Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery – Distinguishing a Technical Product in a Crowded Market

Developer marketing tips that work:

Betteridge's Law of Headlines: If a headline is written in the form of a question, the answer is always "no."
Don't advertise the competition. If you mention your competitor, you cut your budget in half.
We're #2 only worked for Avis. Don't advertise yourself as second best.
Don’t be an alternative. If the very best thing you can say about your product is, “It's an alternative to X," you need to work on your messaging (or your product). Focus on positioning yourself as an improvement, not an alternative. The word "new”, when positioned next to an outdated competitor, is really powerful.
Don't fall in love with your own positioning Fall in love with your customer's problem. IT's hard to distinguish yourself with just words.
Pretend to partner. If you can create an association, you can imply that you're associated with another company, even if you're not. An example: “Using X with well-known-platform.”
There is such a thing at "too clever." Especially with developers, you can cause you headaches. An example was an NPM email with no subject, where developers had thought the CEO had been hacked.
Subtle can work. Small text and links can still have big open rates.
There is such a thing as too much automation.
Let someone say it about you. PR is when someone else says something about you. Marketing is when you say it yourself. In developer marketing, your community talking about you is the most important piece. These posts see the highest click through rate on the community.
Match the velocity of your product. Your go to market velocity needs to match your product development.
Developers are allergic to marketing. They can smell marketing BS a mile away. You need to be radically transparent in your marketing.