The Marketing Funnel Applied to Developer Audiences
How developer journeys are like marketing funnels, plus how to make them effective.
The marketing funnel has served us well for over a century, but developer aren’t your traditional “customer”. To serve them well, map their natural journey patterns instead of forcing a a square peg into a round hole. The funnel simply will not fit.
Your adoption rates will thank you!
Read the full article: The marketing funnel applied to developer audiences.
MYTH: The marketing funnel works for everyone.
REALITY: When it comes to developers, this 125-year-old model is actually hurting your "conversion" rates.
Here's why (and what to do instead)
MYTH #1: "Developers follow a linear path"
❌ Funnel assumes: Awareness → Interest → Desire → Action (or similar)
✅ Reality: Loops and reversals. They bounce between StackOverflow, GitHub, docs, and forums.
The funnel breaks when their paths are not linear.
MYTH #2: "You can control the developer journey"
❌ Funnel assumes: Design stages to guide prospects
✅ Reality: They control their own journey across external touch points (which you can't directly influence)
You can only optimise what they encounter.
MYTH #3: "Conversion rates tell the whole story"
❌ Funnel assumes: Metric of how many moved to next stage
✅ Reality: Metric of many steps required and friction points encountered
Each frustration = poor DX = flight to competing platform = lost adoption
(regardless of funnel position)
... What should we do about this?
DevRel to the the rescue: Employ a technique called Developer Journey Mapping! Think of loosely grouped touch points rather than funnels. Think of a train map rather than a sequence. Map all touch points, both internal and external. Identify friction points at each stop. Optimise the connections between touch points.
Measure friction reduction, and number of steps required to accomplish a task. You can still continue measuring conversion, but think of that as a lag metric. Friction reduction and minimising number of steps, that a lead metric, one which you can impact directly.
Developers interact with platforms fundamentally differently than retail consumers.
They're problem-solving, not purchasing.
They're researching, not being sold to.
They're building, not consuming.
Your approach must match their behaviours.
Read the full article: The marketing funnel applied to developer audiences.
This is article 3 of 4 in the DevRel for Marketers series, by
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