Every decision matters when you run a SaaS, especially with tight resources. Instead of spending big on paid ads with no guaranteed results, turn to technical content creation. It’s a smart, budget-friendly way to grow your business and position yourself as an industry expert.
Good technical content does more than just market your startup. It’s the heartbeat of organic marketing and a proven strategy to build brand awareness. By offering quality technical content that educates, informs or entertains, you can elevate your SaaS from an unknown entity to a trusted industry brand.
After writing and editing more than 200+ blog posts and two books, I’ve decided to create this complete guide for technical content.
In this article, I’ll discuss how to unleash the full potential of technical content creation, who can write content for your SaaS and how it helps in organic marketing for your SaaS.
I acknowledge that not every startup team or founder has the privilege of creating good technical content alongside completing their daily product feature duties and code responsibilities, but it is a worthy investment.
Creating technical content can help a SaaS grow, attract potential investors, and influence the industry narrative. It allows stakeholders, industry leaders, and potential partners to understand the startup’s innovative mindset and strategic approach.
Your SaaS could be the most innovative, possessing top-notch technology, but if no one knows about it, the growth opportunities may be limited. Technical content creation acts as a spotlight for your SaaS. It might seem daunting, but you can showcase your startup authentically in a non-awkward manner.
Welcome to the second chapter of our insightful blog series, where I discuss ‘How Technical Writing Can Supercharge Your Startup.‘ The 1st blog post was featured on the front page of Hackernoon in the past. You can check out the 1st blog post here.
I adore blogging as a method of producing technical content.
My favourite way to express myself has always been through writing, which I owe to my mentor/lead for helping me to love reading and writing at a young age during my software engineering career.
Technical content creation is the practice of creating and sharing valuable, relevant technical content (blog posts, eBooks, integration guides, how to do “X” guide, docs, etc…) to attract, engage, and ultimately convert a target developer audience into customers.
Unlike traditional marketing, which often relies on direct promotion, technical content marketing provides genuine value to developers through informative content.
This approach fosters a deeper relationship with the developer audience but also builds credibility, trust and authority, factors that are instrumental in driving revenue over the long term.
Examples of Great Technical Content in Action
In the crowded developer tools, AI, and SaaS tech space, innovative and well written technical content by actual engineers/humans can set a SaaS apart and foster meaningful connections with the developer audience.
Here are top 2 examples of companies that have successfully leveraged technical content to build trust, engage developers, and drive business growth in recent times.
Vercel is recognized for its engaging blog content and offers a platform that ensures speed and reliability, eliminating the need for users to set up and maintain their own infrastructure.
Supabase is an open-source Firebase alternative and you can start a new project with a Postgres DB, Authentication, instant APIs, edge functions, real-time subscriptions, storage, and vector embeddings and has gained considerable attention through its blog.
Why Should SaaS Invest in Technical Content?
For SaaS looking to make a significant impact on a budget, technical content offers invaluable advantages.
Here are the top 5 reasons to invest in a technical content strategy:
Creating brand awareness– Crafting high-quality pieces of technical content helps establish brand recognition, and build credibility and trust, reducing the need for expensive paid advertising on social media.
Fetch organic traffic– Technical content increases your startup’s online visibility. A well-crafted technical blog post can generate organic traffic for the long term.
Educate and engage developer audience– Creating excellent technical blog posts not only solves problems for your target developer audience but also positions your startup as an industry leader.
Budget-friendly– Investing in a technical content strategy is often more cost-effective than traditional methods, offering long-term benefits on a modest budget.
Better customer retention– High-quality technical content can turn one-time buyers into repeat customers. Through methods like email marketing and targeted social media posts, you can keep your audience engaged and more likely to return.
Who Should Write Your SaaS Technical Content?
I had a chat with many founders, developer advocates and engineers working on their SaaS products and building technical content and it’s one of the big bottlenecks for most of them unless they found a great combination of engineers who can write well along with code.
At the same time, this is a major advantage for a SaaS or Startup that already has these engineers who can build a high-quality technical blog full of compelling, valuable content which is helping them with reaching new customers, retaining and upselling existing customers and even attracting great talent.
SaaS needs to have a streamlined technical content pipeline that builds long-term value for the company and their customers.
So let’s compare the pros and cons of 4 different methods.
All In House Content
Writing technical content not only takes lots of time but also good money.
But, a major advantage here is- You have full control over topic selection, tone, style, schedule, and everything.
The tradeoff is that you have to do it yourself, where “it” is not just writing but also planning, editing, graphics, publishing, and distributing. Don’t let this discourage you. You DO NOT need to have a complete content strategy to start publishing content!
Technical content without a strategy is much more valuable than a strategy without content.
If you have the money to outsource content but could also do it yourself, instead ask: “Is content written by you or your engineers going to uniquely move the needle, and do you have better stuff to work?
For my website, I write my content. After all, it’s named after me.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t write your technical content. Often, the most successful and impactful technical content is written by SaaS founders, senior engineers, and DX people close to the system.
Writing technical content is a great way to get started and inject authenticity into your organic content marketing.
Run an Ambassador Writer Program
An ambassador writer program balances investments of time and money.
In my part-time role at SuperTokens, I proposed this concept to Advait, the Co-founder, and we laid out a plan, within a month quickly, we brought on board over 10+ external writers, outsourcing parts of our technical writing and developing an internal system for editing and publishing.
Grateful to be a part of this community and be surrounded by such motivated, like-minded people. 🙏 https://t.co/TG24248xRV
We managed to double our content output and were initially thrilled with the progress. However, the process soon became hard to manage. The feedback loop was sluggish, and many of the new writers needed substantial edits, which overwhelmed my capacity, especially as a part-time employee who was already working long hours.
The major challenge for writer programs is finding good engineers who are capable, reliable writers and are actually deeply interested in your product.
A second-order benefit of a writer program is that it can produce more organic engagement with the product and the company. When engineers work with you and write about your product, they’ll promote the post (and thus your SaaS) to their audience. They’ll be more likely to choose your product for projects they’re involved with.
If you can find the right engineers, it’s a great way to build your technical content as well as do organic developer marketing but you need a good in-house system which most early-stage SaaS/Startups don’t have bandwidth and even money sometimes.
Work With an Agency
Agencies are typically the most expensive option and can take a while. A reliable agency will take care of the writing and all other aspects of managing technical content marketing. You’ll need to dedicate a few hours each month to communicate with the agency, plus a few hours each week to review their work, monitor performance metrics, and handle publishing.
Hiring an agency should feel like you have an extra pair of hands, but sometimes it feels like you just lost a few fingers.
My two cents- Hire fast, fire fast. Having to manage a freelancer or agency is NOT normal. If they can’t do their job themselves, what are they good for?
Likely also the primary reason my writing career went well, I focus on self-reliance and good communication. Often I had to pick up where the previous writer/agency left off because they went silent, or messed up without acknowledging/fixing things.
Work With Engineers Who Excel at Writing
In today’s world, finding an engineer who can also write well is like striking gold.
They can take complex tech stuff and explain it in a way that’s easy for everyone to get. Plus, if they’ve already got a following online, whether it’s through a blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, or another platform, that’s a big bonus. They can share their work with more people and make an impact. When you have someone who knows their tech and can write about it, they’re not just another team member—they’re the ones who help your projects shine and get noticed.
Professionals who are not only skilled in code but also excel in writing technical content are invaluable. They stand out in the industry, driving demand for their services as they can effectively connect, engage, and resonate with clients and audiences alike. Their ability to articulate complex services in relatable terms is what makes them so sought after. It’s a blend of expertise and approachability that keeps them ahead in the market.
If you think you need a skilled engineer who writes well and would be a good fit for your company, send me an email at hello@theankurtyagi.com with a bit of information about your company and budget, and I can help you build some excellent technical content and that I think would be the best fit for your needs. If you prefer to talk it out, you can grab 30 minutes on my calendar or check out my page “Writing as a Service” for my past work and testimonials.
Learn About Developer Audience
It’s both easier and harder than you think.
Creating a SaaS is more than just programming. Programming is a big part of it, but simply knowing how to code won’t get you very far—especially if you want to make a business out of it.
The idea behind most SaaS projects is to automate a manual process or to create a new automated way to do something too difficult to do manually.
Too many SaaS companies attempt to write technical content without fully comprehending what it is supposed to do. They want to jump right in, code, and write a post, believing that people will come to read about them.
The process of technical content begins by first understanding the problem to be solved. What are you writing? why are you writing?
Think of this as the architectural blueprint for your code. Once again, different SaaS and Startups handle this in different ways, but what is important is that you have some level of content roadmap before you jump in and start writing technical content.
Remember, once the code is written, we don’t ship it, right? we test it and then ship it.
Treat your technical content pipeline similarly to your production-ready feature code pipeline.
Treat this as a feature of your SaaS.
First of all, you need an honest assessment of where you are right now and what things you are going to need to write.
Good Tech Content Show “Why” then “How”
As a product tech gears up, it’s crucial that the way a Startup or SaaS shares it with its users levels up too: be it through fresh demo videos, engaging technical blog posts, or, yes, even easy-to-follow tutorials.
Technical blog posts helps you gain the trust of your audience. But how do you find good developers who understand how to write a tutorial that is more than just a series of step-by-step guides, the majority of which are copied and pasted from somewhere on the internet? It’s a difficult task.
Difference Between a Good Tutorial and a Great Tutorial
Let’s understand what makes tutorial-style content stand out and why it’s risky to hire a freelance writer from platforms like Upwork or Fivver to create it.
Next time you start writing technical content, take a pause and think twice because you’re trying to speak to smart engineers with your technical content, so it must take an approach to why they should care about another SaaS in the market despite having many alternatives: why they should take the approach.
Yet, most of the online content you’ll find about SaaS tools comes in the form of a dry list or step-by-step tutorials that don’t offer valuable context to smart engineers who are often trying to solve complex problems.
Ideally, the person writing your tutorials must know:
Why is the reader taking these steps — and why now?
Why this new technology or new SaaS is interesting
Why alternatives aren’t as good for this use case
After reading your next blog draft, you should be able to answer “yes” to the most important question: Will our readers have a full understanding of our SaaS after reading this blog?
Conclusion
Creating technical content is a cost-effective means of building brand awareness.
Marketing your product or service must be one of the priorities for any startup, and the right technical content can help you reach the right developer audiences and build your brand while saving resources.
Startup life hack: consistently and regularly randomly ask “Is there potential for a blog post here?” in a variety of relevant contexts. Some real gold shakes out of this eventually.
Stop begging your core software engineers and fire your lazy/boring/incompetent developer advocates or developer relations person who just created 2 technical pieces of content. Let me help and build your startup’s technical content.
I build and createtechnicalblog postsandwrite technical documentationandTutorials on integrating developer tools,designed to reach software engineers, data engineers, AI engineers and more.
My writing services are tailored to connect you with over 67,000+ engaged software developers.
Elevate your brand and promote your product organically and effectively through my writing.
