Developers are drowning in content. Every vendor has a blog. Every tool has documentation. Every conference produces hours of recorded talks. The result is an overwhelming flood of content competing for limited attention.

Most of this content fails. It's too promotional, too shallow, or too generic. Developers scroll past it without a second thought.

But some content breaks through. It gets shared, bookmarked, and referenced. It builds reputation and drives adoption. What separates content that works from content that doesn't?

Here's what I've learned about developer content strategy.

The content developers actually consume

Not all content is equal. Through observation and data, I've identified the 12 types of content that work for developers. But understanding why these types work is even more important than knowing what they are.

Developer content succeeds when it:

Solves immediate problems. A developer searching "how to implement JWT authentication" needs an answer now. Content that provides that answer, with working code, wins.

Teaches something real. Developers want to improve their skills. Content that genuinely teaches, not just promotes, earns attention and respect.

Respects their intelligence. Developers can detect when content talks down to them or oversimplifies. Treat your audience as smart people who lack specific context, not as people who need everything explained slowly.

Provides specificity. Vague advice is worthless. Specific examples, real code, and concrete details are what developers need.

Building your content strategy

Start with audience understanding

Before creating content, know who you're creating it for:

Who are they? Job titles, experience levels, technical contexts.

What do they care about? Problems they're solving, goals they're pursuing, skills they're developing.

Where do they spend time? Which communities, forums, social platforms, and publications do they read?

How do they learn? Do they prefer written tutorials, videos, interactive playgrounds, or something else?

I've written about identifying your ideal customer profile. Apply the same rigor to your content audience.

Understand inside-out vs. outside-in content

You'll have the opportunity to create two kinds of content. "Inside-out" content is about you and your products: launch posts, changelogs, video tutorials, documentation. This content is of interest to folks who are already in your camp.

"Outside-in" content takes matters of great interest to developers in your target market and provides historical context, summarization of the problem, discussion of solutions and alternatives, and ultimately information about what products or services you provide to address the matter.

Outside-in content will drive leads, while inside-out content will drive conversion and customer satisfaction. They're both essential, but for content marketing, outside-in content typically has the higher ceiling for new audience acquisition.

Define your content pillars

Content pillars are the major themes you'll consistently create content around. They should:

Align with your product's value proposition
Address your audience's key problems and interests
Be broad enough to sustain ongoing content
Be specific enough to establish expertise

For a database company, pillars might be:

Query optimization and performance
Data modeling best practices
Migration and integration patterns
Scaling and reliability

For an AI platform, pillars might be:

Model training and fine-tuning
Prompt engineering techniques
Production deployment patterns
Responsible AI practices

Three to five pillars is typically the right number. Enough for variety, few enough for focus.

Map content to the developer journey

Different content serves different purposes in the developer journey:

Awareness stage: Content that introduces concepts and establishes expertise

Thought leadership and industry analysis
Trend pieces and predictions
Comparison guides and market overviews

Consideration stage: Content that helps developers evaluate your product

Feature deep dives
Competitive comparisons
Architecture documentation
Use case examples

Activation stage: Content that helps developers get started

Quick start guides
Tutorials and walkthroughs
Code samples and templates
Migration guides

Retention stage: Content that helps developers succeed long-term

Advanced tutorials
Best practices guides
Performance optimization
Troubleshooting guides

Most content strategies over-invest in awareness and under-invest in activation and retention. Balance matters.

Establish quality standards

What does "good" look like for your content? Document this explicitly:

Technical accuracy: All code must be tested and working. All technical claims must be verified.

Completeness: Tutorials should include all steps. Readers shouldn't have to guess at missing information.

Clarity: Complex topics should be explained clearly, with examples.

Timeliness: Content should reflect current product versions and best practices.

Voice and tone: Define how your content should sound. Conversational? Technical? Formal?

Having written standards allows content to be reviewed objectively and helps maintain consistency across creators.

Content production

Who creates content?

Developer content can come from multiple sources:

Developer advocates: Often the primary content creators. They combine technical expertise with communication skills.

Engineers: Have deep technical knowledge but may need support with writing and structure.

Technical writers: Excel at clarity and completeness. May need subject matter expert support.

External contributors: Guest posts, community contributions, and freelancers.

The best content programs use multiple sources while maintaining consistent quality standards.

Content production workflow

I've written about how to produce developer content in detail. The key elements:

Ideation: Where do content ideas come from? Customer feedback, search data, competitive analysis, and team brainstorming.

Briefs: Every piece of content should start with a clear brief specifying audience, goal, key points, and success metrics.

Creation: Actual writing, coding, recording, or designing.

Review: Technical accuracy review and editorial review.

Publication: Formatting, SEO optimization, and publishing.

Distribution: Getting content in front of the right audience.

Measurement: Tracking performance and learning.

Content calendar

A content calendar brings predictability to content production:

What content is being produced this quarter/month/week?
Who is responsible for each piece?
What's the status of each piece?
Are we aligned with product launches and events?

I recommend planning content quarterly while leaving room for responsive content to timely events.

Distribution strategy

Creating great content is only half the battle. You also need to get it in front of developers.

Owned channels

Your blog: The primary home for content you own. Invest in SEO so it's discoverable long-term.

Documentation: Don't think of docs as separate from content marketing. Docs are content that gets read repeatedly.

Email newsletter: Build a list of developers who want to hear from you. Respect their inbox.

Social media accounts: Primarily Twitter/X for developers, LinkedIn for enterprise.

Earned channels

Community platforms: dev.to, Hashnode, and similar platforms have built-in audiences. Cross-post there (with canonical links).

Social sharing: Make content worth sharing. Include shareable takeaways, graphics, and quotable points.

Syndication: Some publications accept syndicated content from vendors if it meets their quality standards.

Word of mouth: The most valuable distribution channel. Content worth talking about gets talked about.

Paid distribution

Paid promotion can accelerate content reach:

Promoted posts on social platforms
Sponsored newsletters
Content recommendation platforms
Event sponsorships

Paid works best for promoting genuinely valuable content. Paying to push mediocre content is a waste.

Measuring content performance

What metrics indicate content success?

Consumption metrics

Page views and unique visitors
Time on page
Scroll depth
Video watch time
Return visitors

These tell you if developers are consuming your content.

Engagement metrics

Social shares
Comments
Newsletter signups from content
Content downloads

These tell you if content resonates enough to take action.

Conversion metrics

Signups attributed to content
Documentation traffic leading to product usage
Content-influenced pipeline
Tutorial completion to product activation

These tell you if content drives business outcomes.

Quality metrics

Developer feedback (qualitative)
Content accuracy issues identified
Update frequency needed

These tell you if you're maintaining standards.

Don't obsess over any single metric. Build a dashboard that tells a complete story about content performance.

Common content strategy mistakes

Mistake 1: All content, no documentation

Some companies invest heavily in blog content while their documentation languishes. This is backwards. Documentation is where developers spend most of their time.

Mistake 2: Quantity over quality

Publishing daily mediocre content is worse than publishing weekly excellent content. Developers remember the bad pieces.

Mistake 3: No distribution plan

Great content that nobody sees is wasted effort. Distribution should be part of every content plan.

Mistake 4: Ignoring SEO

Search is how most developers discover content. Basic SEO, good titles, clear structure, relevant keywords, makes a significant difference.

Mistake 5: Too promotional

Every piece doesn't need to sell your product. Educational content that builds trust is more valuable long-term than promotional content that gets ignored.

Mistake 6: Not updating old content

Content degrades over time. Code examples break. Best practices evolve. Invest in maintaining your content library, not just adding to it.

The bigger picture

Content strategy for developers isn't fundamentally different from good content strategy for any technical audience. It requires:

Deep understanding of your audience
Commitment to quality
Systematic production processes
Thoughtful distribution
Continuous measurement and improvement

What makes it distinct is the audience. Developers are skeptical, technically sophisticated, and have infinite alternatives for their attention. You earn their trust through what I call "Help First": genuinely prioritizing developer success over your own business outcomes, trusting that the business results will follow.

Build a content strategy around Help First, and the marketing outcomes follow naturally.

For more on developer content strategy and developer marketing broadly, I've written extensively in Picks and Shovels: Marketing to Developers During the AI Gold Rush. It covers content strategy alongside positioning, community, measurement, and more.

Developer content strategy: creating content developers actually read