Comparison pages are a fantastic tool for attracting prospects who are looking to switch from one of your competitors. 

They help you get found in Google by people who are searching for terms like ‘alternative to [X competitor product]’. And because these prospects are near the end of the buying journey, you have a great opportunity to convert them to customers. 

But your comparison page has a lot of heavy lifting to do. Prospects know there are other products (and comparison pages) out there, so your content must:

·     Keep the prospect on your site

·     Show why your product is the better choice

·     Win trust from prospects who don’t know your company

This is where great messaging and copywriting can help. Use the ideas in this post to make a convincing argument—and turn your comparison page into a lead generation machine!

(This is an excerpt from a longer blog I wrote, How to write SaaS comparison pages that beat the competition.)

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

The headline is your first chance to create a winning narrative 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 really 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 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 its SMB audience.

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

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Conclusion

Comparison pages have the potential to drive leads and sales for your business. But don't make the mistake of thinking of them as low-effort content that's written purely for the search engines.

Instead, use your comparison page to position your product strategically for your best-fit customers. Your visitors should quickly be able to see why your SaaS is a better match for their needs, even if they only scan-read the page.

Happy writing!

P.S. - Want more help with comparison pages? Read my interview with comparison page expert Federico Jorge.

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