Let's rethink content marketing for Subscription-As-A-Service businesses

I’ve never been a fan of acronyms and jargon.

But in my experience creating content for B2B SaaS businesses, it’s hard to avoid them (sort of like now).

If you’re a marketer who likes to throw around these and other terms, bear with me for a second. And keep reading.

Someone wise once told me that jargon is used by people to feel like they’re in the know. While it might make you feel smarter, it does a disservice to untapped audiences who don’t know yet they’re interested in your product, or service.

In journalism school, I learned one of the first rules of tackling acronyms is to spell them out. I’ll do that now and also define these terms.

Software as a service (SaaS) are enterprises that provide solutions to clients (often other businesses) through their software. This software is usually sold on a subscription basis.

Examples of SaaS businesses include HubSpot, Salesforce, and SurveyMonkey.

Business-to-business (B2B) are companies that make money by selling their product or service to other businesses, and not consumers.

Many SaaS businesses only work in the B2B space. A few, like Netflix, cater to consumers directly. These are called business-to-consumer (B2C) firms.

Whether you’re targeting B2B or B2C audiences, consider that on the other end of that content campaign is a red-blooded human who gets bored easily.

Creating content for such audiences entails using storytelling skills you see in newsrooms (the few left). Make the content digestible, which means avoid jargon and spell out acronyms.

Of course, if your audience has years of industry experience topped with technical prowess, it’s fine if you speak their ‘language’.

But if you’re targeting a CEO of a firm who specializes in strategy and not technical acumen, consider that she’ll likely zone out after your first sentence.

Audiences matter, yes. But all audiences crave good storytelling. So if you’re a content marketer in the SaaS space, consider that an industry leader might scroll off your blog the next time you belt out a bunch of jargon.