API marketing strategy: how to promote your developer platform

Every modern software company has APIs. But having APIs and marketing them effectively are very different things.

I've written a lot about general developer marketing. But API marketing is its own discipline. The audience is highly technical. The "product" is often invisible, just an endpoint that returns JSON. And the buying decision is influenced as much by documentation quality as by feature sets.

After decades of marketing APIs at companies from AWS to Supabase, here's what I've learned about API marketing strategy.

Why API marketing is different

Before diving into tactics, let's understand what makes API marketing unique:

The product is abstract. You can't show a screenshot of an API. The value is in what developers can build with it, not in the API itself. This requires a different approach to demonstration and explanation.

Documentation is the product. For many developers, their first experience with your API is reading the documentation. Poor docs kill adoption regardless of how good the underlying API is.

Documentation is changing rapidly. Hand in hand with writing great documentation is understanding that documentation has become dramatically different in the last year. Now, your docs need to be optimized for AI and LLMs: add "copy content" to each doc so a user can copy and plop it into an LLM easily. Build llms.txt and other AI optimization features that enable your content to be read by bots. And finally, consider building MCP servers and other tools that automate developer tasks within Claude Code, Cursor, and other coding agents.

Integration is the value. APIs don't exist in isolation. They're integrated into larger systems. Your marketing needs to show how the API fits into the developer's existing stack.

Trust is paramount. Developers are betting their architecture on your API. They need to trust that it will be reliable, performant, and supported long-term.

The API marketing stack

Effective API marketing requires excellence across multiple areas:

Positioning and messaging

Start with clear positioning. What category does your API belong to? Who is it for? Why should developers choose it over alternatives?

I've written extensively about the rule of three for positioning. For APIs, the three pillars often map to:

• Developer experience: How easy is it to get started and integrate?
• Capabilities: What can developers do with this API that they can't do elsewhere?
• Reliability: Can developers depend on this API for production workloads?

Your messaging should speak to developers in their language. Avoid marketing-speak. Be specific about what the API does.

Before writing messaging, test your positioning. API products are especially vulnerable to vague category labels. "Developer platform" and "integration layer" fail the category test because they do not classify the product on their own. "Payments processing API" and "email delivery service" pass because a developer immediately knows what you do.

Consequence framing is also powerful for APIs. "Without a unified API for [use case], developers maintain separate integrations with multiple providers, each with its own authentication model, rate limits, error handling, and billing." That sentence does more work than any feature list. It names the pain, makes it specific, and sets up your product as the obvious answer.

Weak: "Our industry-leading API enables seamless integration." Strong: "Add authentication to your app in 5 minutes with three API calls."

Documentation

Documentation is the most important content you'll produce. I'd go so far as to say documentation is your primary marketing channel for APIs.

Great API documentation includes:

Quick starts: Get developers to a working integration as fast as possible. The faster they see value, the more likely they are to continue.

Reference documentation: Complete, accurate, searchable documentation of every endpoint, parameter, and response. This is table stakes.

Guides and tutorials: Task-oriented content that shows how to accomplish specific goals with your API.

Code samples: Working code in multiple languages that developers can copy and adapt.

Interactive tools: API explorers, sandboxes, and playgrounds where developers can try the API without writing code.

Documentation should be treated as a product. It needs product management, design, engineering, and continuous improvement based on feedback.

Developer experience

The experience of integrating your API is marketing. Every friction point is an opportunity for developers to give up and try a competitor.

Key elements of API developer experience:

Onboarding: How do developers get started? Can they get an API key in seconds, or do they need to fill out a form and wait for approval?

SDKs and libraries: Do you offer official SDKs in the languages your developers use? Are they well-maintained and idiomatic?

Error messages: When something goes wrong, do developers get helpful error messages that tell them how to fix the problem?

Rate limits and quotas: Are these clearly documented? Do developers get warnings before they hit limits?

Support: When developers get stuck, how do they get help?

Every aspect of the developer experience shapes perception of your API. Marketing can drive traffic to your documentation, but only great DX converts that traffic into adoption.

Content marketing

Beyond documentation, API companies need content that builds awareness and authority:

Technical blog posts: Deep dives into specific use cases, architecture patterns, and best practices. These establish expertise and attract search traffic.

Tutorials: Step-by-step guides showing how to build something meaningful with your API. These are among the highest-converting content types.

Comparison content: Honest comparisons between your API and alternatives. Developers will compare regardless; you might as well be part of the conversation.

Use case content: Stories of what developers have built with your API. This helps prospects envision their own projects.

I've written about the 12 types of content that work for developers and how to choose what developer content to build.

Community

API adoption often spreads through communities. Developers recommend APIs to each other, share integration experiences, and troubleshoot together.

Build community by:

Being present: Participate in forums, Discord servers, and social media where your target developers hang out.

Supporting user-generated content: When developers create tutorials or integrations with your API, amplify and celebrate them.

Building your own community: Consider Discord, Slack, or forums where developers can connect with each other and your team.

Open source: Contributing to open source, maintaining SDKs publicly, and being transparent about roadmaps builds community trust.

Partner and ecosystem marketing

APIs often gain adoption through partners and integrations:

Marketplace listings: If you integrate with platforms like Salesforce, Shopify, or Zapier, make sure your listings are optimized and maintained.

Partner case studies: Stories of partners building on your API demonstrate ecosystem health.

Co-marketing: Joint content, webinars, and events with complementary products.

Integration documentation: Guides showing how to use your API with popular tools and platforms.

The API marketing funnel

Understanding the developer journey helps you create content for each stage:

Awareness

Developers discover your API through:

• LLMs (AI coding agents are almost certainly the highest value way developers will discover your API)
• Search (SEO for your target keywords)
• Social media and community conversations
• Conference talks and podcasts
• Recommendations from peers

Content for awareness: thought leadership, trend pieces, introductory content.

Consideration

Developers evaluating your API need:

• Documentation quality assessment
• Feature comparison with alternatives
• Pricing clarity
• Proof of reliability (uptime, customer stories)

Content for consideration: comparison guides, case studies, architecture documentation.

Activation

Getting developers to first successful integration:

• Quick start guides
• Code samples and templates
• Sandbox environments
• Responsive support

Content for activation: getting started guides, tutorials, sample applications.

Retention

Keeping developers engaged over time:

• Advanced documentation
• Best practices guides
• New feature announcements
• Community connection

Content for retention: advanced tutorials, changelog, roadmap updates.

Advocacy

Turning happy developers into advocates:

• Case study participation
• Speaking opportunities
• Ambassador programs
• Social recognition

Content for advocacy: customer spotlights, community features, testimonial requests.

Measuring API marketing

API marketing measurement combines product metrics with marketing metrics:

Product metrics:

• API call volume
• Unique developers making calls
• Endpoints used
• Error rates
• Latency

Marketing metrics:

• Documentation page views
• Quick start completion rates
• Time to first API call
• Signup to activation conversion
• Developer NPS

Track the journey from marketing touchpoint to API usage. This tells you which content and channels drive actual adoption, not just traffic.

Common API marketing mistakes

Mistake 1: Treating documentation as an afterthought

Documentation should be your top content priority. It's where developers spend most of their time with your API.

Mistake 2: Leading with features instead of outcomes

Developers don't care about your API's features in isolation. They care about what they can build. Lead with outcomes.

Mistake 3: Neglecting the free tier experience

Many APIs have free tiers. If that experience is bad, developers won't upgrade to paid tiers. Treat free users as your most important marketing channel.

Mistake 4: Inconsistent quality across SDKs

If your Python SDK is great but your JavaScript SDK is neglected, you're leaving developers behind. Maintain quality across all supported languages.

Mistake 5: Ignoring feedback loops

Developers who hit problems with your API are giving you valuable information. Create systematic ways to capture, synthesize, and act on this feedback.

Building your API marketing strategy

Here's a framework for developing your strategy:

1. Define your audience

Who are the developers you're targeting? What languages do they use? What are they building? Where do they spend time?

2. Understand the competitive landscape

What alternatives exist? How do developers currently solve the problems your API addresses? What would make them switch?

3. Nail your positioning

What's your unique value? How do you describe what you do in terms developers understand?

4. Invest in documentation

Before spending on awareness, make sure the experience developers have when they arrive is excellent.

5. Build content around use cases

Create tutorials and guides for the specific things developers want to build with your API.

6. Establish community presence

Go where your developers are. Be helpful. Build relationships.

7. Measure and iterate

Track what's working. Double down on what drives adoption. Cut what doesn't.

The long game

API marketing is a long-term investment. Developer trust takes time to build. Community presence takes time to establish. Documentation takes time to mature.

But the returns compound. A developer who integrates your API today may use it for years. Their positive word of mouth influences other developers. Their company may expand usage as it grows.

Invest in the fundamentals: great documentation, authentic community engagement, and content that genuinely helps developers. The rest follows from there.

For a deeper dive on API marketing and developer marketing more broadly, I've written extensively about these topics in Picks and Shovels: Marketing to Developers During the AI Gold Rush.