Introduction (1)

Hello, young Padawan! The forces of the universe have aligned to bring you here for a crash course in website-ry (or maybe it was a LinkedIn ad, but who’s keeping track).

It makes me super happy to see more people join us on our mission to create great SaaS websites that have substance, are aesthetic, and more importantly convert. But before we start, let me give you a quick introduction to who we are.

We’re team Beetle Beetle, founded by Sumit Hegde (CEO) and Isha Mandloi (Head Copywriter). We’ve been building kickass b2b SaaS websites for about 5 years, and worked with some pretty cool clients along the way. We’ve been around the block, made every mistake there is, and learned from them. And that’s why we’re writing this book. To help spread our hard-won knowledge and rid the world of the mid, same-y websites that plague SaaS.

Boring, non-targeted websites shall face defeat!

Boring, non-targeted websites shall face defeat!

But we’re not just making websites all day. We’re a team with a wide range of expertise. We’re good at surfing, embroidery, bingeing Chinese dramas, gardening, cricket and so much more— Our team is always picking up something new. That’s also how we keep things fresh in and out of the office, so that we can offer our clients a new perspective every single time!

But you too can do what we do, once you learn our secrets (you might need to practice the surfing though). Over the next 10 chapters, we’ll divulge the process our team uses to create targeted, high-converting websites for our clients.

We’ve also snuck in a few secret ingredients to our superior messaging (don’t tell Sumit!)

Here are a few things you should keep an eye out for:

  1. The Super-user Identification Guide: Finding the ideal customer for your product
  2. The Customer Persona Builder: Understanding your customers through research
  3. The Targeted Competitor Attack Strategy: How to analyze the competition and dominate your market
  4. The Value-pain Messaging Framework: Writing kick-ass copy for your homepage + Examples
  5. The Copy Evaluation Checklist: Evaluating your copy and improving site-wide messaging

There are even more templates and lists sprinkled throughout the book that you can use in the process of building your SaaS website.

However, this does come with a disclaimer: Getting through the whole book might require an investment of time. I suggest you chew on each chapter and digest it a week at a time. Go slow and savour the process rather than shoveling it down your throat like I do with mango sticky rice.

Implementation is a fun, but intense ride, so stay strapped in throughout the journey. We do tend to be more Tolkien than Hemingway, but that’s just because we’re really passionate about our subject (no offense to Hemingway). So consider yourself warned before we head off into the mysterious alleyways of messaging.

See you on the other side!

  1. Not A Cryptid—A Guide To Identifying Your Ideal Customer (1)

Your ideal customer is hiding in plain sight. We’re here to dig them out.

Let’s start at the very beginning. With your customers! The people who actually use and love the product. But not just any customer. Customers who find immense value in your product, contribute ideas that help your product grow, and are happy to leave a positive review—super-users.

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The 20% of users who bring 80% of your revenue,

The 20% of users who bring 80% of your revenue,

If you identify these high-quality customers, you can target prospects who fit the bill.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: I already know my ideal customer. You’ve built your product after considerable research. But a website is a big investment, and if one extra step guarantees that you target and convert the right prospect—it’s worth it.

Who knows, with rapid market shifts and changing consumer needs, your product evolves, and maybe your ideal customer has too. Maybe you’re acquiring customers who are bad for your business. But how do you weed them out?

That's where the Super-user Identification Guide comes in!

You can identify your ideal customer by asking a series of hard questions. Get intimate with your Sales team and really dig deep for these answers. The better you know your customer, the more targeted your messaging can be later on.

You also might be tempted to look at the CLV and call it a day—these are customers who have been consistently paying you over the years!

But buying something ≠ using it or loving it. (Just look at all those unread books on your shelf for a reality check). That’s why you need to go through every segment. Don’t just look at the Sales data and call it a day.

An extreme example

Imagine you’re selling a security tool. You find that your best customers are businesses that have been hacked earlier. They understand the cost of weak security—and therefore, the value of your product.

Or if you’re selling a compliance tool, people who have recently failed an audit are your best, easiest conversions.

But you don’t want to limit yourself to selling to this small segment. You need people who could potentially fail an audit or get hacked. So once you find these super-users by looking at the above data, ask these questions about them:

  1. What industry do they belong to?
  2. Why did they fail? What structural/process flaws in the company led to this? (Alternatively, why are they facing the problem?)
  3. Who in their company is responsible for getting it right?
  4. What size are these businesses?
  5. What prerequisites do they fulfill to be a perfect match for your product? (eg. have 5 team members, have Excel-level technical skills, can make a mean casserole, etc.)
  6. What are their big hairy goals? What are they aspiring for?
  7. How much were they willing to pay for a solution?
  8. What are some attributes that differentiate them? (eg. have raised funding, use Mailchimp, read marketing blogs regularly etc.)
  9. What channels did they come in from?

Once you’re done with this investigation, you’ll have a good idea of what kind of companies need your help. You’ll know who is facing the problems your product solves. You will know the makings of a super-user, and be able to identify a good prospect upfront.

Super-user Identification Guide

<aside> 🐞 Sales data

The goal is to find the names of prospects who were serious about solving a problem and converted because they found your product to be the right answer.

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<aside> 🐞 Usage data

<aside> 🐞 Engagement

The customers who engage with your team are the ones who are genuinely using your tool and want to build a long-term relationship with your business. They want to help improve your product because they’re sticking by it.

</aside>

(Now comes the slightly harder sections that don’t come with easy answers that you can torture out of your unsuspecting team members.)

<aside> 🐞 Reviews

Go through your reviews, find the detailed, positive, and recent ones—that are specific, and talk about how your product helped their business. These people are definitely feeling good about your product, at least for now.

(This one’s easy to track down but is probably the least reliable one on this list.)

</aside>

<aside> 🐞 Customer Success

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<aside> 🐞 Product Growth

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Now that you’ve completed these steps, you’re now ready to start writing copy!

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1.1 Ideal Prospect Litmus Test (1)

  1. The building blocks of positioning (1)

2.1 Positioning Doc Template (1)

2.2 Persona Map Template (1)

  1. Getting to know your customers in a totally friendly and legal way! (1)

3.1 Customer Interview Questions (1)

  1. Mapping your battleground (1)

  2. Tried and tested tactics for beating your adversaries (1)

  3. How To Win Customers And Influence Visitors (1)

  4. Writing kick-ass homepage copy, made easy (1)

  5. Adding the final flourishes to your site (1)

  6. The copy evaluation checklist (1)

  7. Design dos and don’ts to help your copy shine (1)

It’s time to say goodbye…or maybe not? (1)