feels a bit like that famous nextjs prisma conference tickets.
Offers a live coding session which is one of the event types that devs like cause it is real.
Plays powerful music, but no voiceover that would make it feel more corporate.
Dev to dev, conversational copy. + this final snarkiness appeals to devs.
And they could have done:
Copy: "We are happy to announce our CEO streamlining business value for the enterprise"
Design: Show people at previous events and stuff that you saw a million times
Offer: Talks from industry leaders (that are customers using your product)
Voiceover and music: Boring corporate classic.
This is how to promote an event. LOVED IT!
Something about pears 🍐
This is the world record biggest pear in 1999:
Held by Ken Yeomans from Greenhill Orchard New South Wales Australia. Wow!
I hope you learned something new.
Talk to you next week, Pears!
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