Finding Great SaaS Content Writers for Inbound Marketing

If there’s one rule to follow when finding a great SaaS content writer, it’s this: are they speaking your language?

With the explosion of SaaS in the last couple of decades, competition has turned the water red. And it’ll only get bloodier still considering the SaaS industry’s projected growth.

According to this study, the SaaS industry will grow from its current $145.5 billion value to $418 billion by 2025. Thus, it’s unsurprising that thousands of SaaS companies are popping out like dandelions in this space.

And with this saturation comes fierce competition. The main obstacle for a content marketer in this space today is how to attract and retain customers.

We’ll focus our attention on the first one since this blog covers content writing. Specifically, finding great SaaS content writers for inbound marketing.

To begin, we’ll first define what is inbound marketing. And why is goal setting important to inbound marketing.

What is Inbound Marketing?

In its purest form, inbound marketing refers to creating content that attracts web visitors. You’ll then attempt to convert these visitors into paying clients.

SEO, social media, and content digital marketing are just some of the many strategies you can use here.
So how does inbound marketing differ from outbound marketing?

Outbound marketing involves actively reaching out to potential clients and converting them as paying customers. Think advertisements through Google, social media, and other channels where your target market might reside.

Conversely, inbound marketing is where you create rich and useful content to pull visitors to your site. This allows you to bolster your authority and build your brand image.

By doing so, you’re positioning yourself as a thought leader in your specific market.

SaaS Writers for Inbound Marketing

Finding great SaaS content writers for inbound marketing has a lot of challenges. That’s because it’s not enough to be a content writer alone.

They may have experience writing web content for years. But they’ll need certain know-how about SaaS for them to fit the bill.

Ask these questions to your candidates:

• Do they have experience writing in the SaaS industry?
• Do they have experience writing for B2B SaaS?
• What about B2C SaaS?
• Do they know the difference between B2B and B2C sales?
• How knowledgeable are they regarding the end-user era?

These are just some of the many questions you should ask when sifting through applicants.

A writer can prove they’ve been writing content for years. But what if they’ve been writing in niches unrelated to your SaaS company?

It’s fine if their background is on marketing since it overlaps with the SaaS industry. But sports, yoga, and cooking are irrelevant here.

So here are 4 tips on how to find SaaS writers. And great inbound digital marketing SaaS writers, at that.

1. Knowledge about the SaaS industry

We’ve touched upon this earlier but let’s dive deeper. When screening for candidates, you’ll need to gauge their level of understanding of the SaaS industry from three different perspectives.

These are:

• Understanding your specific SaaS industry
• Understanding your company
• Understanding your product

Let’s explore each one.

Understanding your specific industry

Here, your questions will focus on the writer’s knowledge about your niche. Ask them what they know about the market.

Who are the big players? How is your SaaS niche shaping up? Is there new software that’s making a lot of noise? If so, how is the company generating this hype?

Understanding your company

Understanding your company means knowing where you are in the industry.

• Are you a newcomer that’s working on acquiring early adopters?
• Are you in the middle of your sales funnel where your SaaS content is geared towards pushing readers to commit to your solution?
• Or are you at the later stage where you’re trying to transform loyal customers into advocates?

If a candidate can easily evaluate your position in your industry, it’s easier for them to create engaging content.

What’s more, they can smoothly transition between your sales funnel and produce captivating pieces. All while highlighting why your solution is the best option for your readers.

Understanding your product

A candidate who has experience in SaaS content marketing can easily determine the value of your product relative to your market. What’s more, they can evaluate its unique selling proposition (USP) by asking the right questions.

As a startup, you want to focus your content marketing on your USP. And a great SaaS writer could quickly come up with ways in marketing that USP to make it more appealing to your target market.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a new feature or the price is lower than the competition. What matters is how the writer can create a narrative around it that ultimately ends at solving your customer’s pain points.

Of course, you shouldn’t expect your candidates to intimately know all of these. But they need to have a basic understanding of each one. Especially if they’re claiming they’ve written for this industry before.

2. SaaS Content Writing Test

After getting a gauge of a candidate’s understanding of the SaaS industry and your solution, it’s time for the test. This test will evaluate the skills of a writer.

That goes from their ability to structure their paragraphs to their skill and understanding of strategically placing keywords all over the piece.

Here are some of the rookie mistakes you need to watch out for when choosing your next SaaS content writer.

Blocks of text

Blocks of text are generally avoided in content marketing as it makes the article difficult to read. A visitor clicks the blog, is greeted with a wall of text, and leaves.

As a result, the site’s bounce rate suffers, among other things. To remedy this, experience content writers would use one-sentence paragraphs, subheads, bullet points, and strategically placed images to break the blocks of text.

This way, white space is created and the entire piece doesn’t look like a chore to read.

Run-on sentences

Similar to blocks of text, run-on sentences can easily dissuade the visitor to keep reading. That’s because it takes a lot of mental stamina to consume a run-on sentence.

A savvy content writer would break these run-on sentences into bite-size pieces. Here’s an example.

Run-on sentence:

Content marketers are incredibly important for SaaS companies as they’re the foundation of inbound marketing, which is where you attract leads and attempt to convert them into paying clients.

This sentence has 31 words on it. Now imagine reading an entire article structured the same way. It’ll feel like you’re endlessly sprinting.

Consider this alternative.

Content marketers are incredibly important for any SaaS business. That’s because they’re one of the foundations of inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing is where you publish a lot of content in your industry in a bid to attract more visitors.

More visitors mean more cold leads. More cold leads mean more chances of converting them into hot leads. And more hot leads could translate to increase revenue.

It’s easier to read, right? That’s because the sentence with the highest word count in that paragraph is only 20 words. That’s the limit you’re looking for.

Of course, a blog content writer would sometimes go over that limit. But that should only be contained in a handful of instances.

Bonus tip: use HemmingwayApp to evaluate the reading score of your candidate’s sample articles. The target should be 7 or below. 8 is still acceptable but it’s already pushing the limit.

HemmingwayApp is free so you don’t have to worry about subscription payments. Although you can opt for that option too.

As for the reason, quality content almost always means easier reading. And easier reading is best when the readability score is at 7 or lower.

It’s easy to digest. There are fewer passive voices. And sentences aren’t packed with confusing ideas.

Doesn’t space keywords properly

Spacing out keywords is a simple enough task for any experienced SaaS content marketing writer. What you want here is to sprinkle your keywords all over the piece.

That way, it doesn’t appear repetitive to the reader. This is especially important if the writer is dealing with long-tail keywords.

For instance, some of you eagle-eyed readers may have already spotted these keywords in this piece. But they aren’t easy to identify as they’re practically hidden in plain sight.

I’ll leave it up to you to find these long-tail keywords.

Doesn’t use coherent markers

Coherent markers are words and phrases that tie sentences together into a comprehensible paragraph.

Synonyms, repetitive phrases, pronouns, and transitional words. These are coherent markers that are often used to accomplish this.

Here’s an example.

When finding great SaaS content writers for inbound marketing, one sign to look for is the use of coherent markers. This literary device aids the reader in transitioning from one sentence to the next effortlessly.

The problem is when they’re used near each other. Thus, the trick is to space them out.

That way, the content writer delivers a smooth reading experience. And a smooth reading experience could encourage the visitor to read more of your published pieces.

As you can see, this paragraph has a bunch of coherent markers. But each of these markers is different. You have synonyms, repetitive phrases, and transitional words helping the reader cross each sentence.

That’s the power of coherent markers in content creation. And if it’s present in the writing of your candidate, you may have found your mark.

There are other signs out there but these four are a great foundation to start with.

3. Data-driven

When it comes to content marketing strategy, data is king. And every blog content creator knows this.

As such, SaaS writers who are worth their salt will almost always ask how their articles are doing. That way, they can evaluate these articles and adjust accordingly based on the results.

Moreover, content writers will also ask opinions about technical details and your overarching goals. This could include:

• The CTA they’re using
• The meta title and meta description of the article
• What the rest of your marketing team is doing (Ads, social media, forum engagements)
• Key metrics on their articles (page views, average time on page, average pages per session)

All of these are crucial for your SaaS business. As mentioned earlier, the more visitors are landing on your site, the more chances you’ll get at converting them into paying clients.

4. They speak directly to your target audience

This is arguably the most important factor when choosing a writer for your content marketing strategy. Even if your SaaS SEO manages to attract readers, it’s all for naught if the writer can’t connect with your audience.

And to do that, they need to speak your audience’s language. While this is true for any marketing strategy, it’s even more important in SaaS as you’re selling an intangible product.

SaaS companies need to highlight the pain points their solution is solving. And that endeavor falls in the hands of your content writer.

Here are some of the signs your candidate can connect with your audience:

• Their sample writing speaks with you and your team
• They ask about your company’s buyer persona
• Their writing highlights pain points that your community is repeatedly complaining about
• The writer asks if they’ve nailed down your company’s voice
• The writer goes out of their way to ask the sales team’s perspectives
• They can use humor that’s also used by your community or target audience

But as the SaaS business owner yourself, you could also help out in this. How?

Well, the simplest one is to ask your community yourself on social media. Try to be genuine and ask them if the blogs on your site are speaking to them as intended.

Only then will you truly know that your content marketing is working. And if your content writer is worth the investment.

How to Find SaaS Writers: Your Overarching Goals

Of course, all of this is assuming you’re planning to grow your content writing team in-house. If you are, then it may take some time before you see your investment bear fruit.

However, if you’re planning to hire a writing agency for your content writing strategy, that’s a different ballgame. We’ve covered that topic here so you might want to check that out.

But the gist of it is choosing an agency that’s already operating within your industry. This way, you’re confident that they know what they’re doing.

And if you’re still on the fence, you could interview them. Again, those interview questions are included in our blog post linked above.

For more SaaS strategies and related reading, you can visit our KenMoo blog here.