Content Strategy
Creating content developers actually want to read
Resource Hub
Developer MarketingComplete Guide
Everything you need to know about marketing to developers. From fundamentals to advanced strategies, built on 30 years of experience at AWS, Microsoft, Meta, and beyond.
47+
Articles
6
Topics Covered
30+
Years Experience
6 BigTech
Companies
What is developer marketing?
Developer marketing is the practice of reaching, engaging, and converting software developers as customers. Unlike traditional B2B or consumer marketing, developer marketing requires technical credibility, authenticity, and a commitment to helping developers solve real problems.
The core principle is simple: Help First. Provide genuine value before asking for anything in return. Create technical content, build communities, and demonstrate your product through real-world scenarios rather than relying on traditional advertising tactics.
This hub contains everything I have learned about developer marketing from building marketing functions at Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Meta, Twitter, and Supabase. Explore the categories below or dive into the complete guide.
Developer Marketing Fundamentals
Core concepts and principles of marketing to developers
The 5 best developer marketing books in 2026
A comprehensive guide to the essential books for developer marketing and developer relations professionals. From foundational texts to the latest strategies for the AI era.
Read article
Writing the perfect launch blog post
Don't bury the lede. Learn how to write effective launch blog posts with a proven structure that gets readers' attention from the first sentence. This post covers everything from crafting the perfect opening to structuring below-the-fold content that converts.
Read article
The complete developer marketing guide (2026 edition)
Everything you need to know about marketing to developers in 2026. From positioning and messaging to content strategy and measurement, this is the definitive guide for anyone building developer-focused products.
Read article
How to measure developer marketing ROI
Measuring developer marketing is notoriously difficult. Long buying cycles, word-of-mouth influence, and indirect attribution make traditional metrics incomplete. Here's how to build a measurement framework that actually works.
Read article
Developer marketing frameworks and templates you can steal
Practical frameworks and templates for developer marketing. Positioning documents, launch plans, content strategies, and more, all ready to adapt for your products.
Read article
What exactly is the product?
As PMMs, our job is not to sell features. Our job is to sell the complete experience. Every touchpoint. Every workflow. Every moment of friction. If any piece of the customer journey sucks, the whole product sucks.
Read article+ 26 more articles in this category
Developer Relations
Building and scaling developer advocacy programs
Your docs are for AI now (and this changes everything about Developer Relations)
AI coding agents are now the biggest consumer of your docs. The necessary change in how we write docs is a harbinger of the changes necessary in Developer Relations strategy, overall.
Read article
The power of storytelling in developer marketing
Gather 'round, and let's tell some stories. I've written posts about what the various functions in developer relations do. I've also written some practical posts about the mechanics of running events,...
Read article
Seven tips for building your content strategy
I am often asked by founders and DevRel leaders where they should focus their content efforts. I've done this work countless times at numerous companies, big and small. Take it from me. Here are seven t...
Read article
What kind of Developer Advocate do you need and where can you find them?
Matching the myriad things Developer Advocates do with your needs as a business is critical to determining the kind of Developer Advocacy organization you need. You may need someone to be stewards of ...
Read article
What do Developer Advocates do?
I organize Developer Advocacy around five specific areas. That's not to say that any individual does or does not do all five. It's more that our roles can be boiled down to these core areas. 1. Capt...
Read article
Developer Relations, where do you start?
I spoke with someone recently who didn't know where to start with their first hire in Developer Relations. As folks who know me appreciate, I think of the Developer Relations organization as the follo...
Read articleGo-to-Market Strategy
Launch planning, positioning, and market entry
10 developer marketing best practices for 2026
Developer marketing continues to evolve. Here are the ten practices that separate successful developer marketing programs from the rest in 2026.
Read article
Developer marketing for startups: the no-budget playbook
You don't need a big budget to market effectively to developers. Here's how early-stage startups can build awareness, drive adoption, and compete with well-funded competitors.
Read article
AI Prompt: From Meetups to Mega‑Conferences
Most developer events fail because marketers plan them like sales conferences. They book flashy venues, hire motivational speakers, and wonder why developers don't show up or engage.
Read article
How I use Claude to automate developer marketing (and how you can too)
I built a system that turns the marketing frameworks I wrote about in my book into Claude-powered tools. Now I generate in minutes what used to take hours. The output follows the same frameworks I've refined over years of practice. And I can focus on strategy instead of execution.
Read article
My AI Flow State: How I use AI to transform my marketing workflow
I've developed what I call my "AI flow state." It's a specific workflow that uses multiple AI tools in sequence to create marketing strategies and tactics that actually work.
Read article
Positioning and the rule of "three"
Marketing people always think in threes. It's not a hard and fast rule, of course, but there is some science and a lot of history behind it.
Read article+ 1 more articles in this category
Community Building
Growing and nurturing developer communities
Frequently asked questions
What is developer marketing and how is it different from B2B marketing?
Developer marketing is the practice of reaching, engaging, and converting software developers as customers. Unlike traditional B2B marketing where you market to procurement officers who never touch the product, in developer marketing the buyer and user are often the same person. Developers can detect marketing BS immediately and will call you out publicly if your product does not deliver on its promises.
What are the most effective channels for reaching developers?
The most effective channels include technical content (documentation, tutorials, blog posts), developer communities (Discord, Slack, forums), social media (Twitter/X, LinkedIn), conferences and meetups, open source contributions, and developer advocacy programs. The key is authenticity and providing genuine value rather than traditional advertising.
How do you measure developer marketing success?
Use a combination of leading indicators (developer signups, documentation traffic, community growth, content engagement, social sentiment) and lagging indicators (revenue influenced, customer acquisition, Developer NPS, brand awareness). Build multi-touch attribution models and accept that some activities like community building will never be perfectly measurable.
What is the role of developer relations in marketing?
Developer relations (DevRel) represents developers internally by bringing feedback to the product team and represents the company externally by building relationships and trust. Developer advocates create technical content, speak at events, and engage with communities. Great DevRel teams combine technical credibility with communication skills.
How should startups approach developer marketing with limited resources?
At seed through Series A, focus on positioning and messaging, core content like documentation and getting started guides, initial community building, and launch execution. One or two people can handle this initially. As you scale to Series B and beyond, hire specialists for developer advocacy, content marketing, product marketing, community management, and events.
Explore more topics
This is one piece of the developer marketing puzzle. Explore our other resource hubs.
Want the complete playbook?
Picks and Shovels is the definitive guide to developer marketing. Amazon #1 bestseller with practical strategies from 30 years of marketing to developers.
Don't get left behind by AI
Sign up for the Strategic Nerds Newsletter and get expert advice on Developer Marketing and Developer Relations so you can navigate technical marketing in the AI era.