Marketing for Developers

Scott and Wes talk about marketing. Specifically how to do marketing if you’re a developer wondering where to start.

Freshbooks - Sponsor

Get a 30 day free trial of Freshbooks at freshbooks.com/syntax and put SYNTAX in the “How did you hear about us?” section.

LogRocket - Sponsor

LogRocket lets you replay what users do on your site, helping you reproduce bugs and fix issues faster. It’s an exception tracker, a session replayer and a performance monitor. Get 14 days free over at https://logrocket.com/syntax

Show Notes

7:58 - Personal Branding

Build trust and reciprocity Be authentic to yourself and let that carry through in your work. Have the guts to put yourself out there and establish yourself as an expert. Speak at conferences Write blog posts Make YouTube videos Be on podcasts Start your own podcast

14:50 - Running a Business

Treat people well. Reward your customers. Don’t punish your users. Have a refund policy.

19:26 - Social Media

Don’t push people off a platform. Bring content to them that is tailored for that platform.

Get in early, before the platform becomes super crowded.

YouTube

Quality content through quantity. Write good SEO titles. Tease your paid content or create a free one-off. Don’t expect to make a lot of money, but it can be great for growing a brand.

Twitter

Be helpful - small, digestible tips and tricks and great for growing a Twitter following. Quality is still the key. Steve Schoger is a great example of consistent, high quality content.

Facebook

People have other interests besides web development. People like to see into your life. Use Facebook to give people a window into who you are.

Reddit

Reddit is really difficult. It’s easy to get banned. The best strategy is to not focus on marketing and just try to be helpful. It’s sort of replaced forums and is a great place to build communities around different hobbies.

Instagram

Recently IG has been blowing up for web developers. Dhanish is a perfect example of how to do Instagram well.

49:55 - Paid Advertising

Don’t be sleazy. Ads are good for getting likes and driving some traffic to something, but it takes experimentation to get the best bang for you buck.

54:40 - Email marketing

Wes: Email is probably responsible for most of my sales. Keeps people up to date and helpful for promoting new courses. Helpful for figuring out what people want.

59:17 - Partnerships

A lot of companies want to partner rather than just sponsor. It can be a great way to fund the creation of products/courses. Affiliate programs are great when they work out.

67:30 - Freebies

Giving away free content is a surefire way to get people to pay attention. It’s about giving back to the community as much as marketing your products. ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Cypress: End to end testing Wes: Audiobook: Own the Day, Own Your Life Shameless Plugs Scott’s New Electron Course Wes’ Advanced React and GraphQL Course Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets