From DevRel to docs: Building a marketing stack developers trust
When it comes to marketing to developers, trust isn’t a metric—it’s a mandate.
Developers don’t buy based on campaigns. They adopt tools based on documentation quality, GitHub issues, integration guides, and whether the CLI actually works the first time. They follow community recommendations, not nurture sequences. And they trust products that respect their time, their workflow, and their intelligence.
That’s why today’s most effective developer marketing teams are doing something radically simple: they're building a stack around trust—not conversion.
In this post, we’ll unpack what it means to build a developer marketing stack that developers actually trust, how roles like DevRel, docs, and product marketing interlock, and what it looks like to grow developer adoption without alienating your technical audience.
🔧 What Is a developer marketing stack?
It’s not just tools or tactics. It’s the complete set of assets, content, and surfaces where developers interact with your product outside of the product itself.
That includes:
🧑💻 DevRel and technical evangelism
📘 Product documentation and API references
🧵 Content (tutorials, use-case guides, benchmarks)
🧰 SDKs, templates, playgrounds
💬 Community (Discord, Slack, GitHub Discussions)
📥 Self-serve onboarding and product touchpoints
📈 Instrumentation and feedback loops
The goal of your stack isn’t just to inform. It’s to build credibility—through clarity, accessibility, and evidence.
❌ What developers don’t trust
Before we dig into what works, let’s get clear on what doesn’t:
Buzzword-heavy product pages with no technical depth
Documentation that’s incomplete, outdated, or behind a signup wall
“Thought leadership” that says nothing and teaches less
CTAs that push demos instead of letting devs try the product
Surface-level DevRel with no real authority or engineering empathy
Developers are technical decision-makers, not personas. If they smell BS, they bounce—and probably tell others why.
✅ What developers do trust
Developers trust experiences that respect their time and intelligence:
Code that runs
Docs that solve
People who contribute
Products that fit
Content that teaches
So the question becomes: how do you build a marketing stack that consistently delivers on those expectations?
Let’s break it down.
🧑💻 1. DevRel: The front line of trust
Great DevRel is more than “developer influencer marketing.” It’s your bridge between product and community and often the first voice developers hear from your brand.
What builds trust:
Real-world code examples, open source demos, live coding streams
Candid walkthroughs of integration challenges (yes, even the bugs)
Engagement in GitHub, forums, Discord, Stack Overflow
Advocates who use the product daily—not just talk about it
How it fits in your stack:
Collaborate with content and product marketing on use-case guides
Feed user feedback back into the product and docs
Run experiments that generate reusable technical content (e.g., “Can we deploy X in 3 minutes with our tool?”)
DevRel isn’t just a megaphone—it’s your listening post.
📘 2. Docs: Your real conversion funnel
Developers don’t read whitepapers. They read docs.
Docs aren’t just for support, they are your most powerful acquisition, activation, and conversion asset.
What builds trust:
“Hello world” guides that work in minutes
Reference docs that are clear, searchable, and always up to date
Inline code examples in the dev’s language
Clear error explanations and troubleshooting guidance
GitHub-backed contributions and changelogs
How it fits in your stack:
Add contextual CTAs (e.g., “Try this on our cloud platform”)
Use analytics to identify high-traffic pages and optimize them
Pair every launch with a docs-first approach: “How to use the new feature in real code”
Want developer adoption? Don’t just ship features. Ship docs that teach them.
🧵 3. Content: Code-centric, use-case-driven
Content is often where developer marketing goes off the rails. Listicles and LinkedIn thought pieces won’t cut it.
What builds trust:
Tutorials that solve a real problem with real code
“How we built X with Y” engineering blogs
Benchmarks, performance breakdowns, and architecture diagrams
Framework- and language-specific guides (e.g., “Using X in Next.js”)
Open-source starter kits and templates
How it fits in your stack:
Partner with DevRel to co-create technical content
Use community questions as a content backlog
Turn support tickets into blog posts
Make content discoverable—SEO it properly with real-world queries
Great developer content doesn’t just rank—it runs.
💬 4. Community: The distribution engine you don’t control
Developers trust each other more than they trust you. And that’s a good thing if you design for it.
What builds trust:
Active participation in Discord, Slack, GitHub Discussions
Fast, human responses to questions and bugs
Public roadmaps and changelogs
Showcasing community contributions, not just company wins
How it fits in your stack:
Use community platforms to test content ideas
Feature dev-built tools and workflows in your marketing
Make your team visible real names, real commits, real conversations
Community isn’t a “nice to have” it’s how your credibility compounds.
🧰 5. DX-Driven product marketing: flow > features
Your product marketing doesn’t need to sound smart—it needs to help developers move faster.
What builds trust:
Messaging that maps to dev workflows, not personas
Landing pages that lead to runnable examples
Competitive comparisons that are honest, not smug
Onboarding flows that match developer habits (CLI, API, IDE, Git)
How it fits in your stack:
Use product usage data to inform content
Highlight real use cases over surface-level value props
Make sure marketing and documentation use the same terminology
If your messaging sounds like a marketer wrote it, rewrite it.
🧠 Metrics that matter in a trust-first dev marketing stack
Ditch MQLs. Track:
Time to First Successful API Call
% of users who land in docs before signup
Most cloned GitHub repos
Content → signup → activation funnel
Community participation → product adoption
Self-serve onboarding completion rate
Retention across dev teams, not just individuals
If trust is your currency, these are your conversion metrics.
Final thought: Developer trust is a stack build it like one
You don’t win developers with slogans. You win them by respecting their time, understanding their workflow, and showing your product actually delivers.
Your stack should reflect that:
DevRel listens and builds bridges.
Docs teach and onboard.
Content solves real problems.
Community scales support and trust.
Product marketing maps to flow, not features.
Build those pieces right, and you won’t need to chase attention.
Developers will come, stay, and bring others with them.
