We’ve all heard the advice to “write like you’re talking to a friend,” but does that apply when creating technical content for SaaS products?

Chatting to our mates about A/B testing or development frameworks isn’t common, meaning technical content marketing requires a slightly different approach.

It has to be intriguing for the average reader while meeting the needs of a technical audience. Your content must educate, persuade, engage, and solve problems without being too confusing or dull.

Crafting informative technical content that engages people might seem daunting, but it’s more straightforward than you think.

Here are our tips for creating compelling and valuable pieces, regardless of your technical expertise.

Know your audience

Understanding your target audience should be the first thing you do before crafting content.

Ask yourself the following questions:

  • What does your audience want to know?
  • Are there any pain points you can address?
  • How technically proficient are they?
  • Do they understand your product, or are they aware of similar technologies?
  • What is their interest or purchasing power (e.g., job role and position)?

Answering these helps you understand the type of content you need to write and how you should write it.

Create user personas and tailor your content to target different segments, considering where they are in the funnel process and their decision-making abilities.

For example, if your product caters to developers, you might publish technical content that uses code snippets and API documentation.

You could write top-level guides with more user-friendly explanations for a broader audience.

This brings us nicely to our next point…

Strike a balance

Balancing the right amount of technical depth and accessibility is a dilemma many technical content writers face.

You need to ensure your content is engaging, accurate, and appropriate for the language of the audience you’re writing for.

That means including technical nuances or jargon if your readers are more experienced or opting for stripped-back information and using metaphors for general audiences.

Whether your readers are seasoned professionals or newcomers, striking this balance involves some essential practices:

  • Ditch the fluff: Keep your writing concise and focused. Avoid unnecessary filler language that could distract or dilute your message. Get straight to the point, making every word contribute to the clarity and relevance of your piece.
  • Break down technical terms (with caution): Clarify technical terms when necessary, but try not to overdo it. Lengthy explanations for every phrase can overwhelm readers. Use your judgement and customer understanding to determine when and how much context is needed. For example, not every post requires a “What is..?” section to begin.
  • Include links or references: Give links or references to additional technical content for users who want to delve deeper. This enables the audience to explore related topics at their own pace without cluttering your main piece. It also accommodates novice users seeking more information and experienced audiences wanting to skip introductory material.
  • Make it easy to follow: Break up large blocks of text with creative formatting. Use headers, visuals, bullet points, and a table of contents to make it easier to read. A well-organised structure helps readers navigate your content smoothly, making even complex topics more digestible.

Stick to your objectives

Don’t shy away from the big, overarching question — what do you want to achieve with your technical content?

Whether you aim to onboard new users, showcase advanced features, or troubleshoot common issues, keeping clear objectives in mind during production can shape the direction of your piece.

Make sure these goals align with your broader marketing and product intentions.

For example, if your product is a time-saving solution, your content should reflect that by emphasising efficiency and productivity.

Are you focused on increasing your user engagement?

Ensure the content encourages readers to explore more features and functionalities, weaving them into the topic of your piece.

If your brand is known for its innovation, infuse your content with forward-thinking language and examples that reflect this ethos.

Solve a problem

Successfully address a user’s pain point, and they’ll be forever grateful. By proactively engaging with users, you can understand what issues make them tick and the problems they’re eager to solve.

This could include common industry challenges or even misconceptions about your product.

Once you’ve identified these, you can use them to tailor your technical content as a problem-solving resource — far more effective and beneficial than a simple feature explanation piece.

Tackle the issues directly and give your reader practical solutions that work, including FAQs or troubleshooting guides for support.

You could build on this approach and encourage your customers to share their solutions and insights.

This would add a collaborative element to your content and strengthen the relationship between your brand and users.

Integrate storytelling

Stories help humanise your product and brand. Introduce elements that resonate with your audience, sharing real-world scenarios, case studies, or use cases where your product played a pivotal role.

They make what you’re saying more relatable and memorable.

Examples could include:

  • Before and after scenarios: A customer’s journey, highlighting their challenges before product implementation and positive outcomes afterwards.
  • Persona-centric stories: Ficitonal (or anonymised) user personas that tell a story from their perspective.
  • Production evolution narratives: The evolution of your product, explaining how user feedback and market trends influenced your updates.
  • Analogies: Where appropriate, use analogies to explain complex technical concepts or metaphors to describe the functionality of features.
  • Problem-solution sequences: Start with a problem your audience might face before introducing the solution (your product).

Remember: storytelling needs to stay relevant to the technical content. Any story-like element you use should deepen understanding and give context without overshadowing core information.

Use your experts

Experts are experts for one simple reason — they know a lot about your product or topic. Don’t overlook their involvement in the content creation process.

Their insights can offer unique perspectives and increase the overall credibility of your piece.

Collaborate with your product developers, engineers, support teams, and more, using their expertise to inform your writing.

Showcasing your company’s knowledge base puts your business at the forefront of your industry while adding trust to your content.

It also ensures you demonstrate Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) quality-rater guidelines, giving your page a higher chance of being recognised and “rewarded”.

If dedicated experts aren’t available, take the time to do thorough, reliable research. This might mean getting industry reports, academic papers, and other reputable sources to gather information.

Add visuals

Visuals can be powerful aids in technical content. They break up the text, help the reader understand the topic, and cater to different learning styles.

To support your piece, you could use:

  • Images
  • Diagrams
  • Charts
  • Videos
  • Infographics

Ensure any visuals you choose are clear and directly related to the content.

Charts should be easy to read and understand, while infographics should summarise complex processes and quickly digest them.

Use a consistent visual style across your technical content for a professional and unified look.

Back it up

It’s not enough to just state something — you need to back up your claims with solid evidence.

Incorporate data, statistics, and research findings to demonstrate your knowledge about your product and industry.

Testimonials and customer success stories can also help build credibility with your readers.

Whenever you mention your product, you should give real-world examples of how it addresses specific challenges and has delivered tangible results.

This creates trust and adds a human touch to your technical content.

Iterate and update

Content creation is an ongoing process.

Take the time to regularly review and update it to reflect changes in your product or industry standards — there’s nothing more frustrating than outdated or missing information.

This is particularly vital for guide-like or feature-driven content.

Outside of industry changes, asking for user feedback is another way to redefine and improve your technical content.

Use insights from customer interactions to keep your information relevant to your audience’s needs and intentions.

Tip: An accurate month and year stamp or “Updated on….” tagline helps the reader understand how current the content is and can help you spot when it’s due for a refresh.

Summary

Technical content might spark fears of complicated pieces that overwhelm the audience, but it doesn’t need to be that way.

Engaging and helpful pieces can breathe life into your website and support your SaaS product.

By remembering your audience, offering them a solution, and prioritising a more straightforward writing style, you’ll be well on your way to crafting top-notch technical content that doesn’t come with a yawn.

Are you looking to enhance your SaaS brand’s online visibility? Get in touch to speak to us about how SALT can help elevate your organic marketing program.