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Max Katz
Max Katz

Posted on • Originally published at maxkatz.org on

Share outcomes and results, not features

I recently subscribed to #saashackers daily newsletter. Every morning you get a short SaaS growth case study in your inbox. It’s a quick 3-4 minute read that I recommend you try.

Today’s email talked about Mailchimp and how they got to $400 million in revenue from just 550 employees.

What caught my eye was this image and the text that followed:

mailchimp-saashacker
Source: #saashacker newsletter

text after the picture:

They are selling an outcome, not features.

They are selling the thing people actually want, not their software.

Whether you are a direct to consumer brand with 50,000 customers or a mommy blogger with 1,000 subscribers, you want:

  • To build relationships with your customers
  • To increase sign up (by 250%)

You don’t (necessarily) want:

  • Email templates
  • CMS integrations

Source: https://saashacker.co

And this has a very close connection to Developer Relations (or Developer Marketing).

We should be sharing outcomes and results, not features. We should be showing people how to solve problems, not our software.

I’m sure most of you know this but I think it’s worth mentioning. I personally tend to forget about this (sometimes) and also it’s much easier to talk about features than benefits.

Most of you probably also said: “wait.. this is not new at all” 🤦‍♀️ 🤦‍♂️

You are absolutely correct 🤩

Adam DuVander has created and shared this wonderful page: Share Knowledge, Not Features: The Secret of Marketing to Developers is to Not Use Marketing. It’s Developer Relations classic and my favorite Developer Relations resource. I highly recommend you read and bookmark this page. Adam explains that we should be sharing knowledge, not features.

So, let’s try to share outcomes, results, problem solving and knowledge, not features 🤞

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