George is at least in his 80s, maybe older.

He’s long retired, but volunteers for the university we both attended… more than four decades apart.

That’s how I got to know him and learn a key piece of wisdom from him.

If he’d only said it once, I might have forgotten. But I’ve heard George use this phrase on multiple occasions.

We probably all do that. At SendGrid I said “Share Knowledge Not Features” enough times that one of my co-workers made me a sticker:

That still remains a refrain that I use to explain the content philosophy we use at EveryDeveloper. Education (share knowledge) is more important than promotion (features of your product).

George’s phrase could just as easily enter my content strategy lexicon.

“At my age, I don’t buy green bananas”

When you come upon bananas at the grocery store, it’s common to see a gradient of colors between green and yellow.

Given time, the green ones will ripen and turn yellow. They’ll be just as good as the yellow bananas, but only if you can wait for them to be ready.

George may as well be talking about your content strategy investments.

And this is where you might expect me to argue the long game.

It’s true, developer engagement takes time. Content can take time.

But you don’t need to unnecessarily lengthen that timeframe.

There are yellow bananas to be had on the content strategy shelf. When we work with clients, we advocate for ​middle-of-the-funnel topics​ and I think George would do that same.

Especially in this market (say it with me), I don’t buy green bananas.

Top-of-the-funnel content takes too long to ripen. Bottom-of-the-funnel will only find the ones who already know you (and like over-ripe bananas).

But here’s the thing: middle-of-the-funnel topics only work if you can provide an accurate translation between your audience’s technical problems and your product’s solutions.

It’s not quite as easy as grabbing the right shade of banana from the produce section.

But a lot of effort gets wasted on generic, green banana content.

Identify your audience’s problems, then educate them on what your company has learned about solving those issues.

I share the exact middle-of-the funnel framework we use with clients in Technical Content Strategy Decoded.