Use research, SEO, and conversion copywriting to effectively position your SaaS against competitors

The explosion of competition in SaaS has birthed a new kind of content: comparison pages. Also known as ‘alternative to’ pages, marketers use them to win over the 78% of SaaS shoppers who rely on search to research products.

However, many SaaS businesses don’t bother with them. Others treat them as an SEO box-ticking exercise, whipping up crude comparisons from a sucky template.

Well, I’m here to tell ya that comparison pages aren’t just worth taking seriously—they’re a powerful secret weapon in the battle for your niche.

Comparison pages can drive legit growth for your SaaS

From an SEO perspective, they might not seem like the best opportunity for traffic. But according to Maeva Cifuentes of Flying Cat Marketing, an SEO agency for B2B SaaS companies, they make up for it in other ways.

"Keyword tools will tell you that comparisons only get 10-40 searches per month," explains Maeva. "But they convert like crazy because the visitors are as close to ready-to-buy as it gets. We published one comparison page and the next month it drove a deal worth over $9k in MRR.”

Philipe Lehoux, co-founder of Missive, told me how comparison pages helped his bootstrapped SaaS grow. "At Missive, the team is run by three co-founders with no employees, and we’re soon going to break the $2M ARR milestone. Our marketing initiative can't be labor-intensive. For a long time, our comparison pages were our only effective growth engine."

If all this sounds a little too good to be true, let’s take a closer look at why they’re so effective.

What happens when you create kick-ass comparison pages?

Comparison pages let you make a full sales argument to ready-to-buy visitors coming directly from Google. They combine SEO, positioning strategy, psychology, and copywriting to present a tailored marketing message at just the right moment.

And when you get this magic blend right, you can…

Get your slice of the comparison searcher traffic

Many SaaS shoppers will come across comparison pages when googling for an alternative to a particular solution. We can see that these searches are reasonably common—”hubspot vs salesforce” gets 1,900 searches per month—and that’s just in the US.

Meanwhile, “slack alternatives” gets 1,900 searches a month, again in the US alone.

Even if your market is nowhere near this size, chances are your audience is still searching for comparisons. So if you don’t have a comparison page, you’re leaving traffic on the table—and your competitors are getting it instead!

Prevent competitors (and software review sites) from shaping your product story

Like it or not, your competitors will eventually talk about your solution on their own websites. If you’re not putting your side of the story out there, customers will only have your competitors’ perspectives.

Software comparison sites like GetApp, G2, and Capterra will even populate comparison pages for SaaS products using user-submitted reviews. These sites can work to your advantage, but you’re still at the mercy of individual reviewers who won’t always tell the full story.

Show how your app is right for best-fit customers

Comparison pages give you a great opportunity to position your app for best-fit customers. This is vital for convincing prospects to choose you, as positioning expert April Dunford explains in her book Obviously Awesome:

“Focusing on a best-fit prospect segment doesn't always make sense to people who don't have a marketing background. If I wanted to increase my chances of landing a customer, would I want to target as broad a market as possible? The reality is the exact opposite. The broader your focus, the more difficult it is to connect with prospects and convince them that your solution is the best one for them.”

With a carefully structured comparison page, you tell best-fit customers how you win on the points that matter to them—from features to pricing, integrations, and beyond.

Influence prospects with high purchasing intent

People looking for SaaS comparisons are generally in one of two situations:

• They’re dissatisfied with the solution they’re currently using.
• They’re looking for a solution for the first time and trying to find the best fit.

Both audiences are near the end of their buying journey. In terms of the stages of awareness, they are product aware—they know what their problem is, they know they need a product to fix it, and they’re ready to choose the best one.

Long story short, these prospects are ready to buy (or at least try) a solution, and your comparison page could be the deciding factor in their choice.

Most importantly, comparison pages let you tap into a key human decision-making mechanism

Comparing things is a fundamental human mechanism for assessing quality and value. To evaluate a product, we need to see it in a meaningful context—and that’s where things get interesting.

Scientists have investigated how context can affect the perceived superiority of items. In one study, they asked test participants to estimate the value of two dictionaries:

• Dictionary A: 20,000 entries, like new but with a torn cover
• Dictionary B: 10,000 entries, like new

When separate groups of participants were asked to evaluate one dictionary at a time, they valued Dictionary B higher on average.

But when participants were shown both dictionaries together, the preferences reversed—participants valued Dictionary A higher. With the right context, Dictionary A’s number of entries became a more important indicator of value than its torn cover.

This preference reversal effect has been replicated in multiple studies. The key takeaway is that comparisons let you control the context that your prospects use to evaluate your solution. The perceived superiority of a product isn’t fixed, but something that changes in different contexts.

To set the right context, first carefully choose who you compare your app with

It can be tempting to create a comparison page for every competitor in your space. As long as people are searching for alternatives to them, that’s traffic you can win, and that’s all that matters, right?

Not necessarily.

As we’ve established, customers understand products according to the context in which they view them. So if you compare your app to Asana, visitors are going to immediately see you as a project management tool.

That might be what you want. But if your product doesn’t fit that mold, you might be setting the wrong context for your audience. So pick your battles carefully!

Going after bigger competitors can help you “hack” SEO

Nigel Stevens, Founder and Growth Lead at Organic Growth Marketing, told me how he uses comparison pages to help startups grow. His strategy is to build content featuring the names of well-established competitors with high volumes of comparison searches.

“Comparison pages give you the opportunity to ‘ride the wave’ of a bigger competitor’s brand search volume and notoriety before your own brand search volume grows to a bigger number”, Stevens says.

“For example, if you were entering the CRM space, you could target:

• [Hubspot alternative]
• [Hubspot vs your company]
• [Hubspot] vs [Competitor 2] vs [your company]

See how BigCommerce does that with its bigger competitors below—smart!”

…but don’t ignore the up-and-comers in your space

When you’re creating a long-term strategy, targeting recently-funded competitors can also lead to surprising wins.

“Start with your less-known competitors, as it will be easier to get a good ranking,” says Philippe Lehoux from Missive. “They might be unknown now and be the juggernaut of your space in a year or two. If a new startup pops out with a lot of funding, do a comparison page now, because yours will be the first return for a long time”.

Lastly, proceed carefully if you’re the market leader

If you already have the go-to solution in your space, it’s arguably not a good idea to alert visitors to much smaller competitors. However, if you know that people are searching for comparisons of your app and an up-n-coming competitor, it may still make sense to publish one.

In this scenario, host the comparisons as stand-alone pages that aren’t clearly showcased in your blog listings. This way you can still win organic traffic while keeping quiet about smaller competitors.

(A quick caveat on the above: you will still need to link to these comparison pages from other content on your site. Otherwise Google will likely not index them)

How to avoid the dumb mistakes that make comparison pages weak

To ensure your page keeps visitors’ attention and appears credible, you’ll want to avoid some common UX and copywriting mistakes.

1. Be wary of long comparison pages that don’t give prospects helpful information about features

Comparison tables seem to be standard practice on SaaS comparison pages. We’ve all seen the long tables that seem to go on forever…

These long tables aren’t necessarily wrong for everyone, but they can create UX issues.

Eye-tracking studies suggest that, even on a simple two-product comparison table, people frequently re-read the column headings. When the table is so long that users must scroll up to view the headings, this slows down their experience. It also increases their cognitive load—i.e. the mental energy they expend—which can negatively impact conversions.

Most marketers also don’t consider that…

• Long comparison tables imply that more features = a better product (when your SaaS may be better for your ideal customers because it has fewer features)
• Your product might have features that are more developed or easier to use, and these tables do nothing to show that
• They operate on the assumption readers will understand all your feature names

What to do instead

Don’t build long tables like this just because it’s what everyone else does. Instead, use them to support specific arguments about how your product beats the competition. If you have to include a long table, break it up into expandable sections so visitors can still scan-read.

Lastly, where relevant, add additional copy explaining the features you’re discussing.

2. Give your competitors credit where it’s due

Weak comparison pages come off as pure sales pitches, rather than genuine comparisons. It’s okay to be a little one-sided—but what if you could raise credibility by being honest about your competitor’s strengths?

Research from Duke University suggests that complimenting a competitor’s brand could improve sales. One study found that when participants saw a brand praising its competitor, they were more likely to buy from the compliment-giving brand in the next 11 days.

Notice that Hotjar doesn’t shy away from saying where users may have an advantage with its competitor:

3. But make sure you’re critical enough of your competitors

There’s little point in making a comparison page if you don’t point out where your product beats the competition.

Notice how the comparison below avoids directly telling us how Orbital is better over Whimsical. Instead, it assumes we know all about Whimsical and leaves us to join the dots.

At best, this is unhelpful—at worst, it looks like Orbital doesn’t know anything about Whimsical.

What’s more, the testimonials Orbital displays on its comparison page don’t tell us anything about why Orbital is a better choice:

Websites that don’t follow through on the promises in their headlines are confusing. And studies suggest that when websites fail to meet expectations, visitors judge them as not being credible.

Your prospects deserve to know exactly how one product is better for their needs than another—so tell them! Signaturely does a far better job here:

4. Understand why your competitors’ customers are looking to change

Many SaaS companies just put their standard product pitch on their comparison page without tailoring it to the audience. By doing this, you miss the opportunity to capitalize on your competitor’s weakness or tap into your audience’s unmet needs.

So don’t make assumptions about what matters to your prospects. Instead, research the perspectives of best-fit customers so you can position your page for them—and pick a fight you can win.

Insider advice on how to research SaaS comparison pages

(…and create a context where your app is superior for best-fit prospects).

The team at Stack Against, a company entirely dedicated to competitor comparison assets, has a detailed approach to getting inside buyers’ minds. I recently spoke with the company’s founder Federico Jorge about what makes an effective SaaS comparison page.

During the interview, he gave me a helpful breakdown of his approach:

Mine customer reviews from software rating sites

Go on sites like G2, Capterra, GetApp, TrustRadius and Trustpilot (there’s probably more, this list keeps growing!) and grab positive, neutral and negative reviews for you and your competitors.

Don’t make the mistake of only looking at negative reviews. These are mostly from angry customers and are heavily influenced by bad experiences that don’t paint a real picture of your competitors.

Put those reviews on a doc and start analyzing specific things customers mention. Then count how many times each ‘issue’ appears. Include both good and the bad so you can identify trends.

Construct your positioning narrative

With a clear idea of the strengths your product has over the competitor, you can decide on an overarching narrative for the page—one where you come out on top. “The things people love the most about your competitors are topics you want to avoid”, explains Federico. “Why pick a battle you might lose, right?”

The issues people complain the most about when discussing competitors are your gaps. Hopefully, your brand offers a unique way to fill these gaps and improve on the weaknesses of your competitor. This is where you’ll find your comparison page positioning narrative.

For example, Federico and his team noticed reviewers complaining that project management app Asana isn’t great for handling repeat processes. This was an area their client, ProcessKit, was strong in. So they used this to fuel the narrative on their Processkit vs Asana comparison page.

Sprinkle in Voice of the Customer

Since you’ve done the tough work of sourcing and analyzing all these reviews from real customers, make sure you put them to good use.

Mimic the way they speak about you and your competitors on your comparison page. Add relevant testimonials to support your narrative. Tell readers how much people love you on sites like G2 or Capterra, for unbiased social proof.

Six copywriting tips to dramatically increase the selling power of your comparison pages

1. Use your main headline to clearly position your Saas against the competitor

The headline is your first chance to create a winning context for your comparison. Yet many SaaS businesses go with a totally generic headline like this:

OK, ‘Mailchimp alternative’ and ‘Mailmodo vs Mailchimp’ are clearly there to help the page rank in search results. But there are other ways to get those keywords on the page (as we’ll see in other examples).

The key takeaway here is that this headline tells us nothing about why Mailmodo is better than Mailchimp. For human readers, it’s a wasted headline.

This is much more helpful:

This headline sets the context for the entire page and creates a clear narrative about why Signaturely is the better choice. And it keeps the SEO keyword ‘Docusign alternative’ in the headline and eyebrow copy in a natural-sounding way.

2. Break the page up into sub-stories showing where your competitor’s app is weak and yours is strong

A comparison page should be like a regular SaaS landing page, presenting a sales argument in digestible chunks. The goal isn’t to say “we have a feature that they don’t”, but to explain how your app serves specific needs.

Avoid using vague headings that don’t convey a benefit or tell a story, like Asana does here:

Instead, build your headings and subsections around specific problems that you’ve identified your competitor as having.

You can then go into detail about how your app is the ideal solution, whether it’s because of one single feature or several. Like this example from Clickup:

3. Support your criticism and claims with the Voice of the Customer

According to research by Wyzowl, 77% of B2B customers agreed that testimonials convinced them to try a premium SaaS product. So when you’re pointing out your strengths—or a competitor’s weaknesses—let the customer say it for you.

4. Directly call out who your ideal customer is

Strong positioning is about occupying a space in your customer’s mind as THE solution for a specific audience.

So don’t be afraid to specifically say who your app is for. You might lose a few non-ideal customers, but you’ll have a better chance of beating an app that’s trying to be everything to everyone.

(Notice that this section sneakily got ‘Docusign Alternative’ in there again for SEO…nice.)

5. Tie your cross-heads and call-to-actions back into your overarching narrative

Your job isn’t just to create a narrative in the headline and hope people remember it. No half-measures here.

Use your cross-heads (a.k.a. sub-headings) and call-to-actions to remind your readers of the narrative you created, so they absorb the ‘big idea’ of how you’re a better choice.

Notice how Clickup starts by positioning itself as a productivity tool:

…and then continues this narrative later, in the final call-to-action:

You don’t have to repeat your narrative in every single section, but make sure it’s clear enough throughout the page.

6. Turn your weaknesses into strengths (and your competitor’s strengths into weaknesses!)

When comparing your SaaS to certain competitors, your feature set might seem inferior on paper. However, ‘better’ or ‘worse’ is all subjective when it comes to comparisons.

As positioning expert April Dunford explains, “The features of our product and the value they provide are only unique, interesting and valuable when a customer perceives them in relation to alternatives”.

Check out how EmailOctopus positions its lack of complexity against Mailchimp here:

For a company that’s trying to take on a category leader, this is a smart move. Email Octopus knows that Mailchimp has become more complex, and that this is a potential sticking point for Mailchimps’s small business audience.

Which of your (alleged) weaknesses can you turn into a strength on your comparison page?

Fail-proof extra persuasion elements that will help your comparison page convert

Like any other page that makes a sales pitch, your comparison page can include elements that ramp up persuasion and give the reader an easier journey.

Offer migration support

The hassle of switching to a new solution can be a major obstacle for B2B SaaS buyers, especially those with large teams. But your comparison page is here to convince people to jump ship—so why not try to overcome that obstacle?

For instance, include a simple form that users can fill in to get onboarding help, as FreshBooks does below. Or add a short video that explains the process.

Show where you compete on pricing

Making price your differentiator is arguably quite risky in a competitive niche. However, it can be worth highlighting where you offer better value, particularly if your free plan can match up to a competitor’s paid one.

Add social proof that’s relevant to your comparison

Social proof like testimonials, customer logos and success stats are a no-brainer for comparison pages. The holy grail is a testimonial from a customer who switched from the competitor to your app:

However, make sure your social proof is framed in a way that appeals to your audience. If you’re trying to market to small businesses, mentioning Fortune 500 companies might not make sense:

Finally, add whatever else you need to make a full sales argument

You don’t have to make every section on your page about your app vs your competitor’s app. Consider including important selling points that you would include on your regular landing pages:

Bring it all together to build a comparison page that converts

Remember, comparison pages let you present an entire sales argument to best-fit customers with high purchase intent. But because they’re also checking out other solutions, it’s vital that your page offers a helpful, credible, easily-digestible comparison.

As we’ve covered, that means:

• Researching how your app stacks up against the competition
• Choosing a fight you can win in the eyes of best-fit customers
• Presenting a clear narrative throughout your comparison page
• Making honest (but fair) evaluations of your competitor’s app
• Offering to help the prospect switch to your service
• Backing up your claims and criticisms with testimonials
• Promoting any pricing advantages you have

Use these points to position yourself against competitors on your next comparison page - and get those new sign-ups flowing!

This article was written by Jon Evans, a tech copy and content specialist. Get my help with generating traffic and sales for your SaaS at Electric Copy.