Simmer<\/a> has just released the Technical Marketing Handbook<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a free<\/strong> online resource, formatted as a mini-course, designed to walk the reader through the different disciplines and concepts that fall under the banner of \u201ctechnical marketing\u201d. And yes, we spend the introductory chapter explaining what that term means to us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In total, we wrote 9 chapters<\/strong>, each with 3 topics<\/strong>, for a total of around 77,000 words<\/strong>. For reference, that\u2019s about as many words as in the first Harry Potter novel.<\/p>\n \n \n Subscribe to the Simmer newsletter<\/a> to get the latest news and content from Simo Ahava into your email inbox!\n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n It started as a way of giving back to the community. We wanted to create a free resource that helps marketers better understand why Simmer exists.<\/p>\n We realized that \u201ctechnical marketing\u201d is still a very vague term, as it has a lot of overlap with \u201cdigital marketing\u201d.<\/p>\n With the Handbook, we wanted to create an introduction to Simmer\u2019s approach to digital marketing education.<\/p>\n However, soon our ambitions grew, and we decided to make it less about Simmer and more about general knowledge sharing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n From the start (and we didn\u2019t always see eye to eye on this), I wanted the resource to be completely free<\/strong>.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t want one of those online sites where content is gated away behind consent or behind subscriptions and payments.<\/p>\n This was an investment to improve the technical understanding of the entire digital marketing community, which, hopefully, translates into brand recognition for Simmer and more course sales in the future.<\/p>\n The litmus test for Handbook content was this:<\/p>\n If the reader ever participates in a discussion with an expert of a digital marketing field, can they understand what is being said and meaningfully contribute to the conversation?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n So we approached content creation from the perspective of giving enough information about the core<\/strong> topics of each field without overwhelming the reader with nittygritty details.<\/p>\n For readers that wanted more advanced content, we created Deep Dives<\/strong>, which explore some technical concepts in more detail.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n A lot of content was left out. For example, we don\u2019t really go into detail about mobile apps, devices, and SDKs<\/strong>. This was simply due to time constraints. I would have loved to explore that world in more detail, and perhaps in the future we\u2019ll have additional chapters added to the Handbook.<\/p>\n We also took a deliberate stance not<\/em> to cover Generative AI<\/strong> and Large Language Models<\/strong> in this Handbook. For one, they\u2019re still emerging tech, and any assumptions we\u2019d make of them might be outdated with future iterations of tools and services like ChatGPT<\/a>. The other reason was that for most technical marketers, these are just tools<\/strong>. We don\u2019t talk about specific tools (too much) in the Handbook, so dedicating a chapter to prompt engineering or ChatGPT integrations would have been out of character.<\/p>\n We might rethink this approach in the future, if these technologies become more prevalent (and more approachable!) in the day-to-day work of a technical marketer.<\/p>\n As I mentioned above, a lot of ideas were left on the table.<\/p>\n One thing I will be working on is an audio book<\/strong> version of the Handbook. I\u2019d like to release it as a podcast serial on Simmer\u2019s aptly named Technical Marketing Handbook podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t just read the content verbatim \u2013\u00a0there are too many visual cues and code snippets that don\u2019t translate to spoken word that well. So I\u2019ve been thinking of an abridged version for audio in particular, with additional content and examples to help flesh out the monotony.<\/p>\n I\u2019d also like to include expert interviews after each chapter, so that we can explore some fundamental concepts in more detail.<\/p>\n We\u2019re going to keep creating social media content around the concepts introduced in the Handbook \u2013\u00a0remember to follow us on LinkedIn<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>!<\/p>\n We\u2019re also looking at options to print the Handbook as an actual book, but this is still very much in its early stages.<\/p>\n One thing we do want for the Handbook is exposure<\/strong>.<\/p>\n We want everyone<\/em> in digital marketing to read it.<\/p>\n We believe that it will help improve the baseline competence of digital marketers around the world.<\/p>\n So my humble request to you is this: please share the Technical Marketing Handbook<\/a> to your network. Add it as required reading in your team\u2019s onboarding process. Share it with your parents and friends who have always wondered just what you do for a living.<\/p>\n Thank you so much.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Technical](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2024\/02\/technical-marketing-handbook.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
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\n The Simmer Newsletter<\/strong>\n <\/p>\nWhy did we create the Handbook?<\/h2>\n
![\"Handbook](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2024\/02\/handbook-chapters.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nHow did we choose the topics?<\/h2>\n
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![\"Async](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2024\/02\/deep-dive-async.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s next?<\/h2>\n
Please share the Handbook to your network!<\/h2>\n