Trust is Built in the Trenches, not through Marketing
Developer relations isn't about marketing tactics. It's about engineers helping engineers build better software through authentic technical partnerships and shared challenges.
Your DevRel sucks because you're treating it as developer marketing.
Developers don't want sales pitches, they want technical partnerships.
Developers don't want promises, they want proof and deep dives.
Developers don't trust campaigns, they trust fellow developers.
Build genuine relationships, and developers will advocate your platform for you.
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: Trust is Built in the Trenches, not through MarketingKey takeaways:
1 - Developers don't want to be marketed to. They want to talk to others developers who have faced the same technical challenges.
2 - Once developers sense "marketing", trust evaporates. Your campaigns become a developer friction point, and are longer marketing funnels.
3 - It's better to have a single genuine technical partnership where DevRel works one-on-one with a developer. Help them to solve a real problem, debug where they got stuck, and provide insights into production/ scaling.
4 - Even multiple polished campaigns won't have the same effect. Because they could off as as empty promises, generic testimonials, surface-level content. If that's the perception, it won't move the needle.
5 - Traditional marketing formulae fail with developers.
Avoid selling, instead show understanding.
Avoid pitches, instead show example code.
Avoid promises, instead show proof.
6 - Throw out the traditional marketing playbook when your target audience is developers.
Build a new playbook, which focuses on things like Stackoverflow answers, demo repos on Github, and hands-on workshops.
7 - When you help them succeed, developers will advocate for you.
When you sell to them, developer will avoid you.
Build genuine trust, and your developer community takes care of your "marketing" for you.
This is article 1 of 4 in the DevRel for Marketers series, by
, , Michiel Mulders, and . | A guest post by
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