Here’s what you need to get the best results with your freelance B2B SaaS content writer:

• Content brief
• Tone of voice guidelines
• ICPs
• Product guide
• Original industry data 

Don’t click off this page or invest in a freelance B2B writer just yet without going through this guide because I’m going to cover: 

• B2C vs B2B content
• How to get the best results with your B2B writer
• What to look for in a candidate/freelancer
• What to do if you choose not to hire a B2B writer

I’ve taken it upon myself to write this guide to help you make an informed decision. You also get to hear the answer from the point of view of an experienced freelance writer. 

Sounds good? 

Okay cool. Now let’s dive right in.

What Is a B2B SaaS Content Writer?

A person who writes content for a software company that offers a solution to other businesses. Good writers in the B2B SaaS space educate your audience on topics that require subject expertise in a voice that speaks to the reader.

They also help raise product awareness by naturally mentioning your solution in your content through the lens of educating them to solve a problem, not by bringing it up like a sleazy salesman.

What Makes B2B SaaS Content Different from B2C Content? 

• The sales cycle for B2B companies is longer. There are usually a couple of decision-makers involved. An evaluation of your solution is required. In other words, you’re marketing to more than one person, i.e. the company. 

• B2B SaaS Content is more data-driven focused. You could get away with being a bit more personal and subjective to a B2C audience. But it’s not the same for B2B because you’re targeting business needs and pain points more than personal interests. 

• Use of everyday lingo. Wtf man, why not? Now it’s not that you can’t use everyday lingo and slang. You’re treading on murky waters. Either it works really well or it comes across as cringe. Understand your audience well enough to know when you’re crossing the line.

How Do These Differences Affect Your Approach to B2B Content? 

If anything, it makes one thing clear: subject expertise is super important. 

Unlike B2C, the sales cycle for B2B can take months. Hence, building a relationship is super important. And the way you develop a relationship is by getting your reader’s trust by doing a few things: 

• Helping readers achieve a goal
• Giving useful tips and advice
• Sharing an opinionated approach to solving a problem based on experience
• Fresh insights that trigger the user’s dopamine

Getting customers through content is a byproduct of giving value to your audience.

3 Rewards of Investing in Quality B2B SaaS Content

Not free rewards, but 3 rewards companies earn for investing and committing to putting out high-quality content. 

1. Sustainable, Long-Term Growth

A single long-form article that ranks for competitive keywords could generate more traffic at less than half the cost of paid marketing. 

That’s no exaggeration. 

For example, say you invested in one premium fully-researched article including quotes, original data, and SEO optimisation for like £500-£1,000. As a result, search rankings improve for the keywords that a majority of your audience is searching for and the way the content is written positions you as a trustworthy expert for solving a particular problem.

Now, after your audience finds your website on Google and reads your article, they’ll find it so valuable that they decide to sign up for a free trial or whatever lead magnet it is that you’re offering. After a few months or even years, that one article alone continues to generate traffic and leads for your business in the same way as described.

And what that means for you is that you get to see long-term growth at a sustainable rate because you won’t have to keep burning cash to get in front of your target audience.

2. A Smoother Sales Process

The sales process becomes smoother because of one word: trust. 

Potential customers won’t need as much convincing because you’ve already nurtured them thanks to your content marketing efforts. And because most of the expectations are laid out, there won’t be as much friction when it comes to converting leads into paying customers.

Having a website filled with amazing content gives your target audience the confidence that you’re the expert. You’re the business with the right expertise for a specific pain point or need, so your brand always comes to mind when they begin thinking about whether to take the next step.

3. Become More Omnipresent

Supplementing your target audience’s search journey with well-written content that speaks directly to their needs can generate inbound leads.

How? Well, a successful content strategy builds awareness. That’s because people in your industry become aware of your existence and the product or service you’re offering.

It probably sounds like a bit of a stretch to use a Godlike characteristic here, except it’s really true. A good content strategy improves your online visibility so that people in your industry will know who you are or would have at least heard of you when your name gets brought up in a conversation.

How to Get the Best Results With Your Freelance B2B Writer

It’s simple – just tell them to write a few blog posts.

I’m kidding. But blog posts without a strategy are just that – a blog post, not content assets.

You’d probably be surprised but some companies still take the approach of telling their freelancers to write whatever content they see as relevant and wonder why they see no tangible results. 

And this approach has become even more prominent for some because of AI. 

To get the most results with B2B SaaS content, you need to create and identify the following:

• ICPs (ideal customer profile)
• USPs (unique selling proposition)
• Positioning and messaging

Content creation is no good if it doesn’t speak to your audience. If you can’t get your audience to resonate with your company, you won’t be able to get them into the sales funnel.

With that out the way, here’s how to guide your writers to get the best results.

Share Tone of Voice Guidelines

Having tone of voice guidelines is how you ensure the writing style between each piece of content stays consistent. This is especially important when working with a team of freelance writers so they know how they should be writing.

The writers you hire will be producing content that’s visible to the public. 

And if you want to make sure the content that your writers produce is written in a way that reflects your core values, they need to know stuff like: 

• How you want your brand to be perceived
• Grammar rules to follow
• Examples of what to do and what not to do

Here’s a guide to help you define your tone of voice.

Help Them Understand Your Product

Ensure your writers know the basic context of your product or service by sharing any relevant documents, guides, success stories, or presentations that’d be useful to know.

Despite the writer having experience in your industry, ultimately, not all businesses are the same.

While we’ll do our own research, this is crucial for making sure writers are up-to-date with how your business works. This is also key if you want your content to cut past genericism or to showcase any unique feature and approach.

Share a Content Brief

Freelance writers, like myself, aren’t psychics. 

We don’t always know what you’re expecting or what you’re thinking about, and we certainly cannot read your mind. 

Unless you can give us an idea of what you’re after, we won’t fully get what you’re trying to achieve with the content you want us to create. Not making your project expectations clear from the start could lead to a result that’s different from what you had intended. 

But the issue can be solved by using one thing – content briefs. 

A content brief is a document that outlines your requirements or suggestions to guide your writer. It helps to ensure they meet the quality you’re looking for and that you’re both on the same page.

Here’s one content brief template example below from The Meta Blog.

Internal Subject Matter Experts

Skilled B2B writers are skilled researchers. That said, it doesn’t mean they’re always going to have expert knowledge and insights for any topic they research about.

Sure, they know how to put together a coherent narrative and write in a way that communicates to your target audience.

But a powerful narrative exists in the first place from having great ideas. And one way to feed your writers with fresh ideas is by getting them in touch with internal subject matter experts on the team they can interview.

Use the Revisions Available If Necessary

Most freelance B2B content writers will offer at least one round of revisions. This means you can get them to make any desired changes or edits to the work. 

But hold your horses. 

Before requesting any revisions to be made, first understand the writer’s thought process. Get their input on what they think is best and why. 

What’s important isn’t whether or not you like the content they’ve written. It’s whether or not your customers like it. In other words, your customer’s opinion comes first. Any freelancer who says otherwise would be telling a lie. 

After you get an understanding of why the writer made certain choices, make a decision on how you want to proceed. Just don’t forget that you’re hiring them for a reason.

Give Access to Helpful Resources

Giving your freelance writer access to any useful resources where it’s appropriate can help them do their job better. 

Here’s a few examples of helpful resources I’m talking about:

• Illustrative images
• Content optimisation tools
• Keyword research tools
• Persona profiles
• Research documents

Naturally, be mindful of access to any sensitive data.

Ask Questions

Freelancers are often specialists in their field. They’ll likely have experience working with companies like yours, which means that they’ll have an understanding of what types of content marketing strategies work and don’t work. 

That makes it a good opportunity to ask them questions related to what you’re hiring them for. A bonus of working with a freelancer is that you get a fresh outside perspective of your business.

What to Look for in a B2B SaaS Content Writer

If I had to sum it down to what I’d look for if I was going to hire writers myself, this is what it would look like: 

1. Business results. Do they have an understanding of how to produce content in a way that leads to business growth? 

2. Portfolio. Any previous work that they’ve published that you’d want your own content to be like? 

3. Writing process. How do they write content that speaks to the target reader? What does their research process look like and how would they write about a topic they’re not too familiar with? 

4. Track record. What type of results have they achieved with their work? How much of an impact did they make on their previous clients’ business? Are there any testimonials to prove that?

5. Curiosity. Does the writer show any genuine interest in your industry? 

Also, a good tactic is to use paid tests. Get a feel for what it’s like to work with the freelancer through a trial project. 

Where to Find a B2B SaaS Writer 

Here’s a few places where I’d personally look. 

• Your network: ask for referrals from the people you know. 
• Long-tail keywords: make specific searches on Google and see what freelancers come up. Then, stalk their website to find any info related to business results, portfolio, writing process, and track record. If either you find it interesting or that their site speaks to your needs, there’s no harm in reaching out. 
• LinkedIn: Filter your search to find freelancers who specialise in your niche. 

My only other advice here is this: don’t use content mills that abuse writers with shit pay. 

If you’re paying a shit price like say, $20, yet you expect a 2000-word article optimised for SEO including original quotes and subject expertise, don’t be surprised if the quality you were expecting completely misses the mark. 

That said, you get what you pay for. This saying is especially true when it comes to hiring a freelancer or agency to do the work for you. 

Here’s a general rule of thumb: hire someone who can do the work right the first few times around. It’s a lot more affordable compared to paying someone cheap who barely knows what they’re doing and then having to pay to fix all the mistakes that have been made (which could’ve been avoided if you hired the right person from the get-go).

Here’s What I’d Suggest If You’re Not Going to Hire a Freelance B2B Writer

• Interview your best customers to learn more about their pain points and why they use your product. Then, use the data to create buyer personas.
• Brainstorm content ideas based on customer goals and pain points.
• Brainstorm content ideas based on your product’s USPs.
• Focus on creating content at the bottom of the funnel first (e.g. case studies, product alternative listicles, and competitor comparison posts) to target users with stronger intent, then work your way to creating content for the top of the funnel. 
• Conduct your own industry research and create content based on the data. This gives you something new to add to the conversation and can build links to your site–however, this must data should be something your audience would find interesting.
• Showcase a different content angle.
• Double down on the one marketing channel that brings the most traction before moving to another.
• Don’t stress too much about optimising for search engines. Put the user experience first and give good answers to the questions your readers have on the topic you’re writing about.

Final Thoughts  

Oh right, this is where I’m meant to give you a call to action.

More importantly, the one thing I want you to take away from this article is that using content as a means of growth only works by putting your customers first. 

See high-quality content as an act of generosity. You should be giving away information that’s so valuable to your reader that it feels illegal to have it for free. It’s that good that it feels like you should be paying for it.

The byproduct of consistently putting out content that builds trust with your audience is inbound leads. The reason a reader will become a lead is because they’ll want to get more value.

All that being said, feel free to get in touch with me if you have any project queries. I’d be happy to chat and see how I could help.