What better way to build your confidence in SaaS copywriting than getting mentored by Joanna Wiebe?
Hola! I’m Jo aka Joanna Wiebe. Nearly 20 years ago (yikes!) I got my first job working for a tech company. These were the days before SaaS, or software as a service, was even a thing.
Everything was installed software. “Desktop software.”
You didn’t even buy it online.
Most of our CTAs drove to Staples, where you could then hold a box in your hand, flip it over to read what was inside and bring it up to the register, following which you would go home and tap a button on your massively huge desktop tower. Out pops a tray. In goes the disk. There’s an actual whirring sound. Stop me if this is starting to sound unbelievable.
You won’t be surprised, knowing that I had to sell boxed software (without QR codes on it!), to find that – when Mint and Freshbooks came out with their online services – everything changed for me. One of the best days ever was when Intuit announced the acquisition of Mint.com.
Suddenly the words I wrote could drive straight to a sale. My words were the ONE THING standing between a visitor and the product I was trying to sell.
No hopping in the car to go to Staples.
SaaS was practically friction-free.
All I had to do was avoiding losing their interest for about 10 minutes. This was FAR easier than trying to keep them stoked about finance software as they drove through a half hour’s worth of traffic lights and distractions, wondering if they should stop to refuel the whole way…
That said, easy-access software as a service brings its own challenges, with its free trials and free tiers and hands-off sales strategies…
Yes, it’s easier to measure copy that drives website visitors to start a trial than it is to measure copy that propels a person out of their office, clear across the city and into a big-box store…
However.
Selling SaaS today requires a diverse set of copywriting skills that used to be spread across multiple writers.
Tech companies used to have one freelancer who’d specialize in writing the direct mailer. An in-house copywriter who’d write the website, along with a team of designers and devs. And some creative agency that’d dream up new brand voice docs every year and debrief the copy team on them.
Now? Now it’s all on you.
And with AI, you CAN do it all. If you know how. And I do mean *know* how. Not that whole “sure i can write an activation sequence” thing where you then go figure out how to do it after you already said yes.
ChatGPT costs $20 and is allowed to fake it.
YOU do not and are not.