How to sell to Heads of Marketing at Developer tools companies
Heads of Marketing in Developer Tools companies are primarily measured on lead conversion rates. They respond positively to insights that demonstrate a clear understanding of the technical challenges their teams face, such as integrating CI/CD processes into their marketing strategies. Addressing their specific pain points can lead to meaningful conversations.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 587 developer tools company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- low lead conversion rates
- developer engagement issues
- ineffective marketing campaigns
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent product launches
Research companies that have recently launched new developer tools or features. Use platforms like Product Hunt or GitHub releases to find these updates. This signals that the marketing team may be keen on promoting their new offerings and may need additional support.
- 02
Analyze their current marketing channels
Evaluate the marketing channels being used by your target companies, focusing on social media engagement and content marketing. Tools like SimilarWeb or SEMrush can provide insights into their online presence and effectiveness. This helps tailor your outreach based on their existing strategies.
- 03
Connect through industry events
Look for upcoming industry conferences or webinars where these Heads of Marketing will be speaking or attending. Use platforms like Eventbrite or Meetup to find relevant events. Mention these events in your outreach to create a natural connection point.
- 04
Highlight challenges with developer engagement
Craft your messaging around the common issues Heads of Marketing face in engaging developers, such as low response rates to campaigns. Use case studies or examples from similar companies to illustrate how addressing these challenges can lead to improved outcomes.
- 05
Propose a solution to streamline CI/CD marketing
In your outreach, suggest specific strategies to help them better market their CI/CD tools. This could include automating their marketing processes or improving their API documentation. This shows you understand their product and how to enhance its visibility.
Can developer tools companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 587 developer tools companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 27.4% of 1–10-person companies against 94.9% of the largest — 68 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Boost your lead conversion
- Improve developer engagement
- Streamline your marketing efforts
Questions
- Why do Heads of Marketing in developer tools ignore outreach?
- Heads of Marketing often receive a high volume of outreach, making it challenging to prioritize messages that don't directly address their specific challenges. If your outreach lacks relevance to their current goals or doesn't demonstrate an understanding of their technical audience, it may be overlooked.
- What metrics do Heads of Marketing prioritize?
- Heads of Marketing typically prioritize metrics that reflect lead quality and conversion rates. They focus on how effectively their campaigns translate into actionable leads, as well as engagement metrics that indicate how well their messaging resonates with developers.
- How can I make my outreach stand out to Heads of Marketing?
- To stand out, tailor your outreach to address specific pain points they face, such as enhancing developer engagement or improving campaign effectiveness. Use insights from their recent activities or industry trends to create a compelling narrative that resonates with their current objectives.
- What common objections do Heads of Marketing have about new tools?
- Common objections include concerns about integration with existing systems, the learning curve for their teams, and the potential ROI of new tools. They may also question the relevance of a solution to their unique challenges in the developer tools space, making it crucial to present tailored solutions.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
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