Nerds don't respond to marketing; try technical documentation instead

Re:Nerds don't respond to marketing; try technical documenta... by bluGill on Monday August 16, 2021 @09:17AM (#28197673)

> If someone is hours deep into your documentation, that's not really advertising. That's a real service they're consuming, and forming opinions based on how it tastes. Marketing is more about the impression they get in minutes, not hours.

No, marketing is about getting someone to contact sales to buy your product. (There is a fuzzy line between sales and marketing) I have personally spent days in the past evaluating two different products, which did put me hours into reading documentation trying to figure out how to make them work.

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Re:Nerds don't respond to marketing; try technical documenta... by dalbasal on Monday August 16, 2021 @09:50AM (#28198037)

Not exclusively.

When Toyota sponsors a motorsport team, that's not about getting someone to buy tomorrow. Neither are most TV commercials, brochures, etc. Neither is rebranding, etc.

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Re:Nerds don't respond to marketing; try technical documenta... by bluGill on Monday August 16, 2021 @09:52AM (#28198069)

Note that I didn't put a time frame between when marketing starts and when the sale happens.

You are very correct, marketing can often start years before a sale (and sometimes people never buy at all)

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Re:Nerds don't respond to marketing; try technical documenta... by dalbasal on Monday August 16, 2021 @10:08AM (#28198272)

Sure... in the sense that everyone's job at a company is to make profit.

By the same argument you could say that everything is marketing, including designing and making the product. This is true, I guess. You might borrow a mac for a week from a buddy before buying it. Still, making a laptop is generally not described as marketing.

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