Why documentation is one of the most important surfaces for marketers

Documentation is where deals actually happen. Not on your homepage or in a deck, but when a developer at 11pm is trying to figure out if your API can handle their edge case, or when someone three days into a trial hits a wall and has to decide whether to keep going.

A lot of companies treat docs like an afterthought, something engineering maintains when they have time. But if you're in marketing or growth for a technical product, docs deserve the same attention you give to your pricing or home page, because they're doing just as much work to move people through the funnel. And if you're not paying attention to them, you're leaving pipeline on the table.

The real moment of truth in a technical buyer’s journey

Docs are one of our biggest conversion levers. When someone is in the docs, they are already evaluating. If we make it easy for them to understand the product and get started, they move faster, convert more often, and stay longer. - Head of Enterprise Product Marketing at Baseten

Documentation influences the entire funnel in ways most marketing can never touch. It’s the first real product experience, the place where high intent users decide whether your product can solve their problem, and the surface where evaluation either accelerates or falls apart.

When developers are your primary customers, your documentation is the product. - Head of Growth at Browserbase

In other words, documentation:

• Shapes your product narrative before anything else. Many users meet your product through documentation, not your homepage. Clear docs build trust, signal maturity, and help users understand what it will take to adopt the product.
• Captures and converts the highest intent users. Documentation is where builders go when they’re already evaluating. These users are closer to signup and trial, and the quality of documentation determines whether they keep going.
• Reduces friction across the entire evaluation process. Good documentation shortens the time to first value by showing users exactly how to get started and how to unblock themselves.
• Strengthens competitive differentiation and long term adoption. Not only do potential customers compare features, but they compare how difficult adoption will be. Good docs signal operational maturity and reduce implementation risk, which often becomes the deciding factor in competitive scenarios.
• Sustains engagement and improves retention. Documentation becomes the ongoing reference customers rely on. Clear, dependable docs keep users productive, reduce frustration, and support long term growth.

But what is good documentation?

Good documentation only converts when it reflects the reality of your product. When docs stay accurate, users don't get blocked and can continue moving forward. This is especially important as docs are being read by not only humans but also by AI agents that humans send out to find answers.

The Mintlify agent strengthens this loop by monitoring for changes in your product, proposing updates, and helping teams maintain docs that are always ready for both humans and AI to interpret.

The agent can also generate new content from prompts or links, update outdated code and API references, and search and revise existing pages all with natural language in the dashboard or through Slack.

Bonus: contributing to docs just got easier

Beyond the agent, Mintlify’s editor and collaboration tools open up documentation workflows even further, making it easier for more teammates to contribute.

• Visual configuration editor with live preview
• Faster drag and drop media handling
• Shareable previews for easier cross-team collaboration

Learn how our chief of staff created our internal knowledge base using the agent and editor

Get started with Mintlify for your developer documentation today

Good documentation is one of the most powerful levers you have, because it meets high intent users at the exact moment they're deciding whether your product can solve their problem. It shapes the narrative long before a sales conversation, removes friction from evaluation, and becomes the reference point customers rely on long after they sign up.

Additionally, when marketing, growth, and more have the ability to influence and maintain this surface, the story stays consistent from first impression to deep product usage.

Get started with Mintlify for your developer documentation today