Writing B2B SaaS articles isn’t about hammering away with a few statistics, keywords, and KPIs. That's a fast track to no sign-ups and virtually non-existent brand trust. Yet, it’s the sad reality of so many business blogs circulating the web.
Instead of taking that approach, consider applying the principles and strategies of reader experience (RX) writing.
It’s a term we coined at dslx based on putting the reader first when writing. And it’s especially important for B2B SaaS. Here’s why.
A quick recap on core RX writing principles and building your RX writing base
In the first part of this guide on RX writing, I talked about a few principles to make reading your content remarkably easy for readers. The OG principles still apply. Here they are in a curiously cramped nutshell if you’re not too keen on deep dives:
- Your content should come from a place of radical empathy: Take them by the hand, feel their pain (points), and guide them through a solution
- Put important information first: This principle applies to both the sentence and the heading level
- Increase the rate of revelation: AKA tell me something I don’t know or I'm outta here
- Use empty space to outline important information: Putting empty space around a phrase makes it clearer, increases dramatic effect, and guides your reader’s eyes.
- Be consistent: We’re hard-wired to be attracted to patterns. That goes for visuals, sentence cases, voice, and tone.
- Make important stuff stand out: Boldface helps emphasize essential information. Underlining can help you emphasize too, but should be used sparingly. Italicizing signifies a subtle emphasis or change in tone. Avoid using all three at the same time, if possible. I can’t think of a single instance where that’d be necessary—except that one just now.
Why B2B SaaS needs better reading experiences
Want your business booming?
Then stop making it boring.
Let’s face it. Nobody wakes up on a sunny day, puts on their favorite bathrobe, makes themselves a piping cup of coffee, and thinks:
“Gee, I really like fiddling around with a bunch of project management tools. I just need to read these 14 lists that all practically look the same and purchase the right choice, or I’ll lose my job! I live for this stuff!”
Ok, some people might thoroughly enjoy reading through product case studies. If you do, my email is armin@dslxcontent.com. Please explain yourself, and we’ll make you an SME—that’s pretty rare stuff.
Most see it as a job to do. As such, B2B SaaS blog posts are a means to an end for your readers. They guide your readers toward fulfilling your business goals. What’s more—reading B2B SaaS blog posts right now is hard work. Nobody’s doing it for kicks. Readers often need to:
- Engage in a convoluted process of intensive research
- Browse through keyword-stuffed and AI-generated rambling posing as case studies
- Talk to higher-ups before they even think of shortlisting providers
So if that “schedule a demo” button seems farther away from your reader’s fingertips than ever, that’s because it is. Mentally, at least.
How RX writing can help
Why not make the whole shebang more enjoyable?
RX writing takes your reader’s entire experience into consideration. It recognizes the radical idea that corporate decision-makers in tech like to be spoken to like real human beings (revolutionary concept, I know). Professionals aren’t suddenly immune to the spectrum of human emotion just because they’re doing research on behalf of their business.
Even the language companies use often dehumanizes their readers. Fiona, who’s rushing back to daycare because her son just threw up, isn’t a “user” or a “lead.” She has fears and desires, and likes being engaged just like everyone else. And keeping that in mind lets us write better reading experiences and helps her make better decisions.
Yes, you still need to make a case for your product—statistics, studies, and all. No, that does not mean your content can read like sandpaper across their noggin.
Unfortunately, a lot of B2B SaaS content currently does the latter.
SaaS content provides benefits, sure. It does a good job of demonstrating the product. However, it fails to create mind-blowingly memorable experiences that consistently grip readers and keep them coming back to your brand.
Ultimately, B2B SaaS needs a dose of RX writing to help create a stronger experience for readers. Your aim isn’t just to give them the most helpful information as effortlessly as possible—but to ensure they have a damn good time getting that information, too!
5 Key RX strategies for B2B SaaS writing
The previous chapter on RX writing focused on designing reading experiences that readers can effortlessly blaze through. These principles apply to every niche, whether you're writing about soup or supercomputers.
However, RX writing for this niche goes the extra mile because B2B SaaS content is:
- Technical (meaning the subject matter gets complicated fast)
- Usually filled with AI-speak (before AI, we just called them old-fashioned cliches)
- Just one touchpoint in a complicated and messy buyer’s journey
It’s not about skimming a few articles and making a purchase. Much more is at stake for your readers! You’d think all those flying factors would make B2B content better. But it hasn’t.
The RX principles that will help you make it better:
- Hit pain points after KPIs
- Have a conversation with readers
- Use your real experience
- Be serious but not boring
- Avoid jargon
1. Paint me a picture: What does hitting a KPI feel like? 🖼️
Here’s an exercise I want you to try. Start by closing your eyes and imagining a KPI
(unless you’re driving or operating heavy machinery. If either, I recommend revisiting this article later). Any KPI will do the trick. I personally went with customer retention. Try it for 30 seconds; I’ll wait.
Done? Awesome.
Chances are you couldn’t do it. That’s not your fault; it’s just that KPIS are abstract, cerebral concepts. They’re not directly connected to specific senses or experiences. That makes them incredibly hard to engage with on a deeper level. On one side, you’re telling me that buying your organizational plan can boost customer retention by 15%. And while that’s definitely rational, marketing has never been about just the rational—what about the other 50% of being human: the experiential?
To make the experience more relatable, you need to remind readers the results you’re promising aren’t just abstract numbers on a screen. Your content leads to tangible benefits and fends off excruciating pain points.
Tie your benefits and results to an image of your target audience’s ideal outcome.
This goes back to the RX principle of radical empathy. You need to understand your users inside and out—that includes their deepest desires and end goals.
What does success look like for them?
Here’s a table with a set of common KPIs businesses usually intend to reach, along with what reaching them really feels and looks like:
Of course, there’s a limit.
Many SaaS brands like to keep things strictly professional, and you should always get the green light from higher-ups on how direct you can be in your content. Some businesses might think being so outspoken with benefits is in bad taste. And I don’t want to be forever known as the guy who told B2B SaaS writers to take a verbal sledgehammer to their client’s brand voice.
That’s why the benefits we (dslx, back me up on this) mentioned above range from elegantly reserved to refreshingly unhinged (BRB, got to go update some tone of voice documents). Here's a word from our sponsors in the meantime.
2. Talk to your reader like they’re in the room
I remember going out one night with a friend. As we passed upon the usual topics of vacations, lifting programs, and some of our favorite books, they told me about a problem. Namely, they had an issue with writing emails to clients. They absolutely hated it and always ended up sending memos out with a typo or two.
I suggested Grammarly.
My friend then went on to talk about potential problems of using the service. I addressed each, and within 35 minutes of back and forth, he made a subscription.
I hear you. What’s that got to do with writing? This is inbound marketing, not sales.
But that’s precisely the issue. Real writing is a conversation with your reader. You use radical empathy to envision who you’re writing to and address their potential concerns within the text before they even voice them out loud. If you want an example, reread what I just asked you four sentences ago.
When you can envision and address reader concerns before they materialize into comic book-esque question marks above their heads, you create a deeper connection. It makes them feel understood while positioning you as a credible source for all their problems.
Too much of the time, we as writers see an empty Google doc and think we’re writing into a void. But we’re not. That empty space is there so you can fill it in with your target audience.
3. Your experience matters (even Google says so!)
Brands don’t write content. People write content for brands. Google knows this. It also knows that a brand’s CEO, as knowledgeable as they are, isn’t the one cranking out endless listicles on a topic. Are the bots becoming self-aware?
Not quite.
But they are becoming smart enough to prioritize content written by people who have credible experience.
That’s where Google’s site reputation policy comes into play. As of last year, Google penalizes websites that don’t have proper attribution. In other words, if your article doesn’t have an author’s name in sight, it'll likely rank worse. Google has also decided to prioritize pieces by users who have first-hand knowledge and write in the first person.
The main idea is that it helps bury the keyword-stuffed, jargon-dense, AI-generated, buzzword-spinning, old-statistic-using, content-mill-churned, humanity-depraved, hyper-optimized, slop to the 563rd page of Google. Writers who actually have industry knowledge and experience will then have a chance to come out of the woodwork and rank for content that actually helps solve problems.
4. Serious ≠ boring | engaging ≠ frivolous
One of the biggest miscategorizations of today’s B2B SaaS content is that it sacrifices engagement in an effort to be serious. There’s often a preconceived notion that to be professional, you have to abstain from both wit and warmth.
This results in stifled, stuffy content that’s a real drag to read—just another item on a busy business buyer’s to-do list. RX writing maintains the opposite. Engaging writing is especially important for B2B SaaS because the subject matter takes a lot of brainpower to process. Your case studies will be about statistics, percentages, and fulfilling long-term business objectives. It’s a subject that naturally induces reader fatigue, so if you want to open hearts and change minds, then it’s time to show off a little personality.
However, this doesn’t mean you have to be unprofessional. Here’s an example of how dslx has helped Chameleon, a tech solution for no-code onboarding UX, with witty intros full of storytelling.
5. Cut down on jargon and cliches
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landsc… Had you for a second, didn’t I?
If there’s anything that disconnects your reader faster than a sudden power outage, it’s probably the use of cliches, jargon, and AI-speak. People don’t talk that way. They just think that’s what business people sound like, so they imitate it.
In fact, many professionals are so used to heavy business jargon in writing that an absence of cliche buzzwords and bot speak sounds almost daring in clarity. mThere's a lot of them out there, so I've created a list of words that are trying hard to sound smart, yet are eclipsed by simple alternatives. Note that there are still instances when you will use jargon-like words, but only when the context calls for it.
Learn to write B2B SaaS that doesn’t put your readers to sleep
There you have it: five reader experience (RX) writing strategies you can start using to freshen up your B2B SaaS articles today. Combine them with the RX principles I’ve outlined for any niche, and you’re almost ready to start.
While we imagine you’ve reopened that first draft Google doc from last week, don’t make changes just yet. We have a whole bunch of treats to help you level up as a writer. With the dslx Academy, you can gain access to flagship modals, micro masterclasses, and handy writer cheat sheets to help you become the beast of a writer you can be!
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