I’m standing in a small bathroom with another man, feeling a little foolish.

The electrician wasn’t telling me anything I hadn’t already found. And yet, it sounded different coming from him.

Any idea why?

Here’s the rest of the story, and why I think it’ll help you reach more developers:

When we moved into our house, we learned that the bathroom had heated tile. This was a level of fancy that we had not experienced. It was winter, so we were looking forward to the warmth from below.

Except, the thermostat that controlled it had an error. When I Googled it, my heart sank: there might be a shortage in the heating element. The thing covered in tile and grout.

Just as quickly as I got excited for heated floors, I let go of the dream. We weren’t going to tear up the bathroom.

And so it remained for YEARS.

I’d walk into the bathroom, feel the cold tile on my feet, and sigh in the direction of the error code on a useless thermostat.

Until one day when an electrician replaced an outlet in our kitchen. We asked him to also look at the bathroom issue.

He went to his truck and came back a few minutes later: “I Googled it, and it sounds like there’s a shortage in the heating element…”

I nodded sadly. He continued.

“Or you just need to replace the thermostat, so I’d try that first.”

Wait, what? Could it be that simple? (It was).

I saw the same Google results as the electrician but assumed the shortage was the likely answer. Yet, his interpretation of those search results made me trust it more.

Because I trusted him.

You can’t send your team to sit with every developer who finds you. Instead, your technical content needs to build their trust.

Too often, it erodes trust. Which leads to ​developers being unresponsive to your marketing​.

When you add trust signals into your technical content, when you are genuinely helpful to devs, they’re more likely to accept your advice.

Including the advice to use your company’s product.