How to measure and improve your SaaS content (and why you should bother)

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#1

Last time I posted here I was asked some great questions:

  • How do you tell if your content is working effectively?
  • What makes good content for SaaS products?
  • How much content do you need?

So I’ve written an article that covers all three topics: How to measure and improve your SaaS content (and why you should bother)

Thanks to @SteveMcLeod for his valuable input – I look forward to more comments.

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#2

I’ve been using @smokingpun’s services to help improve the content on the Feature Upvote website. We’re gradually rolling out the changed pages.

As part of the process, we sent two short surveys about how they found us and why they chose us (or didn’t choose us): one to active customers and one to people on our mailing list who created a trial account and didn’t convert to a paid account. We then used the results to change our site content.

I was surprised by what most customers said about us:

  • it was quick and straightforward to get started with us. In contrast to our big competitor, we don’t force people to get a sales call nor to sit through a demo.
  • they like that we focus on one main task: feature request tracking

This made it clear what to highlight in our copy. I had been trying to avoid words like “simple”, “easy”, and “straightforward” because I thought they carried little weight. However we now know that this is what our potential customers are looking for.

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#3

I wonder if there’s a marketing perversity if you are using the words though - is there any kind of signalling effect?

Rather than the possibly-triggering word simple can you go directly to what the customer said and call-out things like don’t wait through a sales call or your hyper-focus on feature tracking?

Simplicity is a virtue which makes you feel good about having picked a product and may be an unexpected delight. However, if given too much prominence in product copy, I worry it downgrades the experience.

As a test of messaging bias - how many less-successful competitors use terms such as simple and easy in their copy? We often forget to look at the failed campaigns.

(I’m stewing over this at present for a non-SAAS product trying to pick the wording to convey simplicity with deep power.)

#4

That’s a good point. We are definitely highlighting the “no sales call needed” and “do one thing well” points in our copy.

I’m stewing over this at present for a non-SAAS product trying to pick the wording to convey simplicity with deep power.

I also tend to stew over this stuff way too much. It is so easy to change content on the web if it is not working for you, and yet I still often get paralysed with indecision about this stuff.

Have you surveyed your customers to find how they describe your product? It is an extremely useful process.