In this month’s Draft.dev webinar, we explored strategies for differentiation with experts Andres Valero from SUSE and Trent Blakely from Console Connect. Here’s what we learned about positioning, reaching developers, and building trust in competitive landscapes.
Why “Developer-First” Claims No Longer Work
The days of simply claiming to be “developer-first” are over. As Andres Valero, Principal Technical Marketing Manager at SUSE, pointed out during our discussion:
What I notice is that no longer can you go and say, ‘this is developer-first’, or ‘developer-oriented’. I’m married to a developer, so I know what I’m talking about. And they are skeptical by nature.
Trent Blakely, Head of Product Marketing at Console Connect, highlighted another significant shift: the move from company-led branding to individual-led thought leadership. Developers tend to be guarded when brands approach them directly, but they’re more receptive to authentic voices from individuals within those companies. This explains why we’re seeing more founders and executives actively engaging in developer advocacy, even at larger organizations.
Critical Mistakes in Developer Differentiation
Overselling and Dishonesty: The Trust Killers
The most critical mistake companies make is overselling their products or being dishonest about what they can actually do for developers. Andres emphasized this point strongly:
All developers I’ve met, or most of them, are really, really smart people. So if you want them to trust you and to be different, don’t oversell. Secondly, make sure that you’re adding value or somehow saving them time on their process.
Skipping the Discovery Phase
Trent identified another major pitfall: failing to truly understand your audience at a granular level. ‘Developers’ is too broad a category. Who are you targeting?
Frontend developers?
Backend engineers?
What specific problems are they trying to solve?
Without this deep understanding, your messaging will miss the mark.
The Category Creation Trap
While being a category creator sounds appealing, both experts warned against this approach for most companies. Creating a new category is expensive, time-consuming, and risky. As Trent explained, you risk not getting found alongside your competitors, and there are more effective ways to differentiate.
Proven Methods for Understanding Developer Needs
For non-technical marketers entering the developer tools space, understanding your audience requires intentional effort. Our experts shared several approaches:
Win-Loss Analysis: Your Reality Check
Andres highlighted the value of win-loss analysis, where third-party companies interview customers after deals close (or don’t):
Why did you hire the product?
Why didn’t you hire the product?
What pain points is it solving for you?
What is not solving for you?
That can be really, really enlightening, and sometimes even hurtful, because you realize that you’re doing it wrong.
Direct Customer Interaction at Conferences
Both Andres and Trent emphasized the importance of conferences and in-person interactions. As Andres noted, you get “first-hand feedback from the people that are using the product” at events, including suggestions you never considered.
Observing Developer Workflows in Action
Trent recommended getting as close as possible to watching developers use your product in their natural environment. While you might not be able to sit in their homes like Intuit did with QuickBooks users, you can observe their experience from end to end, including what they did before using your software.
The Features vs. Benefits vs. Capabilities Framework
One of the most interesting discussions centered on whether to lead with features or benefits when marketing to developers. The consensus? It depends on your audience level.
Trent introduced the concept of focusing on capabilities:
The sweet spot, maybe just above features and benefits, would be capabilities. What does this product actually allow you to do that you couldn’t do without it?
Andres agreed that the message must adapt to the audience:
To a technical person, you can show features, and then explain the value. And they are able to link it in their head, because they do that every day. However, you cannot go to a CTO and tell him ‘hey, these are all the features.’
Finding Your Niche Without Going Too Small
The Validation Test
Karl suggested a practical validation method: If you can’t find 100 potential sales calls for your target market, it might be too small. This ensures you’re not over-niching while still maintaining focus.
Start Small, Think Big
Andres offered this advice:
Start small, but make sure that you’re starting in a niche or a market segment where you can grow. So go talk to people, either phone calls, sales calls, whatever, but you need to get the info from customers, real info.
Content Strategies That Build Trust
Never Disparage Competitors
Andres was adamant about maintaining professional integrity:
First of all, don’t start speaking ill of others. I’ve seen this in my market segment so many times. Second, don’t lie. Don’t lie about what you can achieve or what others do. That will destroy your credibility.
Acknowledge Market Reality
Pretending competitors don’t exist makes you appear naive or deceptive. Developers are researching multiple solutions, so:
Let your strengths speak for themselves
Acknowledge alternatives exist
Focus on your unique value proposition
Provide honest comparisons when asked
Focus on Customer Metrics, Not Yours
Trent shared a powerful principle from his product management background:
You should care more about your customers’ metrics than your own. If that’s your focal point, and you’re trying to help them move the metrics that they care about, you’ll naturally gravitate towards creating valuable content.
Building Developer Communities
Creating the Advocacy Flywheel
The ultimate goal of positioning and differentiation work is creating a self-sustaining community where customers become advocates. As Andres noted: “The best marketing ever is a customer speaking about you.“
This requires:
Consistent messaging across all touchpoints
Genuine value delivery in every interaction
Transparent communication about capabilities and limitations
Active community engagement beyond just support
Key Takeaways for Developer Marketing Success
Building differentiation in the saturated dev tool market requires:
Understanding developers’ actual workflows and pain points through direct interaction
Avoiding overselling and maintaining absolute honesty about capabilities
Focusing on capabilities rather than just features or benefits
Creating content that acknowledges market realities without disparaging competitors
Building trust through consistent messaging and genuine value delivery
The developer tools market will only become more competitive. Success belongs to those who take the time to truly understand their users, communicate honestly, and build products that genuinely improve developer workflows.
TL;DR: Video marketing significantly improves SEO performance in 2026. Our real-world experiments showed:
300% increase in search impressions within 30 days
Top 5 rankings achieved for new content with embedded video
YouTube integration provides the strongest SEO benefits
Interview and tutorial formats perform best for technical content
Video content improves engagement metrics, time on site, and search engine perception of page quality.
Why Video Marketing Matters for SEO in 2026
When I started Draft.dev a few years ago, search engine optimization (SEO) teams weren’t really spending much time worrying about video marketing. Video was expensive, and it wasn’t clear that search engines even indexed that content well, so most SEOs put their budgets into written and image-based content.
Because questions about the role video content plays in marketing and search engine optimization are so common, I decided to do a little experiment on one of our sites to see what impact adding videos to existing written content would have on SEO. Today, I’d like to share those results and some of the lessons we learned from this experiment.
Does Adding Video to Existing Content Improve SEO Rankings?
The theory that many in SEO have put forward is that adding video content to a page helps SEO by improving engagement, time on site, and the perception of the page’s quality.
Here’s what makes video particularly powerful for SEO in 2026:
Increased Dwell Time: Pages with embedded videos see average session durations 2.6x longer than text-only pages
Rich Snippets Opportunities: Video content creates additional opportunities for featured snippets and rich results
Multi-format Search Results: Google now displays video thumbnails directly in search results for relevant queries
AI Overview Integration: Video content is frequently referenced in Google’s AI-powered answer boxes
Presumably, the embedded video needs to be relevant, and since we’re (mostly) optimizing for Google, we also assumed that embedding a YouTube video would be more helpful than some kind of on-site player.
So, we nominated a few articles where our search engine traffic had been slowly declining, and made a plan to record, edit, publish, and embed YouTube videos on each page. All of these examples were done on the same domain, so while the total traffic numbers varied depending on the queries each page captured, the baseline authority should be about the same.
Video Marketing SEO Case Study: 3 Real-World Experiments
Experiment 1: Embedding Video in Evergreen Listicle Content
Baseline Performance: 150 daily impressions, 1-2 clicks per day
Video Format: 20-minute “talking head” style walkthrough
The first article was an evergreen, 4-year-old listicle with about 150 impressions and 1-2 clicks per day. While the traffic had been higher in previous years, search traffic had declined to the point where it was effectively a dead post.
The video we created for it was a “talking head” style video walking through each item on the listicle and essentially discussing it for 1-2 minutes. The final video was about 20 minutes long and to be honest, not all that fancy. Besides being branded, we didn’t do a ton of effects, have multiple camera angles, or quick cut a bunch of snappy footage in.
Despite the relatively low lift, the video had its desired effect. We updated the post of February 7 and within a month, impressions and clickthroughs were starting to accelerate.
While growth has slowed a bit over the past few months, it seems that the piece is continuing to pick up more traffic and impressions as its average position improves and new backlinks are added.
This was an encouraging first result, so we continued with another test.
Experiment 2: Interview-Style Video for Technical Topics
The next piece we decided to tackle was a high-level topic with many long-tail keywords. It had been pretty stagnant for over a year, sporadically getting a few clicks from search, but the impressions were pretty low (<100 per day).
So, we recorded a 45-minute interview with an expert on the topic and embedded it into the blog post. Again, this was a relatively low-effort video, but it was relevant and fit nicely with the narrative of the post.
The piece was updated on April 15th, and pretty quickly, impressions in search started to pick up. Unfortunately, clicks through to the article never caught up, so my suspicion is that this piece got caught in Google’s AI summary arbitrage. In other words, the post is being referenced in AI summaries more often, leading to more impressions, but people don’t click through on AI summary citations.
Still, impressions are good for branding, and with some further generative engine optimization (GEO), we might be able to get this piece more clicks.
Video Format: Multi-expert interview with ChatGPT-assisted transcription
Target Keywords: Niche topic with 100-200 monthly searches
One obvious question I had next was, “will embedding a video from day 1 help a blog post rank faster or perform better?”
In this case, I actually recorded the video first. The video was an in-depth interview with multiple relevant experts on the topic. We then took the recorded video and had ChatGPT create an outline and fill in most of the high-level topics. It pulled quotes from the speakers and gave us a pretty good starting point for the article.
The topic was very niche with an estimated search volume of 100-200 monthly searches, so we knew this was never going to be a huge traffic driver, but it was a high-value topic, so it was worth tackling.
From month 1, the article was in the top five search results for two of the keywords we were targeting, and within 3 months, it hit the top 3 for those topics.
This example is tougher to benchmark since we published it with the video from day 1, but I do think it supports the argument that video content embedded in high-quality, SEO-focused marketing content does improve search performance.
Video Marketing for SEO Takeaways
It’s nearly impossible to control all the variables in a test like this, but based on this experiment and some of the others we’ve been doing for clients at Draft.dev, I can say that there’s something to the theory that having embedded video on marketing content generally improves SEO.
Certain content types seem to benefit more from videos, though. In general, roundups or listicles, technical tutorials, and thought leadership content can all be more impactful with an embedded video, but having a strong SEO foundation matters. You can’t just write an article on any random topic, embed a video, and expect to hit the top 5 search results for a topic. Video podcasts are a great source for punchy video content that can be used on your website, blog, and social media accounts.
Content and SEO strategy matter a lot, especially in the age of AI. If you’re interested in talking about how video can improve your SEO-focused marketing content this year, reach out to us. At Draft.dev, we work with some of the top developer tools companies to ensure their content is relevant, technically accurate, and effective at producing business results.
TL;DR: Developer marketing is shifting toward ROI-focused strategies in 2025. Teams face pressure to prove business value beyond awareness, with content remaining foundational despite lower SEO click-through rates. In-person events are back but changing, while AI tools reshape content creation. Video marketing is essential but challenging, and generic content is being cut in favor of unique, technical depth.
The past two years have been very interesting ones for DevRel and Developer Marketing. High interest rates have slowed startup investing, the emergence of LLMs has changed marketing forever, the receding pandemic has allowed in-person events to return, and economic uncertainty has made organizations of all sizes more cautious in investing in growth.
Naturally, I was curious to understand what this meant for the companies we work with at Draft.dev, so over the past two months, I’ve had dozens of conversations with DevRel and Developer Marketing leaders at software companies. I wanted to talk with the people who are navigating these challenges and evolving their strategies in response to the shifting landscape we’re all living in.
While their input was shared anonymously, in this piece, I’ll share my notes from these conversations. I’ll share a high-level overview of what’s working, what’s not, and where DevRel and b2b tech marketing are heading in the rest of 2025 and beyond. Whether you’re doubling down on content or rethinking your event strategy, these insights will help you recalibrate for maximum impact.
NOTE: If you’re looking for help with your developer marketing strategy or content production, be sure to set up a call. We’re happy to share advice based on your situation or offer specific examples beyond this high-level overview.
1. A Renewed Focus on Business Value
One theme that came up again and again in my calls was that developer marketing teams are facing greater pressure to prove value than ever before. Awareness isn’t enough. Budget holders are asking, “How does this help us close deals or drive user adoption?“
As a result, teams are sharpening their focus on:
ROI > Awareness – Campaigns that can’t show a measurable outcome are getting cut. DevRel and DevMarketing functions must tie initiatives to product adoption, pipeline influence, or revenue.
Sales Enablement – Content is moving further down the funnel. Companies are equipping sales teams with case studies, demo environments, comparison content, and technical validation.
Top-Down Meets Bottom-Up – Rather than choosing between C-level buyers and practitioner users, successful teams are doing both. They target leadership with ROI-driven messaging while enabling developers with technical depth.
This focus on ROI is also driving leaner DevRel teams that are more reliant on fractional resources or multi-disciplinary team members. In other words, it’s harder to find a DevRel role that focuses on just content or just speaking at events, but companies want to hire DevRels who can do it all.
Speaking of events…
2. Events Are Back—But They’re Changing
The 2020 pandemic is firmly in the rearview mirror, and companies are bringing tech workers back to the office and subsequently back to in-person events.
But, events are not the same as they were 6 years ago:
Small regional events are hard to justify – Attendance is down because companies don’t have the budget to send employees off to learn things that they could easily pick up on a webinar. So, smaller regional events aren’t as worthwhile to sponsors as they used to be.
Oversaturation is real – Because there’s been such a strong swing back to large in-person events, it’s getting harder for sponsors and brands to stand out. Many teams reported lackluster ROI from traditional booths, but they do find value in one-on-one meetings that they can only set up at these mass gatherings.
DIY events are on the rise – Instead of relying solely on third-party events, more developer tools companies are spinning up small, private meetups, workshops, and virtual user groups. This gives them better control over attendee quality and follow-up, plus it encourages stronger intracustomer relationships.
Finally, companies are universally skeptical of the value of virtual events. With the exception of owned webinars, I didn’t hear a singlecompany mention that they’re interested in sponsoring virtual conferences or meetups in 2025.
3. Channels That Still Work (When Done Right)
Some fundamentals in DevRel and DevMarketing don’t seem to be going anywhere, so it’s worth noting these as they came up in just about every call:
Content remains foundational. Whether it’s for SEO, LLM indexing, or sales support, high-quality technical content is non-negotiable. But the bar is higher: Google and your audience are both rejecting surface-level fluff.
Video (which I’ll get to in the next section) is coming up more often than in prior years, but written content still seems to be a core component of most DevRel/DevMarketing teams’ strategy.
Finally, click-through rates are universally down from SEO as Google emphasizes its AI Summaries, but having accurate, high-quality content to feed the LLMs is increasingly important. So, more emphasis is being placed on documentation, tutorials, product-focused content, and comparing your product to competitors. This kind of written content helps ensure the LLMs can write code that uses your product correctly or recommend your solution in the right situations.
Paid Ads are being used successfully by all the major players with established categories. Retargeting works great in conjunction with content, and many of the teams I spoke to are using ads to drive traffic to high-value gated assets and webinars successfully. Several leaders have mentioned that Google ads are getting less profitable, but that there seems to be more room on LinkedIn to get a positive ROI. I’m sure it depends on the product and your target audience, though.
Events are back (see above) as people are hungrier than ever for in-person connections.
4. Experimentation & Emerging Trends
Meanwhile, almost everyone is figuring out where AI will fit into their developer marketing strategy in 2025 and beyond.
AI content tooling is becoming increasingly ubiquitous for parts of the content creation and promotion process. Ideation, summarization, and light editing are common use cases, but nobody I spoke with has figured out how to use AI to fully generate high-quality technical content without a human in the loop.
The kind of content that AI can generate consistently well is high-level, low-depth content that is easily replaced by AI Summaries, so there’s very little incentive to write this sort of content, and it’s increasingly difficult to rank for anyway. Google also seems to be penalizing low-quality, AI-generated bulk content, so while using AI tools to generate content isn’t bad on its face, it’s not going to get you far without a subject matter expert in the loop.
That said, a lot of teams are relying heavily on AI for short-form copy (ads, subject lines, titles, etc.). They still use a human to review and finalize it, but it saves a lot of time iterating on ideas and testing.
LLM visibility is the new SEO frontier. Everyone I talked to is thinking about how they can ensure their tools are recommended by ChatGPT or Perplexity, but given that these tools index and rank content in much the same way as traditional search engines, it’s hard to tell if there are fundamental differences in how you should create content for LLMs yet. That said, having the right metadata can help.
And of course, the hard part about LLM visibility is tracking. Because the user interaction happens outside your website, it’s nearly impossible to tell how the content you have on your site impacted your traffic or adoption.
Video is hard to do well, but it’s becoming necessary. The next generation of developers will be video-first, and everyone is trying to figure out what this means for their marketing efforts. That said, there are a lot of challenges when implementing a video marketing strategy:
Short-form video is great for reach, but poor at relevance and attribution
Long-form technical video is expensive and resource-heavy
Video makes a huge impact on SEO and YouTube visibility, but attribution from third-party players is imperfect
Finding talent who understands the technology and video as a medium is very hard
Related to video, influencer collaborations are gaining traction. Some companies I heard from are building internal communities of influencers, while others are leaning on influencers with existing audiences, simply paying for exposure.
Developer Influencer Marketing works best when your product is excellent and serves a unique need better than anything else on the market, so I don’t think this is the best channel for most early-stage companies. It also doesn’t make sense if you’re pursuing a more top-down approach, but if you have a lot of individual users already talking about your product online, make the most of it by engaging them and amplifying their voices.
5. What’s Getting Cut
As I mentioned at the top, there’s increasing pressure on developer marketing teams to focus on results, staying lean, and being flexible.
The leaders I spoke to who are re-evaluating their budgets mentioned a few things worth highlighting:
Generic SEO content with no original perspective is dead. It’s super important to provide unique value with each piece.
Cold outreach is oversaturated and has never worked that well for a developer audience. Nobody I spoke to mentioned that cold email/LinkedIn is a significant driver for growth.
Brand marketing and old-school PR are not targeted and hard to justify when budgets get tight.
Finally, agency engagements are down right now.
While we’ve done okay because we have such a specific niche in technical content, more of the leaders I spoke with are cutting or downsizing their reliance on outside providers and “general purpose” marketing agencies.
We’ve also seen several of our direct competitors shut down over the past two years because they couldn’t right-size their teams and offerings fast enough to respond to this shift, and I suspect many developer marketing agencies will continue to see pricing pressure as long as economic uncertainty remains high.
6. Final Takeaways
If there’s one thing I took away from all these conversations, it’s this: developer marketing is in a new world.
The definition of who is a developer is changing again as AI tools provide higher-level abstractions and increased productivity to product teams. Companies are getting pickier, core categories in developer tools are maturing, and developer relations and marketing is getting more focused and accountable than ever before.
Many teams are wrestling with the same core frustrations:
Time-consuming internal alignment – Too many stakeholders, not enough clarity on goals
Attribution is hard and getting harder, Especially with AI search in the mix
Doing more with less – Teams are leaner than ever
Uncertainty everywhere – From global politics to hiring freezes, risk-aversion is growing
But the high-performing organizations seem to be aligning on a few key things:
They measure impact, even if it’s not perfect.
They blend top-down and bottom-up motions.
They don’t waste content budget on filler or branding.
They’re experimenting with video and AI, but not blindly.
And most of all, they’re staying close to their audience, even as the playbook evolves.
Where Can We Help?
I’m excited to enter into this new age of developer relations and marketing, but I realize it can also be scary. There are a lot of teams that are treading water or struggling to justify their efforts right now. That said, with the right expertise and guidance, content is still a fundamental strength of all the high-performing DevRel and Dev Marketing teams I spoke to.
If you’re reevaluating your content strategy or production needs in 2025, we’d love to help. My team at Draft.dev specializes in content that supports technical decision-making across the funnel. Grab time with us here or email me at karl@draft.dev if you have any questions.
TL;DR: Interactive content strategies for developers in 2025:
Game Days – Competitive learning environments with real scenarios and zero documentation
Community Challenges – Low-friction hackathon-style missions that encourage regular engagement
Hands-on Workshops – Browser-only environments with pre-configured tools and minimal setup
Success metrics focus on monthly active developers rather than traditional engagement. Start with your top 3 support questions and remove all setup friction for maximum participation.
In this Draft.dev webinar, we explored how developer-focused organizations can move beyond traditional static content to create more engaging, interactive experiences. Our discussion with Leon Adato, Principal Technical Advocate at Catchpoint, and Spence Taylor, Lead Developer Relations Engineer at New Relic, revealed practical strategies for capturing developer attention in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Whether you’re running a solo DevRel operation or leading a larger team, this recap will help you understand when and how to implement interactive content strategies that drive real engagement and measurable results.
Watch the entire webinar here:
Why Static Content Alone Isn’t Enough Anymore
The pandemic fundamentally changed how developers consume and engage with technical content. While documentation and traditional blog posts remain essential, they now compete with countless other distractions for developer attention.
Spence highlighted this shift in developer behavior:
I think you know, it’s 2025. We’ve survived a pandemic. And if anybody walks around and says that that didn’t change how they view the world or how they interact with the world, they’re lying…attention spans are not as solid as they were before. – Spence Taylor
Leon added important context about the role of both content types:
It’s not failing to engage today’s developers. It’s just got competition…It’s really just a matter of having more options, and therefore, people whose learning style is drawn to “Talk to me, work with me, make me think about it, keep me focused on it.” Now they have an avenue to do that where they didn’t before. – Leon Adato
The key insight here isn’t that static content is obsolete—it’s that developers now expect choice in how they learn and interact with your platform.
Mapping Content Types to the Developer Journey
Different content formats serve different purposes throughout the developer journey. Understanding when to use passive versus active content can significantly impact your success rates.
When Static Content Works Best
Static content excels for:
API documentation and reference materials
Foundational concepts that developers can study at their own pace
Comprehensive guides that developers reference repeatedly
When Interactive Content Shines
Interactive formats become powerful when you need focused attention on specific skills or features. Spence explained his approach:
I am creating content specifically to focus on that need or that want of solving this issue of ‘I don’t understand how to use this feature on your platform to solve this problem.’ And then that’s where the interactive piece comes in. – Spence Taylor
Interactive content works best for:
Teaching new features or complex concepts
Onboarding new users to your platform
Scenarios requiring hands-on practice to understand
Successful Interactive Content Formats
Game Days: Competitive Learning Environments
Spence shared his experience adapting AWS’s “game day” format for New Relic:
I create a scenario. I create an application for that scenario. I break it down in ways that are relevant to the topic. And then I just release it on unsuspecting attendees. I don’t give them any documentation. I don’t tell them anything about the platform, and I just let them run free. – Spence Taylor
This format works because it combines:
Competitive elements that drive engagement
Real-world scenarios that feel relevant
Discovery-based learning that sticks
Community-Driven Challenges
Leon suggested lower-effort interactive formats that can work for smaller teams:
Normally, the point of a Hackathon is that you learn as you go—the discovery and the ‘Aha’ moments are what does it. – Leon Adato
These community missions provide:
Regular touchpoints with your product
Low-friction engagement opportunities
Gamification elements that encourage participation
Removing Barriers to Engagement
Both experts emphasized that successful interactive content requires minimal setup from participants. Leon stressed this point:
You should be able to hand it to the person who’s consuming it with incredibly minimal friction…You create an environment that has everything. The user needs all the sample files, and they just step into it, and they start with step one. – Leon Adato
Key principles include:
Browser-only requirements when possible
Pre-configured environments with all necessary tools
Single sign-on or minimal credential requirements
Clear backup plans for technical difficulties
Measuring Interactive Content Success
Traditional DevRel metrics often fall short for interactive content. Leon referenced a valuable framework:
The only measurement that matters on the right-hand side is monthly active developers. How many people interacted with your thing? – Leon Adato
While measuring direct impact remains challenging, both experts found ways to demonstrate value:
Direct Sales Integration
Spence discovered an innovative approach by aligning with sales teams:
I’m doing a lot of work with our sales org to determine what are the most important features or what are the features that you’re talking about? So that way, I can build content around that. And then we can teach people the skills they need to like solve their problems. – Spence Taylor
Tracking Engagement Indicators
Focus on measurable behaviors that indicate genuine engagement:
Feature adoption rates following interactive sessions
Community participation levels
Support ticket reduction in areas covered by interactive content
User progression through your platform’s capabilities
Managing Different Skill Levels
Interactive content must accommodate diverse experience levels without overwhelming beginners or boring experts.
Leon emphasized the importance of proper scaffolding:
Build cheat codes. Build functions that say ‘if you’ve missed the last three steps, or it’s still not working, type this, and it will automatically fix it up to this step.’ – Leon Adato
Getting Started With Interactive Content
For solo DevRel practitioners or small teams, Leon and Spence offered practical first steps:
Maximize Content Reuse
Spence emphasized efficiency:
Understanding how to make my work work for me. I’ve created a content piece—how can I take this content piece and make more content pieces about it…make your work work for you. – Spence Taylor
Start with these approaches:
Transform popular blog posts into interactive workshops
Convert video tutorials into hands-on challenges
Build demo applications around your most-requested features
Create progressive learning paths from basic to advanced topics
Conclusion
Interactive content isn’t about replacing traditional documentation and tutorials—it’s about expanding your toolkit to meet developers where they are in their learning journey. The most successful approach combines both passive and active content strategically.
As Leon noted, not everything needs to be interactive, but when you do invest in interactive formats, focus on removing friction, enabling discovery, and creating genuine value for your developer community.
The key is starting small, measuring what matters, and building on what works. Whether through competitive game days, community challenges, or hands-on workshops, interactive content can significantly boost developer engagement when implemented thoughtfully.
For teams looking to build stronger developer ecosystems through engaging content strategies, interactive formats offer a powerful way to demonstrate value while building lasting relationships with your technical audience.
AI overviews eliminated 75% of generic top-funnel traffic. Success requires deeper, long-tail content with systematic retargeting to convert readers into qualified leads.
In the second webinar in our “How to Set Up a Content Marketing Engine” series, Manuel Weiss shared proven frameworks for orchestrating technical content that directly drives business revenue. As the co-founder of a tech startup that scaled to millions in ARR through strategic content marketing, Manuel revealed how companies can move beyond inspiration-driven content to systematic, revenue-focused strategies.
This session covered the essential elements for transforming content marketing from a cost center into a predictable revenue engine, particularly in the age of AI overviews and zero-click content.
The foundation of strategic content orchestration starts with understanding where your readers are in their journey and adapting to new realities. Manuel explained how AI overviews have fundamentally changed top-of-funnel content strategy.
About 75% of extremely generic top funnel content is answered in such a satisfying way and in such a good enough way by the AI overviews that people don’t even click through to the website where that original information came from. – Manuel Weiss
The content funnel remains crucial for understanding reader intent, but companies must now start deeper in the funnel. Rather than competing with AI for generic “what is” content, successful technical content marketing requires more specific, long-tail approaches that provide value beyond what AI can summarize.
Manuel emphasized that different business goals require different funnel focus. Early-stage companies might concentrate on awareness (top-of-funnel), while established products need middle-of-funnel content to bridge the gap between awareness and product consideration. This strategic approach to breaking down the marketing funnel in B2B ensures content aligns with business objectives.
Content Funnel Strategy
What is a content funnel? A content funnel is a framework that tracks how readers move from initial awareness to product consideration and conversion. It consists of three main stages: top-of-funnel (awareness), middle-of-funnel (consideration), and bottom-of-funnel (decision). Each stage requires different content types that match reader intent and readiness to buy.
Why is AI taking away from the top of the funnel? AI overviews now answer about 75% of generic, basic questions directly in search results without requiring clicks to websites. When someone searches “What is continuous integration?” they get a satisfactory answer from AI without visiting your site. This forces marketers to create more specific, valuable content that goes beyond basic definitions.
Should I avoid top-funnel content because of AI overviews? No, but go deeper. Instead of “What is continuous integration?” target “Different types and benefits of data integrations for enterprise teams.”
What’s the biggest mistake companies make with content funnels? Creating large content gaps between funnel stages. Most companies struggle with middle-of-funnel content that bridges awareness and product consideration, leaving readers without a clear path to conversion.
How to Build Evergreen Content as Your Traffic Foundation
Evergreen content serves as the heartbeat of sustainable content marketing, providing the guaranteed traffic base that companies can systematically convert into leads and revenue.
This compounds over time. And the really important thing here is, we are very strategic about how we think about which topics to utilize that we can use for evergreen content. Content discovery here is a science, not an art. – Manuel Weiss
The key to successful evergreen content lies in strategic topic discovery based on keyword research, competitive analysis, and understanding your capacity to produce quality content. Manuel shared how one Draft.dev blog post consistently generates 1,000 page views per month, demonstrating how 20 such articles can create a guaranteed base of 16,000 unique visitors monthly.
This approach requires patience, as evergreen content typically builds momentum over 2-3 months rather than generating immediate traffic spikes. However, the compound effect creates a reliable foundation for lead generation and business growth. Our guide on generating content ideas that resonate with software developers provides additional frameworks for systematic topic discovery.
Evergreen Content Strategy
What is Evergreen Content? Evergreen content is timeless, search-optimized content that maintains consistent traffic over months or years. Unlike news or trending topics, evergreen content addresses fundamental problems and concepts that remain relevant over time.
How long does it take for evergreen content to start working? Typically 2-3 months to reach base traffic levels. Manuel’s example showed a post taking about 2 months to reach its consistent 1,000 monthly page views.
What’s the minimum publishing frequency for evergreen content? At least twice per month to establish momentum and signal search engines about consistent, fresh content. This creates accountability and builds topical authority over time.
How to Create Strategic Content Clusters
Manuel introduced the concept of content clusters—organized groups of related articles that work together to establish topical authority and guide readers through the customer journey.
The framework involves creating umbrella articles (covering broad, high-volume keywords) supported by sub-articles (targeting specific, lower-competition keywords). This structure enables natural internal linking opportunities and helps search engines and AI platforms understand your domain’s expertise.
If you have the topics that belong together, and then you start interlinking them, this makes search engines, but also AI platforms understand what topics on your domain are about. So it gives you topical authority. – Manuel Weiss
Each content cluster can also generate lead magnets, with umbrella articles serving as the foundation for downloadable assets that capture qualified leads through gated forms. This systematic approach to topic clusters ensures content works together strategically rather than competing for attention.
The power of this approach extends beyond SEO benefits. Content clusters create multiple touchpoints for readers to engage with your brand, increasing the likelihood of conversion through repeated exposure and deepening expertise demonstration.
Content Clusters
What are content clusters? Content clusters are groups of related articles that work together to establish topical authority. They consist of one “umbrella” article targeting a broad, high-volume keyword, supported by multiple “sub-articles” targeting specific, related keywords. All articles interlink strategically to signal expertise to search engines and AI platforms.
How do I turn a content cluster into a lead magnet? Use the umbrella article as a foundation for a comprehensive PDF guide. Since it already covers all sub-topics at a high level, it naturally becomes valuable gated content.
How to Leverage Spiky Content for Brand Awareness
While evergreen content builds consistent traffic, spiky content creates opportunities for massive exposure and retargeting audience building. This type of content aims to get picked up by “multiplicators”—platforms like Hacker News, tech newsletters, and industry publications that actively work to grow their audiences.
Manuel recommended a strategic approach: for every three evergreen articles, attempt one piece of spiky content. This content should be timely, opinionated, or take contrarian stances that spark discussion and sharing.
You want to basically get picked up in what I call multiplicators, and multiplicators are basically places platforms that work hard on getting more eyes onto their platform. – Manuel Weiss
The real power of spiky content isn’t the immediate traffic—it’s building retargeting audiences. When an article generates 20,000 visitors in one day, those visitors can be retargeted for 90 days with brand awareness messages and relevant lead magnets.
What is spiky content? Spiky content is designed to generate high traffic in a short period by being widely shared or going viral. Unlike evergreen content, it focuses on timely topics, controversial takes, or strong opinions that spark discussion. The goal isn’t long-term traffic but building large retargeting audiences quickly.
What topics work best for spiky content? Timely content (new product releases, beta reviews), controversial takes, or strong opinions about industry trends. Avoid jumping on competitors’ outages unless it aligns with your values.
How often should I attempt spiky content? Once per month if publishing weekly, or once per quarter if publishing bi-weekly. The key is consistency in attempting, not in succeeding.
What if my spiky content doesn’t get picked up? That’s normal. Even a 1-in-6 success rate can fill your retargeting audience for months. Focus on creating genuinely valuable, shareable content rather than chasing virality.
Strategic Content Planning and Execution
Success requires moving from reactive, inspiration-driven content creation to strategic, systematic planning. Manuel emphasized the importance of content calendars and consistent publishing schedules.
Companies should aim to publish at least twice per month to establish momentum and signal search engines about consistent, fresh content. The content mix should align with business goals—early-stage companies focusing on awareness, growth-stage companies emphasizing consideration and conversion content.
We want to be able to act and not react. We want to strategically plan what type of content we can put out there right? – Manuel Weiss
This systematic approach enabled Manuel’s previous company to generate 1,500 marketing qualified leads per month from content marketing, with a base level of 85,000 unique readers monthly—all managed by a three-person team.
The planning process involves understanding your target audience deeply, conducting thorough keyword research, analyzing competitive gaps, and creating content that fits strategically within your funnel framework. Our comprehensive guide on how to create a technical content plan provides additional frameworks for systematic content strategy.
Maximizing Content ROI Through Retargeting
The webinar emphasized that content marketing success depends heavily on what happens after publication. Retargeting allows companies to stay connected with readers who visit once and leave, turning single interactions into ongoing brand awareness opportunities.
Manuel recommended setting up retargeting audiences with exclude lists to avoid spamming users who have already converted. For example, visitors who download a lead magnet should be excluded from ads promoting that same asset, ensuring respectful and strategic audience engagement.
The most powerful aspect of retargeting is its cost structure—impressions are free, and you only pay when someone clicks. This means you can maintain brand awareness with thousands of visitors for months without additional cost, unless they actively engage.
Retargeting Strategy
What is ad retargeting? Ad retargeting shows targeted ads to people who have previously visited your website. Using tracking pixels, you can create audiences of past visitors and display relevant ads to them across platforms like Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn. This keeps your brand visible to potential customers who didn’t convert on their first visit.
What should my retargeting ads promote? Start with simple brand awareness (logo + tagline), then promote relevant lead magnets that match the original content topic. Always use exclude audiences to avoid showing ads to people who’ve already converted.
How do I set up exclude audiences effectively? Create conversion events on thank-you pages after form submissions. Then, exclude visitors to these pages from seeing ads for the same offers, ensuring you don’t spam converted prospects.
Conclusion
Orchestrating technical content to drive business requires a systematic approach that combines strategic planning, consistent execution, and smart amplification tactics. By understanding the content funnel, building evergreen traffic foundations, creating strategic content clusters, and leveraging both spiky content and retargeting, technical companies can create predictable revenue engines from their content marketing efforts.
The key is moving beyond ad-hoc content creation to disciplined, data-driven strategies that compound over time. As Manuel demonstrated through his own experience and client successes, this approach can generate millions in revenue when implemented with consistency and strategic focus.
Ready to implement these strategies for your technical content marketing?
Get personalized guidance:Schedule a discovery call to discuss your specific content marketing goals and challenges
Want expert help building your content engine? Draft.dev specializes in creating strategic technical content that drives business results. Our team of practicing software engineers helps companies build systematic content marketing engines that generate predictable leads and revenue.
TL;DR: DevRel teams can drive measurable business results by adopting shared metrics and processes with marketing and sales while maintaining developer trust. Success requires moving from opposition to partnership, focusing on strategic engagement, and proving business value using language stakeholders understand.
Key strategies for DevRel alignment:
Mature through three phases: Move from opposition to understanding to true partnership with shared systems
Deliver high-value work: Focus on internal enablement and product feedback loops that multiply impact
Maintain authenticity: Use strategic engagement, content delegation, and question-first conversations
Communicate business impact: Adopt existing business metrics rather than creating new ones
Drive growth initiatives: Position DevRel to own the entire developer function with other teams as stakeholders
In our webinar entitled “How DevRel, Marketing, and Sales Can (and should) Work Together”, we explored one of the most critical challenges facing technical organizations today: creating effective alignment between developer relations, marketing, and sales teams. Our conversation with Dave Neary (Ampere Computing) and Kurtis Kemple (Slack) revealed practical strategies for breaking down silos and building collaborative relationships that drive business results.
Why Do DevRel, Marketing, and Sales Teams Struggle to Align?
While DevRel, marketing, and sales teams often share similar goals, they traditionally approach them from different angles. This creates natural friction points that can hinder organizational effectiveness.
Dave emphasized that the key difference lies in what each team is ultimately selling. While marketing and sales focus on the product itself, DevRel teams are asking developers to invest their time in building something on top of that product. This fundamental difference requires a relationship-building approach that prioritizes trust and credibility over traditional sales tactics.
How Does DevRel Team Maturity Evolve Over Time?
Understanding how DevRel teams mature in their relationships with other departments can help organizations avoid common pitfalls and accelerate alignment.
Kurtis outlined three distinct phases of DevRel maturity:
Opposition Phase: Teams define themselves in opposition to marketing and sales, creating parallel processes and metrics instead of collaborating.
Understanding Phase: Teams begin to recognize they’re doing similar work—content calendars, event strategies, sales enablement—and start adopting similar metrics and processes while still working independently.
Partnership Phase: Teams move beyond parallel work to genuine collaboration, contributing to shared systems and gaining early visibility into company-wide campaigns and strategies.
If they already have a content calendar, how can DevRel actually just contribute to that existing system instead of having one of our own as well, even if they’re in perfect alignment. —Kurtis Kemple
FAQ: What are the three phases of DevRel maturity?
Opposition Phase: Defining DevRel in opposition to marketing/sales, creating parallel processes
Understanding Phase: Recognizing similarities and adopting shared metrics while working independently
Partnership Phase: True collaboration through shared systems and early involvement in planning
What High-Value DevRel Areas Do Marketing and Sales Teams Miss?
Marketing and sales teams frequently underestimate the strategic value DevRel brings beyond external community engagement. Two areas consistently demonstrate high impact:
Internal Enablement
DevRel teams are uniquely positioned to train solution architects, technical account managers, and even account executives on how platforms and tools actually work. This meta-enablement creates a multiplier effect across the organization.
As Kurtis noted: “You can literally help everyone better understand how your platform works, how your tools work, where to find those best practices, where to get answers.”
Product Feedback Loops
Developer advocates gather grassroots feedback from developers actually using products in real-world scenarios. This creates opportunities for product improvement that traditional market research might miss.
You get the grassroots feedback from developers who are trying to do things with your product… that’s an opportunity for you to help make the product better. —Dave Neary
How Can DevRel Teams Integrate Without Losing Authenticity?
One of the biggest concerns DevRel professionals have about aligning with marketing and sales is maintaining the authentic, education-first approach that makes them effective with developer audiences.
The key is adopting practices that improve effectiveness without compromising core values. Kurtis shared several strategies his team has implemented:
Strategic Engagement: Being more intentional about when and where to engage rather than trying to be everywhere at once. With millions of developers using platforms at any given time, strategic focus becomes essential.
Content Delegation: Not every piece of content needs to be written by senior developer advocates. Basic 100-200 level content can often be delegated or outsourced, allowing experts to focus on content that only their expertise can produce.
Question-First Conversations: Adopting the sales practice of starting conversations with questions rather than explanations helps build better relationships and understand real needs.
Good salespeople just listen to you for a long time, then they talk to you. —Kurtis Kemple
Dave emphasized maintaining transparency as the foundation of trust:
My responsibility as developer relations is: I want to ensure that you have awareness of what our product or project can do for you so that you are happy using it. —Dave Neary [39:53]
FAQ: How can DevRel teams prove business value without compromising authenticity?
By adopting existing business metrics that align with DevRel activities (like sales opportunities influenced) while maintaining transparent, developer-first communication. Focus on making developers successful rather than pushing products.
How Should DevRel Teams Communicate Business Value?
Successful DevRel leaders learn to communicate impact using metrics and language that other departments already understand and trust.
Rather than inventing new metrics, Kurtis advocates for tying DevRel activities directly to existing business objectives:
I adopt the metrics that make the most sense for whatever audience that that is. But I make sure that I can very clearly articulate the actual tactics that we do that affect that part of the business. —Kurtis Kemple
This approach includes proving concrete business impact—like demonstrating how DevRel contributed to over $30 million in sales opportunities—using data that sales leadership already tracks and values.
Building Growth-Oriented DevRel Programs
As DevRel teams mature, they can move from following other departments’ lead to actually driving cross-functional initiatives. Kurtis draws parallels between DevRel and growth teams, noting that both functions affect many areas they don’t directly own.
This evolution positions DevRel leaders to own the entire developer function within organizations, with marketing and sales becoming stakeholders rather than the other way around.
What’s the Future of Cross-Functional DevRel?
Both experts predict that DevRel will continue evolving into its own distinct function, similar to how marketing developed over the past 25 years. Dave anticipates seeing more Chief Developer Officers as organizations recognize developers as a critical audience requiring dedicated expertise.
The rise of AI will likely accelerate this trend, as it erases traditional product differentiation and makes community and developer experience even more crucial competitive advantages.
AI is about to like erase differentiation in a lot of ways… only the people who are either extremely novel, and how they use it or build really strong communities and platforms around the thing that’s relatively novel that they build will succeed. —Kurtis Kemple
Conclusion
Building effective alignment between DevRel, marketing, and sales requires moving beyond artificial barriers to embrace collaborative approaches that leverage each team’s unique strengths. The most successful organizations treat these functions as complementary rather than competitive, creating systems where developer trust and business results reinforce each other.
Success comes from adopting shared processes and metrics while maintaining the authentic, developer-first approach that makes DevRel effective. As the technical landscape continues evolving, organizations that master this balance will have significant advantages in attracting and retaining developer communities.
For companies looking to improve their cross-functional effectiveness, the path forward is clear: start with building trust, embrace shared systems, and focus on proving business value using language all stakeholders understand.
Ready to enhance your developer content strategy?Schedule a call to discuss how we can help align your technical content with your broader business goals.
TL;DR: Open source and product advocacy should complement rather than compete with each other. Success depends on transparency, maintaining engagement in both communities, involving engineers (not just marketing) in open source efforts, and understanding that product marketing drives short-term goals while open source builds long-term credibility.
Key principles for balancing open source and product advocacy:
Maintain transparency: Never neglect your open source project as enterprise business grows
Evolve both offerings: Develop open source and enterprise products in parallel but different directions
Engineer-led engagement: Engineers, not just marketing, should interact with open source communities
Track meaningful metrics: Focus on engagement, contributions, and MAU/MAD rather than vanity metrics
Think long-term: Enterprise customers often start as open source users who mature into paying accounts
In this Draft.dev webinar, we explored the delicate balance between open source advocacy and product marketing with two industry veterans: Matt McClintock, Head of Content at Revelo, and Dewan Ishtiaque Ahmed, Principal Developer Advocate at Harness.
You can watch the entire webinar here:
Open-Source Advocacy Vs. Product Advocacy
When discussing open-source advocacy versus product advocacy, our experts emphasized that these approaches should complement each other rather than compete.
“The key difference here is the ownership. In open-source projects, everyone is the owner; we all have stakes in this. With product advocacy, it’s you versus me. You trying to sell me something, which is not bad, it’s just the fact.” – Dewan Ishtiaque Ahmed [04:09]
Maintaining Authenticity and Credibility
Transparency emerged as the cornerstone of successful advocacy strategies across both domains. Matt emphasized the importance of not neglecting your open-source product as your enterprise business grows:
“You shouldn’t just say, ‘Okay, we have millions of downloads on our open source project. Now we’re just gonna leave GitHub and solely focus on building out the enterprise business.’ Developers will very much not respond well to that.” – Matt McClintock [14:50]
A common pitfall that both experts warned against is removing features from the open-source version to drive enterprise adoption. Instead, they recommended evolving both offerings in parallel but in different directions.
Dewan reinforced this perspective by highlighting the importance of maintaining multiple feedback channels:
“Your mechanism of getting feedback and tracking could be different, but you don’t shut down the open source path and just focus on enterprise because they’re paying customers. Your open source community might be your customers – not yet, they might be customers later.” – Dewan Ishtiaque Ahmed [15:43]
Measuring Success and Community Health
When it comes to measuring the effectiveness of open source initiatives, our experts identified several key metrics:
Engagement and contributions: Are community members actively participating?
Downloads and adoption: How many people are using your open source project?
Monthly active users/developers (MAU/MAD): The “North Star” metrics for tracking community health
Quality feedback: Valuable input that can inform both open source and enterprise roadmaps
Matt cautioned against relying solely on vanity metrics like GitHub stars, emphasizing instead the importance of genuine engagement. He also shared a crucial insight about who should be interacting with your open source community:
“That is a common mistake or missed opportunity… Sometimes it’s marketing that’s sort of engaging with the open-source community, and it really should be your engineers.” – Matt McClintock [19:11]
Setting Realistic Expectations
While product advocacy efforts might yield immediate, trackable results, open source community building requires a longer-term perspective.
Matt recommended regularly sharing success stories with leadership about enterprise customers who started as open source users:
“A lot of our longer-term customers started off with our open-source offering… built a bunch of processes that they run their organization off of, and then got to a point where, ‘All right, we’re using this product so much, it’s so critical to our business that it would probably be a good idea to get the Enterprise version.’” – Matt McClintock [24:33]
Practical First Steps for Organizations
For companies just beginning to balance open source and product advocacy, our experts offered these practical recommendations:
Understand your audience: Start by analyzing why your open source community grew in the first place
Recognize developers as kingmakers: Remember that individual engineers often influence tool adoption across organizations
Create gathering opportunities: Consider user conferences (even virtual ones) to learn from and engage with your community
Leverage existing events: You don’t need to create your own events – participate in established meetups and conferences where your audience already gathers
“You can even engage with existing events or meetups because you all share the same audience… You can sponsor one of the DevOps days. You can have a booth. You can just have your engineers attend those events.” – Dewan Ishtiaque Ahmed [30:39]
Conclusion
The relationship between open-source advocacy and product marketing continues to evolve, but the fundamental principles remain consistent: transparency, community engagement, and authentic communication. By understanding your audience, empowering your power users, and maintaining a long-term perspective, organizations can successfully navigate this balancing act.
Draft.dev’s webinars are a great way to learn more about similar DevRel and technical marketing topics.
TL;DR: A developer journey tracks how developers interact with your product from initial discovery through adoption and scaling.
Essential elements for optimized developer journeys:
Know your personas: Understand what developers are building, their needs, and specific use cases
Map the journey: Track interactions through discover, evaluate, learn, build, and scale phases
Reduce friction: Make information easy to find with clear documentation and quick-start guides
Enable quick demos: Help developers prototype in hours, not days or weeks
Measure continuously: Track traffic, time on page, conversions, and conduct friction audits
In this month’s Draft.dev webinar, we explored the fundamental elements of designing and optimizing developer journeys with experts Caroline Lewko, founder of Devrel.agency, and Morris Novello, head of developer marketing at Qualcomm.
Read on to discover insights on understanding your developers, mapping their journey, optimizing touchpoints, and measuring success.
If you want to dive deeper into the conversation, you can watch the full webinar here:
What Is a Developer Journey?
A developer journey is essentially a roadmap that tracks how developers interact with your product – from initial discovery through adoption and scaling. As Caroline explained:
In terms of the developer journey, it’s being able to understand and track your customer, your user – in our case, the developer.
Morris added a practical perspective, emphasizing that a developer journey should contain:
Awareness – Making sure developers know about your product
Reach – Going where developers are
Adoption – Driving consumption by demonstrating value
The ultimate goal is clear: reducing friction and time-to-market for developers who want to build with your technology. This approach is crucial for any company focused on developer marketing.
Why Developer Journeys Matter
While the importance might seem obvious for dev tool companies, both experts emphasized that all organizations with technical elements should invest in optimizing developer journeys.
Morris explained that the end goal is adoption, and a well-structured journey provides a framework where developers can find everything they need in one place:
Developers—we’ll have an idea in the morning, and then we want to put together a small prototype in the afternoon. We need to have all the elements that we require in one place.
Caroline added that developer journeys become a shared plan for multiple teams, allowing for better alignment between strategies and activities throughout the organization. It enables proper signposting between touchpoints and facilitates tracking and reporting.
Starting Your Developer Journey: Know Your Audience
When building a productive developer journey, our experts agreed that understanding your personas is critical. As Morris emphasized:
It’s about persona, persona, persona. We need to understand what you are building. What is your need? What are your use cases?
Caroline noted the importance of recognizing the diversity among developers:
You might think, ‘Oh, it’s just developers,’ but there’s so many different types of developers in terms of the technologies that they use and the pain points that they need to solve.
Research is essential for identifying these personas. Morris shared that Qualcomm uses various approaches:
Industry data and research
Working backwards from use cases
Internal “dog fooding” with their teams
External developer advocacy boards
Mapping the Developer Journey
Once you understand your audience, you can map out their journey. Morris outlined his approach:
Align with business units to understand goals
Define the strategy based on objectives
Map the developer journey through discover, evaluate, learn, build, and scale phases
Implement the journey in a digital representation (developer portal)
Caroline shared a developer journey map that illustrates different touchpoints across these stages. She emphasized that the journey isn’t static: it should evolve based on developer needs and feedback.
Our experts identified several common mistakes to avoid:
Taking the developer journey for granted
Assuming developers already understand your technology
Forgetting developers use multiple tools
Lack of coordination across teams
Caroline reminded us:
Developers use between 10 and 20 tools to create what they need to do. You’re only part of a developer’s day, so make it easy for them.
Multiple departments often interact with developers, making internal alignment critical. As Caroline noted, someone needs to own the developer journey to ensure proper coordination.
Optimizing Your Developer Journey
After establishing your journey, optimization becomes key. Morris described this as a “continuous improvement, continuous development” approach:
We use data to optimize. We track using this kind of top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, bottom of the funnel approach.
Caroline recommended “friction audits” where developers try to build something using your journey while documenting pain points. Common friction areas include:
Difficulty finding information
Missing documentation
Lack of support
Overly complex processes
Looking Ahead: Future Trends
When asked about future trends, Morris highlighted the importance of developer advocacy and product-led growth:
Embedding the product-led growth type of approach, I call it a developer-led growth approach… capturing the feedback from software contests, from forums, from all these kinds of advocacy mechanisms and embedding this feedback into the developer go-to-market.
Caroline mentioned the value of changing internal metrics to prioritize developer experience:
They started to change the metrics for the engineering and product teams around the developer journey. It’s not just about pushing out ‘I’ve got my JIRA tickets done for the day.
Resource-Constrained Companies
For startups or companies with limited resources, our experts recommend:
Focus on enabling quick demos – Help developers get up and running fast
Understand your specific personas – Know exactly who you’re targeting
Ensure your product is ready for developers – Create basic documentation and quick-start guides before investing in marketing
Hire senior developer relations talent – Get strategic guidance before focusing solely on advocacy
Balancing Comprehensive Resources
To provide thorough resources without overwhelming developers:
Use clear signposting – Make the journey steps obvious
Focus on “how to get started” – Prioritize practical implementation
Create community support channels – Qualcomm uses Discord to connect developers with subject matter experts
Develop a strong content architecture – Organize information logically
Offer multiple content formats – Accommodate different learning preferences with text, diagrams, and videos
Create workflow-based guides – Help developers follow the right path for their specific needs
Conclusion
Building an optimized developer journey is essential for technical product adoption. By understanding your developers, mapping their journey, avoiding common pitfalls, and continuously optimizing, you can create experiences that reduce friction and accelerate time-to-market.
As our experts made clear, success requires cross-functional alignment, continuous improvement, and a relentless focus on the developer’s perspective. Remember that you’re only part of a developer’s day – make your portion as frictionless as possible.
TL;DR: KubeCon North America 2024 revealed 6 major shifts in Kubernetes DevRel and marketing:
Ecosystem maturity: Market shifting from “getting started” to “using effectively”
AI practicality: Focus moves from hype to workflow automation and data analysis
Community-first approach: Slack/Discord communities outperform traditional marketing
Marketing evolution: Paid ads and podcasts gaining traction in developer space
Multicloud accessibility: Smaller companies now achieving cost-effective redundancy
Strategic specialization: Companies picking lanes and acquiring to fill gaps
These insights come from conversations with DevRel leaders at KubeCon, indicating fundamental changes in how companies approach developer marketing in the Kubernetes space.
KubeCon North America 2024 recently wrapped up, and our CEO, Karl Hughes, and Account Director, Clayton Kast, were on the ground connecting with leaders in DevRel and developer marketing.
The insights and connections made at KubeCon are always a great indicator of the future of technical marketing in the Kubernetes space, so in this post, I’ll share the key takeaways from their conversations with DevRel and Marketing leaders.
The Kubernetes Ecosystem Is Maturing
One of the main takeaways from KubeCon was the clear sense that the Kubernetes ecosystem is maturing. Karl observed that the Kubernetes space has become quite robust, with a wide array of tools and providers now available. This abundance of options, while beneficial for developers, also presents a challenge for companies trying to differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded market.
This maturity also means that companies are now shifting their focus from simply getting started with Kubernetes to using it effectively.
“Previously, you saw a bunch of new faces popping up, but they were focused on new iterations and how to use the existing Kubernetes ecosystem.”–Clayton Kast, Account Director at Draft.dev
Now, we’re seeing a lot of similar iterations that are competing against each other, highlighting the need for companies to clearly define their unique value proposition.
AI Is Shifting to Practical Applications
While there was a lot of talk about artificial intelligence (AI) at KubeCon, the conversations were notably different from previous years. Instead of focusing on the hype and potential of AI, the discussions centered on its practical applications and how it can be used to solve real-world problems for developers. Essentially, the focus has shifted from “what could AI do?” to “how can AI help us right now?”.
As Karl mentioned, the primary focus of AI integration seems to be on workflow improvement and enhancing user interfaces. The main tasks companies are actively exploring AI for include:
Analyzing Observability and Other Data: Processing large volumes of observability data and other types of data to help developers identify patterns, anomalies, and potential issues more quickly and efficiently.
Automating Routine Developer Tasks: Automating tasks that junior developers often handle, such as creating manifest files and other Kubernetes configuration files.
Data Processing and Pipelining: Providing tools for managing high volumes of data, including data pipelining and other data-related activities.
These examples show that AI is rapidly becoming a practical tool for developers, rather than just a buzzword. The focus is now on how AI can be used to make developers’ lives easier and more productive.
Community Engagement Remains a Key Focus
Community engagement remains a key focus for companies in the developer space. There’s a growing desire to build strong communities around products within platforms like Slack and Discord, and to understand the “secrets” of successful communities.
This suggests that companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of building strong relationships with their developer communities, rather than just focusing on marketing and sales, and I couldn’t agree more on this point.
At Draft.dev, we’ve seen firsthand, through our work with over 100 devtool companies, that focusing on building long-term engagement within a community is the most effective way to build trust around a product. It’s a time-consuming process, but in the developer space, where traditional sales and marketing tactics often fall flat, building trust is the only way to truly encourage developers to adopt your product.
Marketing Tactics Are Evolving
On the sales and marketing front, companies seem to be increasingly exploring different tactics to differentiate themselves. One notable trend is the rise of paid advertising in the developer space. This could be driven by the increasing difficulty of reaching developers organically, as well as the growing sophistication of paid advertising platforms.
“I’ve also heard more talk of paid ads in the developer space in the last year or two.” – Karl Hughes, CEO of Draft.dev
In addition to paid advertising, another trend that’s gaining momentum is the growing popularity of podcasts. Podcasts offer an opportunity to engage with developers on a deeper level, providing a platform for in-depth discussions, technical insights, and personal stories.
“Companies are focusing on podcasts a lot more than they usually do.”–Clayton Kast, Account Director at Draft.dev
This shows that companies are exploring and trying out different content formats to reach their target audience.
Multicloud Accessibility Gains Momentum
Multicloud accessibility is becoming easier, even for smaller companies. This is driven by the desire to take advantage of the best features of each platform and achieve cost savings.
“In the last few years it’s become easier and easier for smaller companies to have redundancy multicloud setups.”– Karl Hughes, CEO at Draft.dev
This indicates that companies are becoming more strategic about their cloud infrastructure, choosing the best platform for each specific task.
Kubernetes Specialization Is Becoming a Clear Trend
As the Kubernetes ecosystem matures, companies are not only starting to “pick a lane” and specialize in a particular area, but they’re also strategically considering acquisitions to fill functional gaps in their offerings. This trend shows that being a generalist in the Kubernetes space is becoming increasingly challenging and that companies are looking to either specialize or acquire the expertise they lack.
Seeing more and more acquisitions in the Kubernetes space, it seems like a clear indicator that companies are recognizing the need to focus on their core competencies, specialize in a particular area of the Kubernetes ecosystem, and strategically acquire companies to fill any functional gaps.
Final Thoughts
As we look ahead, it will be fascinating to see which AI implementations gain traction and become widely adopted, and which ones fade away over time. The Kubernetes ecosystem is still evolving, and the practical applications of AI are just beginning to emerge. It will also be interesting to see how companies leverage their multicloud setups to optimize their configurations and cost savings for greater efficiency.
I hope this blog post has given you some valuable insights and ideas from the event. If you want to hear more about DevRel and Developer Marketing, join our upcoming live webinars with Q&A sessions, where we explore similar topics and feature insights from industry leaders.
TL;DR: Six essential lessons for marketing developer tools successfully:
Understand Your Tool – Learn what developers actually use it for, not just features
Customize Your Strategy – One-size-fits-all approaches fail in diverse devtools markets
Build Trust First – Educational content and community engagement beat advertising
Stay Consistent – Long-term strategies outperform growth hacks and trends
Expect Marketing Challenges – Marketing teams face unique attribution and blame dynamics
Use Proven Tactics – Events, content marketing, community building, and authentic social media drive results
These insights come from working with 100+ developer tools companies across multiple market segments and growth stages.
Developer tools (often shortened “devtools”) are the unsung heroes of software development. Software engineers use them to streamline workflows, automate tedious tasks, and unlock new possibilities, but when it comes to marketing them, the path to success isn’t always straightforward.
Since I started building Draft.dev a few years ago, I have worked with more than 100 developer tools companies and seen them try various marketing tactics, and come to appreciate the unique challenges and complexities of this field.
In this post, I want to share my learnings from the past 5-6 years to empower your devtools marketing journey, whether you’re starting fresh or fine-tuning your strategy.
Many outside the industry might not realize that developers rely on a vast arsenal of tools, often called “devtools,” to get their job done. A devtool (short for developer tool) is a software application specifically designed to aid in the development process.
These tools go beyond the typical software most people are familiar with. Imagine the testing tools, automation software, and infrastructure tools that companies like Microsoft, AWS, and Azure provide. These are all examples of devtools.
However, the sheer diversity of devtools presents a unique marketing challenge. Many valuable tools operate “behind the scenes,” so to speak, remaining invisible to typical marketing folks. This presents the first challenge in devtools marketing: you must understand what your tool does for developers.
My advice for anyone starting in the field is:
Learn the tool’s function. Know its strengths and how it improves development workflows.
Translate technical to non-technical. Learn how to explain the tool on a high level.
Get familiar with the language and the knowledge base the developers use in your company.
Lesson 2: One Devtools Marketing Strategy Doesn’t Fit All
The devtools market is a thriving ecosystem bursting with diversity. This variety is exciting, but it also presents a unique challenge for marketers: there’s no single magic formula that works for everyone. So, how do you find your devtools marketing strategy in a market overflowing with diversity?
Understand Your Strengths:
Having collaborated with over 100 devtools companies, I’ve learned that successful marketing strategies are custom-built, not one-size-fits-all.
Large enterprises with big budgets can afford complex, resource-intensive campaigns. But replicating that approach for a smaller startup? Recipe for disaster.
Instead, embrace your nimbleness. As a startup, you have the freedom to experiment and test freely, unburdened by bureaucratic hurdles. Leverage this agility to discover unique value propositions and perspectives that larger companies cannot replicate.
Specify Your Target Audience:
The devtools market encompasses a vast spectrum, from hosting providers like DigitalOcean to IDE developers like JetBrains. Each segment caters to a distinct developer profile and sales cycle. Are you targeting CTOs, entry-level developers, or somewhere in between? Understanding your target audience is vital in shaping your marketing strategy.
Consider Your Devtool’s Adoption Model:
Finally, consider the adoption model of your tool. Is it a top-down solution requiring team-wide implementation and CTO approval, or is it a bottom-up tool where individual developers can sign up and start using it immediately?
Top-down solutions involve longer sales cycles and potentially higher investments, while bottom-up tools offer faster adoption but potentially lower initial revenue streams. Aligning your marketing strategy with your product’s adoption model is crucial for maximizing its effectiveness.
By acknowledging the inherent diversity of the devtools market and tailoring your approach to your unique strengths and product characteristics, you can pave the path to a successful marketing strategy.
Lesson 3: How Can I Build Trust with Developer Audiences?
Let’s face it, developers are a savvy bunch. They have got ad blockers on lockdown and cold emails find their way straight to the trash bin. So, how do you reach these valuable users in the devtools space? The answer is simple, yet often overlooked: build trust.
First of all, content is king. Developers are bombarded with information on a daily basis. They don’t have time for fluff. That’s why content marketing is your secret weapon. Whether it’s technical blog posts, video tutorials, developer-specific events, community-building or even contributing to open-source projects, the goal is the same: connect with developers on their terms, in a way that is friendly and helpful for them.
Secondly, concentrate on the users, not your product. By creating valuable, informative content that troubleshoots real-world developer challenges, you’re not just pushing a product, you’re offering genuine help. This user-centric approach sets you apart from companies focused solely on features and flashy marketing campaigns. It shows developers that you understand their needs and are committed to being a valuable resource, not just another vendor.
Lastly, consider open-sourcing your tool or parts of it. This allows developers to see your work firsthand and fosters a sense of trust and collaboration. Building a strong reputation, having a great team, and actively participating in developer relations (DevRel) activities all contribute to this trust-building equation.
Remember, content isn’t just a marketing tactic, it’s the foundation of building lasting relationships with developers. When you prioritize trust and focus on user needs, you’re laying the groundwork for long-term success in devtools marketing.
Lesson 4: Why Consistency Beats Growth Hacks in Devtools Marketing
Twitter is full of folks bragging about their latest “growth hack” to skyrocket their SaaS startup or grab a thousand users overnight. While these might occasionally bear fruit, the truth is that consistent, long-term strategies are the true foundation of devtools marketing success. Think of it this way: would you rather chase the latest hot stock hoping to get lucky, or invest in a diversified, well-established index fund like the S&P 500? The S&P might not make headlines with overnight gains, but its consistent, long-term growth is what truly builds wealth.
So how do we create good content consistently and repeatedly?
One thing you shouldn’t do is overburning yourself by investing in only one channel. Spreading yourself too thin can lead to burnout and hinder results. Instead, choose a few channels that align with your audience and resources, and consistently deliver valuable content and engagement through those channels.
However, achieving this consistency can be especially challenging for early-stage startups with venture capital. The pressure to deliver quick results is real, leading to a search for silver bullets and shortcuts.
So, for early-stage startups with limited timeframes, the best strategy is leveraging personal relationships and founder credibility. Founders can be powerful advocates, actively engaging with the community through events, podcasts, webinars, and social media. Involving the founders in early-stage marketing demonstrates commitment and fosters trust with potential users.
For companies with a long-term horizon, the focus should shift towards building valuable, enduring assets that build value over time. This includes content, sample projects, open-source contributions, and exceptional documentation. All those are forms of developer marketing that can help build up this annuity they can be interlinked together and repurposed. A well-written blog post can be transformed into a video and then adapted into a compelling conference talk. This approach allows you to leverage a single piece of content across multiple channels, maximizing its reach and impact.
Lesson 5: Marketing Is The Last To Get Credit And The First To Get Blamed
In the devtools space, success often shines on the latest technological advancements. While these are crucial, another important factor often gets overlooked: the significant contributions of marketing.
Marketing plays a vital role in building brand awareness, generating leads, and nurturing developer communities. It’s the engine that drives adoption and propels a devtool from launch to widespread success. However, marketing often operates in a thankless environment.
One significant challenge for marketing teams is often inheriting a raw product lacking features and documentation.
This creates two main difficulties:
Blurry Target Audience: With an incomplete product, understanding who the tool benefits becomes a significant challenge.
Content Creation Struggles: Crafting meaningful content becomes an uphill battle when the team doesn’t grasp the product’s nuances and how it addresses developer challenges.
The result? Content that generates traffic without driving conversions, potentially leading to unfair blame directed toward the marketing team.
When things go well, other departments may take credit for the success, while marketing becomes the first target if things fall short. This phenomenon isn’t unique to early-stage startups. Even Series B companies can resort to drastic measures, with entire marketing departments facing the brunt of the blame when things go south.
This “blame game” has led to a growing pool of talented devtools marketing professionals seeking new opportunities compared to just a couple of years ago. If you’re looking for new opportunities in the devtools marketing space or a company seeking to fill a role, visit DevRel Careers to find or post jobs.
Lesson 6: The Most Common Devtools Marketing Tactics
Now that we’ve tackled the complexities and realities of devtools marketing, and hopefully learned a thing or two about building trust and being consistent, let’s explore the essential tactics that form the foundation of success. These strategies, while seemingly universal, require careful tailoring to resonate with your specific audience and product.
Events: Connecting Face-to-Face
Live events might have faced a temporary setback, but their importance in devtools marketing hasn’t wavered. Being a part of these events is crucial for building relationships and establishing your brand. Conferences like Kubecon and AWS re:Invent offer prime opportunities to connect with your target audience and showcase your product. Use events to engage in thought-provoking sessions, facilitate workshops, and actively foster connections with attendees.
Building Trust Through Valuable Content
Content marketing is the cornerstone of devtools marketing and for good reason. By providing valuable knowledge and solutions to existing developer problems, you establish yourself as a trusted resource. Content can take two key forms:
a) Written Content:
Blog posts, tutorials, case studies, or even comprehensive documentation are powerful tools for building trust. Remember, the goal here is not just to sell your product, but to educate, inform, and solve problems for developers over time. An agency like Draft.dev can be particularly helpful in getting your written content out there.
b) Video Content:
Video content offers an engaging and accessible format for reaching a wider developer audience. Video is increasingly popular with younger generations and companies can utilize diverse video formats like product demos, explainer animations, or even interview-style content to cater to different learning styles and preferences.
Community-driven Marketing:
Community-driven marketing is a powerful, yet long-term play. The goal is to foster an organic, developer-led community around your product. This can involve building forums, online communities, or even internal user groups. Building a thriving community takes time and dedication, but the rewards are significant: increased user engagement, valuable product feedback, and an amplified brand voice through organic word-of-mouth.
Social Media:
Social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter are popular among developers, but they are wary of intrusive advertising. Instead of solely promoting your product on social media, use these platforms to actively listen to developer conversations, understand their needs and challenges, and engage in meaningful discussions. This authentic approach can help you build brand awareness and foster positive sentiment towards your product.
Conclusion
The world of developer marketing is complex and ever-evolving. While building trust with developers remains the cornerstone of success, the methods for achieving it are constantly evolving. Video content is rapidly gaining popularity, offering an engaging and accessible format to reach developers.
Through a strategic blend of valuable content, genuine community engagement, thoughtful use of social media, and a presence at key industry events, you can position your devtool for enduring success.
Remember, consistency is key. While the lure of quick wins and flashy tactics is strong, it’s the steadfast commitment to providing value to developers that will truly pay off in the long run.
At Draft.dev, we build growth engines for Developer Platforms & Tools that compound and resonate with developers and traditional and AI search engines. Our work has generated hundreds of thousands of leads and true engagement for our clients. If you’d like to start investing in authentic devtools marketing, book a call with us to learn more. We specialize in both technical written content and engaging video tutorials, specifically tailored to reach software developers.
At Draft.dev, we’re well aware of the value of reaching tech audiences through podcasts. Our clients often seek our guidance on which programming podcasts offer the most suitable opportunities for guest appearances, sponsorships, and advertising. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best software engineering podcasts and also started a partnership with the renowned B2B Podcast agency “The Podcast Consultant”.
These podcasts run the gamut of technical topics. Many of these programming podcasts have sponsorship and guest spots open, so if you’re trying to reach a technical audience, it’s worth reaching out. Finally, this list will continue to grow as we find new episodes and podcast production agencies, so check back occasionally if you don’t immediately find what you need.
BuiltOnAir
Topic: Airtable
BuiltOnAir is a video podcast series about all things Airtable. Each week, they talk with someone active in the Airtable community to discuss their experiences and showcase an interesting way they’ve used Airtable in their work.
Host Stefan Huyghe interviews localization leaders from companies like Pipedrive, Walmart, and Translated to share practical insights on managing localization in fast-paced tech environments. From middleware solutions to UX writing for global audiences, each episode covers real-world case studies and actionable strategies for building agile localization systems that actually work.
Hackathons? Communities? Metrics? Events? Tech Industry pioneers from the world’s largest tech companies share insight on developer marketing success. Listen to the industry’s biggest challenges and how to overcome them. In every episode, each special guest covers a *hot* developer marketing topic.
Software Engineering Radio is a podcast targeted at professional software developers. The goal is to be a lasting educational resource, not a newscast. SE Radio covers all topics of software engineering. New episodes are either tutorials on a specific topic or an interview with a well-known character from the software engineering world. All SE Radio episodes are original content — we do not record conferences or talks given in other venues. Each episode comprises two speakers to ensure a lively listening experience. SE Radio is brought to you by IEEE Computer Society and IEEE Software magazine.
Community Pulse is the spot for Developer Relations and Community professionals who are looking for information on building technical communities. Community Builders and DevRel veterans Jason Hand, Mary Thengvall, PJ Hagerty, Sarah-Jane Morris, and Wesley Faulkner interview experts in the field of Developer Relations and Community Leadership on a broad range of topics related to building community.
Community Signal is a podcast for experienced online community professionals, including those working in audience engagement, association management, developer relations, moderation, trust and safety, and more. It’s released every two weeks and hosted by industry veteran Patrick O’Keefe.
This is a very community-focused program. There are plenty of social media and marketing podcasts out there. That’s not what this is. Social media is a set of tools. Community is a strategy you apply to those tools. Marketing brings new customers. Community helps you keep them.
Weekly panel discussion about Javascript on the front and back ends. This show is primarily focused on the web ecosystem, but also covers NodeJS, mobile, and language features.
In software development, there are so many smart and interesting people building things. In each episode a guest shares their story and along the way, we learn about an area of software development. I think you will learn a couple of things and enjoy the process. I hope you subscribe and enjoy, Your Host, Adam
Software Engineering Daily features daily interviews about technical software topics. Join our Slack group. Data from my two years at Software Engineering Radio indicates that technical software podcast listeners are an underserved market. If you are a software engineer who doesn’t listen to many podcasts about software, this should be self-evident.
How does one become a software developer? Each week, a successful developer tells us their life’s story. They describe their path into tech’ and share what they learned along the way.
We are software engineers that focus on developing custom software solutions for the Salesforce.com Platform. We started this podcast to share our conversations around software development, technology, and the Salesforce.com Platform. Our goal is to keep developers and non-developers informed with our own unique brand of casual, honest, and entertaining commentary.
Arrested DevOps is the podcast that helps you achieve understanding, develop good practices, and operate your team and organization for maximum DevOps awesomeness.
The Puppet Podcast features Puppet community members talking about the latest trends in configuration management & cloud automation as well as DevOps culture.
Developer Tea exists to help driven developers connect to their ultimate purpose and excel at their work so that they can positively impact the people they influence. With over 13 million downloads to date, Developer Tea is a short podcast hosted by Jonathan Cutrell (@jcutrell), co-founder of Spec and Director of Engineering at PBS. We hope you’ll take the topics from this podcast and continue the conversation, either online or in person with your peers.
Leo Laporte brings some of the most interesting personalities in technology together to talk about the most important issues. Fun, relaxed, informative, and always entertaining, count on TWiT for the best tech podcasts in the world.
Merge Conflict is a weekly discussion with Frank and James on all things development, technology, & more. After years of being friends, Frank and James finally decided to sit down and start a podcast about their lives as mobile developers using C#, Xamarin, and .NET MAUI. Much more than just another mobile development podcast, Merge Conflict, reaches all areas of development including desktop, server, and of course mobile. They also cover fun things happening in the world of technology and gaming and whatever else happens to be on Frank’s and James’ minds.
A weekly podcast covering all the news and events in Enterprise Software and Cloud Computing. We discuss topics including Kubernetes, DevOps, Serverless, Security, and Coding. Plus, plenty of off topic banter and nonsense to keep you entertained. Don’t worry if you miss the latest industry conference, we will recap all the latest news from AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).
Upgrade looks at how technology shapes our lives, from the devices in our hands and pockets to the streaming services that keep us entertained. Hosted by Jason Snell and Myke Hurley.
TPython’s test-focused podcast is more than just pytest, testing, and TDD. We also cover Python packaging, data science, CI/CD, project automation, and tons of other software engineering practices. Hosted by Brian Okken.
The Testing Show – covering everything related to software testing. Our panel of software testing experts will break down and analyze new tools, methodologies, trends, and more. With a new episode every two weeks, you’ll be sure to get your testing fix. The Testing Show is sponsored by QualiTest. Deploy Software that You and Your Customers Trust with QualiTest Software Testing and Business Assurance Services.
My name is Scott Hanselman. I’m a programmer, teacher, and speaker. I work out of my home office in Portland, Oregon for the Web Platform Team at Microsoft, but this blog, its content, and opinions are my own. I blog about technology, culture, gadgets, diversity, code, the web, where we’re going, and where we’ve been. I’m excited about community, social equity, media, entrepreneurship, and above all, the open web.
I have three podcasts and a YouTube channel. One podcast is a weekly talk show on tech, one an occasional one-hour essay on developers’ lives, and one is a social media and tech culture show with my friend Luvvie.
Android Backstage, a podcast by and for Android developers. Hosted by developers from the Android engineering team, this show covers topics of interest to Android programmers, with in-depth discussions and interviews with engineers on the Android team at Google.
Discover app marketing growth hacks from the top app publishers. Learn the secrets of app store optimization, app store features, and online marketing to drive more downloads for your mobile app.
MTJC podcast is a show about mobile development. Each week Jaime Lopez, Mark Rubin (sometimes Greg Heo and Tammy Coron), and myself, Tim Mitra, will convene from across the continent to discuss iOS and Mac development. We discuss current issues to find out what developers are talking about, what their apps are about, what they are using to create their apps, and what advice they have for other developers (or those looking to become one). We also have news, notes, and tech tips for developers.
Topic: Software Engineering/Development/Programming Jacob Bennett and Michael Dyrynda conquer a 14.5 hour time difference to talk about life as web developers.
Bootstrapped Web is for entrepreneurs bootstrapping their startups, who believe that the best way to get to where we’re going is to learn by doing. Conversations, case studies, and interviews with entrepreneurs who are building profitable businesses online. Let’s do this.
The longest-running (and most popular) podcast for bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped startups, this show follows the stories of founders as they start, acquire, and grow SaaS companies. Hear when they fail, struggle, succeed, and take you with them through the tumultuous life of a SaaS founder. If you like Mixergy, This Week in Startups, or SaaStr, you’ll enjoy Startup for the Rest of Us.
John Lee Dumas is the founder and host of the award-winning podcast, Entrepreneurs On Fire. With over 100 million listens of his 3000+ episodes, JLD has turned Entrepreneurs On Fire into a media empire that generates over a million listens every month and 7-figures of NET annual revenue 8-years in a row. His first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success is the modern day version of Think and Grow Rich with a revolutionary 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment. Learn more at UncommonSuccessBook.com.
The Rogue Startups podcast features two bootstrapped startup founders as they grow their businesses. We feature experts in the fields of sales, marketing, and product development to hear how they’re growth hacking their productized services, WordPress plugins, and SaaS products. If you’re on the journey of an entrepreneur then tune in and hear how we’re tackling some of the same obstacles you may be facing, and how we’re winning in the game of business.
ProdMgmtTalk Professionals forwarding the movement for product excellence by design. Discussions about the art, craft, and discipline required for products that contribute value. All aspects of customer development, user experience, product innovation, design, development, marketing, and scaling. @ProdMgmtTalk Founded by @CindyFSolomon talking with thought leaders from Silicon Valley and beyond. @StartupProduct @ProductSummit Syndicating The Everyday Innovator with Chad McAllister.
“This is Product Management” interviews brilliant minds across the numerous disciplines that fuel the modern product manager. Episodes span from arts to science, tactics to strategies, confessions to professions. Take a deep dive into user experience, statistics, innovation, differentiation, design, development, metrics, and more with the latest podcast for product managers. Learn more and subscribe at thisisproductmanagement.com.
The Tropical MBA Podcast aims to show you the inside story of the people who are building “micro-multinational” businesses while they travel the world. We are interested in entrepreneurship, travel, internationalization, and personal freedom. Join 1,000’s of listeners from all around the world, every Thursday morning.
The Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging Podcast
Topic: Entrepreneurship
Pat Flynn from The Smart Passive Income Blog reveals all of his online business and blogging strategies, income sources, and killer marketing tips and tricks so you can be ahead of the curve with your online business or blog. Discover how you can create multiple passive income streams that work for you so that you can have the time and freedom to do what you love, whether it’s traveling the world, or just living comfortably at home. Since 2008, he’s been supporting his family with his many online businesses, and he’s been openly sharing his wins, his losses, and all the lessons.
Ever wish you had a business mentor with over a decade of experience whispering success secrets in your ear? That’s exactly what you’ll get when you tune into the top-ranked Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast with your host, 9 to 5er turned CEO of a multi-million dollar business, Amy Porterfield. Her specialty? Breaking down big ideas and strategies into actionable step-by-step processes designed to get you results with a whole lot less stress. Tune in, get inspired, and get ready to discover why hundreds of thousands of online business owners turn to Amy for guidance.
Talk Python to Me is a weekly podcast hosted by developer and entrepreneur Michael Kennedy. We dive deep into the popular packages and software developers, data scientists, and incredible hobbyists doing amazing things with Python. If you’re new to Python, you’ll quickly learn the ins and outs of the community by hearing from the leaders. And if you’ve been Pythoning for years, you’ll learn about your favorite packages and the hot new ones coming out of open source.
Python Bytes is a weekly podcast hosted by Michael Kennedy and Brian Okken. The show is a short discussion on the headlines and noteworthy news in the Python, developer, and data science space.
News and interviews about the latest happenings in the PHP and Web development world. Hosted by Manuel Lemos of the PHPClasses.org site and other guest hosts. It is recorded in MP3 format at least once a month at the beginning of each month.
Welcome to the Best Java News podcast! The podcast started when four friends always got together and start discussing the current Java News and Technologies. Since each of us had such a different perspective on the Java Ecosystem (Freddy is a Performance nut, Bob is a Consultant, Michael runs Spring Batch and Josh works with Java Enterprise) we got into pretty interesting (and sometimes controversial) discussions. Figuring out that we could have fun while discovering the news we decided to turn on the mics and record.
Greg, Mark, and Richard get together weekly and talk about things of interest in the Java community. Greg works for SimWorks (http://www.simworks.com) specialize in mobile phone software. Mark works for SecureMX (www.smx.co.nz). Richard works for Blue Train Software (http://www.bluetrainsoftware.com)
Programming Throwdown educates Computer Scientists and Software Engineers on a cavalcade of programming and tech topics. Every show will cover a new programming language, so listeners will be able to speak intelligently about any programming language.
Test Talks is a weekly podcast hosted by Joe Colantonio, which geeks out on all things software test automation. TestTalks covers news found in the testing space, reviews books about automation, and speaks with some of the thought leaders in the test automation field. We’ll aim to interview some of today’s most successful and inspiring software engineers and test automation thought leaders.
Your source for diverse discussions from around the Go community. This show records LIVE every Tuesday at 3pm US Eastern. Join the Golang community and chat with us during the show in the #gotimefm channel of Gophers slack. Panelists include Mat Ryer, Jon Calhoun, Carmen Andoh, Johnny Boursiquot, Angelica Hill, Mark Bates, Kris Brandow, and Natalie Pistunovich.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence are dramatically changing the way businesses operate and people live. The TWIML AI Podcast brings the top minds and ideas from the world of ML and AI to a broad and influential community of ML/AI researchers, data scientists, engineers, and tech-savvy business and IT leaders. Hosted by Sam Charrington, a sought-after industry analyst, speaker, commentator and thought leader.
Every weekday, Certified Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and business consultant Vasco Duarte interviews Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches from all over the world to get you actionable advice, new tips and tricks, improve your craft as a Scrum Master with daily doses of inspiring conversations with Scrum Masters from the all over the world. Stay tuned for BONUS episodes when we interview Agile gurus and other thought leaders in the business space to bring you the Agile Business perspective you need to succeed as a Scrum Master. Some of the topics we discuss include Agile Business.
The Cloudcast is the industry’s leading, independent Cloud Computing podcast. Since 2011, co-hosts Aaron Delp & Brian Gracely have interviewed technology and business leaders that are shaping the future of computing.
Topics will include Cloud Computing, Open Source, AWS, Azure, GCP, Serverless, DevOps, Big Data, ML, AI, Security, Kubernetes, AppDev, SaaS, PaaS, CaaS, IoT.
Also available, the “Cloudcast Basics” podcast (@cloudcastbasics), for anyone new to Cloud Computing.
Risky Business is a weekly information security podcast featuring news and in-depth interviews with industry luminaries. Launched in February 2007, Risky Business is a must-listen digest for information security pros. With a running time of approximately 50-60 minutes, Risky Business is pacy; a security podcast without the waffle.
Full Stack Developers Wes Bos and Scott Tolinski dive deep into web development topics, explaining how they work and talking about their own experiences. They cover from JavaScript frameworks like React, to the latest advancements in CSS to simplifying web tooling.
Wrapping Up the Ultimate List of Developer Podcasts in 2025
Hope you found this curated list of the best developer podcasts useful. Whether you’re looking to sponsor shows, appear as a guest, or simply stay current with industry trends, these podcasts represent the most influential voices in software development today.
Ready to reach your target developer audience through high-quality content? Reach out to us at Draft.dev to learn how we can help you create compelling technical content that resonates with the same audiences listening to these top developer podcasts.
If you’ve enjoyed this article, don’t miss our other “Best of” guides:
We’ve curated 70+ developer newsletters across 20+ categories, including subscriber counts, sponsorship rates, and contact information for staying current with tech trends or reaching developer audiences through trusted channels.
Newsletters remain one of the most effective means of connecting with an audience, even amid the plethora of media formats available today.
In developer marketing, newsletters play a unique part in your arsenal of marketing tools. Software development is constantly evolving. Breaking changes, new tools, and updated best practices are added every day, so keeping up in the tech industry can be incredibly hard.
Curated newsletters help developers keep up because a set of experts have already sorted through the content and picked the best stuff. Developers don’t have to worry about being overrun with information while keeping tabs on everything that’s changing in the tech industry.
Unlike traditional advertising, developer newsletters are typically trusted sources of information, as readers actively opt in to receive them. This willingness to provide their email addresses signals:
Interest
Engagement
Trust
In a community known for its skepticism of hard-sell tactics, this trust factor can make a world of difference in generating leads.
So, in this piece, I wanted to compile a roundup of a diverse selection of developer newsletters, spanning from tech leadership and web development to specific coding languages.
I’ve included each newsletter’s:
Category
Subscriber count
Sponsorship rates
Contact information
This information will help you pitch them stories or sponsor them effectively.
An email update for web developers. Keep up with the latest releases of tools, frameworks and services. Know what’s happening in the world of web development, cloud infrastructure and serverless. Get curated links to the latest videos and repos that can make you a better developer.
The Smashing Email Newsletter
Every Tuesday we send out an editorial email newsletter with useful tips and techniques on front-end and UX.
With our weekly newsletter, you will get 5 top stories hand-picked into your inbox every Monday with topics ranging from React and React Native, and many other supporting libraries, tools, and tutorials.
The Haskell Weekly Newsletter covers the Haskell programming language. Each issue features several hand-picked links to interesting content about Haskell from around the web.
Whether you’re trying to reach game developers, web developers, or to tap into the thriving Android development community, this extensive list of developer newsletters will help you connect with the right audience and establish credibility among tech professionals.
If you enjoyed this list, you may also find these lists valuable:
Ready to Connect with Developers Beyond Newsletters?
While newsletters are powerful for reaching developers, they’re just one piece of an effective developer marketing strategy. To truly engage technical audiences, you need content that demonstrates deep expertise and provides genuine value.
At Draft.dev, we specialize in creating high-quality technical content that resonates with developers. Our network of expert technical writers produces:
I’m excited to share these key takeaways from the conference to help you develop a content strategy that works for your business and that you can scale.
In Which Marketing Funnel Does Developer Content Fit?
A marketing funnel is a model that visualizes the customer journey, from awareness to consideration to conversion. It’s important to understand the different stages of the funnel so that you can create content that is tailored to each stage.
Top-of-funnel (TOFU): This is where potential customers are first becoming aware of your brand and product. TOFU content should be educational and informative, and it should focus on attracting new visitors to your website.
Middle-of-funnel (MOFU): At this stage, potential customers have already visited your website and are learning more about your product. MOFU content should be more in-depth and persuasive, and it should focus on moving potential customers closer to a purchase decision.
Bottom-of-funnel (BOFU): This is where potential customers are ready to make a purchase decision. BOFU content should be highly targeted and promotional, and it should focus on convincing potential customers to buy your product.
Looking past the definition, marketing funnels vary a lot depending on the product and the ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). There is no one-size-fits-all approach to content marketing for developers and this is clearly seen when comparing our panelists’ strategies at Strapi and Edge AI Developer Platform (Intel).
Examples
Strapi uses developer content mainly to create brand awareness and drive traffic to its website. Content is mainly top-funnel for them. In addition, they do bottom-funnel content that aims to convert specific segments that are already engaged, but at a much smaller scale. In terms of the content types they use in their top funnel, both keyword-based content (targeting specific keywords), as well as persona-based content (targeting specific customer profiles) are being used. A good example of keyword-based content would be landing pages and integration pages. An example of their persona-based content targeted to front-end developers would be technical tutorials.
In larger companies like Intel, where the organization is primarily hardware-driven, it can be more difficult to agree on which content is top-of-funnel, middle-of-funnel, or bottom-of-funnel. This is because the first touchpoint for a new product might be bottom-of-funnel content, even though bottom-of-funnel content is typically targeted at leads who are ready to convert. Therefore, flexibility and adaptability in your content strategy can become much more important in larger enterprises.
So, the first step of creating a content marketing strategy is to understand your specific product and ICP, and only then start tailoring your content.
Measuring Content Value And Success
Now that we have explored marketing funnels and what types of content can be placed in each funnel, you might be wondering how to measure the value and success of your efforts.
Here are a few common ways to measure content performance:
Keyword-based measurement: How well is your content ranking in search results for relevant keywords?
Persona-based measurement: Is your content helping to move leads further along in the buying process? This is where attribution comes in and where touchpoints become a relevant measurement tool.
Virality: Is your content being picked up by influencers, or is it being shared by users?
Engagement: How many impressions, clicks, views, and time spent on the page is your content getting?
The best metrics to track will vary depending on your specific goals. For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, you’ll want to track metrics such as virality and engagement. If your goal is to generate leads, you’ll want to track metrics such as persona-based measurement and conversion rates.
Prioritizing Content And Where To Start
At Draft.dev, we often work with clients who are tasked with building a content strategy for their company from the ground up or continuing from where someone else left off. One of the most common questions we get is where to start and how to prioritize technical content efforts.
The first step is to understand your customers’ needs. What are the most common questions they ask? What are their pain points? Getting a good grasp of your customers’ needs will help you start creating content that addresses those needs.
Secondly, you can focus on use cases. What are the different ways that customers are using your product? What are their specific needs? For example, if you’re seeing a lot of traffic to your website from people searching for a particular keyword, you could write a blog post or landing page that is optimized for that keyword and that provides clear and concise instructions on how to use your product to achieve a specific goal.
Thirdly, consider the balance of hype vs. reality. While it’s important to participate in the trendy and cool conversations that are current, actual use cases or troubleshooting a real customer problem will always trump the hyped content.
Lastly, think about your customer’s intent when analyzing keywords’ search volume. When people search for certain keywords, what are they trying to achieve? Are they looking for information? Are they trying to solve a problem? Are they ready to buy? It’s important to prioritize keywords that are closest to the intent of buying.
Where Does SEO Fit In?
Somewhat connected with prioritization is SEO. Some people argue that you should start with SEO and then figure out how your product fits into those keywords. Others do the complete opposite, and there is no right or wrong answer.
The two main approaches to SEO are: data-driven and intuition-driven.
Data-driven SEO involves using keyword research tools to identify the keywords that your target audience is searching for and then optimizing your content for those keywords. Intuition-driven SEO involves focusing on the topics that you think are important to your target audience and writing content about those topics, regardless of the search volume.
It’s important to find a balance between data and intuition when approaching SEO. You want to target keywords that have a high search volume, but you also want to target keywords that are relevant to your business and that your target audience is actually searching for.
For example, “What is machine learning?” could be an extremely important keyword for EdgeAI Developer Platform (Intel) according to the data-driven measurement, but will it actually convert to sales? Probably not.
One way to find a balance between data-driven and intuition-driven keywords is to focus on keywords that are “one level up” from your product. For example, if you sell a back-end development framework that sits on top of Kubernetes, you could write a guide to optimizing Kubernetes performance, and mention that using a performant framework (like yours) is one way to help improve this issue. This type of content can be helpful for developers who are still in the early stages of the buying process.
Another way is talking to your customers. Knowing the problems they are trying to solve can help you to identify keywords that are relevant to your business and that your target audience is actually searching for.
CTAs are Touchy Subject
Using calls to action (CTAs) in developer content can be a tricky balancing act. You want the content to be educational and genuinely helpful, but you also have to serve some kind of marketing purpose.
As Victor Coisne mentioned, developers are ‘allergic to some of the marketing tactics.’ This is because developers are typically more interested in self-directed learning and solving problems than in being sold to. That’s why it’s important to be subtle and avoid overt sales pitches when using CTAs in developer content.
Here are some key recommendations that we learned from the panel discussion:
Focus on providing value and helping users to solve problems. Developers are more likely to engage with content that is relevant to their interests and needs.
Choose CTAs that are appropriate for the format of the content and the target audience. For example, a blog post might have a CTA to subscribe to a newsletter, while a white paper might have a CTA to download a free trial or register for a webinar.
Remove any barriers to try the product.
Show your product in action. This could involve creating a demo video, writing a tutorial, or sharing a case study.
Offer free samples, code, or resources. This is a great way to give developers a taste of your product and encourage them to learn more.
Invite users to reply to an email or join an event. This is a great way to start a conversation with developers and learn more about their needs.
Book a call with sales CTAs are generally not effective for developer content. Developers are typically more interested in self-directed learning, so they’re less likely to be interested in talking to a salesperson. However, these CTAs may be more effective for SaaS products or for companies with a more enterprise-focused ICP.
Distribution
Once you have put an excessive amount of work into creating high-quality technical content, it is equally important to distribute it effectively. There’s an abundance of developer content being produced these days, and even if you have great content, it doesn’t just get out there on its own merits.
To get your content in front of the right people, you need to focus on being where the developers are. This means publishing your content on platforms where developers are active, such as Medium, Stack Overflow, and GitHub.
Another way to reach a wider audience is to consider syndicating your content to other websites and platforms. This can help you get your content in front of people who might not have found it otherwise.
In addition to publishing and syndicating your content, you should also engage with developers in communities where they are active. This could involve participating in online forums, answering questions, and providing value to the community.
Finally, you can reach out to newsletter editors and pitch your stories. This is a great way to get your content in front of a targeted audience of developers who are interested in the topics you write about.
When distributing your content, it’s important to be helpful and non-spammy. Don’t just dump your links everywhere you can. Instead, focus on providing value to developers and sharing your content in a way that is relevant to their needs.
Beyond The Written Word
When we refer to technical content, we often think of written content, such as blog posts, articles, and white papers. However, there are many other types of technical content that can be just as effective, if not more effective.
Here are some examples of technical content that go beyond the written word:
Webinars: Webinars are a great way to share your knowledge and expertise with a large audience of developers. You can use webinars to teach developers about new technologies, best practices, or your product.
Demos: Demos are a great way to show developers how your product works and how it can benefit them. You can create demos for your website, social media, or even for webinars.
Video tutorials: Video tutorials are a much more immersive way to learn new skills or technologies than written tutorials. We recently launched video tutorials at Draft.dev which have been receiving a lot of interest.
Short-form videos: Short-form videos can be both effective and not. It all comes down to where your target audience spends most time.
Influencer outreach: Reaching out to developer influencers and offering them to use your product in the different types of content that they create can also be very effective. Partnering with someone who already has a large following of developers can help you reach a wider audience and build credibility. Interestingly, the results may vary depending on the country, as Ansley Dunn mentioned, “We’ve had lots of success with influencer marketing in India, but it hasn’t picked up in the US”.
Is Refreshing Content Worth It?
Refreshing content can easily become one of the most challenging tasks in a company because it is both time-consuming and important. Technology is constantly changing, and if your content is not up to date, it will be less useful and informative for developers. This can lead to fewer conversions and leads.
That being said, there are a couple of ways to make the process less overwhelming:
Prioritize the most popular content. Start by updating the content that gets the most views and engagement. This will ensure that you are getting the most out of your efforts.
Use AI to help with content refreshing. AI-powered content refreshing tools can scan your content, identify outdated information, suggest relevant updates, and pinpoint areas where user engagement has dropped.
Conclusion
Creating a technical content strategy is a complex and ongoing process. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and the best strategy will vary depending on your specific business and goals.
It is important to remember that there is no perfect strategy. The best strategy is a result of long-term testing and iteration. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try new things. And most importantly, focus on creating content that is valuable and informative for your target audience.
As your business grows and changes, your technical content strategy will need to evolve as well. Be sure to regularly review your strategy and make adjustments as needed.
If you have any questions about scaling technical content or you’d like to learn more about how we work with startups, please schedule a call with us today.
TL;DR: Community-centric DevRel programs drive software adoption through network effects:
Increased Engagement: Users with community ownership contribute feedback, support, and content creation
Reduced Friction: Peer support and documentation lower onboarding time for new developers
Sustainable Growth: Self-sustaining communities free product teams to focus on development
Brand Loyalty: Community participation creates stronger emotional investment and word-of-mouth marketing
Implementation: Success requires knowing your audience, creating collaboration spaces, providing resources, sparking engagement, and continuous evaluation
Have you ever wondered why some companies seem to effortlessly dominate the market while others struggle to gain traction? For some, it comes down to the power of their community and the network effects they elicit.
As Steve Jobs once said, ‘Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower,’ and in the world of software development, building a thriving community around your product can be the key to innovation and, ultimately, a driver of success.
In simple terms, community-centric models in software development function as strategic frameworks that prioritize building and nurturing user communities. These models help with software adoption as they cultivate an environment conducive to rapid user engagement and growth. Their effectiveness lies in fostering a sense of community ownership and collaboration, where users actively contribute to the software’s evolution, providing valuable feedback and driving its popularity.
What are the benefits of community-centric DevRel programs?
Community-centric DevRel is an approach to developer relations that focuses on building and supporting communities of developers around a particular software product or technology. This approach has a number of benefits, including:
Increased user engagement
When users feel like they are part of a community, they are more likely to be engaged with the software. This is because they have a sense of ownership and responsibility for the community. Community-centric models can help to increase user engagement by providing users with opportunities to contribute to the community, such as by sharing feedback, providing support, and creating content.
Improved feedback and support
Community-centric models can help to improve feedback and support by providing users with direct access to the developers and other users. This can help to resolve issues more quickly and efficiently. Community-centric models can also help to identify new features and improvements that users want.
Reduced friction and onboarding time
Community-centric models can help to reduce friction and onboarding time by providing users with helpful resources and documentation, as well as opportunities to get support from other users. Community-centric models can also help to create a sense of community among new users, which can make them feel more comfortable and confident using the software.
Increased word-of-mouth marketing
Satisfied users are more likely to recommend the software to their friends and colleagues. Community-centric models can help to increase word-of-mouth marketing by creating a sense of community among users and providing them with opportunities to share their experiences with the software.
Stronger brand loyalty
Users who feel like they are part of a community are more likely to be loyal to the brand. This is because they have a sense of ownership and responsibility for the community. Community-centric models can help to build stronger brand loyalty by providing users with opportunities to contribute to the community and by creating a positive association with the brand.
A more sustainable and scalable approach to DevRel
Community-centric DevRel can be a more sustainable and scalable approach to DevRel than traditional approaches. This is because communities can be self-sustaining, with developers taking on the role of supporting and educating each other. This can free up product teams to focus on developing and improving the product or technology.
How do you build a successful community-centric DevRel program?
Building a successful community-centric DevRel program takes time, effort, and commitment. But it’s worth it, because a strong community can help you achieve your DevRel goals.
Here are five key steps to building a successful community-centric DevRel program:
Know Your Audience: Take the time to understand who your community is intended for. Are they developers specializing in a specific programming language or working on particular software types? Once you’ve identified your target audience, you can tailor your community content and activities to cater to their unique needs and interests.
Create a Welcoming Hub for Collaboration: Forge a virtual or physical space where people can come together, connect, and collaborate. Whether it’s an online forum, a Slack channel, or even a physical meetup venue, ensure it’s a place where developers feel welcomed and valued. Foster an environment where they can freely share knowledge, ask questions, and team up on projects.
Offer Valuable Resources and Support: Provide a treasure trove of resources and support for your community. This might encompass blog posts, tutorials, comprehensive documentation, and responsive support forums. Keeping your resources current and relevant to your target audience is essential. Be open to community feedback and readily assist developers in resolving their challenges.
Spark Participation and Engagement: Ignite enthusiasm and engagement within your community. Organize contests, challenges, and community events that inspire developers to actively participate. Offer various avenues for developers to contribute to the community, nurturing a sense of belonging. The more involved your community becomes, the more fruitful your DevRel program will be.
Continuous Improvement through Evaluation: Regularly assess the effectiveness of your community-centric DevRel program and make necessary refinements. Keep an eye on metrics like the number of active community members, post and comment frequencies, and the level of interaction with your content and activities. By staying attuned to your community’s evolving needs, you’ll ensure your DevRel program remains human-centric and successful.
LambdaTest’s Case Study in Community-Centric DevRel
LambdaTest is a cloud-based testing platform that provides developers with access to a real device cloud of over 3000+ browsers and operating systems. LambdaTest is used by developers all over the world to test their websites and mobile apps on a variety of devices and browsers.
We also have a strong community-centric DevRel program. Our company invests heavily in building and supporting an open source community of developers around real device cloud testing, cross-browser testing, mobile app testing, etc.
Here are some of the ways that we use community-centric DevRel:
Sponsorship of community events: LambdaTest sponsors a number of community events, including conferences, meetups, and hackathons. This helps to increase the visibility and reach of LambdaTest’s products and services, and to connect with developers who are shaping the world of QA and testing.
Contribution to community forums and blogs: LambdaTest’s DevRel team contributes regularly to community forums and blogs on topics related to software testing and the recent trends happening in the QA industry. This helps to position LambdaTest as a thought leader in the industry and to provide valuable resources to developers.
Providing opportunities for developers to collaborate on projects: LambdaTest provides opportunities for developers to collaborate on projects and to contribute to the development of LambdaTest’s products and services. For example, LambdaTest recently launched a community-driven initiative to develop a new mobile app testing framework. Developers from all over the world are participating in this initiative, and their contributions are helping to shape the future of LambdaTest’s mobile app testing platform.
Conclusion
The network effect is a powerful tool in DevRel. When developers are connected to each other and to a community around a particular software product or technology, they are more likely to adopt and use that product or technology. This is because developers can learn from each other, share resources, and collaborate on projects.
In a nutshell, these communities break down entry barriers for new developers by facilitating knowledge exchange and mentorship, boosting their confidence and success with new products or technologies.
Moreover, they foster a sense of ownership and pride among developers, making them more committed to the success of the product or technology they’re using. These communities serve as problem-solving hubs. Developers collaborate and provide feedback, enabling rapid identification and resolution of issues that might otherwise hinder product or technology adoption.
Software companies that embrace open source contributions strengthen their development efforts and supercharge their marketing.
“In open source, we feel strongly that to really do something well, you have to get a lot of people involved.” – Linus Torvalds, Creator of Linux
In this post, we’ll explore how developer tools companies can harness open source development as a marketing tool, uncovering the benefits and reasons that so many companies invest in open source development.
I’ll help you see how you can boost your company’s credibility, attract talent, increase brand visibility, nurture developer trust, and enhance your products with valuable feedback—all in a cost-effective manner. Let’s get started by looking at the potential for open source development.
The Power of Open Source Contribution
Open source contributions offer a range of great benefits that can impact your developer marketing strategy but let’s look at four of them:
1. Building Credibility and Trust
By participating in open source projects, your company showcases its expertise and commitment. This, in turn, establishes credibility in the eyes of the developer community and potential clients. Software engineers are more likely to trust and engage with a company that contributes to open source initiatives.
“The community aspect of open source is actually a driver towards building distributed trust…Once you become a part of the community around an open source project, you assume one or more of the roles that you start trusting once you say that you ‘trust’ an open source project.” – Mike Bursell
Transparency is key in open source development. By engaging, your company also showcases its willingness to work transparently, share knowledge, and collaborate. This builds trust among developers who appreciate transparency. Developer trust is invaluable in a competitive market.
2. Attracting Top Talent
In the competitive tech landscape, attracting and retaining top talent is a constant challenge. Open source involvement acts as a beacon for skilled developers who are passionate about their craft. These developers are more inclined to join your team because they appreciate your commitment to open source values.
3. Increasing Brand Visibility
Open source contributions also amplify your brand’s visibility in the developer community. When your company appears in repositories, forums, and discussions, it gains invaluable recognition. This increased visibility grows organic marketing and creates a buzz around your brand with greater trust than traditional advertising.
4. Enhanced Product Feedback
Open source contributions provide a venue for receiving feedback from the developer community. Developers using your open source tools may identify bugs, suggest improvements, or even contribute enhancements themselves–reducing your development costs.
Incorporating open source contributions into your marketing strategy not only promotes your products but also creates a cycle of credibility, talent attraction, brand visibility, trust, and product improvement. These benefits make open source development a potent marketing tool for software companies.
Getting started with open source contribution
Now that we’ve explored the benefits of open source contribution, you might be wondering how to begin. Here are practical steps to kickstart an open source journey for your company:
1. Identify Projects
Start by identifying open source projects that align with your expertise and interests. Look for projects that complement your products or services. For example, if you specialize in web development, you could contribute to different framework projects. Or you can even think of a tool that would benefit your existing developers and clients.
Ashutosh Mishra has a lot of tips for finding open source projects here on Hacker Noon.
2. Define Objectives
Set clear objectives for your open source contributions. Are you looking to establish credibility, attract talent, or enhance product feedback? Having well-defined goals will guide your contributions and help measure the impact.
3. Create Resources
Set up human and financial resources to support your open source initiatives. Make sure that your team has the time and skills necessary to participate in the chosen projects. It’s also essential to budget for any expenses.
4. Join the Community
Become an active member of the open source community. This means participating in discussions, attending conferences or meetups, and engaging with other contributors. Building relationships within the community is key to successful open source involvement.
5. Start Small
Begin with manageable contributions. Whether it’s fixing a bug, improving documentation, shelving out the first MVP of a tool, or adding a small feature. Starting with modest tasks allows your team to gain experience and build a contribution record.
6. Document Your Work
Document your contributions, not only in code but also in documentation and tutorials. This helps the community understand the value and gives you options to market your contributions.
7. Promote Your Involvement
As you make contributions, promote your involvement through your marketing channels. Share the news of your contributions on your website, social media, and newsletters. Highlight how your company is engaging in open source projects. Set up a resource channel, for example on your company’s website, where you market your open source products.
8. Measure Impact
Assess the impact of your open source contributions on your marketing strategy. Are you achieving your objectives? Are you seeing an increase in developer trust, brand visibility, or talent attraction? Define metrics to track your progress and adjust your strategy as needed.
Getting started with open source contributions can be a gradual process. By following these steps, your company can enter the open source community with purpose. Establish a presence, and begin reaping the benefits of this powerful marketing tool. Remember that successful open source involvement is not only about code but also about participation and engagement with the community.
Summary
Open source involvement offers immediate advantages. Including building credibility, attracting talent, increased brand visibility, nurturing developer trust, and valuable product feedback. These benefits create a compelling case for integrating open source into your marketing strategy.
Furthermore, a long-term perspective reveals how open source investments contribute to sustained success. Open source involvement yields a competitive advantage by setting your brand apart, ensures product sustainability or even viability, and fosters the growth of an ecosystem around your product offering – even reducing your development costs.
Whether you’re about to start or already have a record of open source contributions, and even if you have your own open source products – be sure to adapt your marketing strategy and reap the benefits of open source in full.
Product development is no longer a secluded process confined within the walls of a company’s headquarters. It has evolved into a dynamic and collaborative endeavor, with community feedback playing a pivotal role.
Developer Relations, often abbreviated as DevRel, has emerged as a vital bridge between companies and their user communities. In this post, I’ll explore the significance of DevRel in harnessing the power of community feedback for product development and why it’s an essential practice in today’s product development landscape.
The Rise of Developer Relations
Before delving into the importance of community feedback, let’s understand what Developer Relations is all about. Developer Relations is a set of practices and strategies followed by companies to build and maintain strong relationships with developers and other technical stakeholders in their user community. These stakeholders can include developers, product managers, designers, and even end-users who are passionate about a product or technology.
The role of a Developer Relations team is multifaceted. It involves advocating for the community’s needs within the company, offering technical support and resources, and facilitating communication between the community and the product development teams (for example, our LambdaTest Community). DevRel uses these communities to serve as a bridge between a company’s product development efforts and its user community.
The relationships between DevRel, customers and developers are symbiotic. By developing communities, they promote collaboration, advocate for solutions, and offer assistance and resources to developers. DevRel professionals play a critical role in fostering an effective open feedback environment. In turn, the product is improved by getting detailed feedback from the community.
How Community Feedback Transforms Product Development
In the world of software and technology, products are never truly finished. They evolve continuously, driven by user feedback and changing market dynamics. Gathering and leveraging community feedback is a cornerstone of successful product development, and DevRel is at the forefront of this process. Here are some key reasons why community feedback is invaluable:
1. Leveraging Real-World Use Cases
Community members often use a company’s products in real-world scenarios that may not have been considered during the initial development phase. Their diverse use cases can highlight the strengths and weaknesses of a product, leading to necessary improvements.
For instance, DevRel focuses on ensuring accuracy, relevance, and feasibility, validating and testing the prioritized feedback using various techniques and tools. The objective is to gather direct and unbiased feedback from the developer community, evaluating their responses to your enhancements.
Additionally, cross-reference this feedback with other data sources like analytics, market research, competitor analysis, and industry trends to minimize biases, validate hypotheses, and refine assumptions.
This helps the DevRel team discover users in different industries or roles, cater to their unique needs, and adapt the product accordingly.
2. Quality Assurance
Community feedback serves as an extended quality assurance process. Users uncover bugs, glitches, and security vulnerabilities that might have gone unnoticed during internal and automation testing. By addressing these issues promptly, companies can enhance the overall user experience and maintain the product’s reputation.
3. User-Centered Design
User-centered design is a core principle of successful product development. Community feedback provides insights into what users find intuitive, what frustrates them, and what features would make their lives easier. This information informs the product design process and helps create more user-friendly interfaces.
4. Prioritizing Features
Companies often have limited resources and must make strategic decisions about which features to develop or improve. Community feedback helps identify the most critical pain points and desired enhancements, guiding product development teams in making informed decisions about feature prioritization.
5. Building Trust and Loyalty
When users see that a company values their opinions and actively incorporates their feedback, it fosters trust and loyalty. This trust can translate into long-term customer relationships, referrals, and a positive brand image.
The Role of DevRel in Gathering Community Feedback
Now that we understand the importance of community feedback let’s explore how Developer Relations teams play a central role in this process:
Creating Channels for Communication
DevRel teams create and maintain various channels for communication between the company and the community. These can include forums, social media platforms, chat groups, developer conferences, and more. These channels provide a space for users to voice their opinions, report issues, and share ideas.
Actively Listening to the Community
Listening is a fundamental aspect of DevRel. Members of the DevRel team actively monitor these communication channels, paying close attention to the concerns, suggestions, and questions raised by the community. This listening phase is crucial for understanding the community’s needs and sentiments.
In addition to passive listening, DevRel teams also engage in proactive efforts to gather feedback. They may host feedback sessions, conduct surveys, and organize focus groups to dive deeper into specific issues or opportunities for improvement.
Advocating for the Community
Once valuable feedback is identified, DevRel professionals advocate for the community within the company. They work with product managers, engineers, and other stakeholders to ensure that community feedback is considered in the product development roadmap.
Providing Resources and Support
DevRel teams often provide technical resources, documentation, and support to help community members get the most out of a product. By offering these resources, they empower users to provide more informed feedback and troubleshoot issues effectively.
DevRel teams play a crucial role in establishing transparency between the company and the community. They ensure that users are informed about product updates, bug fixes, and the status of their feedback. Maintaining open feedback loops fosters trust and demonstrates that the company values the input of its users.
Success Stories: How DevRel Transformed Products
To illustrate the impact of Developer Relations on product development, let’s look at a couple of examples:
Google Android
Google’s Android platform has a robust Developer Relations team that actively engages with the developer community. One notable example is how they addressed fragmentation issues in the Android ecosystem. By actively listening to developers’ concerns and advocating for standardized practices, Google was able to streamline the development process and improve the overall quality of Android apps.
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla’s Developer Relations team has played a crucial role in the evolution of the Firefox browser. They actively collect feedback from the Mozilla community, and this feedback has led to numerous improvements, including enhanced privacy features, developer tools, and performance optimizations. By acting on community feedback, Mozilla has kept Firefox competitive in the browser market.
Challenges and Best Practices for DevRel
While Developer Relations is instrumental in harnessing the power of community feedback, it’s not without its challenges. Here are some common challenges and best practices for addressing them:
Balancing Stakeholder Interests
DevRel teams must balance the interests of the community with those of the company. It’s important to prioritize feedback that aligns with the company’s product strategy while also acknowledging and addressing the needs of the community.
Handling Negative Feedback
Negative feedback can be challenging to manage, but it’s a valuable source of insights. DevRel teams should respond to negative feedback professionally, acknowledge the issues, and communicate plans for improvement.
It’s crucial to measure the impact of DevRel efforts. This can include tracking the resolution of reported issues, the adoption of new features suggested by the community, and changes in user satisfaction metrics.
Conclusion
Developer Relations is a critical practice for harnessing the power of community feedback in product development. By actively engaging with the community, listening to their feedback, and advocating for their needs within the company, DevRel teams facilitate a collaborative approach to product improvement. This not only results in better products but also fosters trust, loyalty, and long-term customer relationships. Companies that embrace DevRel as an integral part of their strategy are better equipped to stay competitive and meet the evolving needs of their user communities.
Publishing Frequency Matters: Companies publishing more frequently see proportionally higher traffic, with top performers publishing multiple posts weekly for years
Timeline Reality: Results compound over time—expect several months before seeing meaningful traffic growth with consistent high-quality output
When to Scale: Consider your goals and timeline, product and customer buying cycle, and budget and team capacity before increasing volume
Content Never Runs Out: Expand from product keywords to adjacent problems, customer stories, opinion pieces, multiple formats, syndication, and constant refreshes
Investment Required: Technical content costs significantly more than standard marketing content and requires consistent publishing for years to create competitive moats
Successful companies maintain publishing schedules for multiple years before reaching exponential growth phases where content becomes a predictable growth channel.
Because you’re reading this, I’m going to assume that you already know content is a great way to reach software developers. When done well, content helps you build trust, reach new customers, mitigate support requests, and augment your sales process.
But once you see content working, the next question is how much content do you really need to produce? And, if you create more of it, will you necessarily get more traffic or conversions?
This question comes up a lot in our work with developer tools companies, so I thought it would be interesting to quantify this. I spoke to several clients and colleagues in the industry to understand the kinds of results they’ve seen and the correlation between consistently publishing high-quality technical content and traffic growth.
*Not officially confirmed. Estimates based on previously published data, Ahrefs, and/or SimilarWeb.
This chart is not meant to suggest that publishing frequency is the only factor in generating traffic. All of these brands have been consistently publishing a high volume of content for at least two years, and Twilio and DigitalOcean have been at it for over five years.
Raw traffic numbers are also not the only business goal here. A blog post that attracts 1000 visitors per month, but never leads to a single conversion isn’t nearly as valuable as one that brings in 100 visitors per month with a 25% conversion rate.
Still, I find data like this quite compelling. It’s also interesting to see how companies that have seen success with developer content continue to double down and increase their publishing volume as they grow.
When is Scaling Developer Content the Right Move?
Clearly, publishing more frequently works for some developer tools companies, but is it the right move for every company?
There are basically three things you need to consider to answer this question:
1. Your Goals and Timeline
Typically, developer tools companies start producing content because they want to drive awareness, increase website traffic, and convert more leads into paying customers. These high-level goals are great, but in order to determine how much content you need, you’ll have to get more specific as to how and how quickly your content needs to affect these goals.
For example, if you want your content to help your brand be perceived as a “thought leader” and you have a long timeline, you can probably get away with publishing just one or two pieces of content per month from your executive team.
On the other hand, if you want to rank #1 on Google for highly competitive industry terms and generate 100,000+ pageviews within 12 months, you’ll need to find a way to publish 3-5 new high-quality pieces of content every week. There’s just no way around it.
Nate Matherson, who was the CEO of ContainIQ before it was acquired in 2023, published 225 pieces of content in just 14 months. This took a lot of work to pull off, but the impact on the business was huge. By the end of that period, ContainIQ was receiving over 200,000 visitors every single month.
It’s also important to understand that content efforts compound over time.
Early on, you’ll have to put much more work into it than you see in results, but if you’re consistent and strategic in your approach, you will see exponential results. This creates a huge moat that competitors can’t breach overnight, and it’s the reasons that many companies increase their publishing volume as they see positive results.
It took us about three months to get to 10k visitors per month, about six months to get to 50k visitors per month, and about 12 months to get to 150k visitors per month.
Next, in order to determine how much content you need, you need to consider your product, customer, and buying cycle.
Some businesses only need a few pieces of content to augment a robust sales function. For example, if you’re an early-stage startup selling a high-ticket software product that CIOs at Fortune 100 companies will buy, you don’t need massive inbound interest or a bottoms-up content strategy to start. You probably just need a few pieces of content to help augment your sales efforts.
But if you’re pursuing a bottoms-up strategy that will reach hands-on practitioners or you’re pursuing a product-led growth strategy, you need to produce a lot of content. Ideally, you want this content to rank well in search engines, get spread on social media, and act as a useful resource for your users. This means you’ll need a high-volume content operation because you’re competing with larger, more mature businesses (like those listed above) that already publish multiple pieces of content every week.
3. Your Budget and Team Strengths
Finally, while most marketing teams want to produce more content, there are almost always practical limitations based on your budget and existing team’s strengths. Producing technical content at scale is a lot of work, and it typically costs 2-3x as much to produce as non-technical marketing content.
You also need to consider whether your organization is ready to start increasing its content output. For example, if your CEO demands to approve each piece of content before it goes live, he’ll perpetually bottleneck your output.
What if We Run Out of Things to Create?
Another concern that developer marketing teams sometimes bring up is that there are only so many pieces of content they can write that directly relate to their industry or product.
This fear comes from either a limited understanding of content marketing or your target audience. There is always more valuable content to create, which is why the top developer-first brands’ publishing frequency typically increases as they grow.
First, you can create content designed to capture all the relevant keywords in your niche. Next, you can explore keywords that relate to other problems your target audience will solve around the same time as they adopt your product. For example, if you’re building a software testing tool, you might start by targeting keywords around software testing, unit testing, automated testing, etc. Then, you can move on to cover keywords around continuous integration, agile development, coding best practices, and upgrading legacy software as all these keywords are closely related to software testing.
Next, you can create content that focuses on your product: how it works, why you built it a particular way, how customers are using it, etc. Tutorials, integration guides, and “how to build X” type content is some of the most popular content we produce for clients of Draft.dev.
Then, there’s opinion-driven content. This kind of content can help differentiate you and define your brand voice. Plus, it tends to be more viral when done right.
Next, you can focus on your customers. Produce case studies, get testimonials and present them in interesting ways, highlight industry news, and interview your customers’ subject matter experts. Making your customers look good always makes your brand look good to them.
You can also explore other forms of media. I still think writing provides the most accessibility and value in developer content, but video is closing in. Some developers tend to prefer video over written tutorials, and webinars work really well for certain businesses. Audio is also becoming increasingly appealing as podcasts are very popular among software developers.
You can also invest in more short-form content or in “spinning” your long-form content for social media. Twitter, Linkedin, and even TikTok are popular with certain subsets of the developer community, but you can also seed content in relevant Slack or Discord groups.
Once you’re publishing enough content on your own site, you can also start to explore syndication partnerships. Cross-publishing your content on Dev.to and Medium is a good starting point, but also consider paid collaborations with other industry sites and newsletters.
Finally, your work in producing technical content is literally never done because the landscape around you is changing all the time. Tutorials get out of date as new software is released, best practices change as trends evolve, and new competitors are constantly joining every developer tool market.
We have to refresh content nearly every week, to ensure that past content is still relevant. This is especially true for tutorials, where we have to ensure the latest updates in tech or feature changes are incorporated.
So, if you’re committed to content as a growth channel, you have to be ready to invest in it.
Consistently.
For years.
The results of scaling up your content can be fantastic – it’s one of the most consistent and predictable long-term marketing channels – but it’s not necessarily easy to do.
In two years, our team at @Draftdev has created over 1400 pieces of developer-focused content! 🤯
If you had told me we’d be here a year and a half ago, I would have laughed at you.
It’s amazing what having a great team and strong focus can do.
And of course, if you’re looking for help producing more high-quality technical content aimed at software engineers, data engineers, platform engineers, or similar, I’d love to chat. Book a time to talk to us today.
Start Small: Focus on doing one thing exceptionally well rather than attempting everything
Product-led growth (PLG) has been one of the hottest terms in marketing for several years, and recently it’s become more prominent in the developer marketing space. Coined in 2016 by Blake Bartlett at OpenView Partners, product-led growth describes a growth model where product usage drives customer acquisition, retention, and expansion. Twilio, Stripe, and Shopify are known as developer-first organizations that use a product-led growth strategy, but there’s one thing that really helps set them apart: their content.
At Catchy, a developer marketing agency based in Seattle, our content team has seen a significant uptick in client interest in product-led growth. Over the last six months alone, we’ve had more clients come to our door asking for product-led growth support than we have in the rest of our 13-year history. This isn’t surprising, considering the 2022 Product Led Growth Benchmarks report found that 58% of B2B SaaS companies had a product-led growth strategy last year, and 91% of them planned to increase their level of product-led growth investment.
Product-led growth is here to stay, and developer marketing professionals have been creating content to support it for years, whether they’ve realized it or not. Developers are, at their core, an audience that wants to get hands-on with a product to learn, build, and scale. The key to any successful developer marketing program is a brand’s ability to provide the right content that gets the product into users’ hands as seamlessly as possible.
In the following blog post, we’ll go over the types of content that are the foundation for a best-in-class product-led growth strategy.
What Developers really want
The first step to creating content that supports product-led growth is mapping out each stage of the developer journey. No matter what stage they’re in, the ultimate goal is to provide developers with an easy way to self-serve. If you don’t provide content like this, users have a steeper uphill climb searching out the information they need to prove the value of your product or get answers to issues or bugs they encounter. Spending hours digging up answers on Reddit or Stack Overflow definitely isn’t making a developer’s life easier.
Here’s what you need to know about the goals of product-led growth content in each stage.
Discovery
In the Discovery stage, the goal is to make your product stand out. You need to quickly inform developers what unique value your product will add to their lives and how they can quickly begin to implement it. Developers want to make sure a tool that’s good today will still be good five years from now. Your content should address the key questions they’re using to evaluate your product, such as the quality of the documentation, ability to scale, integration with existing ecosystem of tools, and more.
If you’re starting from scratch, checking the search volume of relevant keywords using the Google Keyword Planner can be helpful. If you type in something like “code review tool,” you can filter by average monthly searches and use the results to guide what you create. For example, “code review checklist” has a high number of searches per month, making it a piece of content your users might want to see.
Evaluation
The goal of content in the evaluation phase is to go deeper into the value of your product – with things like case studies, webinars, explainer videos, and robust documentation. Since folks have different learning styles, you want to offer as many different types of content as possible, from written documentation to video tutorials and webinars to live office hours where users can ask questions and get help.
At Catchy, we use deep audience research and strategic recommendations to drive and inform content creation. If you’re just getting started producing content or you’re launching a new product, the Developer Marketing Flywheel is a structured approach to building an effective developer marketing program.
Retention
Once a user is in your ecosystem, the goal becomes quickly meeting their needs when challenges arise, as well as showing how other customers are getting value from your product. What are users building and why? Where can your users turn for help when they run into a problem or bug? A robust community, help articles, and customer support are all essential.
Your community can also become a source of content ideas. Ask your developer community what types of content and topics would be most useful on their journey.
How to bring content types to life
Here are three pieces of content you need to win with developers.
Documentation and Technical Manuals
Documentation, aka “the docs”, is the platform where technical users build a working mental model of your software product. Detailed feature explanations, technical architecture diagrams, procedure walkthroughs, sandboxes, API specs, and tutorials with code snippets are all part of your documentation. From there, your world is their oyster!
Because it’s so foundational and important, it makes sense to treat your docs like a product that can be updated easily and truly meets your users’ needs. A frustrated or confused developer looking at incorrect or outdated docs is not a happy developer, and they certainly aren’t going to stick around.
The good news is the data is in, and technical users love self-serving technical information. In fact, no matter how good the “live support” offering is, less than 5% usually contact customer support immediately when confronted with a product problem.
There’s a reason RTFM (“read the friggin’ manual!”) is a time-honored and evergreen piece of advice for developers at all levels: The documentation should have all the answers your users need. For this reason, making sure your technical content is platinum standard needs to be a priority. Focus on writing and maintaining great docs that you’ve tested robustly and have confidence in. Devs raving about your docs to other devs is a fantastic vehicle for product-led growth.
Onboarding Guides
Onboarding guides are another cornerstone of your developer content. This may seem obvious, but it’s worth pointing out: 74% of customers say they’ll switch to other solutions if the onboarding process is too complicated.
The entire onboarding process is an opportunity to introduce yourself to your users. On a very basic level, what is your company all about, and who is your product for? And equally important, how can users quickly get up to speed on your product and begin using it to create value and make their lives easier?
An onboarding guide doesn’t have to be a written PDF: for example, Slack has shared several snackabletweets that help users get started deploying apps faster. Think outside the box and consider video tutorials and drip email campaigns that provide a steady stream of tips. You can also mix media formats by embedding video or audio to appeal to a wide range of users.
Case Studies
Your content work doesn’t end once a customer starts using your product. Content still plays a very important role in client retention, from a robust knowledge base to a community where folks can connect and get questions answered. And there’s another type of content that is immensely valuable in both the evaluation and retention phases: case studies.
Sure, you’ve got a nifty new toy, but what are you going to build with it? Giving your users inspiration is a key part of not only selling them on an initial investment, but keeping them around long term. When customers start doing new and exciting things with your product, you need to engage with them. Invite them to share their story in a video (like this great example from Cohere) or a blog, and highlight the success they’re seeing.
Putting real people and, ideally, great statistics out there as the face of your product can be a real flywheel for growth. Maybe other customers in that particular industry see the case study and start exploring, or maybe a developer who already uses your product for something else sees new possibilities. Case studies can significantly contribute to your overall product-led growth strategy by showing the tangible results your product gets out there in the real world.
Conclusion
Content is the bedrock of any quality product-led growth strategy, and creating educational content that contributes something of value to your users can feel overwhelming to those new to it. Creating a community, nailing your technical documentation, and building a solid onboarding guide – all these things can add up, taking a team of a few people countless hours.
Our advice is: focus on the little things that can make a big difference. Maybe that’s writing up amazing “Getting Started” docs, or maybe that’s a drip email campaign that improves your new user retention. Whatever it is, focus on what you can do and do it well. There are few things developers appreciate more than thoughtful, genuinely helpful content.
Have any thoughts or questions about how developer content contributes to a product-led growth strategy? Connect with Kathie and Lucy on LinkedIn.
If you want to hear more from Catchy on differentiating your content, take a listen to the DevMar Debugged Podcast with Cam Agnew, our Creative Director, and Kathie Jurek, our Associate Director of Content.
Product-led growth is a relatively new term. It’s a strategy that puts the product at the center of all organizational initiatives. Companies focus on creating value for the end user in the hope that they become customers and champions of the product and drive growth for the business.
Developers, in particular, are a unique group of end users. They tend to be discerning buyers with significant purchasing power. This makes developer tools companies very well-suited to this strategy.
At Draft.dev, we get looped into a lot of product-led clients that want to target developers more effectively. In this piece, I’ll talk about why product-led growth is the way to go in the future as well as tips for experienced and aspiring PLG companies to scale powerfully.
A Quick Primer On Product-Led Growth
Product-led companies are able to grow without massive investment into their marketing and sales functions. Instead, they invest the bulk of their capital into engineering and design and let the product drive user acquisition, monetization, and retention.
Companies like Zoom, Typeform, and Calendly built a huge base of active users through word-of-mouth and other organic channels, and eventually converted many of them into paying customers. They did this through a laser focus on benefits and user experience delivered before asking for payment.
Calendly, for instance, owes its exponential growth to the fact that it makes meeting scheduling across organizations almost absurdly easy and has very few barriers to entry. What’s more, the product sells itself; every time someone sends a meeting invite via the app, more people get looped into it.
Product-led growth is often associated with viral products released on a freemium or trial basis to entice users. Having said that, it’s much more than a go-to-market tactic. It’s an organizational strategy that affects everything from how you build your product to the way you structure your teams and processes.
Benefits of Product-Led Growth
In the sales- and marketing-led eras, user value was almost seen as the antithesis of company profit. The more value you packed in at a certain price point, the more it cost you as the company and the smaller your bottom line.
Product-led growth completely upends that logic. It removes all barriers to value creation for the user and aims to prove utility as quickly as possible.
While the initial investment into product development is much higher than that for non-PLG companies, the marginal cost to scale to new users is negligible.
Take Slack, the archetypal PLG enterprise. As it stated in its S-1 filing, “From the outset, our go-to-market strategy has centered around offering an exceptional product and level of service to organizations on Slack. We offer a self-service approach, for both free and paid subscriptions to Slack, which capitalizes on strong word-of-mouth adoption and customer love for our brand.”
Today, 65 of the Fortune 100 use Slack and are vocal advocates of its benefits. Through this, Slack has garnered nearly 170,000 paying customers and was valued at an eye-watering $23 billion during its IPO in 2019.
GitHub built on the popularity of open-source git to introduce pull requests, forking, and other must-haves in 2013. In 2020, it went on to make all of its core features free for all, including unlimited collaborators and unlimited private repositories. Advanced features like SAML support and code owners still require a paid plan but even those were priced down. The result? Two years later in 2022, GitHub more than doubled its developer community from 40 million to 83 million. In 2018, it was valued at $7.5 billion with a declared revenue of $200-300 million.
While PLG companies may grow relatively slowly early on, they scale much more quickly than their counterparts once they enter into eight-figure annual revenue territory. If this feels like a gamble, consider this. According to OpenView, there are over 40 large public companies today with a product-centric model, and in their 2018 analysis of SaaS IPOs, they noted that not only do PLG businesses outperform non-PLG ones on all key valuation drivers, they also trade at 48% greater revenue multiples.
A big reason for these valuations is that PLG enterprises are also very capital-efficient with high revenue per employee and low customer acquisition cost (CAC). When the product does most of the selling, you can make huge savings on your traditional growth drivers, including customer service, sales, and marketing.
What’s more, a PLG approach, by design, creates a more user-friendly product that customers are much happier with. This translates to improved customer lifetime value (CLV) and net promoter scores (NPS).
How to a Become Product-Led Company
In truth, every company is pursuing some form of product-led growth these days. It’s almost table stakes in that getting an emphatic buy-in from the end user is key to scaling the company. However, the degree to which the strategy is implemented across the organization differs widely.
Whether you’re an early-stage startup that wants to grow on a product-centric model or an established company that wants to transition to it, there are changes you could make to your organization to facilitate this.
Principles of Product-Led Growth
1. Empathize With the End User
Even if the end user isn’t the buyer, they’re your primary audience. For your product to succeed, it has to put their needs first and solve their problem conveniently and sustainably.
This only comes with an intimate understanding of their pain points and detailed feedback. Katie Miller, Director, Developer Marketing at Slack, advises upfront testing to get these insights, “Before general availability, get tools in the hands of folks to see whether or not the tools are actually as easy and impactful as you imagine them to be.”
A lot of companies will do this by designing their early versions as clickable mockups with tools like InVision. This lets you create a low-fi prototype of your application that your users can feel out and comment on.
Once you’ve released an early version, you can also mix in rich feedback from tools like Hotjar, which let you visually track the user journey. You can see where users are clicking, where they’re getting stuck, and how you can improve their experience in your next iterations.
Sometimes, you might want to include features in your beta that are too expensive or time-consuming to build out. As CTO at The Graide Network, a workaround I often used was creating a “stubbed out” feature. Let’s say you want to include an “Export” feature in your app, but you’re not really sure if your users will want it. What you can do is build a button that says “Export”, but instead of exporting the file, they’ll see a message that says something like “Our team has been notified and we’ll export and email you the file within 12 hours.”
Your team can then manually send them the file they need. If over a period of time you see that lots of users are interested in that feature, you can build it out for real.
2. Structure the Company to Reflect Product Focus
You can’t drive product-centricity through departmental silos. You have to align the whole organization to meet this goal.
For pre-seed startups, it means looping in investors who’re willing to bide their time until the user base grows instead of looking for quick returns. For companies that are ready to hire, it means prioritizing product-focused roles over commercial ones. The latter is crucial for a PLG company.
I’ve talked to founders of startups where 60% of the headcount is made up of engineers and product designers and 20% is sales and marketing personnel, as well as startups where the reverse is true. While the former is clearly a product-led company, the latter isn’t.
You’ll also want to put some thought into how you structure your teams. Traditionally, your developers, product managers, marketers, and salespersons would all work in separate teams. And while that was great for the marketing era, you need more cross-functional alignment in the product-led era.
Jimmy Paul, Co-Founder at Crafty, believes teams are most successful when organized into user-focused pods, consisting of dedicated developers, product designers, and PMs. “This allows the full team to truly understand who they’re building for and have empathy for the users they’re building for.”
Structuring like this also helps you build the culture at an early stage and make individual contributors more accountable for the success of the product.
3. Provide Value Before You Charge for It
As a PLG company, product demos and other methods that showcase value aren’t enough to get you customers. People will want to use it for themselves to solve a problem before they buy into it. Transparency is key.
As Miller puts it, “Developers will expect to be shown what’s behind the curtain. If the product isn’t ready, if the value isn’t there, they won’t stick around, so do not position a tool as being more than what it is.”
The next step is figuring out how to capture revenue. You can choose to release your product on a freemium, free trial, or even an open-source basis. The way you monetize it depends on a few things, such as cost to sustain value and urgency to monetize, but most often on time to value (TTV).
How long is it going to take your users to fully realize the value of your product?
Datadog, for instance, is a monitoring platform for cloud-scale applications. It offers a 14-day trial which is enough for a developer team to experience the value it provides.
Zoom, on the other hand, is permanently offered on a freemium basis. It has a very generous free tier which caps meetings at 40 minutes and 100 attendees with paid enterprise plans above that. Such a frictionless entrypoint has helped it grow exponentially from three million daily users in 2013 to over 300 million at the end of 2021 with an annual profit of over $1 billion in 2021.
Once users see that a product is improving their day-to-day life, they’ll start signing up for paid versions of your product and championing it within their community.
Go-to-market Strategies
For PLG companies, go-to-market planning starts at the product development stage. A simplified user journey comes from a clean, intuitive interface. Continuous integration flows come from compatibility with a sizable tech stack.
Ultimately, all your efforts should be directed towards improving user experience and value delivery. As Jay Rodge of Nvidia puts it, “Empathy is what I look toward when building a marketing plan. I try to think how this tool/product can help in developers’ workflow, hours spent on a certain task, or reducing the time for iteration.”
1. Metrics
To understand how well users are connecting with your product, you’ll have to ditch some of the old metrics you’re used to for measuring growth. For instance, a PLG company’s growth rate is irrelevant during its early years when the goal is to onboard more users. Likewise, CAC and CAC Payback don’t tell you much for a PLG business for which the marginal cost of distributing software to a new user is practically nothing.
Instead, focus on metrics that align with your growth model:
Time to Value (TTV): The amount of time it takes for a user to derive value from your product once they’ve signed up.
Natural Rate of Growth (NRG): The percentage of your recurring revenue that comes from organic channels. [NRG = 100 x Annual Growth Rate x ARR from Products(%) x Organic Signups(%)]
Product Qualified Leads (PQLs): Also called activated users, these are essentially people who’ve already experienced value from your product through a free trial or freemium account, but haven’t signed up for a paid version.
2. Flywheel
With PLG, referrals and word-of-mouth are your primary engines for user growth. This has made the traditional marketing funnel obsolete, since the funnel “produces” customers, but doesn’t take into account how the customer helps you grow.
This is where the flywheel comes in.
Hubspot introduced the concept in 2020. A flywheel prompts companies to consider the user journey as a whole and understand its role as a catalyst for new growth. The takeaway here is that improved user experience leads to increased advocacy which, in turn, drives new user acquisition.
3. Content
Even the best products require a learning curve. Rich documentation and learning resources are key to initial user acquisition, and, in many cases, can be the difference between a product that sees rapid adoption and one with stagnating user journeys.
According to Adam DuVander, Founder at EveryDeveloper, the most common getting started mistakes for developer tools PLG companies are:
No single tutorial to get started quickly
A rambling tutorial that tries to do too much
A focused hello world tutorial that is a dead end
This is mirrored in our experience at Draft.dev. Most of our clients typically require fewer top-of-the-funnel pieces and more of content that shows people how easy it is to use a product and be successful with it.
Tutorials like this one that we created for Codecov can explain exactly how a tool works and prove a valuable resource for the developer before and after they decide to try it out.
You can also create content that highlights interesting use cases for your product to spark developer creativity and prompt them to experiment with it.
The best part about content is that it’s versatile and not just a marketing device. As DuVander points out, “Content can also help validate and expand a product team’s problem hunches. You [can] write a series of use cases [and see] which pieces have the most traction—in terms of search traffic, social discussion, or even interest within an existing community. It’s much easier to write content than to build features, so use it to help you identify the areas where monetization can happen.”
Conclusion
Product-led growth is a manifestation of a trend long coming: the rise of the end user. As customer experience and satisfaction become ever more central to businesses, more and more of them will pivot to a PLG model.
If your company needs help scaling the user base for a developer tool, consider our technical writing services. Our writers are all developers and subject-matter experts who have deep experience crafting content that speaks to your audience authoritatively and persuasively.
TL;DR: Build a successful lean developer education program by focusing on high-impact activities:
Create community-focused content that teaches industry skills, not just product features, to build credibility and attract developers through search
Start small with one course that minimizes initial user friction and helps developers get up and running quickly
Prioritize bottom-funnel content that demonstrates specific product benefits through practical, real-world scenarios
Use data to expand strategically by tracking engagement, identifying stuck points, and connecting education to revenue
This approach follows the 80/20 principle, focusing on the activities that generate the most value for startups with limited resources.
Developers are often hampered by the complexity of the tools they use. If they don’t understand the product they’re meant to be using, it doesn’t really matter how much easier it’s supposed to make their lives.
Developer education programs are invaluable when it comes to empowering developers with knowledge about their tools and ensuring devs are able to use them to their fullest potential.
Developer education is about using education, not marketing, to increase awareness and adoption of a product in a hard-to-reach audience. But what do those programs look like for startups? This was the subject of a recent webinar hosted by Appsembler and Draft.dev entitled “How Startups Build Lean Developer Education Programs”.
In this webinar, Nate Aune, CEO of Appsembler, and Karl Hughes, CEO of Draft.dev looked at the 20 percent of developer education activities that generate 80 percent of the revenue. Read on to discover their top tips for startups that want to create successful developer education programs!
1. Create Content for the Community
It’s tempting to focus your efforts on creating content about your product, but it’s important to look at the bigger picture. Instead, create content that gives back to the developer community and provides value to your users. You’ll build credibility, demonstrate your expertise in the space, and introduce developers to your product at the same time.
A good example of this is Chef, a DevOps automation tools company. You need to know Ruby, Git, and Bash to use Chef’s tools. Chef created courses through its Learn Chef online university that teaches developers these languages, in addition to other fundamental skills necessary to be successful not just with their products, but with many other tools.
Creating educational content about the industry can also generate leads by bringing people to your website. If you’re a startup, people don’t necessarily know who you are, especially if you’re competing against major brand names.
In that situation, help people find you through their searches without needing to know who you are. First, work out what issues your users are facing and what kinds of technology they’re using, then use SEO and keyword research to create content that addresses their needs.
2. Starting Small Is Better Than Not Starting at All
It can be difficult to know where to start when it comes to developer education but don’t overthink it, especially if you’re a startup with limited time and resources. You can begin with one dedicated employee and course, and gradually expand your team and resources to include certifications, hands-on exercises, and courses tailored to different personas.
For example, real-time data platform Redis started with one person and one course and now they have a developer marketing and education team and a variety of courses.
Don’t be afraid to keep content basic at the beginning. Often it can be hard for a developer to just get going with a startup’s product. Prioritize content that makes its initial use as easy as possible; this will minimize user friction and how long it takes them to get up and running.
An example of this is Codecov, a dedicated code coverage solution. Integrations are essential with this tool, so showing developers how to use it alongside a variety of programming languages and frameworks was crucial to helping them settle into the solution quickly. Codecov created a bunch of integration tutorials that developers of all levels could read, making their tool very accessible and enabling the widest possible audience to get value from the product.
3. Begin with Bottom-of-the-Funnel Content
When you’re starting your developer education initiative,
create content that shows the benefits of your product as quickly as possible. The highest return on investment for early-stage startups comes from creating bottom-of-the-funnel content for evaluation, engagement, and purchase. This content helps people go from finding the product to using the product, and demonstrates the specific benefits of your tool.
Instead of only focusing on features, tell a story about how your product fits into the developer’s workflow through practical, real-life scenarios. This will not only help developers discover your product in the first place, but also show them how they can improve their processes by adopting your tool.
The goal is to get them past the initial resistance and to the aha moment where they realize the value of your product.
4. Use Data to Decide How to Expand Your Content
Your developer education program will improve when you put in some effort toward discovery. Collect data to understand your customers better and work out how to improve your content to better meet their needs.
This data should answers critical questions, such as:
How can we make our content better?
Where are people getting stuck?
What features do people most want to learn about?
Who is highly engaged?
When is the right time to reach out?
How does education drive more revenue and reduce cost?
With answers to these questions, you can more easily tie your developer education program to revenue.
Let’s consider Redis again. The company offers six-week long courses and considers anyone who completes this course as an MQL, as it’s an intensive commitment.
StatusHero, a standup tool, used data in a different way to improve their content and decide what to educate users on. They carried out keyword research and found that a lot of their users were having trouble with product management and project workflow within GitLab. They decided to create tutorials that were helpful for users of StatusHero and GitLab, as well as the broader community.
However, if you’re using Google Analytics, you won’t be able to collect important information, as the data is anonymized. With a developer education platform, you can track the metrics that matter through interactive tools and reporting.
This enables you to discover which product features your developers are focused on, which features they’re learning about, and the courses they’re taking.
Need help creating developer education content for your startup? Draft.dev specializes in growth marketing and creating technical tutorials, integration guides, and community-focused content that educates developers while driving product adoption. Our network of 300+ technical writers can help you build a lean developer education program that scales. Schedule a discovery call to learn how we can support your developer education strategy.
Developer experience (DX) is about improving the developers’ overall feelings toward tools or applications when building their own solutions. Good developer experience is reflected by how quickly a developer can build something new.
Developers are happy when they can quickly build a solution, create new features, and improve their customers’ experience. DX has become a key element in gaining traction for your product. Building and shipping an API or tool is not enough—it needs to be able to scale, bring velocity, and gather approval from the developer communities.
The key question is, what does implementing a good developer experience mean?
This guide teaches how to provide developers with what they need. You will learn how to make your internal tools and products more accessible, useful, and approachable through developer-experience best practices.
What Is Developer Experience All About?
The developer experience (DX) design process was inspired by user experience (UX) and aims to improve user, or developer, interaction with technological products. In short, DX is a branch of UX design where the “users” are developers. In practical terms, it’s more of a set of best practices and tools derived from the UX process.
The lessons companies drew from UX is that the web was growing in both features and complexity. As a result, the focus on simple, rich, and user-focused features became a competitive advantage. The same is true whether your service is an API or a product targeting the developer audience. If you make that extra effort and think about the user first, you will gain an advantage over your competitors.
Developer experience is twofold: on one side, you have your internal developer working on creating your product’s subsystems; on the other, you have other developers consuming your product.
You’re unlikely to succeed in one without the other. As a matter of fact, many great products are born as internal tools, such as Angular or Docker. Because of their great value and developer experience, they got adopted quickly once released to the public.
However, no matter which developer we are talking about, providing a good developer experience relies on the same principles: usability, support, and documentation.
Imagining the flow of steps developers take on either side of the equation to accomplish their goals and how to make that flow as smooth as possible is a good place to start. For example, when you’re building a product internally and want other developers who work on other applications and products to reuse what you have built as a company, you need documentation and tutorials that clearly explain how to use this product.
How Can You Build a Great Developer Experience?
As mentioned, DX is about making developers feel good about using a tool or product. In practice, this involves the following:
Improving product usability, so intuition alone helps developers code
Providing support when they need it, so they never get stuck
Writing great documentation, so that developers can learn by themselves
Leveraging UX research to integrate those concerns early in the process
Make the Product Easy to Implement and Integrate
The fundamental principle underlying developer experience is usability. If developers find your API or SDK easy to use when building applications, they will continue using your product and keep building with it.
You should do everything in your power to ensure that someone from a different company or another part of your organization can access and understand how they need to work with your technology without needing someone else on hand or documentation as an intermediary.
Easy implementation can be as simple as providing good autocompletion in a command-line interface and clearly naming your function and arguments in your SDK. But most importantly, you need to embrace established standards and strictly follow them.
Infrastructure as code is the preferred way to configure almost anything. Therefore, you should provide dedicated APIs for provisioning and configuration. You could also supply a Terraform provider when relevant.
Provide webhooks to notify developers about what is happening on your side of the system; this will enable other developers to integrate your product into CI/CD pipelines or monitoring and alerting systems.
Ultimately, you want your product to integrate easily into your developers’ existing ecosystem. This is why standards and integration with common tools are so important.
Provide Different Levels of Support
Communication with your developers is essential. There are three ways to establish a long-lasting connection with a developer and improve their experience.
The first approach involves providing support channels for developers to ask questions and get answers, such as forums, email contacts, and chat support. You can also embrace the open source model and use a public GitHub repository where developers can engage with the community by reporting issues and submitting pull requests to improve your product.
The second solution relies on developer advocates or evangelists. Companies like Google and Datadog have teams of developer advocates who are trained, knowledgeable, and available to support developers. They usually build demos or proofs of concept and talk at conferences to promote awareness of your product. They also engage with the community on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc.).
Finally, developers often look for experts in the field who can answer their questions and point them to resources. This is where professional services come into play. Companies like MongoDB or AWS provide access to experts that will design tailor-made workshops and solve the most complicated technical problems hand to hand.
Create Great Documentation
Supporting developers would be a daunting task without proper documentation, as your team would need to personally answer these questions. So, writing good documentation is where most companies need to start. Developers need to be able to find answers efficiently without requesting your support. So you should focus on producing quality content for developers.
Most companies face some level of issues with documentation, not because they don’t try hard to document everything they are building but because they don’t know what type of content to create or how to organize it.
Daniel Procida’s documentation system approach is particularly effective in building and organizing content. This system states that there are four types of content within documentation that have specific functions for developers: tutorials, how-to guides, technical references, and explanations.
Tutorials are great at getting developers started. They are a key element of the developer experience.
How-to guides teach developers how to solve a particular problem.
Technical references (like OpenAPI documentation) exhaustively describe everything your API or tools can do.
Explanations make the case around your technical decision and aim to persuade a developer that it’s the best solution.
Use Modern UI/UX Standards
Although developer experience is derived from user experience, not all UI/UX standards are relevant for delivering the best developer experience.
UX can be tricky to get right. You’re not the user, so you can’t know what they want. At the same time, you can’t simply ask them and implement whichever feature they request. As UX practitioners well know, users don’t really know what they want either. Getting a clearly articulated answer from a user that leads you to the perfect design is impossible.
That’s where user research comes into play. User research is an iterative loop involving the potential user—in our case, the developer.
First, you need to know what actions your user usually takes to accomplish a given task. Ask as many questions as possible to collect data (when, how often, why, etc.). Look for trends and patterns in user responses. Once you have collected data and identified those elements, design a prototype and try to confirm your finding with the user. If a prototype is successfully implemented, make it a full-fledged feature for your API or developer tool.
This approach provides a good starting point when you’re unsure how to implement a feature and helps you avoid assumptions about what the user wants. In the developer experience world, alpha and beta releases are great solutions to conduct user research. Having developers use these early releases increases the chance that the feature shipped into the stable version will improve the developer experience.
Conclusion
Developer experience (DX) is all about improving how a developer interacts with your product, including usability, support, and documentation. To ensure each of those three interactions has the strongest impact, you need to rely on the user-experience principles, particularly user research. But before that, you can already do many things to improve the developer experience.
In terms of usability, follow established standards to enable you to engage with the product without further help from the documentation or support.
In terms of support, you need to build a strong community through traditional support channels or proven strategies like developer advocacy and professional services.
In terms of documentation, a good structure is as important as the content itself. You need to provide developers with any resources they need to build with or on top of your product.
If you want to create a great developer experience and high-quality technical content that resonates with software developers, Draft.dev, a technical-content agency, can help you with regular content ranging from tutorials, guides, roundups, and persuasion articles written by experts in the field.
TL;DR: Developer content syndication involves republishing technical articles on third-party platforms to increase reach by 300-500% without harming SEO rankings when executed properly. Unlike basic content distribution or cross-posting, it requires strategic timing and canonical URL implementation. With 85% higher engagement rates than single-platform publishing and potential for 4,000+ pageviews per article on platforms like DZone, syndication is a powerful amplification tool.
Key benefits for technical content creators:
Expanded reach: Access to millions of developers across multiple platforms
SEO protection: Canonical URLs preserve original content authority
Community building: Establish expertise within established developer communities
Traffic multiplication: Dev.to averages 1,500-5,000 views, DZone 4,000+ per article
Automation available: Cross Post App streamlines multi-platform publishing
Success requires publishing on your domain first, waiting 2-10 days for Google indexing, then syndicating with proper attribution across platforms like Dev.to (community engagement), Medium (broad reach), DZone (enterprise focus), and Hacker Noon (quality audiences).
One of the most common questions clients ask us about the developer-focused content we write is where they should publish and syndicate each piece of content.
Should the content be published on their blog first? Or published somewhere with more organic reach like Medium or Dev.to? Will publishing on third-party platforms hurt SEO rankings?
These are good questions, so in this piece, I’d like to shed some light on the best practices. I’ll give you a bit more context on why you should consider syndicating your technical content on third-party sites and how to do it so that you get the most long-term value out of each piece. Finally, I’ll share a list of highly trafficked websites that take guest submissions or syndication of developer content.
Why Syndicate Your Content?
Syndication – or the publication of your content on a third-party website – is a common practice in publishing, but I’ve found that many developer advocates and marketing professionals we work with don’t even think about doing it with technical content.
Some don’t realize it’s a viable option. Others don’t know what sites would be appropriate for this type of content. Some are afraid of negative repercussions in search engines.
If done correctly though, syndicating your developer content on the right sites can be a fantastic way to help get more eyes on it. In addition to promoting the piece, syndication allows you to build a reputation in existing communities of developers and can even improve your presence in search engines.
We do it for many of our pieces of content at Draft.dev and we recommend it to all our clients if they have the bandwidth to do it.
How to Syndicate Your Technical Content
The basic steps are straightforward, but like most things, there are some “gotchas” to watch for. In short, you should:
Publish the piece on your own domain or blog first
Wait 2-10 days (the more frequently Google crawls your site, the shorter you need to wait)
Submit it to third party sites with a canonical URL pointing to the original piece
Promote the new piece of content in addition to the original
If the platform you’re using doesn’t support canonical links, you can include a link to the original at the top of the syndicated article. While this isn’t as good as using a canonical link, it might lower the chance that Google ranks the syndicated piece higher than your original. That said, it’s not perfect, so if SEO is a major concern, you might want to skip syndication on platforms without a canonical URL option.
Where to Syndicate Developer Content
Finally, if you’re adopting a content syndication strategy, there are several great sites that allow you to re-publish technical content.
While Medium’s paywall policy is annoying for readers, it is still a great way to drive a larger audience to your content. The developer writing community on Medium is active around all topics and types of writing from tutorials to thought leadership.
Exclusively focused on technical content, Dev.to is a great community and syndication platform for developer content. You’ll find an audience for almost any developer-focused and developer-adjacent topic here.
Hashnode
While very similar to Dev.to, Hashnode is a bit more focused on the individual developer blogger. I don’t tend to get as much traffic from Hashnode as Dev.to and Medium, but it’s free and easy to publish there.
DZone
Focused on DevOps and backend content, DZone is a great place to post or syndicate technical content. Their editors will review each piece, but they tend to be pretty fast. My pieces here tend to average 4,000+ pageviews each within a month of publication.
Hacker Noon
Hacker Noon is another great developer community that allows original and syndicated content. Their review process takes a week or two, but it’s probably a good thing because they tend to keep the quality high.
The New Stack
In addition to syndicating blog posts from your site, you might also want to publish some original content elsewhere. The New Stack is a great place to publish your content as either an occasional contributor or long-term sponsor.
Free Code Camp
Writing for Free Code Camp requires a bit more work, but they’ve got a great distribution network and domain rating. If one or more of your engineers can get in there as writers, it could be a great place to publish some content.
Conclusion
Writing great technical content is an important first step, but distribution is just as important. If you’re not putting your content out onto every channel possible, you’re wasting a lot of effort on content that people just aren’t seeing.
TL;DR: Generating content ideas for developer audiences requires specialized approaches beyond traditional brainstorming since developers are sophisticated, skeptical audiences with specific technical needs. Unlike general content marketing that relies on broad appeal, developer content must demonstrate genuine technical expertise and solve real implementation problems.
The 4 proven strategies for developer content ideation:
Documentation augmentation: Transform internal guides into public content addressing sales FAQs
Community research: Mine developer forums like Stack Overflow for real-world problems and solutions
Worldview sharing: Create thought leadership content based on unique industry perspectives
Technical content is a unique wing of content marketing — one that may not lend itself to the kind of expansive creativity associated with building a content library in a non-technical industry. Traditional team brainstorming doesn’t always cut it when you’re marketing software to experienced developers.
But we work with over 50 companies who all market to software developers, so I’ve been able to find a few strategies that will work, depending on your goals.
I gave a short version of this talk at an exclusive presentation for sponsors of The New Stack, and more recently at DevRelCon. I also wanted to share this knowledge here to help more of our readers come up with effective ideas for videos, blog posts, ebooks, and other technical content.
Check out the video or scroll on to read a summary:
How to Generate Technical Content Ideas That Resonate
If you want to create content that resonates with software developers, your process should begin with intentionally conjuring up relevant — and resonant — topics. There are four major ways to do this:
1. Keyword Research
A typical marketer might suggest starting your topic perusal with keyword research, and I agree this approach can be helpful for developer marketing. However, you won’t find success with just any keyword related to your product or service.
Your keyword strategy will differ depending on your needs. While general, short-tail keywords might be the easiest to target when you’re first starting out, they might not signal “purchase intent” or be very appealing to a senior-level audience.
On the other hand, low-volume bottom of funnel content can be really hard to rank for as most of your competitors are also likely targeting these highly valuable keywords.
So, at first, your goal should be to identify relevant keywords with high volume and low competition. This means there are lots of people searching — but not a ton of companies vying for Google rankings — for those terms.
At Draft.dev, we use the topic cluster method and a tool like Ahrefs to build an initial keyword list for clients who want to increase brand awareness and gather backlinks from other sites, which helps build their domain authority (DA).
Top-of-funnel keywords are a good choice when you’re assigning blogs to external contributors, who can write a general piece and add in a couple of calls-to-action (CTAs) for your tool — instead of having to be well-versed in the specifics of what you offer.
Potential roadblock:
In the software development world, going from the keyword selection stage to fully fleshed-out content is a bit different than in a less specialized industry. Just because you have a list of keywords doesn’t mean you know what to actually write about yet. I suggest running your keyword list by your engineers to determine the intent behind the search terms you discover.
2. Augment Documentation
Some of your users need and appreciate detailed how-to guides. Why not provide them to your general audience and kill two proverbial birds with one stone?
Building out long-form answers to sales FAQs and support ticket issues can be a great way to expand your body of bottom-of-funnel content — also known as sales enablement content.
When a customer is close to closing, but not quite over the finish line, what questions do they ask — or what things can you reassure them of to show that you know what you’re talking about technically?
Answer those questions clearly with detailed tutorials in a compelling visual or written format.
Firsthand guides written by experts and based on your existing documentation make for high-value content.
Benefit of using your documentation as a content idea pool:
When your content marketing directly contributes to sales (as augmented guides and tutorials can), you’ll have an easier time answering to your higher-ups about the ROI of a content strategy.
Potential roadblock:
Some content you create will be so specific to your tool that you might run the risk of alienating a portion of your potential customers.
This content will rarely win visitors who haven’t heard of your product before, so its value is limited when building awareness.
3. Community Research
When you’re the brains behind an operation, it’s possible you’re so close to it that you can’t see any potential issues a customer might have — until they bring it to your attention.
Instead of waiting for your own users to be in need of tech support, you can go find out what they (or people similar to them) are thinking and preempt future problems by creating solution-oriented content. This form of ideation is called community research.
One of the best approaches to this content idea hack is to search for your tool, or a similar one, on Stack Overflow. Even if your software isn’t specifically discussed on the popular platform yet, you should be able to find closely related comments and questions about problems you and your team know how to solve.
This is simultaneously a strategy for building your own idea list and doing some informal competitor research. You might be surprised at the eye-opening knowledge you uncover from listening to the people who think a lot like your ideal customers.
Benefit of looking to the greater community for content ideas:
Stealthy crowdsourcing can help you predict future customers’ hesitancy and get ahead of the game by producing helpful articles, PDF guides, email newsletters, and more.
Potential roadblocks:
Developer forums can get uber-detailed, and it might be tempting to veer off course from your original content strategy. Try to keep your searches related to one topic and don’t feel pressured to answer every problem you find with a major piece of content.
There may be a high number of solid competitor guides or blog posts already out there. You’ll have to decide if it’s worth the time and energy investment or if you can offer a fresh take on a popular topic.
4. Share Your Worldview
Sticking to strictly objective, informative topics could limit your brand’s potential. Some of the most impressive content is the kind where people get real — where CEOs take a side on a contentious issue or big industry players share their secrets.
If you have the bandwidth to create long-form, strongly-researched opinion pieces, you could join the ranks of industry thought leaders.
To decide which ideas to run with, think about the topics you and your colleagues discuss outside the office. What are the big industry subjects you really care about, and what would you say if you weren’t censored?
With a little finesse, you can turn those rants into polished pieces of writing.
Anybody can replicate keyword research, but nobody can replicate your worldview.
While you could be taking a risk by being vulnerable about your company values and/or personal stance, you could also create some brand evangelists with this approach.
Benefit of creating in-depth POV content:
Effective opinion pieces can fill the top of your funnel with a whole new audience.
You’ll probably need to assign this kind of content to a trusted internal contributor (or write it yourself). Technical executive ghostwriters exist, but they are hard to find.
Because they’re based on current industry happenings, this type of piece isn’t usually evergreen — it won’t be relevant for long.
Pro tip: Vary your content format. The next generation of software engineers might be more compelled by video than written content. Survey your customers to find out how they want to consume your content.
Deciding on the Right Blend
When deciding which of these four idea-generating strategies to apply, it’s crucial to consider your company’s larger marketing and sales priorities. The quadrant visual above will help.
If securing new leads is your goal right now, focusing on quality keyword research will lead to more predictable results. If achieving conversions is your main challenge, it may be more useful to try augmenting your documentation. The truth is that most companies need a blend of content types, so feel free to mix and match.
Stay true to your business vision and be cognizant of your goals. But if your idea bank runs dry, it might be time to go beyond the typical concept of technical content and find new sources of inspiration.
Bonus: Tips for Finding Technical Content Contributors
Structure your engineers’ time to bring them into the content creation process. Provide briefs for each article or tutorial assignment and plan for several rounds of editing.
Hire a full-time Developer Relations (DevRel) expert. If you have the resources, this can be a great option to achieve quality and consistency across all of your content.
Solicit contributions from external sources. You can opt for direct outreach (find individual experts yourself) or recruit through a community writer program.
Work with an agency. There’s nothing like having a specialized team that knows your business and your audience.
Check out my full presentation for more tips on developing and motivating your team of writers.
TL;DR: Great technical tutorials go beyond step-by-step instructions to explain:
Why readers complete these specific steps – Context for the task at hand
Why this technology matters – Unique value and applications
Why alternatives fall short – Trade-offs and use case fit
Developers need tutorials written by experienced practitioners who understand real-world problems, not just surface-level how-to content. Effective tutorials answer “Will readers fully understand this tool’s applications?” after reading.
As tech advances, the content we produce about it should also evolve: demo videos, blogs, social posts — and yes, even tutorials.
As straightforward as they may seem, tutorials hold a world of potential for building trust with your audience of developers. But finding people who know how to write a tutorial that consists of more than just a series of steps copied and pasted from somewhere on the internet? Feels impossible.
I was recently invited to chat about technical tutorials on an episode of The Stack Overflow Podcast. I spoke to hosts Ben Popper and Ryan Donovan about what makes tutorial-style content stand out and why it’s risky to hire just any writer to create it.
The Difference Between a Good Tutorial and a Great Tutorial
If you’re trying to speak to software engineers with your content, it has to hit upon what they really care about: why they should take a certain approach. (They often already know a lot of the how.)
Yet, most of the online content you’ll find about software tools comes in the form of dry listicles or step-by-step tutorials that don’t offer valuable context to developers who are often trying to solve complex problems.
Ideally, the person writing your tutorials should understand:
Why the reader is completing these steps — and why now
Why this technology is interesting
Why alternatives aren’t as good for this use case
You can’t address these whys with simple step-by-step directions.
After reading a great tutorial draft, you should be able to answer “yes” to the question: Will the reader have a full understanding of the applications of this tool?
Finding Writers Who Get It
If you want to grow and reach more developers, you need to do a lot of writing — whether it’s for documentation, FAQs, or to establish your brand’s public-facing presence.
Content marketing is just one piece of that picture, but it should be treated as an entirely separate entity if you want your content to truly speak to your audience.
Coming up with technical content ideas is one challenge, and finding writers who can turn those topics into effective pieces is another, even more difficult, one.
Especially if you outsource technical content creation, you may struggle to find someone who can write about the deeper lessons underneath an engineering task — because they probably aren’t entrenched in the field themselves.
Furthermore, you can’t always tell from a pitch whether a writer knows their stuff. You’re taking a risk when you hire a technical writer who has some freelance experience in the industry but doesn’t spend their days writing code.
The proliferation of low-code software tools might reduce the demand for tutorials. But there’s also more opportunity for SaaS businesses to revamp the standard tutorial and include the bigger reasons your customers or clients would be doing a task in the first place.
A simple example: “How to Set Up a Child Theme in WordPress” vs. “Why You Should Set Up a Child Theme in WordPress.” The latter would explain how updates to your website won’t override your future changes, which is important for someone trying to maintain their own site, while the former leaves the reader wondering if they need to do it at all.
With more complex tools and processes, there are also reasons for everything we do as developers. Even if a tool doesn’t require customized code, there are still lots of use cases and different approaches or opinions you could include in a tutorial to make it widely applicable.
Pro Tip: To come up with better angles for a basic tutorial, consult your list of keywords and try to discover the intent behind each search. What would the person really be looking to discover? What kinds of lingering questions might they have after reading a basic tutorial?
The Future of Developer Content Marketing
As you’re likely aware, SaaS businesses are getting a lot of funding right now. That’s great for the industry overall, but it also means there are even more competing software tools out there.
A sharp developer who’s trying to get better at their craft needs to know more than what a simple “How-To” post can cover, so they’ll be looking for a tutorial that was written by someone who successfully connected the task at hand to the reason they’d be doing it.
Listen to the episode to hear more about the need for more in-depth tutorials.
If you’ve ever attended a tech conference — or any industry conference, for that matter — you probably have vivid memories of just one or two talks. The others most likely faded into the background along with the boozy cocktail hours and buzzy panel discussions.
A great conference presentation doesn’t have to be a keynote; it just has to help the audience solve a problem or connect with a story. And that means anyone can deliver one — yes, even you.
While being given the stage is a possibility for all who are savvy enough to apply, the process of being chosen as a speaker — and following through with a successful presentation — is nuanced. There are some things about conference speaking you can only learn from doing it.
While I hope you listen to the whole thing, I also wanted to share some highlights from our conversation here. Enjoy!
Is Conference Speaking Right for You?
The reasons developers choose to vie for speaking opportunities at a tech conference are individual, but they tend to fall into a few common categories.
Many devs discover they need a new skillset upon moving into a management position. Leadership is about understanding the bigger ideas in your industry and being able to convey them clearly to an audience. For learning these lessons, the stage is the perfect classroom.
While most speakers have a day job, there are people in Developer Relations (DevRels) who present at industry events full-time.
Others have an agenda to promote their open-source work or a side hustle.
For me, speaking was about improving my general communication skills and getting regular practice at distilling and organizing information.
Get clear about your “why” before jumping into the speaker application process.
Speaker Selection 101
Resources vary based on the funding and popularity of the conference, so they might feature anywhere from a few to a hundred speakers or more.
A small number of conferences hand-pick speakers, but the majority open a Call for Proposals (CFP) several months before the event is set to take place.
The organizers will share some general topic categories they’re looking to highlight and ask that prospective speakers submit a title, abstract, and any documents that might clarify or support their topic.
Applications could be subjected to a voting system or reviewed by a committee.
What conference organizers look for:
A blend of talk topics. You could be one of many who’ve submitted similar ideas. So you can aim to be unique, but ultimately it’s tough to predict whether your proposed topic will overlap with others.
Speakers with a good professional reputation. It helps to have some speaking experience under your belt, even if it’s at small events like boot camps. If you’re still pretty green, you can bulk up your resume by contributing to open-source projects.
Topic-based qualifications. Many event organizers want to end up with a diverse group of speakers who bring a range of experience to the specific branch of the field they’ll be talking about.
How to improve your chances of getting selected as a speaker:
Take a unique angle on an existing topic. Helping attendees see things differently always makes for a notable talk.
Reach out to previous speakers. Some of the best resources are people who’ve presented at the same event for which you want to be selected. It could also be possible to reach out to the conference organizers, but there’s a slim chance you’ll hear back from these popular industry leaders.
The ultimate deciding factor may be out of your hands. That’s why it’s helpful to apply to multiple conferences that fit well with your expertise.
Finding the Right Tech Conference
It can take some digging to discover events you’ll have a chance of being approved for. A great place to start is on sites like CFP Land, where you’ll find listings for up to 500 tech conferences every year.
Here are some things to look for in narrowing down CFP listings (in priority order):
Relevant topic: This is your first priority because the best match will be a conference that fits well with your interests and skills. A good topic fit will make you more excited about presenting and could up your chances of being selected.
Geographic location: Many conferences help speakers with travel costs, but you’ll want to evaluate the logistics of being able to attend.
Financial viability: Can you afford to take the time off if your application is approved? If the conference doesn’t cover your accommodations, where will you stay?
When you become a bit more experienced, you may also start considering the reputation of the conference.
Aim to Resonate: How To Pick a Topic
The process of honing in on a topic can be a long one, but it’s worth dedicating significant effort to coming up with the one that will impact your audience the most.
Try these approaches to zero in on your perfect topic:
Think about big ideas you’ve worked on over the past few years. The things you do every day at work may not seem thrilling to you, but others could find them fascinating. Note: If you choose to talk about something you’ve done professionally, you may have to clear the speaking engagement with your boss or legal department.
Get your abstract ready. Before you respond to CFPs and start creating slides, see if you can describe what your talk will do. Give it an exciting title. Perhaps create several abstracts and see which one you like best, or run them by a colleague.
Give your talk at a local meetup to gauge response. If you have an opportunity to grab members of your target audience, this is the best way to judge how sound — and engaging — your idea is.
Choose a topic you care about and don’t mind spending hours diving into, because that’s what you’ll be doing when you’re preparing to speak.
When you’re all in, the audience will be able to feel it.
You Were Chosen as a Speaker: What To Do Post-Acceptance
Once you get word that your abstract has been accepted, it’s time to start the real preparations.
Decide on a Format
There are lots of options for how to structure a talk. Format needs to be your first big decision after hearing the good news.
Here are a few common conference talk formats:
The novel solution to a common problem: A lot of us in software encounter the same issues over and over. Conferences are some of the best places to put our heads together and problem-solve. If you’ve successfully overcome something other developers struggle with, your talk could showcase a unique way of approaching a frequent frustration.
The hero’s journey: This is a classic storytelling trajectory. You can put the developer’s spin on this by telling the story of yourself as a happy developer doing your job, then reaching a low point, and finally emerging victorious after tackling a big roadblock.
The tech-heavy deep dive: Somewhat the opposite of the novel solution, this format focuses on a novel problem. You might choose to zoom in on the nitty-gritty of a project.
The live demo: The riskiest of all the formats, a live demo is only appropriate in certain cases. I do not recommend trying a live demo if you’re a first-time speaker.
No matter which format you choose, be sure it aligns with your topic and does what your abstract promised. You don’t want to mis-sell potential audience members who’ve chosen to attend your talk because of what they read in the conference program.
Design Your Slides
The visuals you use can make or break your outcome. If there isn’t much to see, your audience could tune out. If they’re too busy, you risk distracting them from the important stuff you’re saying.
Follow these best practices for designing effective slides:
Use aesthetically pleasing text. Don’t overload your slides with words. The ones you do include should be written in a large, legible font.
Consider reasonable pacing when you decide on a number of slides. A good rule of thumb is to plan to spend roughly one minute on each slide. (Test this out!)
Include accessible elements. Think about how big the screen will be in the presentation room and use a color contrast that’s easy on the eyes.
Don’t forget the pre- and post-talk slides. Create a cover slide for people to look at while they wait and a final slide that prompts people for questions or displays your contact details.
Practice Really Does Make Perfect
Getting your slides in order is just the beginning. You won’t truly feel prepared unless you’ve put it all together — more than once.
Emulate Great Dev Speakers
There are tech conference talks all over YouTube. Watching other speakers with a critical eye will help you catch details you could incorporate into your own presenting style.
Here are two I recommend checking out:
Sandi Metz at Laracon – Watch this Ruby on Rails expert discuss the personal challenges she faced trying to categorize code smells. Note her natural conversational tone and limited use of text.
Nickolas Means at The Lead Dev – See how to turn a complex process into an interesting story. Nickolas reveals the lesson behind the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor incident.
Practice at Local Events
The conference stage shouldn’t be the first place you give your talk.
I’ve found the best way to get ready for a speaking engagement is to practice in front of other developers — ideally people you trust. Host a lunch-and-learn, hit up colleagues, or search for a meetup in your area.
Can’t find any opportunities to practice with a real audience? Book an empty conference room at your office and deliver your presentation from start to finish until you feel comfortable.
Tips for the Day of Your Talk
Memorize your opening line. This is classic advice that a lot of speakers will tell you. If you feel a bit frozen when you first get up on stage, having a prescribed way to begin gets the talk rolling.
Try not to read from your slides. If it works logistically, you could plan to have your presenter notes show up on your screen.
Use the entire stage and pay attention to your body language. If you’re unsure how to do this, rehearse on video and watch how you carry yourself.
Experiment with audience participation or humor — if you’re brave. These are more advanced (i.e., risky) elements that are easier to add in once you’ve been a speaker for a while.
I have no doubt speaking at a tech conference will help you grow. It can even help you create new content for your business. I encourage you to try it out and follow my tips to make it easier than it was for me in the beginning.
Keep in mind that, despite your careful preparation, things might go wrong. But you’ll learn from them and become more and more poised over time.
You’ll find your speaking groove if you stay true to your instincts and don’t try to be someone else on stage.
Bonus tip: To get more of your speaking engagement, you can even turn your conference talks into technical blog posts.
A few years ago, I started speaking at developer-focused conferences regularly. For me, it was a fun way to meet people, find new engineers to recruit, and share helpful information with the community, but along the way, I met my first developer advocates.
As more businesses create tools, APIs, and services aimed at software developers, jobs in Developer Advocacy have become more and more popular and finding candidates has gotten harder and harder. Many of these companies are also investing in comprehensive content strategy services to support their developer relations efforts.
For a role that is increasing in popularity so much, the job description is still somewhat unclear to many people. So what is a Developer Advocate, really? To answer this question, I went straight to the source and spoke with six different Developer Advocates about their jobs. I talked to them about the role, its limitations, and where it fits in modern software businesses.
So What Exactly Is a Developer Advocate?
The role of a Developer Advocate can be tough to pin down.
It involves a wide variety of activities, from traveling the world giving talks to maintaining documentation. Despite the nebulous nature of the job, there is a common core goal to all Developer Advocate jobs: Developer Advocates help software developers be successful with their particular technology.
According to Joel Lord of MongoDB, “a developer advocate is really there to act as the liaison between the developers that are using the product and the product team that is building the solution.” They function as a bridge, teaching users how to get the most out of the software and relaying their feedback to the company.
“The scope of the role has grown over time and varies from company to company,” Richard Moot of Square told me. But the responsibilities generally fall under three categories: community engagement, company promotion, and creating content.
1. Community Engagement
The developer community is a Developer Advocate’s raison d’être, so it’s no surprise that community engagement was mentioned by everyone I talked to.
To build a developer audience, you help people. To build a developer community you help developers help each other.#devrel#community
— Amarachi #ReactAdvanced London🌹 (@amarathelight) October 8, 2021
Communicating with the developer community can be done using a wide variety of tools, including Slack, Discord, forums, Stack Overflow, or in-person meetups. “At the end of the day … focusing on the users and community will ultimately be the best investment of your time,” Samina Kabir of Decentology told me. “This promotes honesty and trust between the users and the company.”
2. Company/Product Promotion
Depending on the company, promotional tasks may fall more under the purview of marketing, but in many cases, promoting the company’s product is a significant part of a Developer Advocate’s job.
A bunch of devrel folks I mentored during the global panera are now at their 1st irl conference (#KubeCon) and it’s very wholesome to see them experience their first in-person event as a developer advocate from afar 🥲❤️ pic.twitter.com/I25nlLvedN
Pre-Covid, this often meant attending and speaking at in-person events.
According to the 2020 State of Developer Relations survey conducted by Hoopy, 23% of DevRel professionals reported traveling outside their city a few times a month for work, and 30% reported traveling outside their city once a month. In the post-pandemic world, this has been supplanted with online events and creating reusable digital content.
3. Content Creation
Finally, creating content is huge in the world of Developer Advocacy. The 2020 State of Developer Relations survey showed that for 61% of DevRel professionals, content development is one of the top two ways they spend their time at work.
This can mean recording videos, writing technical blog posts, working on documentation, or creating example applications. Content is typically geared toward getting developers up and running with the technology as quickly as possible, and answering any questions they have about it along the way.
What About Developer Relations? Developer Marketing?
A few different terms are often thrown around when discussing this area of work. Developer Relations (DevRel), Developer Marketing, and Developer Evangelism.
But are these all just the same thing?
The line can be murky, and can differ depending on the company.
According to Mandi Walls of PagerDuty, Developer Relations is a blanket term that defines the practice that “helps a company focus on the experience of the users of their product.” A variety of roles can fall under the umbrella of DevRel, including Developer Advocates, Developer Evangelists, Technical Writers, and more.
Duties that one company might assign to a Developer Marketer, another might give to a Developer Advocate. The structure of the organization makes a difference in what is expected of the various roles.
The answer to this question is not straightforward. It differs depending on the company, and often comes down to the budget source.
Joel Lord told me that “it is somewhat of…a challenge to place DevRel in an org chart because most developer advocates need to interact with so many different departments.” Since the job touches so many others, it can end up being under Marketing, Product, Engineering, or even its own distinct organization.
Alex Lakatos said that ideally, “the role would sit somewhere under Product or Engineering” in order to act as a bridge between the two.
Depending on who developer advocates report to, their goals may vary widely. For instance, if they report to marketing, they may be more concerned with views and clicks than more nebulous things like the usefulness of a blog post or the quality of the community. This can be problematic, as the goals of marketing and those of developer advocacy should probably be different.
“Marketing has discrete goals,” writes Burke Holland in the DevRel Salon. “Sometimes they are MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) and sometimes they are actual sales quotas. As soon as you assign a product metric to an organization, you remove their ability to form relationships with the consumer.” Fostering trust with a community can be difficult if you are also trying to sell them something.
What is it Like to be a Developer Advocate?
When I asked about the biggest challenge and the best part of being a Developer Advocate, the results were unanimous. The best part of the job was also its biggest challenge: Every day is different, and you have to wear a lot of hats.
“Sometimes, it can be hard to juggle all the responsibilities,” Joel Lord said. “On the other hand, that is also one of the best parts of the job.” Mandi Walls agreed, saying that “the best part is that there’s always something to do, and every day can be different. That can feel overwhelming, too.”
What Makes a Great Developer Advocate?
Like any career path, DevRel isn’t for everyone. Someone could be a brilliant engineer, but a terrible Developer Advocate. So what makes a good Developer Advocate?
It comes down to three things: empathy, a passion for sharing knowledge, and having a technical background.
1. Empathy
In the 2020 State of Developer Relations survey, empathy was listed as the top skill a person needs to be successful in developer relations.
According to Alex Lakatos of the Interledger Foundation, “prior experience as a developer is not really required, as long as you can empathize with developers and their problems.” You need to be able to relate to your users, understand their pain points, and be motivated to help them out.
You work for your employer, but your main goal is to ensure the success of the users and advocate for their best interests.
2. A passion for sharing knowledge
As a Developer Advocate, a huge part of your job involves teaching developers how to use your product. A great Developer Advocate relishes making video tutorials, writing blog posts about new features, or answering questions on Stack Overflow. They have to put themselves out there and share what they know.
That doesn’t mean they’re all extroverts, but when it comes to code, Developer Advocates must be able to connect with others. Adam Gordon Bell of Earthly Technologies noted that he isn’t particularly outgoing, but after starting a developer podcast, he “found the process of communicating about software development to be lots of fun.”
3. Some technical background
It may be obvious, but to do well in DevRel, you need to have some sort of technical background.
This of course simplifies some parts of your job (like building example apps) but it also makes it easier to empathize with your users.
According to Mandi Walls, it may be hard to jump straight into DevRel at the beginning of your career, but “mid-career folks who have a bit of experience with workflows and tools … can better relate to other users.”
You don’t have to be the world’s best software engineer, but you should have the ability to convey technical knowledge effectively. Joel Lord put it like this: “One of the key skills to have is the ability to distill a complex concept into simpler terms.”
Not all engineers would make good Developer Advocates, but all Developer Advocates should have some degree of engineering ability.
Tips for Job Seekers
Does this sound like a dream gig to you? If so, you may be wondering how you can get in on this trend. I’ve met dozens of Developer Advocates over the past couple of years, and I’ve noticed that the best way to prepare for this career is to build things, create content, and be active in a developer community.
Build things
Since great Developer Advocates are also engineers, you should prove that you can learn and teach new technologies. Richard Moot suggested that anyone interested in this field get involved in some open source projects, which is a great strategy as it also gets you involved in a community (more on that in a bit).
Similarly, in Alex Lakatos’s blog, he suggests that aspiring Developer Advocates build things. “What things?” he asks. “It doesn’t really matter. The goal is to pick up something new, experiment with it for a few days, and then tell other people what you did.”
Create content
Since such a huge part of a Developer Advocate’s job involves writing, one of the best ways to get relevant experience is to write about coding. Alex Lakatos told me “Most engineering organizations have to beg their developers to write for the company blog. Be that perpetual volunteer!”
This was a sentiment that was expressed by several people I spoke with. Mandi Walls admitted that this approach can be time-consuming, especially if it’s something you are doing in addition to your day job. She suggested that job seekers create “short pieces on a blog aggregator like Medium or Dev.to” if they’re strapped for time.
By the way, even if you don’t plan on becoming a Developer Advocate, writing about technical topics is generally a good career move for developers. It can reinforce learning, help you find clients and jobs, and provide a helpful record of your accomplishments.
If writing isn’t your forte, create some other type of content. Make videos about coding, code live on Twitch, or try speaking at a meet up or other event.
“A developer advocate can do about five different things depending on the day and role,” said Alex Lakatos. “Pick the skills you feel comfortable with and try to practice them.” Nobody is going to be stellar at writing, speaking, community building, event organizing, and building demos, but if you can hone your skills in two or three of those categories, you’ll be in good shape.
Be part of a community
A big part of Developer Advocacy involves community building. If you want to be a Developer Advocate, it is a good idea to get involved in a community that you care about. You can do this by contributing to open source, answering people’s questions on Stack Overflow, or creating educational content.
As Samina Kabir put it, you should seek to “show [your] ability to selflessly network or support others.” If you are active in a particular technology’s community, it can be a gateway to a career opportunity. It is definitely not unheard of to convert participation in an online community into a job offer. To find job opportunities in Developer Advocacy, DevRel Careers is a great source for keeping up to date with the latest open positions.
For Hiring Managers
Not every company needs a Developer Advocate, but if yours does, there are some important things to consider before jumping in. If you are a manager considering hiring a Developer Advocate or DevRel team, how do you make that decision, what sort of person do you choose for the role, and how do you measure their success once they’re on board?
Why Hire a Developer Advocate?
According to Adam Gordon Bell, “If your company’s target market is developers, you need a Developer Advocate.” Having that link between the company and outside developers can make a huge difference in adoption of and satisfaction with your product. With a Developer Advocate, you can expect benefits like an increase in sign-ups, valuable feedback from the community, building brand awareness, and cultivating a robust community.
When should you hire a Developer Advocate?
Everyone I spoke with agreed that if your company caters primarily to software developers, you should hire a Developer Advocate as early as possible. As Samina Kabir put it, “having a good developer advocate as early as possible really shapes the future of your product or service.”
According to Richard Moot, some companies “skate by for a while by having some passionate engineers who are doing ‘DevRel’ without knowing it.” It may be tempting to do this to save money, but it is better, in the long run, to start hiring your DevRel team ASAP.
DevRel “should not be regarded as a sprint, but rather as an endurance run,” and having Developer Advocates on board early can be essential in setting up your long game.
What to Look For in a New Hire
When looking for a new Developer Advocate, “companies should be looking for people who are spending their time uplifting communities or other developers,” said Samina Kabir. For companies with an established product, they should look to their product’s power users for potential Developer Advocates. These power users are ideal hires as they already know the product, the company, and the community well.
As far as other skills go, you probably won’t find one person that’s good at everything that DevRel entails. That’s why it is generally better to have a team rather than just a single Developer Advocate. “It’s good to have a variety of folks on a DevRel team,” Mandi Walls suggested. “Folks who can code, folks who can give talks, folks who write well.” This will ensure that you can communicate effectively with as wide a user base as possible.
How to Measure Success
Every role in a company needs objective, measurable metrics, and the role of Developer Advocate is no exception. But Developer Advocacy is so focused on community building, its success can’t be measured the same way you might measure the success of marketing campaigns. So how do you figure out how well your Developer Advocate is doing their job?
Having a great DevRel team may have the effect of increasing revenue, but that shouldn’t be how you judge its success. Mary Thengvall says that DevRel teams’ success should never be measured by sales, as it “changes what should be a genuine relationship into one that revolves around money, which isn’t sustainable.”
On the other hand, DevRel’s goals need to align with company goals, or else its value to the organization is questionable. According to Thengvall, “any of the tasks that DevRel should be doing need to be directly tracked back to the corporate goals.”
In Thengvall’s opinion, Developer Advocates’ success should be measured by “DevRel qualified leads,” which allow Developer Advocates to form meaningful relationships with community members, then connect them to other departments when appropriate. For example, they might identify somebody that would make a great addition to the team, so they refer them to recruiting.
However you choose to measure success, it’s important to remember that numbers will never tell the full story. As Steve Pousty of VMWare says in the video below, “not everything of value can be measured.” In DevRel, there are a lot of valuable things that can’t be easily measured, like how much developers trust you or how your community makes them feel. Delivering that hard-to-quantify value to developers while simultaneously demonstrating measurable value to the company is a balancing act that DevRel teams must perform daily.
Conclusion
It’s an exciting time in tech. New companies are being started, new technologies and tools developed, and entirely new conceptual frameworks (like web3) are gaining in popularity. More and more companies are looking to hire Developer Advocates, so if you’re interested in becoming one (or hiring one,) the time to get started is now.
Whether you’re an aspiring Developer Advocate, a current one, or just interested in the topic, I would love to hear your thoughts! Find me on Twitter to continue this conversation.
TL;DR: Technical marketing focuses on communicating technical specifications, features, and implementation details to knowledgeable audiences like software developers, engineers, and technical decision-makers. Unlike traditional B2B marketing that emphasizes high-level benefits, technical marketing addresses specific functionality, limitations, and technical requirements.
Key components of effective technical marketing:
Documentation and specs: Detailed technical information for evaluation and implementation
Tutorials and guides: Step-by-step implementation examples with real-world context
Sales collateral: Technical comparison sheets, white papers, and specification documents
Visual communication: Architecture diagrams, workflows, and technical illustrations
Expert content: Webinars, training sessions, and thought leadership for technical audiences
Success requires combining deep technical knowledge with marketing expertise, understanding technical buyer behavior, and creating content that speaks authentically to subject matter experts across the entire marketing funnel.
One of the challenges many business-to-business marketers face is selling a complex product to a knowledgeable audience. For example, companies like Okta, SendGrid, and AWS must convince software developers—often a skeptical audience—that their tools are up to the job. This means that even non-technical marketing and salespeople at these companies might be asked in-depth technical questions or encounter complex jargon from time-to-time. This is where technical marketing comes in.
Technical marketing is the portion of your marketing efforts detailing the technical specifications of your product or service. Unlike typical business-to-business marketing, technical marketing often focuses on individual features rather than the high-level advantages of your product.
For example, in the context of developer tools companies like the ones I mentioned above, technical marketing might mean defining the API endpoints and interface options available to engineers. It might mean talking about storage capacity and service limitations.
The table above shows the limits developers face when implementing DynamoDB’s Global Tables. While most customers might not care about this level of granular detail, it could be important in specific use cases, so by providing it on their website, sales and marketing people can reference this technical marketing material when asked.
Of course, technical marketing isn’t just about limitations; it’s also about selling features.
By highlighting SendGrid’s ease of use, they break down objections that developers might have about the product and inspire them to start building something sooner rather than later.
These are just two examples of technical marketing in action, and we’ll look at more later. First, let’s talk about where technical marketing fits into your overall content strategy.
The Role of Technical Marketing in Your Content Strategy
While most commonly seen at the bottom of the marketing funnel in the form of documentation and specification sheets, technical marketing can play an important role in every part of your content strategy.
For companies taking a bottom-up approach that appeals to technical experts, technical marketing can define their customers’ problems and showcase the company’s technical expertise. This commonly takes the form of white papers, blog posts, conference talks, or webinars.
Technical marketing at the middle of the funnel often includes “build vs. buy” guides, comparisons, and roundups of various providers in the space. Buyers who are considering their options will appreciate objective pros and cons for choosing your company. The comparison section on Amazon.com is a good example of comparison-based technical marketing:
Finally, as buyers move into the evaluation process, they’ll want to know how they can implement your product. This means engineers and operators will need to see documentation, spec sheets, and technical limitations to make sure they use the product properly.
Savvy buyers—and even users of free products—use documentation as a gauge for company seriousness and dependability…At one time or another, you’ve probably assumed that documentation contains highly technical language. That may be the case, but not exclusively. Documentation should be granular, but also social and searchable. The best documentation contains both generalist and specialist material, designed to engage each intended audience. – Mike Puterbaugh, VP of marketing at MindTouch
While not every company uses technical marketing across the funnel, it’s becoming more common as developer-first business models become more popular. According to Tyler Jewell’s Developer-Led Landscape, developer-focused products account for $40B in annual revenues or 7% of global software spend.
Technical Marketing vs. Product Marketing
If you’re a savvy marketer, you’re probably wondering what the difference between technical marketing and product marketing is. The line is blurry, but I think of technical marketing as a specific form of product marketing.
Product marketing encompasses all the marketing activities required to take a product to market. This includes high-level marketing like thought leadership content, positioning, and copywriting that might not necessarily be technical in nature. Technical marketing is the subset of product marketing activities aimed at technical experts (engineers, mechanics, doctors, etc.).
Examples of Technical Marketing
Technical marketing can take many forms, but it’s often content-heavy. Because subject matter experts will be viewing and scrutinizing it, most technical marketing material must also be created by subject matter experts who can speak with authority. But, before I get into skills and tips for technical marketing, let’s look at some examples.
Sales Collateral
Many b2b sales cycles involve multiple stakeholders. For example, if you’re going to implement a new AWS cost monitoring tool like CloudForecast, you might need representatives from Finance, Engineering, and DevOps to sign off on the tool. Each of these stakeholders will require their own set of sales collateral.
Technical marketing material that can be used in a sales process like this includes white papers, specification sheets, product catalogs, and competitor comparisons. A salesperson may only be able to get on the phone with representatives in one or two departments and may have to let the technical marketing material speak to the others.
Documentation
Well-indexed, example-filled, hyperlink-saturated documentation is evidence that my team won’t have to struggle to use your tool. If you show docs only to paying customers, you’re effectively saying ‘trust me, it’s really easy to work with. – Matt Hackett, Former VP Engineering at Tumblr
Even before implementation time, technical documentation is an important part of your marketing material. More companies are making their documentation available for free as a way to show customers how easy it is to use their tools, and in markets like software developer tools, engineers expect to see documentation for new tools before they commit to them.
Tutorials
Technical tutorials that show customers how to use your products and the benefits they can get from them are really powerful. Whether created in written or video formats, tutorials go a step further than documentation by showing specific use cases and the reasoning behind each step in the process. As I said earlier this year on the Stack Overflow podcast:
A good software tutorial explains the How. A great one explains the Why.
Webinars and Training Sessions
Another form of technical marketing that can help during the final evaluation and implementation phases of your funnel are webinars and training sessions. Whether done virtually or in-person, giving prospects the chance to ask questions live and talk to experts on your team is a great way to build trust and overcome objections by understanding each buyer’s unique situation.
Bitmovin does a great job of this, releasing dozens of webinars and courses each year. They then take these videos and turn them into blog posts, social collateral, and sales resources to increase the value of each piece of content. It takes a lot of work, but it’s allowed Bitmovin to capture market share resulting in a $25 million Series C round earlier this year.
Diagrams and Visuals
A picture truly does say 1000 words, especially when it comes to technical content. Telling software engineers about your service’s architecture might be tough to do in a single blog post, but showing them a diagram might tell the story in half a page. Architecture diagrams, workflows, and animated gifs can all show customers how your product works rather than counting on them to imagine it correctly.
Building Technical Marketing Skills
Technical marketing is a tough field to come into from a marketing background. Many technical marketers start as subject matter experts and then transition into marketing where their technical skills make them a unique part of their team. This was my experience as I transitioned from software engineering to content marketing.
That said, I’ve met plenty of technical marketers who don’t have a technical background. They’ve developed skills to help them bridge the gap between marketing and the tech-savvy buyers of their products. Here are a few things you can do to build technical marketing skills, no matter your background or education:
Embed Yourself With Engineers and Subject Matter Experts
You want to get a great shot of the elusive white tiger. Where do you go?
How about where the tigers hang out? Where is their watering hole? Odds are pretty good that if you hang out where the tigers hang out — you’ll get that shot. – McLellan Marketing Group
In order to understand a technical audience, you have to enter their world. Set up meetings—both formal and informal—with your customers and internal engineering teams. Get to know them; learn how they think; learn what’s easy and hard for them to do; learn about what bugs them.
As you learn about the subject matter experts who use your technical marketing content, you’ll naturally get better at appealing to them. Yes, this takes time, but it will make you much more valuable in the field of marketing. According to ZipRecruiter, Technical Marketing Managers typically make over 65% more than Marketing Managers in the United States.
Learn to Meet Your Audience Where They’re At
Not all technical marketing is aimed at advanced users. For example, some companies write tutorials and implementation guides as if everyone using their product is a senior engineer with years of experience behind them. This isolates a huge part of their user base who might be new to the field, and it inevitably leads to frustrated users and support requests.
On the other hand, you can’t leave your advanced users out of your technical marketing either. I’ve seen companies only show the most trivial use cases in their documentation, leaving users with special requirements or needing to access more advanced features frustrated and contacting support.
It’s a tricky balance, but this is one of the skills you’ll need in technical marketing.
Get Good at Using Your Own Product
Good technical marketers talk to subject matter experts. Great technical marketers are subject matter experts.
For example, I could probably talk to a few programmers and learn enough about using code tools to generate music to write about the topic. But, it would take me years to do what Juan Romero & Patrick Borgeat do in this live-coded concert for TEDx:
Becoming a subject matter expert might take years, but the better you get at using and demonstrating your own product, the better you’ll be as a technical marketer.
Hiring a Technical Marketer
Finally, if you’re looking for someone to join your team as a technical marketer, you might be in for a difficult journey.
[Technical marketers] are rare, very rare. Someone who can blend creativity, psychology and branding with code, statistics and math. They are the new Don Drapers of the advertising world, and there aren’t enough of them to go around. – Steve Olenski, Communications Director at Oracle
Still, there are a few tips I can offer. First, you need to be very clear with the expectations. What do you need them to do? What skills must they have to do this? Will they have access to your internal resources or will they need to bring the skills with them?
Second, consider moving someone already familiar with your product (maybe a customer, early adopter, or engineer) into a technical marketing role. It’s typically easier to teach an engineer marketing skills than to teach a marketer engineering skills.
And last but not least, consider hiring an outside technical marketing agency or consultant. Many of the clients we serve at Draft.dev use our subject matter experts to augment their in-house marketing efforts for blog posts, whitepapers, ebooks, and tutorials. While we’re not the right fit for everyone, I’m also happy to make referrals or introductions to others, so book a call with me if you’d like to learn more.
TL;DR:Target keywords with 100+ monthly searches and difficulty scores under 20. Focus on high-growth areas like Kubernetes (5+ terms with 1,000+ searches), Python (the most-searched programming language), GraphQL (emerging API standard), Go and TypeScript (most-wanted languages), and open source software. Success requires technical expertise and content written by developers for developers.
We recently started supporting our clients at Draft.dev with keyword research which, given our unique position, has generated some exciting opportunities. We work with an array of clients, targeting different kinds of customers, in a hyper-defined niche: software development.
Developer marketing is unique. It moves fast, and new terms are being popularized constantly. These factors, plus our position as a content marketing agency in the space, have allowed us to rank well in Google searches—fast.
In this piece, you’ll get an overview of these opportunities. I’ll offer a tiny bit of free keyword research, but competitors in our space are moving quickly. Much of this information will be outdated in 3-6 months, so it’s critical to reassess your keyword research regularly.
Finding Good Keywords in Developer Marketing
Although the specific long-tail keyword data I use in this article will become outdated soon, the underlying strategy is evergreen. I recently broke this process down into five steps, but it all starts with finding the right keywords.
1. Find a good keyword 🔑
It’s a little bit art and a little bit science. 🧪
I typically target keywords with >100 monthly searches and <20 difficulty in @ahrefs.
I use ahrefs to find estimated search volume and ranking difficulty. While these metrics aren’t perfect, they’ll give you a pretty good sense of how easily you can rank for a search term in developer marketing.
The hard part about finding good keywords in developer marketing is finding terms popular enough to have significant search volume, while being new enough to escape saturation.
Let’s look at six topic areas that meet this criteria. Using these terms as a starting point will help you write better technical content aimed at developers, while also helping you rank better in search engines.
1. Kubernetes
Linux containers are not new, but Kubernetes is suddenly dominating the container and DevOps space. You’d think most of the tooling you need would’ve been built already—especially with a big corporate backer like Google. But lots of startups are creating tools for Kubernetes right now.
Given its fast, widespread adoption, it’s no surprise to see an influx of developers learning about Kubernetes. And to learn about anything, you need good content. Ahrefs currently shows five terms containing the word “Kubernetes”, with more than 1,000 monthly searches and a difficulty of 30 or less.
But it’s not all about top keywords. There are thousands of long-tail keywords we’ve investigated for various clients in order to come up with worthwhile content topics, such as performance testing, virtualization, and scalability.
The key to writing good Kubernetes content is technical expertise. If you search for related terms, you’ll find lots of cookie-cutter, jargon-filled fluff pieces. This kind of content doesn’t really fly in developer marketing; to compete you’ll need content written by experts—for experts.
2. Python
Python recently became the most searched for language in Google. So as you can imagine, there’s tons of demand for good content to capture developers’ attention.
Useful search terms for companies to reach Python developers include:
python square root, 9,400+ monthly searches
python random number, 7,300+ monthly searches
python read csv, 5,400+ monthly searches
python command line arguments, 5,000+ monthly searches
In a real keyword research project, you’d filter terms by your target audience and product use case. But with thousands of keywords having a difficulty score less than 30, you’re sure to find a few good options.
3. GraphQL
I consider GraphQL to be the most exciting thing to happen to APIs…I’d go so far as to say that GraphQL is the new REST. – Nate Murray, Founder at newline
GraphQL is hot right now. This popularity comes in spite of its age, given some very mature projects use it as a query language and API interface. Search volume for GraphQL isn’t as high as other topics on this list. But using it alongside other popular frameworks and programming languages presents a very interesting opportunity.
GraphQL is a “glue” technology (it’s typically used in conjunction with other developer tools), so the tutorials and content you can write on it are limitless. The only question is whether GraphQL’s popularity will fade away, or eclipse REST as the go-to API query language.
4. Go
Go has been around for over a decade now, with a small yet loyal following. While only used by around 9% of programmers, Stack Overflow ranked Go as the third “most wanted” language. It’s no surprise that our list of Best Go Blogs is one of our most popular Draft.dev blog posts.
The demand for Go has driven lots of developers to learn it, with many looking for jobs that use the langage. While Python or JavaScript are more popular in production workloads, increased curiosity around Go has led to a lot of search traffic considering its market share. Fundamental search terms like “golang ternary,” “golang for loop,” and “golang substring” indicate a strong market for learning the basics of Go.
There are plenty of opportunities for purchase-intent search terms as well. “Golang ide,” “golang mongodb,” and “golang authentication” might all be worth pursuing for the right companies.
5. TypeScript
I was hesitant to move to a new frontend language, but when my team adopted Angular, I was pleasantly surprised. I’m not alone either; TypeScript is the second most-loved programming language according to Stack Overflow.
Similar to Go, TypeScript’s popularity has triggered a surge in search traffic around fundamental search terms. There’s also been significant search volume around the differences between TypeScript and JavaScript, which is more widely used.
Writing TypeScript content is great because you can take almost any interesting idea in JavaScript and swap out TypeScript to come up with ideas. The differences between the two languages are important from a technical perspective, but they solve most of the same high-level problems.
6. Open Source
It was just five years ago that there was an ample dose of skepticism from investors about the viability of open source as a business model. The common thesis was that Red Hat was a snowflake and that no other open-source company would be significant in the software universe. Fast-forward to today and we’ve witnessed the growing excitement in the space. – Mike Volpi, General Partner at Index Ventures
Open source software continues to interest developers and non-developers alike. As Mike Volpi points out above, open source companies are leaning into this part of their business as a strength, rather than a hurdle.
When you look at the search data around “open source,” you’ll see a list of business ideas that could all prove successful with content marketing:
open source search engine, 500+ monthly searches
open source video converter, 450+ monthly searches
open source 3d printer plans, 250+ monthly searches
open source dashboards, 250+ monthly searches
open source workflow engines, 250+ monthly searches
If your product has an open source core—or at least a component—it makes sense to use this to your advantage in developer marketing.
Conclusion
Generally speaking, there are lots of good opportunities for search engine optimization in developer marketing. Many companies in the space have historically underinvested in content, but we’re now seeing clients generating hundreds of leads with just a few thousand dollars spent.
If you’re interested in learning more, sign up for a call. I’d love to walk you through our process and help you reach more software developers through search engine optimization.
TL;DR: Developer marketing requires authenticity and technical depth. Most effective strategies:
Technical content marketing – Tutorials, guides, and documentation that solve real problems
Community-driven programs – User groups, forums, and advocate programs that scale through customers
Event participation – Speaking at conferences and sponsoring meetups for direct developer engagement
Developers have growing purchasing power and value genuine help over sales pitches. Successful campaigns educate first, build trust through technical accuracy, and leverage word-of-mouth in developer communities.
Developers have a reputation of being averse to marketing, but that’s not necessarily true. Developers—like most savvy buyers—are averse to pushy, inept marketing, but with hundreds of thousands of software developers out there, it’s naive to speak about them in broad strokes on any topic.
The truth is that developers are gaining more purchasing power and respect within companies of all sizes. Because good developers are hard to find and retain, employers recognize that it’s important to invest in tools to help them stay productive and happy.
Meanwhile, developer tools have proliferated in recent years. A decade ago, all you had was an IDE and a bare metal server to run your application, but now the number of higher level abstractions and paid services is nearly endless. Software developers buy tools to test their code, collaborate with team members, deploy to servers, and run their databases. There are even low-code tools aimed at software developers who just want to spend less time writing boilerplate code.
All this leads to a big question for marketing professionals who want to reach developers:
How Can You Make Your Developer Marketing Strategy Stand Out?
While I’ll admit that companies are getting better at reaching software developers and there are more software developers to reach, marketers still ask me this question all the time. I spent ten years as a hands-on software developer and technical leader before starting Draft.dev as a marketing developer, so I have some thoughts on both sides of this topic.
Generally, the keys to a good b2b tech marketing strategy are authenticity and understanding your audience. This means you need to spend time with developers—online or in-person—to understand how they think and talk about services they buy. I already mentioned that developers might be averse to software development marketing, but on the other hand, they tend to be averse to doing boring work, too. So if you can find a way to position your product as genuinely helpful (and ideally, something their employer can pay for), developers will be happy to give it a try.
What’s more, software developers are a well-connected bunch. Sure, we may look quiet sitting behind keyboards with headphones on, but we talk a lot in forums where we feel comfortable. That means that viral marketing and word-of-mouth is just as important in developer marketing strategy as it is anywhere else.
The next step for you, dear marketer, is finding developers.
Tactics For Marketing to Software Developers
So, to reach developers, you need to educate, help, and generally understand their challenges. Based on this knowledge, you have a few highly effective marketing tactics you can try.
In this next section, I’ll give you my perspective on some of the most common tactics for marketing to software developers (as both a software developer and marketing developer). I’ll also walk through the steps of how to market to developers from a dev’s perspective.
Like any generic advice, you’ll need to filter this through the lens of your company’s product, culture, and budget, but I hope this gives you a starting point for marketing to developers.
Event Marketing
While meetups and conferences have changed dramatically during the COVID-19 crisis, live events have been one of the most visible forms of developer marketing for years. There are a number of ways you can apply this strategy, but the cost and return on investment varies widely.
You can speak at events but you have to be careful about selling too hard. Conferences don’t like speakers to be shills.
You can sponsor events but naturally, developers walking by might be skeptical. That said, it’ll help you get near more of them, which is usually a good thing.
You can attend events but this gives you very little reach. It might be a good way to have a few more one-on-one conversations with developers, and if the event is local or virtual, the cost will be very low.
You can run your own events but of course, this is the most costly path. You get full control but also have to promote, design, and run things.
Big companies like Amazon use a combination of speaking, sponsoring, and running events, but this sort of complete event marketing strategy is out of reach for most small startups. Speaking at events is a good place to start because you can usually go to the event for free and the conference does the hard work of sending you an audience.
Written Content
Content marketing to software developers takes many forms:
Documentation is important, especially if your company sells a complex product, but very few businesses use documentation as a marketing channel.
Tutorials and guides can help users see how to use your product in the real world. This can help augment your documentation and might be more illustrative.
Awareness-driving content is written to increase the top of your funnel, and might be published on external partner sites for more reach. Places like Dev.to, HackerNoon, and DZone all allow you to publish developer content for free.
Blog posts on your own website allow you to engage readers and increase newsletter sign-ups (assuming you have some sort of email capture).
All of this content must be genuinely helpful or educational; you can’t fill your engineering blog with fluff and expect it to resonate. So, the most effective content marketing to developers is written by developers. Most people I talk to either get their in-house engineers to write, hire full-time developer advocates, or start a community writing program.
Those options all take time and in-house expertise that most startups don’t have, so you might hire and manage freelance writers or work with an agency like us. Obviously, I’m biased, but I’m also happy to offer tips for finding and recruiting your own writers.
One company that’s done written content really well is DigitalOcean. They have published thousands of tutorials by developers for developers, and they employ a whole team of writers and editors to help with it.
Running this kind of content machine isn’t cheap and the payoff is slow, but if you can play the long game, there’s a ton of value in it.
Video Content
People across the world are streaming more online video than ever before, and this trend seems to be holding true in the developer community. A lot of it is entry-level tutorial content created by new developers who want to document their journey, so I think there’s a ton of green space for developer marketing groups that want to create content for more senior and niche topics.
Of course, good video content can be even more expensive to produce and distribute. Any developer can tell you that sharing a few snippets of code is much different than sharing a live coding session on YouTube.
That said, this format is getting more popular. This is an evergreen form of marketing for developers that pays in spades as your business grows.
Community-driven Marketing
Communities are also popular in developer marketing. For example, Stack Overflow, Discourse forums, Slack groups, and meetup groups are all a good way to encourage your community of users to discuss and reinforce their support of your product. The hard part about community-based developer marketing is that you need a pretty large or especially dedicated user base to pull it off. It’s not likely to be your “go-to-market” channel.
On the plus side, community marketing can be very cost-effective. You’re basically encouraging your own customers to advocate for you, so it takes fewer salaries than building a team of speakers or writers in-house. You can also have your community members write and speak on your behalf, so once this program is mature, it dovetails nicely into some of the other channels here.
Microsoft has put a lot into its community marketing for developers lately with programs like the Microsoft MVP award. By recognizing engineers who write and speak about Microsoft tools, they essentially encourage other fans of their products to go out and do the same.
Social Media
Like most professionals, developers are also on social media, so depending on your product and approach, you might be able to reach people there. Twitter, Hacker News, and Reddit are some of the most popular social platforms for developers, but I imagine you’ll find plenty on LinkedIn, too (especially if they’re job hunting).
You can either use paid or organic posts on social media. While the prevalence of ad-blockers makes paid advertisements less appealing to developer audiences, building an organic following can take months or years. You can shortcut this by piggybacking off popular threads on platforms like Hacker News and Reddit, but these readers are especially wary of marketers on their platforms.
A lot of the recent Y Combinator companies do a good job spreading the word in the comments on Hacker News. I’ve also seen a few individuals with large followings do devmarketing on Twitter really well (Adam Wathan being one example).
What are the most common things you use CSS filters/backdrop filters for? Be super specific please! 😊
Trying to figure out which values should exist for each filter function in Tailwind by default — always the absolute hardest part of building any new feature 🥵
Finally, even if your company isn’t using open source as its business model, you might still be able to use open source as a marketing tool. You can release adapters as open-source packages to allow your users to help you spot bugs and maintain some of the client-side code. Or you could release open-source side projects to help generate interest in your primary paid project.
Of course, giving your team new projects to maintain isn’t necessarily a cost-effective marketing strategy. You’ll have to weigh the amount of work this adds to your team with the value you give to the community of paid and free users. While it’s really hard to measure things like “goodwill,” open-source marketing is definitely going to help you build some of it.
One of the best examples of using open source as a marketing tool is Automattic, the company behind WordPress, Tumblr, WooCommerce, and more. They give away the core WordPress.org platform as an open-source offering, but make money from people who don’t want to bother with hosting or servicing the code themselves.
Tips for Marketing to Software Developers
Now that you have a better idea of the viable marketing channels you can use in devmarketing, I’ll leave you with five quick tips that I outlined in more detail here:
Be authentic and genuinely helpful. Developers are smart, and they know when they’re being sold to.
Spend time with them online or offline. I think the best marketers know their audience extremely well, and the only way to do that is to mingle with them.
Learn the language of software development. Even if you can’t write code, learn the key pieces and terminology: APIs, backend, frontend, database, HTTP, test, etc. This is critical for a solid software marketing strategy.
Go deep in your content rather than simply skimming the surface. Experienced developers will appreciate this because technical depth is really hard to find online.
Freemium and trial offers do well when you employ a bottoms-up approach. The idea here is to get developers using your tool on a small side project so they feel confident enough to bring it to work on their next project.
Getting hands-on with devmarketing can be intimidating at first. If you’re looking to reach software developers with a developer marketing agency, shoot me an email. I’m happy to send you specific resources or tools based on your marketing strategy for software development companies.
Ready to build a developer marketing strategy that drives real results?
Draft.dev specializes in creating technical content that resonates with developer audiences. Our network of 300+ experienced developers produces tutorials, guides, and documentation that educate first and convert authentically.
TL;DR: Successfully marketing to developers (B2D marketing) requires authenticity, technical depth, and community engagement:
Be Authentic – Hire developer advocates or technical writers rather than faking expertise
Engage Where Developers Gather – Participate in Hacker News, Reddit, GitHub, and Stack Overflow communities
Create In-Depth Technical Content – Focus on informative blog posts, tutorials, and videos with genuine expertise
Learn the Language – Master technical terminology to build credibility
Sponsor Events – Support conferences and meetups to build developer relationships
Offer Free Access – Provide free tiers or trials for hands-on product experience
These strategies work because developers value honesty, technical accuracy, and genuine value over traditional marketing tactics.
Business-to-developer marketing (often shortened “B2D marketing”) describes marketing initiatives designed to reach software developers. As a former software developer, I can tell you that devs are a notoriously difficult group to market to. They’re tech-savvy, generally skeptical, and often use tools like adblockers to prevent popups and banner advertisements from reaching them.
At the same time, developers are an extremely valuable market to reach. They are well-paid and invest in educational materials and tools to help them do their jobs. Developers also carry a lot of influence on spending within their companies. If a developer needs a new tool to do their job, there’s a good chance their managers will put it under consideration.
Because developers are harder to reach than the average consumer, many marketers struggle with B2D marketing. Gimmicks like free t-shirts or exclusionary events centered around alcohol are not the way to go, but they’re still rampant in the space.
As a former software developer and engineering manager, I’ve seen many attempts at B2D marketing. In this post, I’ll focus on what works in developer marketing today, and I’ll offer some tips for generating marketing campaigns that will reach software developers. Using these tips will make your outreach efforts more genuine and ultimately successful.
Tip 1: Be Authentic
Software developers appreciate honesty. It’s no coincidence that some of the most sought-after jobs in the industry are with companies developing open-source software, and developers appreciate this same openness in vendors.
As a marketer, this means you should be honest about your role in the community. If you’re not a developer, you can’t just make it up as you go along. Instead, use your role as a marketer to help advance the causes that developers care about or invest in marketing material created by other developers.
You can do this in several different ways. You can hire a developer advocate – someone with a technical background who will champion your product at live events. Large software companies like Microsoft and Amazon have teams of these people traveling worldwide to give talks, lead training sessions, and write content about their company’s products.
Another option is to hire software developers to contribute case studies or blog posts to your site. During my years as a software developer I wrote blog posts for several companies whose products I used. I was paid several hundred dollars per post, and the company got some unique technical material for their content growth engine efforts.
Tip 2: Spend Time With Developers Online
One analogy I love for marketing is that of the watering hole:
You want to get a great shot of the elusive white tiger. Where do you go?
How about where the tigers hang out? Where is their watering hole? Odds are pretty good that if you hang out where the tigers hang out — you’ll get that shot.
While developers also use some of the same social networks you’re already familiar with (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook), they have their own set of niche platforms they frequently use. Hacker News, Reddit, Lobste.rs, StackOverflow, and GitHub are all popular haunts for software developers online.
The good news is that you can join most of these communities without having any prior knowledge or special invitation. Spending some time in these communities will help you better understand developer culture and give you insight into how they spend their time.
As you get familiar with these channels, notice the kind of content that gets shared frequently, and think about how you might create similar content in your marketing efforts. Shameless self-promotion is usually hard to pull off in these communities, so you’ll need to take a more subtle approach.
Tip 3: Learn The Terminology
Another thing that trips up many B2D marketers is the vast array of programming concepts and terminology. If you’re not a developer, you likely don’t know the difference between continuous integration and continuous deployment or understand the difference between unit tests and integration tests. Honestly, many developers struggle with these definitions.
Subtle differences between terms can be the difference between building trust with a highly technical audience and hurting your reputation. Take time to understand the terminology developers use, and when you don’t know something, just ask. Even after ten years of programming, I have to look up new concepts a few times per week.
Tip 4: Focus on In-Depth, Informative Content
Two of the best ways to reach a software developer audience today are written content (blog posts, guides, guest posts) and videos (tutorials, conference talks). If you want your content to stand out, it can’t be thin, junior-level fluff. Reaching decision-makers takes in-depth technical knowledge and unique expertise, which is hard to fake.
The best way to generate this kind of content is to hire people who can create it for you (disclaimer: this is what we do for our clients at Draft.dev). If you don’t want to bring on in-house writers, freelancers or an agency are both viable options.
That said, if you’re looking to start creating technical content without a budget, there are a few things you can do to get started:
Ask Your Company’s Engineers to Contribute
It may be hard to get time on their calendars, but if technical content is a priority, use the resources you already have first. Give engineers a style guide and content brief to help them produce better work.
Interview an Expert
Another strategy is to publish an interview with a technical expert. Get them to explain a topic and dig deep into the details. These experts can be at your company, or they could be partners, customers, or people in your network. Learning to interview well is a valuable skill for any content marketer.
Finally, you can ask software developers who blog about relevant topics if they are willing to let you republish some of their work on your site. This won’t get you much search engine juice, but you might get traffic from social media, and it’ll give you some technical content to seed your blog.
Tip 5: Attend and Sponsor Events
While live events are currently on hold, many developers still attend online conferences, and local meetup groups will likely come back after the pandemic subsides. The lowest cost way to get in front of developers at these events is to start going to some. Besides learning more of the terminology by attending talks, you’ll have the chance to network with people between sessions and get some quality market research time in.
If you have a budget for it, sponsoring conferences and meetups is a great way to build a relationship with software engineers. Local meetups are cheaper to support, but because they’re so fragmented, it can take a lot of time to get involved. I’ve run a local meetup for programmers in Chicago for several years. It’s been a great way to build a network of potential hires and customers, but it takes a lot of time to maintain.
Sponsoring a conference is usually more expensive, but they can give you a lot of exposure. Hundreds (in some cases, thousands) of developers pass by the sponsorship booths at large conferences, so if you can find a way to make your display stand out, you can draw some inbound interest.
Tip 6: Offer a Free Tier or Trial
While not right for every product, one of the most common B2D marketing techniques I see today involves offering a free tier to developers. This bottom-up approach allows developers to try your product out on a side project before recommending a paid plan to their boss.
If you can’t afford to give away your product for free or it doesn’t make sense in your context, you could opt to give developers a free trial. This gives them time to set up your product and learn about it before asking their boss for the company credit card.
Not all B2D marketing is aimed at hands-on developers like this, but even if developers are just one of many parties who need to sign off, you need to get them on board. Offering a free tier, open-source version, or free trial can help assuage objections developers might have.
Conclusion
Business to developer marketing is unique because software developers are such a discerning audience. That said, they aren’t immune to marketing efforts, and when they find a product that serves them well, they can be powerful allies.
Your B2D marketing should center around being authentic, learning your audience, and offering them a valuable tool. Once you build a funnel that attracts developers, get them involved through community-based marketing efforts like forums, open-source projects, or support groups.
Finally, if you’d like to start investing in authentic B2D marketing content created by software developers, check out Draft.dev. We specialize in authoritative, technical blog posts designed to reach developers.
TL;DR: Before starting a technical blog, answer three fundamental questions:
Why are you writing? Define clear goals like raising awareness, building audience, or SEO
Who are you writing for? Target specific audiences from individual developers to executives
What content will you create? Choose 2-3 consistent formats like tutorials, case studies, or roundups
Successful technical blogs combine focused audience targeting with clear business objectives and consistent content formats.
The best technical blogs have a clear audience and defined goals. Today, I’m going to share the three questions I ask every client I work with at Draft:
Question 1: Why Are You Starting a Technical Blog?
I don’t know why I started writing. I don’t know why anybody does it. Maybe they’re bored, or failures at something else. – Cormac McCarthy
Not every technical blog’s goals are the same, but the good ones know why they exist. Here are a few legitimate reasons you might start a blog:
Raise awareness – For new companies, letting people know what you do and what problems you solve is a good starting point. The tricky part is doing that while creating valuable, interesting content.
Supplement documentation – A blog can be a great place to host a repository of public knowledge in the form of sample apps, use cases, and best practices.
Build an audience – Some blogs act as the top of the marketing team’s funnel. These blogs usually seek to capture leads through an email or social signup.
Thought leadership – Consultants and agencies are especially motivated to establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry.
Move prospects through your funnel – Content isn’t just for the top of the funnel. Your blog can support nurturing campaigns that turn leads into customers.
Search engine optimization (SEO) – Once your blog has been around for a while, it may start to rank for keywords on Google. If you want to maximize your traffic from search engines, a blog is critical.
There are plenty of marketing and communication channels available, so don’t feel like you have to have a blog. If you do create one, set a clear goal before you start investing in it.
Question 2: Who Is Your Target Audience?
You get what you focus on. Focus on nothing, and you won’t get much. – Seth Godin
Blogs are often aimed at your target customers, but sometimes they are written for stakeholders or influencers. Here are some audiences you might reach with a technical blog:
Software engineers – Many software companies use a bottoms-up approach in their blog. Individual contributors may not have purchasing power, but they often have a strong influence over the people who do.
Middle managers – Managers likely have purchasing power, but there aren’t as many of them, and they may not read as much technical content anymore.
Executives and directors – The most valuable group is often the hardest to reach. Executives’ priorities vary, so you’ll have to be okay with small traffic numbers and highly focused content.
Startup technologists – Startups can be great customers because they make decisions fast, and the executives are often still very close to the code. Reaching them will require a mix of content types.
The more specific you can be about your audience, the better you’ll be able to focus your efforts to reach them. Learn about them: where do they hang out online? What problems do they have? What newsletters or social medial sites do they use?
A clearly defined audience will go miles towards making your blog better.
Question 3: What Content Formats Will You Publish?
If you think something is clever and sophisticated, beware – it is probably self-indulgence. – Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things
Your content should be unique, but it shouldn’t surprise your audience. Most successful blogs choose 2-3 standard “formats” and publish them consistently. Here are the most common formats I see on software engineering blogs:
Tutorials – These step-by-step walkthroughs show readers how to build something or illustrate a specific use-case for your product. They provide a lot of value to engineers who are using your tool or related technologies.
Roundups – Listicles get a bad wrap, but high-quality curation is still valuable when done right. Roundups bring together a wealth of information to help your readers make decisions.
Case Studies – Like tutorials, case studies can illustrate a use-case for your product, but they tend to be more focused on the outcomes than the process. Case studies can also come off as a bit “salesy” if you’re not careful.
Features – Borrowing the word from journalism, a “feature” dives deep into something of interest to your audience. For example, you might introduce a new feature, highlight a team member, or do a technical teardown of part of your codebase.
Q&As – Interviews with team members, customers, and influencers in the industry can be a great way to focus your blog’s lense outwards and help you piggyback off your interviewee’s audience.
Comparisons – Comparisons help readers decide between competing options. A good comparison post will offer an objective conclusion for which option is best under which circumstance.
Opinion Pieces – Personal experiences and observations help establish you as a thought leader. These pieces are valuable when done well, but require a bit of name recognition to pull them off.
