Writing for a SaaS Blog - What's Different?

In the SaaS industry, you’d be hard-pressed to find a company that doesn’t have a blog. It’s a vital marketing tool. But in order to make the most out of your SaaS blog, it’s important to follow a slightly different model than other blogs.

In this article, we’ll explain what's different about writing for a SaaS blog and how the SaaS model impacts the content you produce. We’ll also get into how you can improve your content with a few crucial tweaks.

How the SaaS business model impacts the content you produce

SaaS businesses differ from other product-based businesses—therefore, the content you create should, too.

• Potential customers read and look for details in various places until they’re satisfied they’ve learned enough to start a trial or other low-risk first step. If you don’t make it abundantly clear on your own site how your product fits into your customer’s toolkit, then you’re missing opportunities to bring on new customers.
• Most SaaS businesses use a recurring payment model, and for that reason, customer retention is extremely important. The people reading your blog include existing customers who are looking for more information about how to use your software, in addition to potential new customers.
• In addition to this, most SaaS businesses are constantly updating and evolving their service, so your blog can play a crucial role in keeping new and existing customers clued in to updates and changes.

You need to consider how to address these factors when producing your content.

Tweak your content to support the SaaS model

Below are some pointers on how to adapt your strategy to the unique opportunities in SaaS blog writing.

Tackle product-focused content

Many businesses employ primarily ToFu content in their blog. Yes, that can help you build awareness among new customers and bring in organic traffic, but there’s a great opportunity to use middle- and bottom-of-funnel content when you’re a SaaS.

Why? Because when the buyer gets to the point where they are researching requirements and options, they are looking to collect basic information about the products they can choose from. They use sources like Google, third-party sites, and vendor content. They don’t always reach out to vendors — they want to find information themselves. If your content can satisfy the researcher’s need for information when they are on a quest to learn more about your product category and their choices within it, you can earn a higher position in their list of choices.

Product-focused content also helps your existing customers get the most out of your product. If they don't understand how to use your product well, your risk higher churn. With the average SaaS needing a customer to stick around for 18 months to cover the cost of bringing them on board, it will pay to use your blog to help educate customers.

Avoid fluff

Unlike blogs in consumer industries, people don’t read your content for entertainment or general interest.

Your blog readers are business leaders. They are looking for answers and information that can help them build knowledge, solve problems, or make an informed purchase decision. If they can’t see value in an article quickly, they’ll move on.

You need to respect their time by ensuring your content is concise and free of fluff. This means you should get to the point quickly — no long-winded introductions. Write simply. Use every word to give solid information or build on your argument. If you can delete any sentences or sections without impacting the meaning, then go ahead and delete them.

Show your expertise

When writing for SaaS blogs, it’s important that the writer conveys a high level of expertise. Showing expertise in your product category is a must if you want to build trust and seal the deal with new customers.

You can show expertise through the topics you choose and how thoroughly you address them in your blog. For example, use your blog to answer the most common questions people have who are looking into a product like yours. Discuss alternative solutions, even if it means comparing competitors. Your readers are certainly not limiting their research to your blog, so the more complete information you can provide, the more reliable a resource you become in their eyes.

This proficiency helps customers feel confident when making a purchase, because you have built up trust through expert content.

Keep a consistent presence

As a SaaS company, it’s important to build a presence online that conveys reliability. Among other important social proof, a regularly updated blog helps customers feel that your product is constantly evolving to improve user experience, too.

This doesn’t mean you have to go overboard and post a new blog every day, but you should put in place a consistent upload schedule for your content to ensure your published knowledge continues to grow and stay fresh. (Learn more about how many blog posts your company should aim to publish.)

Let the experts help with your SaaS blog content

So, there you have it: four ways to adapt your content to make it more suited for SaaS. Now, we know what you’re thinking . . . who’s got the time? That’s where SaaSpirin comes in.

Our agency can help you produce high-quality content for your SaaS blog that’s optimized for SaaS. Want to know more about how we plan, produce and publish content? Get in touch!