The Must-Have Guide on How to Master SaaS Copywriting

By 2022, it’s been forecast that businesses will spend over $171 billion on SaaS solutions. That heralds even greater opportunities for SaaS providers, but it also means a surge in competition.

Nobody goes to the local store to buy SaaS products. We read and research about them online. Therefore, for SaaS providers, your copy is crucial. It creates the vital first impression that dictates whether potentials will convert.

In this guide, we cover simple steps to unlock the potential of your service, drive sales, and reduce churn. Let’s start by getting to know your users.

Know Your Audience

Before you can write, you need to know who you’re writing for. Gather the information that’s already out there. Read your reviews and socials feedback. Get a feel for how your users talk and their tone. Speak to them directly on Twitter. Look at ways of generating more customer reviews.

Surveys

The users you already have are a goldmine of information. Usually, you’d use their feedback to improve your services, but this is also a great way of tuning in to how they think and speak. This knowledge can feed into the next step.

Create an ideal customer profile (ICP)

An ICP is a semi-fictional representation of your audience. It’s a persona that sits in the sweet spot in the middle of your demographic. Stitch together your own beautiful Frankenstein!

Include practical information such as their age, gender, and income. Where do they live and work? Just as important, include psychographic details such as:

Their pain points
Their hopes and ambitions
Their hobbies
What socials they use
Which influencers they follow

Get to know your ICP. Give them a name and make them your muse. They’re the screen on which you’ll project your brilliant ideas. But who else wants to talk to your ICP?

Your competitors

To stand out from the competition, you need to know them well. Analyze their tone and their marketing strategies. What do you offer that’s different? How is your voice unique?

Secondary targets

Remember when you talk to your potentials that they might not be your only target. You may have to persuade their manager or CEO as well, all of whom will have varying degrees of technical knowledge.

If you talk tech, you risk dividing your audience. Unite them by addressing their pain points and offering solutions. At the heart of this, what is the key benefit you offer? Make sure you mention it in your copy.

Identify your unique value proposition.

Identify Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

Before you can write, you need to know what you’re writing about. It will take time to refine your UVP, but at its core are two simple questions.

1. What are the needs of your potential?

2. How can you meet those needs?

Address both of these questions with a simple phrase using direct language. This core insight/mission statement should inform everything from your copywriting to your sales training method.

You could talk about features and technical details. You might obsess about them night and day. But they won’t fascinate your potentials in the same way. You might have the most technically innovative SaaS on the market, but the details will have niche appeal to your audience.

It’s far more persuasive to explain how your service can positively affect your prospects’ lifestyles, and that’s exactly what your UVP should clarify.

Now you know how to grab your prospects’ attention, what do you want them to do?

Tell your prospects what you want them to do.

Call to Action Without Distraction

Before you can write, you need to know where you’re guiding your reader. A call to action (CTA) tells your prospects what you want them to do next. What that is will depend on where your prospects are in your sales funnel.

For example, an initial CTA might be to click on a link to your website. That’s a relatively low level of commitment. You might ask them to:

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Once your prospect has seen your website or landing page, you want them to take the next step.

Start your free seven-day trial
Get your free consultation

Next, it’s time to make the onboarding step as seamless and attractive as possible.

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But this is not the end of the journey. The lifetime value (LTV) of your users should be key to your project timeline. Provide your converts with useful information and relevant upselling offers, such as:

Go premium
Get an extra 100 GB of cloud storage

Your prospects might not be ready to convert yet, so you could also offer a lower commitment CTA option.

Find out more
Read our testimonials

Relevant links in articles are great for SEO, but avoid them on your landing pages and in marketing materials. Don’t distract your potentials from your CTA. If you must include a link, use simple anchor text and set the link to open in a fresh tab.

All your copy should be guided by the power of your UVP and compel readers towards your CTA.

Perfect your tone of voice.

Tone of Voice

Before you can write, know how you want to sound. Your prospects will use multiple platforms and channels, often in conjunction. Your voice and tone need to be as consistent as your messages.

Your tone should be versatile enough to work on different channels, yet consistent enough to feel familiar. Your messages should be adapted to each platform in the same way images are optimized for various socials.

That applies to the copy on all media, from the scripts for your videos to the chatbots on your blog.

Richer Language Makes You Richer

There were a few ideas for that headline. “Get Rich With Rich Words” is okay, but it doesn’t end on the keyword. What I want to communicate is the idea of you, the reader, getting richer through the use of emotive writing and powerful imagery, which in turn drives sales for your SaaS.

Here’s how to do it.

Active language should be used

There’s nothing grammatically wrong with this subhead. Except that “used” is a past tense word. Therefore…

*Use active language

…is more powerful. It addresses the reader in the here-and-now and uses fewer words. This isn’t always possible, of course. Don’t force active language on your readers if it doesn’t flow.

Questions are more powerful than statements

Are questions more powerful than statements? Yes. And that’s what you want from your readers. It’s an easy goal, even if you don’t like writing. Get them to say “yes”. Then they will say yes to your CTA. For example:

Do you get too much SPAM in your inbox? Yes.
Do important messages get lost or forgotten? Yes.
Do your inbox searches return confusing results? Yes.
Click here for a free trial. Yes.

Emotional propositions are more powerful than intellectual ones

Think about your ICP. Empathize with them. You need to show a thorough understanding of their day-to-day life. Keep your language bold and simple.

For example, “Achieve the perfect work/life balance” is way more engaging and persuasive than “Unify your comms with a single user-friendly platform”. The latter describes the product perfectly but without any emotional resonance.

Of course, new and complex services will need explaining. If you’re selling business processes, you will likely have to provide a BPaaS definition.

Balance positives and negatives

Use too much positive language and you’ll sound like a teleshopping presenter. Too much negative language and you’ll make your doom-and-gloom content – and by extension your software – unappealing. Fluctuate between push and pull factors to engage your readers and avoid monotony.

Keep it minimal.

Formatting

Keep your paragraphs short and your sentences shorter. Highlight important phrases with bold text. Break up copy with headings, subheads, bullet points, and numbered lists.

Landing pages

Different channels attract different demographics. Ideally, you should build a unique landing page for each. Remote employee management services, for example, could appeal to a broad church.

Tailor the language, tone, and CTA to each audience. You can gauge which are most effective using A/B testing, and the more landing pages you make, the more refined they’ll become.

The less text on a page, the more your message stands out. Don’t clutter your landing pages with information. It’s likely your potentials will skim-read your content. Therefore it’s better to split your copy across a few pages.

Testimonials

A glowing review is powerful, particularly if the brand is one your potentials recognize and trust. But just like your copy, testimonials need to be precise and specific about the benefits of your service. On the other hand, a simple “It’s great!” won’t get you very far. Try to include a broad range of clients to maximize your appeal.

Mailing lists

Like your testimonials, you should break up your database into as many different categories and demographics as possible so you can customize your message and tone. Behavioural emails can help here. The most important differentiator is between converts and prospects.

Prospects mailing list

Give your prospects useful tips and valuable information. Remember, you’re not simply selling your product. You’re helping your readers to achieve their ambitions and explaining how your service can help them do so.

Converts mailing list

Give your converts information about new features, services, or plans. Remind them about your service to prevent churn.

Keep Up!

Every aspect of your SaaS marketing strategy is subject to change. Social movements and political events alter the way people think. Buying habits continually evolve. If you keep saying the same things in the same way, eventually your message will stagnate, however powerful it is. Adopt a more malleable approach.

Writing great copy isn’t rocket science. You don’t have to dazzle your readers with technical jargon. Rather, tell relatable stories in plain English that captivate their imaginations. Less Stephen Hawking, more Stephen King.

Isn’t it time you turned your copy on its head and made it the best in the market?

Bio:

Jenna Bunnell – Senior Manager, Content Marketing, Dialpad

Jenna Bunnell is the Senior Manager for Content Marketing at Dialpad, an AI-incorporated cloud-hosted unified communications system with a virtual contact center solution that provides valuable call details for business owners and sales representatives. She is driven and passionate about communicating a brand’s design sensibility and visualizing how content can be presented in creative and comprehensive ways. Here is her LinkedIn.