API Evangelism Strategy: Developer Outreach

I’m working with the Cashtie API to pull together an API evangelism strategy for the payments API. As I pull together, it seems like a great opportunity to share with you. Who knows, maybe you can use some of the elements in your own API strategy.

Next up is developer engagement, and focusing on the ways you reach out to API consumers. You don’t need to describe every way you are going to engage with developers, but you should make sure and pick a handful of channels and stick with them, regularly reaching out to developers, providing a communication platform they can depend on.

There are some proven approaches to developer outreach:

  • Fresh Engagement - Emailing new developers who have registered to see what their immediate needs are, while their registration is fresh in their minds
  • Active User Engagement - Reaching out to existing, active users of an API and find out what they need. Profile them, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and pull any profile information, then grade and categorize each developer
  • Historical Engagement - Emailing historical active and / or inactive developers to engage and understand what their needs are and would make them active or increase activity, consider newsletter or personalized emails when appropriate
  • Social Engagement - When emailing any developer, using Rapportive you can establish any URL, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn profile they have and reach out via these networks

There are many other ways to reach out to developers, but you should have a regular rhythm for reaching out to new developers, existing developers will re-enforce relationships with your developers consistently through the channels that make the most sense.

If developers know they will get regularly information from you via a newsletter, and that you are accessible via common social media channels, they are more likely to reach out when they need help, and have you in the back of their mind when they do encounter a problem that your API provides a solution to.