Hi Friend,

How’s it going? 🌻

Let me introduce my next guest for SaaS Splash Bulletin SMEEdition: Tanaaz Khan (Follow her on LinkedIn)

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I had a brief networking call with Tanaaz earlier this year, but it quickly turned into a knowledge-sharing session. Tanaaz has insane knowledge about original content research, and the best part is that she doesn’t believe in holding back.

Cut to June, when I decided to start a #SMEEdition for my newsletter. I knew I had to interview her.

Tanaaz has worked as a strategist and writer with SaaS brands such as Moz, Fiverr, Jasper, and Dashbot, among many others. I’m sure you’ll find this edition extremely insightful.

Without further ado, let's get started.

🔖Topics we discussed

• Navigating Tanaaz’s SaaS writing journey and lessons
• How to bring a unique POV to the ‘formulaic’ SEO Content
• Going the extra mile: research techniques for creating exceptional content
• SME Interviews: Where to start and how to find a balance
• SaaS writing and marketing resource suggestions from Tanaaz

Question: How did you come into the world of SaaS writing? What has your journey been like? Basically, what’s your ‘story’?

“I didn't have to pick writing. I've been writing since I was a kid. Writing was nothing new to me. But applying the writing in different contexts, was the key for me. So, my big writing project was when I was at university. I was made the editorial head. So, until then, I was contributing to the newsletter, but then I was in charge of publishing a physical newsletter. And that year, I got to do a lot of things. I wasn't just writing, I was editing submissions.

It was a typical Science Magazine. So you interview scientists, you process those transcriptions and you get submissions from students. Then, there's a whole editorial process. I learned how stakeholder management works. So I did the newsletter. We created a podcast, we created a website, I was managing Facebook, and these are all marketing, but I didn't know that. I was just a student trying to get things done.

So after I graduated, I was like, okay, you know what, like, I didn't have any prospects lined up. I was going to go for Masters so I can use this time to start work. So I applied for a few internships and I got in through research assistantship, so that was academic writing. I worked at an education consultancy (freelance) where I had to help high school students published a paper in an international academic journals. I got a lot of experience and I got another academic editing experience.

Then I went and started working for that education consultancy. I had to do marketing and client servicing as well. That's when I realized I can run my own business. Back in 2021 my boyfriend told me that freelancing is catching up. So why don't you try writing or something you're good at writing and you will be fine. I thought I'll give it a shot.

I started on Fiverr and I created all these gigs like I was writing and all that and I had a website already. So there was a science website. I used to publish articles. I had an Instagram account. So I had all these experiences. It was time to apply all of it.

I didn't have a niche or anything. I was just trying to experience if this is a viable career option. Because if there is demand and if I'm able to make that money, within six months, I’ll able to quit my job. I went full time in January 2022 And then that year, I still did not niche down.

But I think the first SaaS writing I did was for an agency. And this was before I quit my job. It was not for B2B. It was a B to D so business to developer that is more complicated. The saw like my old guest posts and were like okay, we'll onboard you. It was great because I was working for a lot of Atlassian partners. And that is really complicated stuff and they really helped me build my SaaS writing skills muscle.

So I was like, Okay, this is a good place to be. I started applying for more SaaS roles. The more samples I got, the more I started using those samples. So I wasn't niched down, but then by Q2 2022, I was like, I'll do SaaS writing. And I wanted do tech writing specifically like digital transformation. That was nice enough for me, because that time, digital transformation was like the pre-AI thing. I had a lot of samples for like very complicated technologies like AI and ML, Cloud etc. Writers usually enter through marketing and stuff like that. So I was able to capture a market that nobody else was going after. At least that's what I was thought back them. So yeah, that's where I niched down and things became a lot easier.”

Let’s now get to the questions and answers!

💡Takeaway for writers and marketers:

• Start by exploring various writing opportunities, leveraging your existing skills and experiences in different contexts
• Gain diverse writing experience through different roles and projects, such as editorial work, academic writing, and content creation
• Begin your freelancing journey with a broad focus, offering various services to understand market demand and discover what you enjoy most
• Pay attention to which of your services are in high demand, and gradually focus more on those areas to build expertise
• Refine your niche over time by specializing in a specific industry or type of writing, targeting complex or emerging topics to differentiate yourself from other writers.

Question: We keep seeing a lot of posts on LinkedIn, and lately, all of the content has become the same. If you look at 10 search page results, they all cover the same headline and some pointers. Where do you feel is the gap? And I'm not even talking about AI-generated. That's a different story. I mean that ten different writers are writing ten different articles on the same topic, but somehow, they are just a replica of one another.

So first, do you agree? Have you also observed this? And if yes, where do you feel the gap?

Answer: “Okay, so for this question, there's a lot to unpack. It's twofold. One is on the company side and one is on the nature of SEO content itself.

So from the nature of SEO content, it's very formulaic. Like, what is it, the how to do this, the step one, step two, step three. That is how we've been writing. And that is what the reason people are writing the same way. Since it's an algorithm trying to grade your content based on certain parameters, you will have to follow a structure there.

But there are ways to make it different. And this is where companies fail to enable their writers. In-house writers or freelance writers are unable to convince companies to take a different approach. On the company side, they don't do any research. They don't do any customer interviews. Hence they don't have a point of view on a topic.

As a result, you have nothing to say that will reflect on the content you're publishing because your writer cannot pull anything out of it. They're relying on you to give them the information that they need to do the work. So when you don't have anything to say they don't have anything to say. And they are going to rely on external sources. If you're reading SEO content, your external sources the first 10 articles. I'm going to just go follow that structure.

There's a lot to do from both ends. I will not say it's the company's fault and I will not say it's the nature of the content but how you make it different is on you. Marketing is a creative field. It's not it's not an analytic. It is an analytical field, but I feel it's a good mix of both.

So when you're researching you also have to analyze how you always see some of the biggest companies on the SERPs, they will have something different about them. One is the advantage that they've been doing it for 100 years (figuratively). Yeah. They are.

But there are companies that are also doing something different. You will have to find that out or companies have to do it internally. And internal marketers have to start convincing the bosses to do more. The freelance writer because as the external vendor, they don't have much control.”

💡Takeaway for writers and marketers:

• SEO content is inherently formulaic due to algorithmic grading, leading to similar structures across articles
• Companies often fail to provide unique insights or research, leaving writers with little original material to work with
• The lack of customer interviews and company-specific viewpoints results in content that heavily relies on external sources, perpetuating similarity
• Both companies and writers share responsibility for creating unique content, with marketing requiring a balance of creativity and analytics
• Internal marketers and freelance writers need to push for differentiation, though freelancers have limited control as external vendors

Question: But as writers, what extra mile can we go to? At least we can try a little harder to bring that unique perspective to our content pieces. What can we do differently?

Answer: “I think as a writer, this is where your research skills come into play. Because without that, then you can't serve anybody. If you're writing an essay, it's fine. But for SEO content, you will have to know what you're writing about. So there you have to source good examples, interview people, and also do your own research.

For example, let's say I'm writing a blog post on ‘How to increase employee engagement’. So here one approach is I can look for research reports from companies like Nectar or Gallup and, because they are the biggest names in HR.

But you can also look at academic papers. There you will get long term research, where you can see trends. A lot of companies don't do trend based research from what I've seen. So academic sources will help you do that. You can see how this scientist created this model in 1980, and from then to now, what has changed. So, you will have to connect the dots, you will have to go search for data, find the specifics of that module. Now see how HR teams are measuring employee engagement.

Now, what is it that they're doing different? What are they doing the same? This is where you can differentiate your content. Because now we're not just saying how to improve employee engagement, like providing incentives or feedback. Yeah, that everyone knows. But why am I doing that?

I'm writing for an HR person. They already know how to provide incentives, but they probably don’t know that it is because of some actual study. One scientist really went and did everything. And now you need to do it because there's a psychological, emotional, and physical barrier.

But again, they're not asking the right questions. So that's another layer to unpack later. As a writer you have to go find the stories. For example, if I'm writing ‘How to use TikTok to grow my e-commerce store’, I'm going to go find either an e-commerce marketer or an e-commerce business owner who was able to grow their store. It makes for an interesting story as opposed to just saying, use the use video feature of TikTok to do XYZ.

The readers will feel like, ‘Yeah, I can do that. I can go see TikTok myself, but how do I use it? Why should I use it?’ Any businesses wants to know if something works. They will not do just because you're saying so. You will have to show them that you can back up your claims.

For example, show that this e-commerce business owner is a 50-employee company; they were able to grow from 1 million to 5 million annual recurring revenue per month, so per year, and they were able to use TikTok for like 78% of their sales came from TikTok. That is such an interesting story because now it's not just a blog post itself.

When you're repurposing that, it can go into a social cause how this person like, like a journalistic angle. These news articles were how this person did this is this, and we will have to take that. That's why people talk about journalistic writing; these elements come into play.”

💡Takeaway for writers and marketers:

• Writers must leverage strong research skills for SEO content, going beyond surface-level information to provide unique value
• Utilize diverse sources, including academic papers and long-term research, to identify trends and provide deeper insights that many companies overlook
• Connect historical data with current practices to differentiate content and explain the 'why' behind common advice, making it more valuable for the target audience
• Incorporate real-world examples and case studies, such as interviewing successful business owners, to add credibility and practical context to the content
• Focus on telling compelling stories with specific, quantifiable results to make content more engaging, repurposable, and impactful across various marketing channels

Question: I recently started exploring SME interviews more. For a new writer who just started conducting SME interviews, How do they start? Should they start with sites like HARO and then gradually build a database of SMEs? Or should they start with interviewing SMEs right away? If the second is true, then how can writers get in touch with the SMEs? How do you convince them to sit on a call and share their insights?

Answer: “If a new writer is starting out with SME interviews, it depends on two things.

• Have they interviewed somebody before?
• And even if they haven't interviewed somebody before, do they have the ability to ask good questions?

So I personally had experience and I was doing it for years before. It was not hard to go and ask somebody like hey, can you give me 30 minutes of your time? It wasn't that hard for me.

But if you don't have that experience, learn how to ask good questions. And start with a platform like Help a B2B Writer and Qwoted. But if you cannot ask good questions, you will not get good answers.

So if you don't have experience, I would first recommend starting out with this and then learning as good question and then learning how to interview somebody and a lot of resources online. Even journalism courses.

If you do have experience jump into interviews first, simply because what happens is 20 minute 30 minute interview will give you so much more. With how do you get multiple responses. It's just useful. I do it all the time. But sometimes there is a distinct difference between doing on mass is versus doing 1:1. Like see right now this call that we have are much more nuanced and much more specific to problems of our audience. I cannot do that at this scale of mass.

So, you will have to find a balance.

• Number one is time investment worth it? For me, if am I getting paid enough is important because again two things. It shows the company's taking it seriously.
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• If they're not paying you enough, will this experience take you somewhere and help you get paid later on? So when I was getting paid I think 15 or 20 cents a word. I started doing interviews, but it was because I knew if I can create these pieces I would get better and that's exactly what happened

Okay. So for me that really matter and I was hoping that some people might not be okay doing that which is their decision. Your you will have to put a little bit of effort on this case you don't have the skill to learn it.

I'll give you an example of how that last year I wrote for the Science Magazine, we were writing a piece on a feature article on longevity and aging. So my job was to interview scientists who are doing this kind of aging research to bring medicines in the market that can sort of stop aging or reverse aging. And these people are like working in the NIH in the USA.

Before interviewing them, I had to read four research papers. I had to think about okay, the research papers said this, how does this tie back to my paper or like my article? And if I asked this question, will I be able to get that answer? It just takes time to convert 20 years of research into a blog post?

You're doing all this preliminary research. In the B2B SaaS context it would be like you go to somebody's LinkedIn profile. You see 2017 where they worked at this company as an SDR. That SDR role you can be like, you know, what happens is, do you have any experiences from that that would help this piece or something like that. You have to say personalized, more nuanced question. Because those insights can help you create a piece that is deeper than what you see out there.

💡Takeaway for writers and marketers:

• New writers should focus on developing the ability to ask good questions before conducting SME interviews, utilizing platforms like Help a B2B Writer and Qwoted to gain initial experience
• Experienced writers should prioritize one-on-one interviews for more nuanced and specific insights, balancing the time investment with potential returns in terms of pay or skill development
• Consider the compensation and long-term value when deciding to invest time in conducting interviews, as the experience can lead to better opportunities and higher-quality content
• Thorough preparation is crucial before interviewing experts, including reading relevant research and planning questions that tie back to the article's objectives
• Personalize interview questions based on the interviewee's background and experiences to uncover unique insights that can create deeper, more valuable content

Question: Do you have any suggestions for my audiences? Resources that can help budding writers, marketers, and writer-turned-marketers?

Answer: “Yeah, I would suggest the following:

• Free resources by Animalz
• Paid course by Ryan Law on ‘How to write thought-leadership articles’​
• Journalism writing course - Standford (or any top university)

You can also learn from podcasts how one person is interviewing others, learn different interviewing styles, apply your critical thinking skills, and follow creators in this field on LinkedIn.

Follow:

• ​Erin Balsa
• ​Beam content​
• ​Ahrefs blogs”

Have more specific questions about content marketing and want personalized assistance?

​1:1 Consultation with Sreyashi (60-minute/30-minute): Book a call to ask your specific questions about SaaS content writing, marketing, and freelancing. I will help you find personalized solutions to your queries and create customized templates for your needs.

​Content Brief Template: Buy my content brief template at pay-as-you-want pricing to gather information from multiple data sources and include it organically in your content. You also get access to my research databases, which are updated monthly.

​Access my Research Database: Since many of you liked the research database the most about my content brief template, I have made it an independent product at a very nominal price. It's updated every month.

Say Hi! On LinkedIn 👋

P.S. Any questions on the newsletter? Want to share your feedback? Please feel free to reply to this email.

Onwards and upwards,

Sreyashi

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