How to Promote and Market your API: Follow the Hype Train
This blog is part of our full guide on API Promotion and Marketing strategies. Check it out
Marketing Starts at Development Time#
Believe it or not but you do not need to wait until your API is complete before you start marketing it. Actually, I will say that if you waited until development was completed to think about marketing, you're doing it wrong!
APIs can be considered products, and like any other products, the actual development stages can be considered opportunities for marketing. Many viral products on Kickstarter or Shark Tank are in the middle of product development, but they decide to unveil themselves in order to test the market for a reaction and build hype. Similarly, there are tactics we as developers can employ to help drive attention to our APIs during their development.
One thing I am going to assume going forward is that you already have done your research on the market and have a strong conviction behind the API your are developing.
#buildinginpublic & Hype-driven Development#
A common trend I noticed is that developers have a strong attachment to dev brands, especially for languages/technologies/platforms they have already built with. They will hype up new releases for "their tools", and viciously tear down others for using anything else (see Rustaceans and GOphers). This is often uncorrelated with how well-suited that tool is for the problem they are solving - picture your one friend who raves about BMW and drives a falling-apart 3-series. They love the brand and what it stands for, and support it within their means.
What does this have to do with API development? Well - it's an easy way to promote your API during development!
- Develop your API using tools that are hype at the moment (and are still well-suited of course). Alternatively, you can choose niche tools with a cult following - but this approach carries risk if you scale and need support
- Every time you push a new feature/endpoint, spam Twitter with an emoji-ridden post about your progress, mention ALL of the hype tools you are using, tag it #buildinpublic , and attach a nice-looking screenshot
- If the tool you use has a community (ex. Discord, forum, etc.) check to see if there is a showcase section where you can share your projects. For example, Supabase has madwithsupabase.com
- If you run into issues during development or solve a particularly difficult problem, make sure to write them down so you can blog about them. This can be the start of your content marketing strategy, and developers love blogs that show them how to resolve a bug they encountered. By using a "hype tool" you likely will get an SEO boost as its more likely developers will be searching for content around that tool
If you don't believe me, here's an example from Twitter I pulled from a few weeks ago. By constantly promoting your API, you can recruit early users/testers. These people are likely transferring the authority and respect they have for the tools you used onto your project - and are maybe wondering if/how they can build something similar, too. By engaging with the broader community, you are effectively priming your first set of users once you are ready to launch. It's important that you do this under your personal account however, developers are allergic to feeling like they are being directly marketing to, especially through astroturfing.
Another side benefit of this approach is getting early validation of your idea. In any business, it's usually better to fail fast on bad ideas so you can go back to the drawing board.
Next Steps#
We're not done with development-time marketing of your API yet! Read our next article on how to promote your API using an OpenAPI spec. You can also read our Ultimate Guide to API Promotion and Marketing for a more holistic understanding of the problem.
FAQ#
What tools should I use?#
Well, that definitely depends on when you are reading this. In 2024, here's some dev tools people are using that are pretty hype
Database
- Supabase
- Firebase/Firestore
- Turso
- Neon
API Frameworks
- Huma (Go)
- FastAPI (python)
- Fastify (JS/TS)
- Fuego (Go)
- tRPC (for rpc based APIs)
- GraphQL Yoga
API Tooling
- Zuplo (API gateway)
- Vacuum (linting)
- Bruno (testing)
- RateMyOpenAPI (linting)
- StepCI (testing)
- Typespec (schemas)
Where should I post?#
I think this will depend on what type of API you are developing (ex. if you are targeting a specific industry, there might be forums where those industry members exclusively congregate). Generally I think LinkedIn, Twitter, Reddit (various programming subreddits as well as the subreddit for your tool(s)), and Discord are great places to share.
