Each industry is unique. Who you’re writing for, where you’ll be publishing, and what you’re talking about varies widely based on your industry, your niche, and your goals. It’s so important to understand the tips and tricks related to great content creation for SaaS.
Depending on what you’re offering, Software-as-a-Service can be a very technical field that can be jargon-y and tough for the average person to understand. Great content is your chance to bridge that gap. But how do you get there? How do you ensure that you’re creating the right content that adds value to the lives of your readers?
Here are five tips to ensure you’re nailing content creation for the SaaS industry.
Work with What You Have
The best content could already be on your website. Before heading out with the goal of writing an entirely brand-new eBook or whitepaper, perform a content audit on your website. All too often, business owners forget about what they already have.
Look for similarities between blogs, case studies, and website content. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Could those ten blogs on migrating data become a great whitepaper?
It’s not uncommon – a collection of high-quality blogs can easily become a whitepaper. Or a particularly great case study can be re-purposed into an infographic explaining your process.
Content creation for SaaS is too often considered a chore, fraught with revisions. But if you take the time to audit the content you already have, you might be surprised at what you can come up with.
Know Your Audience
As mentioned earlier, who you’re speaking to can entirely change how you write. For example, if you’re writing a highly-technical blog article targeted towards current IT professionals, you’ll probably use more jargon and explore more of the details relevant to their job. This can include how to migrate data, how to customize and modify settings, and other in-depth how-to blogs.
Now imagine you’re writing for a business owner who has billion-and-one things on their to-do list, minimal IT knowledge, and no time to spare. You’ll probably cut back on the jargon and on the how-to and focus on what’s important to them. You could discuss pricing options, key features, and how to choose between two SaaS providers.
If you don’t take the time to understand your audience before jumping into content creation for SaaS, you could find yourself writing in-depth computer articles for business owners and decision-making strategic articles for IT professionals. If that happens, you’ve most likely wasted your time. Writing to your target audience is of the utmost importance when it comes to creating great content. After all, the best and most thorough how-to article in the world will still not be clear to a business owner with no software experience.
Tailor Content to Your Goals
Consider your goals before jumping into content creation for SaaS providers. Are you aiming to increase your website conversion rate? Or get that coveted number one spot on Google? The type of content that you create for these two goals is entirely different.
Blogs between 800 and 1000 words are ideal for optimizing your search engine ranking. But they won’t necessarily help you with conversions—a gated whitepaper would be more suited for that. Nailing down your goals can guide you along the content creation process.
When creating your goals, first look at your analytics. How much traffic are you receiving? Where in your lead funnel do you need the most help? If you’re looking to generate awareness, then blogs are where to start. But if you need to boost your close rate, maybe your pricing pages need some sprucing up or your contact button needs a redesign. Whatever your goals, there’s a content strategy to get you there.
Keep the Publishing Medium in Mind
Where will you be publishing your content? A blog article that will be posted to Facebook, LinkedIn, and your blog page will need a different formatting and content style than a whitepaper hidden behind a contact form. Think about it: when Facebook users click on an article in their news feed, they’re not looking to sit down and read a book. They’re just looking for a few tips to get them to their own goals.
A potential lead who has already read a few blogs and scrolled through your website is more likely to download a whitepaper. These readers are looking for in-depth information that tells them more about your product, services, education, or expertise. They’re hungry for in-depth knowledge that tells them why they should choose you.
If you’re focused on content creation for SaaS social platforms, then you should keep your articles short – as in under 1000 words with lots of headings and paragraph breaks. This makes the article easier to read on a mobile device and less overwhelming to the eye of social users.
If you’re writing a whitepaper for serious buyers, think of writing in more of a chapter book format – so, a table of contents, chapter titles, and at least 3000 words of copy. The medium you choose to publish your content on also reflects who you’re speaking to. Don’t forget to tailor your content both towards the medium and the platform when writing.
Brainstorm, Brainstorm, Brainstorm
Now here’s the real hard part of content creation for SaaS providers: what do you write about? Writer’s block happens to the best of us. To some degree, it’s unavoidable. You won’t always feel inspired to sit down and create amazing content that’ll blow your audiences’ socks off.
But if you take the time to browse your website and understand your goals and your audience, you’ll probably have an easier time choosing a topic for your next piece. Think of these three steps as a road map to your topic. Or, if you want to take the easier route, you can hire us to write for you.
At New North, we’re experienced content creators for the SaaS industry. We work with you to understand your goals and audience so you can rest assured knowing great content is headed your way. If you’re looking for more information on how our content services can grow your business, find out how our proven process helped this company in this case study.