What is developer relations (DevRel) and its benefits? How does it fit within developer marketing? And how can you implement a DevRel strategy in your business? You'll get the answers to these and more questions in this slideshow. Full article can be found here: https://www.developermarketing.io/what-is-developer-relations-devrel/

1. What is DevRel?
And why is it important?

2. ● What is DevRel?
● A brief history of DevRel
● What is developer evangelism?
● And what about developer advocates?
● Developer-first or developer-plus
● The benefits of developer relations
● Steps to a DevRel program
● Examples of developer relations programs
● Measuring the impact of your DevRel efforts
Breakdown

3. What is DevRel?

4. What is DevRel?
Developer relations (DevRel) is, in essence, marketing to developers. It’s a set of strategies
used to reach and engage with developers where they are, as well as to connect your
company to a technical audience.
In addition, developer relations is a useful discipline when it comes to representing the org in
front of a community and/or product user, and it can lead to higher customer satisfaction
and lower product development costs.

5. What is DevRel?
DevRel is an umbrella term that includes the tactics, strategies and processes used to build and grow
relationships between devs and orgs.
DevRel has many different goals depending on what the company needs to accomplish, but they often
include a boost in sales and an increase in customer satisfaction.
It’s estimated that there’ll be about 29 million developers around the world by 2024 and, considering the dev
population was smaller than 25 million in 2020, it’s clearly growing fast. This is likely spurred by the
emergence of Web3 and blockchain tech.
Getting your product in front of this massive audience, as well as having them evangelize and advocate for it,
is a huge opportunity.

6. What is DevRel?
When we talk about building relationships with developers, we’re referring to devs external to your company
– they’ll be the ones using and (hopefully) championing your products!
There isn’t just one defined DevRel role – many people in an org can perform this job, although, nowadays,
companies are starting to invest in teams dedicated to building, developing, and engaging with devs and
communities.
After all, there are some challenges when it comes to marketing to developers, which developer marketing –
and DevRel – aim to solve.

7. A brief history of DevRel

8. A brief history of DevRel
● Humans are social creatures who love the sense of belonging to a community. Developers are no exception.
● Developer relations might be a relatively new concept but it’s grown and evolved over the years to meet new
demands, devs’ needs and pain points, and the way companies interact with their audience.
● The first DevRel program is said to have been built by Apple in the 80s, and the expression “software evangelist”
invented by Mike Murray, who worked for Apple Computer’s Mackintosh division at the time.
● His role included convincing developers to create programs for the Mac, an effort that proved itself hugely
successful.
● Guy Kawasaki would eventually become Apple’s Chief Evangelist, leaving a strong mark on the brand and further
popularizing its DevRel program. Even today, Apple, community and evangelism go hand-in-hand.
● With the advent of companies like Twilio and New Relic, developer relations as a discipline gained more strength
and became increasingly popular.

9. What is developer evangelism?

10. What is developer evangelism?
And why is it important? Developer evangelism can help you to drive sales and promote your product. In Guy
Kawasaki’s words:
“My recommendation is that you enable people to test drive your product or service in order to make their own
decision. Essentially, you are saying, ‘I think you’re smart. Because I think you’re smart, I’m going to enable you to
try my product to see if it works for you. I hope that it does and that we can do business.’”
In short, a developer evangelist ensures that everyone has the tools they need to succeed; they communicate with
users often, and are usually highly trained in coding and other technical skills.

11. And what about developer advocates?

12. And what about developer advocates?
You may have also heard the term “developer advocate” – is there a difference between it and developer evangelist?
The short answer is, yes!
While both terms sound similar, there are some key elements that make them stand apart. A developer evangelist puts
a product in devs’ hands, while a developer advocate is there to show and teach their audience how to use the
product.
Tim Berglund, VP DevRel at StarTree, puts it this way:
“[A developer advocate] is a person with an engineering background who is also a gifted teacher and
communicator, building sample code, giving presentations, making tutorial videos, and (as occasional
pandemics allow) traveling to in-person events to meet with your developer community face-to-face.”

13. And what about developer advocates?
Mary Thengvall, Director of Developer Relations at Camunda, has this to say about developer advocacy:
“DevRel professionals act as a liaison between their company and the technical audience – typically the end
users of the product.
“While most professionals have the best interests of the business at the front of their minds, driving their day-to-
day decisions, DevRel professionals have the best interests of the community as their driving factor.
“They, of course, care about the success of the business as well – it is, after all, what pays their bills – but they
understand that, if the community is happy and successful as a result of using the product, the business is far
more likely to succeed as well.”

14. Developer-first or developer-plus

15. Developer-first or developer-plus
Companies that implement DevRel in their operations may be developer-first or developer-plus, depending on their
focus.
The goal of developer-first businesses is to build and sell products that developers will use (so they can be seen as
business-to-developer), such as Twilio, Stripe, MongoDB, and Camunda.
As for developer-plus, these companies are more in the vein of B2B and B2C – they still consider the developer, but the
main focus is to create and sell products to other businesses or consumers in general; for instance, Qualcomm, Google,
Apple, Amazon, Salesforce, and Microsoft.

16. The benefits of developer relations

17. The benefits of developer relations
While you should focus on the benefits your product gives devs, as well as how easy it is to use, you should also take
support into account. Customers are likely to stay on if they feel supported and heard, so think about how devs like to
communicate and ensure there’s a system in place to reach and engage them.
For example, developers may have access to key documentation, but if they don’t have anyone to talk to or share ideas,
problems, and solutions, they may not stick around.
So, there are many advantages to implementing a developer relations program in your company.

18. The benefits of developer relations
Boost customer
longevity
DevRel tactics help to forge and develop relationships with devs, because
they’re more likely to choose your product and even promote it to other
people they know.
Increase customer
satisfaction levels
Happy customers are more engaged and unlikely to churn, as their needs
are being met.
Lower feature/product
costs
Developers can give you feedback every step of the way, so you end up
with a product that meets a need no matter what.
Communicate better
with devs
Communicating with them means being straightforward, avoiding sales-
y talk, getting to the point quickly, staying clear of “fluffy” language, etc.
Create developer
advocates
With DevRel techniques and strategies that engage devs, there’s a higher
likelihood they’ll want to share your product with their peers.
Deliver the right
product
Knowing your audience is crucial for this because it lets you understand
their pain points, needs, and demands, which you can then apply to your
product development.

19. Steps to a DevRel program

20. Steps to a DevRel program
It’s easy to sideline developer relations when you already have so much on your plate,
but it’s crucial not to let it become an afterthought.
DevRel programs can help you increase the engagement levels of your audience, boost
customer success, increase brand awareness, etc., so make sure you’re implementing
one in your organization.
Whether you’re flying solo or are part of a team, there are several things you can
consider when coming up with your plan.

21. Steps to a DevRel program
1. Understanding your
target audience
Getting to know your developer audience means drilling down into
demographics, psychographics, needs, etc.
2. Obtain feedback
from devs
Developers are increasingly part of the tech buying process and have
more buy-in than ever before, so listening to them can boost your
developer marketing efforts.
3. Get a DevRel team
together
They can spend more time on fostering those all-important relationships
with developers, as they can continuously reach out to them, grow your
brand awareness, interact one-on-one with devs, and so on.
4. Measure your
success
Understand what worked best and what didn’t, if everyone’s goals align in
the company, gain valuable insights into which areas to invest and focus
on, know which features developers prefer, which products are used more
often, if there are any business areas you haven’t explored, etc.
5. Act on all feedback
Listening to feedback allows you to improve your offerings, increases the
engagement levels of your audience, shows devs you’re listening to them,
makes them happier, and more.

22. IRL examples of developer relations
programs

23. IRL examples of developer relations programs
Several companies have been investing in DevRel for a very long time, including MuleSoft with their
MuleSoft Ambassadors program. This program allows ambassadors to help devs and users connect
and share their experiences, as well as speak publicly and coach others.
The result is that they can better help their product managers, get to know their personas better,
build more efficient go-to-market strategies, etc.

24. IRL examples of developer relations programs
In our article “How developer champions can help with product adoption”, Sabrina Marechal and Jason Johl, from
MuleSoft, talk to us about the importance of a developer community, how PMMs and developer community managers
can work together, how MuleSoft’s developer community is structured, how champions help with GTM strategies, and so
much more.
GitHub also has a developer relations program, though the company hasn’t invested in it as much as other
organizations. Their strategy focuses on highlighting people’s contributions, making sure devs have all the resources
they need to grow, and other grassroots tactics.

25. How to measure the impact of your DevRel
efforts

26. How to measure the impact of your DevRel efforts
The key performance indicators (KPIs) used to measure the impact of your DevRel programs will differ
from the KPIs used in your developer marketing campaign.
After all, dev marketing has different goals than DevRel, so you want to choose the right metrics to
measure.
Developer relations is about forging, maintaining and developing relationships with your audience,
while developer marketing looks at the strategies and tactics used to boost product adoption, tech
evangelization, etc.
So, when it comes to measuring DevRel impact, you should look into KPIs that focus more on
people and what they do.

27. How to measure the impact of your DevRel efforts
Boost product
awareness
You measure this KPI through metrics like number of emails opened, increased community
engagement, and number of mentions on other websites and events.
Build
relationships
with people
You can measure this KPI with metrics like increased traffic to website, a boost in social
media interactions, longer time spent on page reading your content, great quality
feedback, etc.
Grow your
community
You can monitor the views your content gets, track the number of signups to your
community or product portal, whether you’re increasing traffic to your pages, etc.
Create
documentation
You can measure the efficacy of this by checking if developers ask fewer questions after
you’ve released your product’s documentation.
Net Promoter
Score
Ask a question: “on a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend us/our product to a
friend or co-worker?” The people who answer between 0-6 are detractors, 7-8 are passive
responders, and 9-10 are promoters.
This formula calculates the Net Promoter Score: NPS = % of promoters – % of detractors. The
number of promoters should be higher than the number of responders and detractors.

28. Key takeaways

29. Key takeaways
DevRel advocates on behalf of companies for problems, features, tweaks, etc. It takes the feedback developers give to
improve the quality of the product and better understand the pain points of the people using it.
As Mary Thengvall says:
“[DevRel values] people first and technology second. This may seem backward… after all, we work for tech
companies, the success of whose products pay our bills.
“But here’s the thing… we all know that the best sales people, the best marketing folks, the best… well… PEOPLE – the
people we most enjoy being around! – prioritize people over product. This is just another reason how developer
relations is related to product, marketing, even sales, but isn’t quite the same.”

30. Read the full blog here:
developermarketing.io/what-is-developer-relations-devrel/