#56 - Write your SaaS Growth šŸ“ˆ

Writing tips to go viral, cold email subject lines, grow email list, SEO case study, twitter growth framework

Welcome 316 Tech Founders and Marketers to the 56th edition of Write your SaaS Growth Newsletter:

In this edition, we discuss:

  • Content Marketing: 20 blackhat writing tips to go viral

  • Cold Email: 8 subject line rules for cold emails

  • Email Marketing: 6 steps to grow your email list

  • SEO: A case study to 3x traffic in 2 months

  • Social Media: AĀ Twitter growth framework

Letā€™s GO!

Growth Tip of the Week! šŸš€

Denis says your SaaS makes revenue when you:

  • Save customers' time

  • Help them gain more profit

  • Lower their risk of losing profit

Meaning, you shouldnā€™t obsess about the features. but rather be obsessed with solving a customerā€™s pain.

Content Marketing šŸ“ˆ

Hoping to go viral? Your hack: writing.

Akash shares 20 blackhat writing tips more powerful than a dozen years of English lessons:

  • Show, Don't Spill: Make your audience live the story, not just hear it.

  • Quick & Dirty Short, punchy sentences hit harder.

  • Active > Passive. Be direct. Be concise.

  • Mix & Match Vary sentence structures, keep readers on their toes

  • Power Up Power words are your secret weapon. Use them.

  • Details, Details Being vague is for amateurs. Specifics sell stories.

  • Speak You. Authenticity isn't just king. It's the whole damn kingdom.

  • Kill the Fluff. Cut the crap. Every word counts.

  • Killer Headlines. Your first impression? Make it lethal.

  • Time Warp. Don't jump tenses. Consistency is key.

  • Metaphors & Similes. Your secret spices to a flavorful write-up.

  • Tell a Tale. We're wired for stories. Use it.

  • Error-Free Zone. Proofread like your life depends on it.

  • Guide Them Bullets, subheads. Make skimming a breeze.

  • Audience Rules. Know 'em, write for 'em.

  • Dodge ClichĆ©s. Be the original, not the copy.

  • Action Verbs. Make your words leap off the page.

  • Provoke Action. Every good heist ends with a getaway plan.

  • Fact-Up. Data adds muscle to your claims.

  • Ask Away. Questions engage, provoke thought. Use 'em

ā¤ļøā€šŸ”„ Community Shoutout ā¤ļøā€šŸ”„

Cold Email šŸ“ˆ

Will says cold outreach is the fastest way to hit $10k/mo.

But you have to get your messages opened and read. Follow these 8 subject line rules to make it happen:

  1. Create curiosity: People open emails and DMs because the subject makes them curious. Create curiosity with a question, benefit, or case study. Avoid being boring or clichƩ.

  2. Ask questions. People instinctively want to answer questions. Asking a question or saying that you have a question should get you a solid open rate.

  3. Keep it short. Long subject lines look spammy, and email providers cut them off after a certain point (especially on mobile). Itā€™s usually best to keep your under 7 words.

  4. Personalize. Adding someoneā€™s first name or company name tends to raise open rates. Even if you donā€™t do that, talking about a benefit you know they want is a form of personalization.

  5. Create a connection. If you know someone who your prospect also knows, mention it. If not, you can still create a connection by talking about something specific on their website or social media pages.

  6. Donā€™t be spammy. Writing in ALL CAPS, saying ā€œdonā€™t delete thisā€, creating false scarcity, and making huge claims are all spammy. Avoid over-the-top tactics like this.

  7. Make it conversational. Your subject lines shouldnā€™t feel like sales pitches. They should feel like conversation starters. Remember this every time you write a new one.

  8. Test, test, test. The only real rule is to optimize yours subject lines until they get opens. Write ones that you think will work, then test and improve indefinitely.

Here are 3 subject line formulas that get insane open ratesā€¦

  1. {Interest-creator}, {first name}. Example: ā€œQuick question, Jessicaā€

  2. I {created something for you}, {first name}. Example: ā€œI audited your siteā€™s SEO, Jessicaā€

  3. Company/person} {got desired result}. Example: ā€œUpLead got 44% more traffic last monthā€

šŸ†˜ Community Chat of the Week: šŸ†˜

Did you ever deploy cold emails for your SaaS business? How was your experience?

Email Marketing šŸ“ˆ

Jeff asks ?Email list stuck around 100 people?ā€ I feel you.

It took me 3 damn years to get to 100. But then I got +1000 in the last 12 months. These 6 things helped me grow my list 30x faster: (you don't need a massive audience).

EVERYTHING hinges on your content. The quality of content... The uniqueness of your perspective... The proof you show... None of this works unless you put out the best content you can possibly make.

  1. Use Bio Links: When trying to grow your list, AVOID "linktree" style bio links.

    1. Too many options creates confusion, and people don't move into confusion.

    2. If list growth is the primary goal, link DIRECTLY to your newsletter or lead magnet opt-in page

  2. Auto Plugs: Hypefury makes it ridiculously easy to collect email subscribers

    1. Keep it clear and simple.

    2. Add an auto plug to your highest performing tweets promoting your newsletter or lead magnet. I've collected HUNDREDS this way.

  3. Giveaways: Most giveaways SUCK. It's not a poor concept, just poor content being given away.

    1. Make high-value content and you'll attract the right people.

    2. Great way for someone w/ a small audience to get eyes on content.

  4. Links to Blogs: I haven't done this, but I see Dan Koe, Justin Welsh, and others doing it.

    1. Add your opt-ins to blogs, and share links to the blogs in your threads.

    2. It's a more passive way to collect subs, but it has mega SEO benefits.

  5. Twitter Spaces: Leverage (and serve) other creators' audiences.

    1. Show off your authority & expertise on specific subject matter.

    2. Point listeners to ONE thing to opt-in for. (hopefully it's already in your bio link!)

  6. Cross Promotions: Fellow newsletter creators love to help each other...seriously!

    1. Partner up with folks at a similar size and promote each other's newsletter to your own audiences.

    2. Lettergrowth and the ConvertKit Creator Network are great tools.

šŸ§° Marketing Tech Stack to Add this Week! šŸ§°

SPONSORED

Whether you are embedding it in your email, sending a personalized video to a prospect, or sharing it on social media, there are lots of juicy benefits for you to access.Ā 

Sendspark is a specialized video prospecting platform designed exclusively for sales teams, offering more than just a powerful tool for sellers. It includes scalable features to enhance their effectiveness.

Sendspark is used by over 10,000 sellers worldwide, and is used by companies such as Canva, HubSpot, OpenDoor and Snowflake.

Try SendSpark today!

SEO šŸ“ˆ

Eghosa joined a Canadian health tech startup as an SEO consultant two months ago. And has grown their traffic by 3x in that time.

Hereā€™s an SEO case study on what he did in 2 months to Grow traffic:

  1. Built the Authority: I first built E-E-A-T Element into the site by adding a "Reviewed By" Widget to each article and linking to the page of a real medical doctor ( The CEO) with massive experience in health care. Lucky for me, he is a very well-known medical doctor with a great CV This helped increase reader trust in content we published later.

  2. Technical SEO: Next (Technical SEO) The next thing I did was to go add the site to Ahrefs and do a technical crawl of the site and find technical issues.

    1. The audit showed thousands of duplicated pages (pages that were already built on webflow and duplicated on the application side). I fixed this by adding "A rel="canonical" tags to the duplicate pages

    2. We found a lot of 504 error pages. I cleaned these up with the help of their engineers. Overall, technical fixes were the hardest because I had to work through thousands of pages

  3. Updated Old Articles: They had many articles with great information and data, but the content structure was all wrong (from an SEO perspective), so I dove in and started to fix the content structure and added new information to the low-hanging fruit articles.

  4. Keyword (Topic) research Next, I had to do topic research. This was tough because I could not use easy info keywords but keywords with high user intent since they are a health tech startup with products. WebMD and Healthline dominate the majority of these types of keywords. So I went after forums and found super long tail keywords (7+ words)

  5. Publish Fresh Content I activated my content management workflow and created briefs with these topics, and then my team of writers and editors dove in and served up delicious content that was both informational and geared toward conversion. It seems Google loves the work done so far and is blessing the site with increased traffic. This is only half the work, as we now need to set up a CRO funnel to convert visitors to paying customers.

Social Media Marketing šŸ“ˆ

Twitter is funny. Some people take an year or more to get to 1k followers (thatā€™s me). Some take 1.5 hours to get 1k! And Bruno says the average is 45 days!

He breaks down the essential steps you need to grow your Twitter account that increases your MRR:

If you want to build a personal brand. That reflects your credibility. Gets you fans... And not just followers. Which will fund your business and lifestyle? This is the thread you need. And every single point will make sense.

Starting with this one:

  • The most important thing you need to know about building a personal brand. Aka growing an audience on Twitter is this: "You need to have something worth sharing." Aka "Value" (gosh I hate that word). But what is value? (And why is it important?)

  • Value is a difficult thing to define. But on a general term. Value is basically anything that benefits another. Simple. On Twitter? Value is anything from

    • Your Competency

    • Your Skill

    • Your perspective

    • Your Humour

    • Your curiosity. But wait. There's more

  • Having something valuable isn't where the magic happens. If you are reading this Chances are you have something valuable. But why aren't you growing? Because you are missing this one thing. And once you see it. You can never unsee it. Here's what it is:

  • The magic ingredient to growing on Twitter is one statement. "Be interesting". That's it. You can break EVERY rule of Twitter growth. But if you are interesting? YOU WILL GROW. Now I know what you are thinking...

  • So the problem is NOT that you are not interesting. The problem is this: You don't know how to take something boring... And put it in an interesting way. You don't know how to communicate your ideas. So people...

To sum it up: Growing on Twitter = Providing Value * Being interesting

How can we help each other? šŸ„…

  • Are you providing any marketing services to SaaS and tech companies? Weā€™re vetting marketing experts to help SaaS companies hire specific marketers. You can apply here.

  • Let me help you build a marketing strategy for your Tech Product. Know more

Thanks for reading! SaaSwrites is a humble attempt to help SaaS founders and marketers grow their SaaS.

See you next Saturday.

Ricky,

P.S. If you liked this edition, it would mean the world to us if you share it with your friends. :) Thank you in advance!

Join the conversation

or to participate.