You know that your SaaS product is great. Even when compared to other options on the market, your product stands out. But have you told this to your target audience?
That is exactly what a competitor comparison landing page does. It tells people how your product fares against the competition.
If you have created a comparison page, Kudos! Maybe I can help you make it more effective. If you don’t have one yet, even better. This blog will help you create a comparison page — a killer one at that.
We analyzed over 40 SaaS comparison pages and poured all the lessons into this article. You will learn about:
At the end of the article you will find:
Let’s start with the why! Why even bother making a comparison landing page? Is it worth the effort?
A comparison landing page is more useful than ten random blogs about your industry or achievements. It is a form of evergreen content and helps bring in bottom-of-the-funnel audiences with strong purchase intent.
The traffic of comparison pages will be less in volume compared to any top-of-funnel or middle-funnel-content. But, it gives a better conversion rate if done right.
Comparative searches usually come from relevant audiences with high purchase intent.
Some of the common SaaS comparison searches include “brand A vs brand B”, “brand A alternatives”, and “Brand A or Brand B”. These are the searches of people on the verge of a decision or purchase.
An effective comparison page will help drive their decision in your favor. Take the case study of Teamwork for instance. This SaaS company used competitor comparison pages to get 54% more organic traffic conversions for its project management software.
If you do not have a comparison page for your SaaS brand, you are losing high-quality customers to your competitors.
Genuine competitive analysis will help you understand where you stand in the market. You will identify your strengths against your SaaS competitors. You will also learn how you differ from other brands in the market.
Most importantly, you can identify the ideal customers for your brand. It is these customers that you will be targeting with your comparison page. The best comparison pages focus on their USPs and differentiating factors instead of downplaying the competitor.
Competitive analysis will also help you identify the USPs of your competitors as well as their target audience. You can accordingly upgrade your product or prices to attract your competitors’ audience and convert them into your customers.
Comparison pages have long-term SEO value. As your product becomes more popular, more people will search for it and compare it with other products. These searches will generate a good volume of traffic.
Furthermore, audiences from these searches tend to stay on the page for longer. You will get better scroll depth and time-on-page than other pieces of content. As SaaS products continue to change and grow, you will also have ample opportunities to update this page and keep it relevant.
A single comparison page can target a wide range of relevant keywords. You can rank for searches concerning your brand, your competitor’s brand, and a comparison between the two. We will detail all the keywords you can target for comparison pages in the next section of this article.
Keywords of comparison searches are ironically not that competitive to rank for. You only have to outrank review websites and your competitor’s comparison page. It is easier to rank comparison pages compared to blogs on popular topics.
But, if you do not have a comparison page for your SaaS brand, you are allowing other people to control your story and potentially steal customers.
If you lack a comparison page, potential customers will learn about you from other blogs, review sites, or your competitor’s landing page. To control how the customer perceives your brand, you must control the narrative.
You want people to learn about your SaaS product from you and not some biased source. A comparative page will help you tell your story, present your USPs and tell people how you are different from the stock.
Comparison landing pages can also help prevent migration. You can convince the customers that they already have the best product available in the market. Any customer looking to migrate to another product will compare it with your product.
Here a comparison page can highlight the problems they will face after migration. You can also show the drawbacks of other products on the market and compare them with the solutions your product offers. This will help you retain valuable customers.
A good comparison landing page is not just SEO gold, but also a marketing goldmine. You can build a variety of marketing campaigns around such landing pages.
SaaS comparison pages can be used for targeted search ads, social media ads, content marketing, influencer marketing, and more. These pages contain a very powerful message about the brand and its product.
Marketing with competitor comparison landing pages will bring quality prospects and convert more customers. In the below image, you can see how Outplay HQ is using its comparison page for search ads.
OutplayHQ is targeting people searching for “Yesware”, its competitor. Instead of advertising its name directly, Outplay HQ is proposing that they are the “Best Yesware Alternative”. Through this campaign, they are taking away a significant chunk of Yesware’s customers.
If you do not have a comparison page, your competitors will most likely gain an advantage. In the marketing jungle, you are either targeting or you are the target.
To create an effective comparison landing page you need to understand your product, competitors’ products, and the target market. You can simply create a feature-to-feature or price comparison page, but that will not convey a strong message.
If you want to convert visitors into customers, you have to convince them of differences in the products and user experience.
Here are a few important questions you should answer for each competitor comparison page:
Once you answer these questions, you will have all the information you need to create your comparison landing page. Then you focus on targeting the right people.
Competitor comparison pages are not general interest content. They are meant to target specific search intents and hence should focus only on a select few keywords.
10 most Important keywords to target for SaaS comparison pages:
With the above keywords, you will target a variety of people with different search queries. These keywords help you target:
Your comparison page should cater to all these search intents. If a person is putting your targeted keywords in a search engine, they should be happy that they found your comparison landing page.
You have to make the comparison page persuasive to ensure conversion. This requires careful drafting of different components on the page. Each component should independently persuade the visitors and complement the larger narrative of the comparison page.
In this article, we will discuss how SaaS comparison pages have used different components. We will also recommend the best way to use each of these to create your comparison page.
We will discuss:
At the end of every discussion, we will give our verdict on how you can use different components for maximum impact. But, before we can understand the building blocks, we need to understand the different types of comparison pages and how they are used.
After studying 35 SaaS comparison pages, we found that they essentially fall into 3 types:
“One vs All” comparison pages start with a headline that promises a comparison of one product against all the products on the market. But, the comparison is abandoned immediately after the headline. Instead, this kind of comparison page only talks about how their product is the best in the market. Such pages offer little to no information about the competitor’s products.
“One vs Many” pages compare several products against each other. Such pages open with an elaborate comparison table. This table compares the features and prices of multiple products on the market. The creator’s column in this table is frozen while columns of other products can be horizontally scrolled. Each of the columns has a link to their respective “One vs One” comparison page.
Some brands also combine “One vs All” and “One vs Many” formats to create a comparison page. This page first focuses on the USPs of their product and their standing in the market. After that, they either feature a comparison table or link to several “One vs One” comparison pages.
“One vs One” pages focus on comparing only 2 products. The comparison is quite detailed and focuses on differences in features, solutions, product use, customer experience, etc. Such pages best match comparison search intent. This type of page contains several elements that persuade a customer to choose one product over the other.
Growfusely’s Verdict:
Depending on which message you wish to convey, you will have to choose the components that build your comparison page.
Components to create the perfect comparison landing page:
Let’s see how you can use each of these components to create the perfect comparison page for your SaaS products.
The ultimate goal of a comparison landing page is to gain new customers. That’s what call-to-action (CTA) buttons do.
We found that 91% of SaaS comparison pages use call-to-action buttons. The majority of them have deployed CTAs at the very beginning of the page.
But, you should not stop there. 77% of comparison landing pages have used multiple CTAs distributed throughout the page.
We found the following CTA buttons on SaaS comparison pages:
“Free Trial” and “Request Demo” are the perfect CTAs for a comparison landing page. The visitor does not have to make any hard commitments and is more likely to click on it.
Visitors to a comparison page are usually looking for alternatives. They have not made a decision yet. So a “Buy Now” button will seem off putting. Pushing for purchase on a comparison page might repel the visitors.
On the other hand, the “Contact Us” button seems like an overly soft approach. This button can be used as a secondary CTA, but the primary focus should be on getting visitors to try your SaaS product.
You can also add “Live Chat” to the page instead of Contact Us. Instant responses can help you become a part of your visitor’s decision-making process. You can use it to guide visitors to try your product.
Copywriting for CTA Message
CTA buttons in comparison to landing pages are accompanied by persuasive text copies. These copies convey messages such as
Note: Product names marked in bold are the competitors.
Your copy is the supporting pillar of your CTA button. It will heavily influence your click-through rate. For the competitor comparison page, you should include the following elements in your CTA message copy:
The copy for the CTA message should also serve as an introduction for your comparison landing page. If you lead with a headline offering solutions, you should explain how your product creates these solutions.
Designing CTA Header
The design elements of a CTA header should visually represent your CTA message. The comparison pages we reviewed for this article have used stock images, custom graphics, and software previews.
You can use visuals to communicate subliminal messages.
Mailerlite has used brand logos in the header. Its logo is shown as bigger than the competitor’s logo and is positioned higher. Other comparison pages have graphically shown key solutions they offer such as speed, simplicity, efficiency, and so on.
But the majority of comparison pages stick to text-only headers with minimalist designs.
Growfusely’s Verdict:
Anyone visiting a comparison landing page will expect to see a comparison table. It’s obvious, isn’t it?
But, we discovered that only 57% of the comparison landing pages have given side-by-side comparisons of features and prices. The other 43% of comparison pages have either compared features without a table i.e. descriptively or not given any comparison at all.
You have 4 types of tables to choose from
The comparison table should give an honest and transparent overview of both products. If you give a biased comparison or exclude key features of the competitor, you will lose the trust of the visitors.
You should only compare important features between both products. Long tables with a list of secondary features create an unsavory reading experience.
When comparing prices, you should highlight additional features that are chargeable. You should mention their charges for both products. A price comparison table should give a clear idea of each priced plan. You can also add a link to your pricing page at the end of the table.
Copywriting for Comparison Table
For a comparison table, you need copywriting for the header, features, and descriptive comparison. If you are doing a “yes” and “no” comparison, you only need copywriting for the former two.
The header text is the most important piece of text in a comparison table. The right headline will set the tone for the comparison. It will also give the reader a perspective on the information in the table.
The header of the comparison table can implant ideas. Before visitors read the table, the header tells them the conclusion they should derive. For example, a header text saying “[Our Product] is cheaper than [Competitor Product]” will implant the idea that the visitor is getting a great deal on price.
You should use the header text of the table to highlight differences in prices, features, or solutions.
Comparison table headlines follow one of the 4 following formats:
When writing the rest of the comparison table you have to be brief. You do not need to describe each feature in detail. Assign a 3-word limit for feature titles. Most comparison tables don’t use feature descriptions. However, if you need to describe a feature, keep it under 7 words.
Instead of simple yes or no, you can also use quirky phrases to compare features and prices. But, flowery language should not dilute your message.
Signature’s comparison table is a great example. They have used conversational phrases and satirical language to highlight differences in features. The table headline also clearly sums up their message.
Designing Comparison Table
People are expecting to see a table, so give them a table. The text should be readable and the design should be easy on the eyes. You can use tick marks and cross marks to show which features are available. And you can use colors to highlight your product better.
Other than that, you don’t have to add any other design elements.
Growfusely’s Verdict:
Every product has a few features that set it apart from others. We found that 77% of the comparison pages highlight the Unique Features of their product. Among them, 67% use custom graphics or software previews to showcase these features.
It might be tempting to highlight every major feature of your software. But, doing so will make your page exhaustive to read. Do not include obvious features that are common to your industry. You should only highlight features that distinguish your product in the market.
Types of Features to Highlight:
The Unique Features section usually contains a set of 3 to 6 features. Each set is linked to a key solution. The features in each set show how the software makes a solution possible.
Each set of Unique Features should have each of the following elements:
We also discovered that comparison pages have more than one set of Unique Features sections. Each section is linked to one key solution. For example, the first section focuses on features that help increase speed, the second section on ease of use, and the third section on collaboration.
These sets of Unique Features are distributed throughout the comparison page. Brands use Trust Building Elements to complement each set of Unique Features.
Copywriting for Top Feature Section
Most comparison pages feature similar headlines and feature titles. But, they use different lengths of descriptions for their features.
The copy for titles is usually to the point. It is never more than 3 words. On the other hand, copy headlines and feature descriptions change from brand to brand.
The section’s headline tells how Unique Features make the software unique and better than the competitor. The feature title is usually only the name of the feature. It is sometimes accompanied by an adjective such as faster, intuitive, easy-to-use, etc.
Comparison pages have one of the following messages for Unique Features headlines:
Note: Product names marked in bold are competitors.
In our research of comparison landing pages, we have seen brands use both short and long copy formats to describe their Unique Features. The long descriptions have instructional language while short descriptions are explanatory.
This section does offer much scope for creative language. You can make descriptions more lively and conversational. But, do not take liberties with its length.
Types of Descriptions for Unique Features Section:
You can create detailed description pages for software features and link those pages to the Unique Features section. This will help you cut down the content in this section. On a comparison landing page, you only need to highlight the most persuasive aspects of your product.
Designing for Unique Features Section
In our research, we discovered that 54% of the comparison pages used graphics in the Unique Features section. This section needs visuals to communicate the functions or advantages of a feature. Comparison pages use icons, custom graphics, or software previews to highlight Unique Features.
1. Icons
Some brands have designed their version of generic icons to describe features. These include an envelope for email, graphs for reports, location market for milestones, and so on.
2. Custom Graphics
Custom Graphics is the most common type of visual used in the Unique Features section. These visuals either depict customers using a feature (with a smile on their face) or a graphical version of the software.
3. Software Preview
Software previews are usually GIF videos of a feature. This shows how a customer can use a feature. Software preview GIF usually jumps between windows to show interconnected features.
Growfusely Verdict:
Key Solutions have a cause-and-effect relationship with Unique Features. Solutions are a consequence of the features. In our research, we found that 74% of SaaS comparison pages highlight their key solutions.
Some of the most common solutions offered by SaaS brands include simplicity, ease of use, flexibility, performance enhancement, customization, team collaboration, and customer support.
Comparison pages either highlight all solutions in one section or use separate sections to highlight each solution. If you are using the latter format, you will also need to complement each Key Solution with a set of Unique Features.
For comparison landing pages, brands usually focus on 3 to 5 Key Solutions. But, some brands have also designed their entire page to highlight one Key Solution. In such cases, the Key Solution is also the main differentiating factor between the brand and its competitor.
Signaturely’s comparison page against DocuSign is a great example of this. The entire page talks about the simplicity of Signaturely’s software.
The key solutions section is also used to address customer pain points. You can talk about the general pain points of the customers or the problems faced by competitor’s customers. But, alongside you should tell visitors how your SaaS product solves these problems.
The format of a Key Solutions section goes as follows:
The headline of the Key Solutions section needs to communicate your USP or appeal to your Ideal Customer. You can also communicate how your solution works better for the customer in the headline
For example, “[Product Name] grows with your team” “[Product Name] is designed for creative minds” or “[Product Name] improves sales by 72%”.
You can also create one set dedicated to one Key Solution. If so, you should adopt this 3-pointer format:
In such cases, the solution title serves as the headline. You only need to add a description and visuals to complete the set.
The Key Solutions section should culminate with a CTA. Most comparison pages use the “Free Trial” CTA with this section.
You can also use Trust Building Elements immediately after the Key Solutions section to emphasize your point. Testimonials, Customer Reviews, and even Competitor’s Customer Reviews lend weight to your message.
Copywriting for Key Solutions Section
As with Unique Features, most comparison pages have similar headlines and titles for the Key Solutions section as well. Though, the format and length of descriptions are different for each brand. Some of the SaaS comparison pages have used different formats for different solutions as well.
In contrast to Unique Features, brands have used vivid language in the Key Solutions section. Both section headlines and titles are descriptive and conversational. The word count ranges between 2 to 15 words.
With the headline and solution title, you need to tell people why they should choose your product. You can talk about customer experience, solving problems, helping their performance, making life better, and what customers can achieve with your SaaS product.
Several SaaS comparison pages also heavily emphasize their customer support services in their Key Solutions section.
Some of the most common headlines & titles messages for the Key Solutions section are:
The descriptions of Key Solutions are quite similar to those of Unique Features. They can be short copies or long copies. Regardless of its length, the description should focus on how the software achieves the solution, how the solution helps the customer, or why the solution is important for customers.
Types of Descriptions for Key Solutions Section:
Most comparison pages use a blend of instructional and conversational language to describe their solutions.
The CTA message in the Key Solutions section should complement the headline or the solution title. For example, if your Key Solution is “Simplicity”, your CTA message can be “Let’s try a simpler way”.
Designing for Key Solutions Section
60% of the comparison pages that have a Key Solutions section have used visuals to better communicate their message. The rest 40% rely on text alone. Just like Unique Features, Key Solutions also need a visual aid to drive a point home.
You can use icons, custom graphics, or stock images to emphasize the message of your solutions.
1. Icons
You can use commonly known icons to visually describe your key solutions. Some of the common icons used in comparison pages include headphones for customer support, gears for functionality, graph for growth, and so on.
2. Custom Graphics
Graphics for Key Solutions are an extension of the icons. They usually feature happy customers using a graphical version of the software and experience the solution.
3. Stock Images
Stock images are not very common on comparison pages. Only 9% of the comparison landing pages use stock images to describe a solution. Brands have used different stock images for different solutions.
Growfusely’s Verdict:
Trust Building elements are the feedback on your SaaS product by 3rd parties. The feedback can be in form of reviews, testimonials, ratings, or awards. You can use these elements to show what other people are saying about your product.
These elements assure the visitors that your product is well recognized in the market. It is always better to be praised by others than to blow your own trumpet.
We found that 91% of SaaS comparison pages have used at least one trust-building element. But, it is common for competitor comparison pages to feature more than one. Some of the most common trust-building elements include:
Most SaaS comparison pages have positioned these elements towards the end of the page, almost as a conclusion. Though a few comparison landing pages creatively employ these elements to highlight Unique Features and support Key Solutions.
SaaS brands also use these elements to highlight differences between them and their competitors.
Customer Testimonials
Testimonials are the customer reviews you collected. In comparison pages, testimonials can be used to communicate your USPs, brand identity, Unique Features, Key Solutions, user experience, customer success stories, or customer loyalty.
Most brands use only text for testimonials. However, a few brands use video testimonials to show authenticity. Even with video testimonials, the central message is highlighted in the text.
Essential Elements of a Testimonial:
Some comparison pages have linked testimonials with customer success stories and case studies. This way, they get to flaunt how their product is instrumental in achieving success in an industry.
Many comparison pages shove their testimonials together in one section. These sections feature 3 testimonials from different customers. In doing so, individual testimonials lose their significance.
Highlighting each testimonial separately lends weight to their message. Testimonials from different customers can be used to support different elements. For example, Processkit has used 3 testimonials on its competitor comparison page, each testimonial supports a difference between its product and Trello, its competitor.
Major Customers
If you have big brands in your clientele, flaunt them. This element works on the same principle as influencer marketing. When people see successful companies using a product, they associate that product with success.
Comparison pages are the right place to show off your celebrity customers.
The format is quite simple. All you need is a good headline and logos of your customers. That’s it.
Most SaaS competitor comparison pages mention a ballpark figure of their total customers along with major customer logos.
Awards & Recognition
Awards & recognitions are rare, hence only a few brands get to feature them on their comparison pages. They are a recognition of industry excellence and lend credibility to your claim.
You can feature awards and recognitions from media, customer review sites, research agencies, critic sites, and so on. The most common awards featured on SaaS comparison pages come from G2 Crowd awards and recognitions. Only a few brands feature awards and recognition by media, critic reviews, or research brands.
Most comparison pages exhibit their awards toward the end of the page. This section is used as a final mark of credibility. The positioning of this section can alter the message it communicates.
How you use these elements depends on the type of award or recognition. If you have won something for the brand, it is best to showcase it at the beginning of a page. If the award concerns particular features or solutions, you can use them alongside their respective sections.
Customer Reviews
Customer reviews are feedback given by customers on third-party websites. These can be review sites, community forums, google reviews, or social media sites. They serve the same purpose as testimonials but have more credibility because they come from independent sources.
Most comparison pages extract screenshots of customer reviews and present them as they are. The most common sources for customer reviews for SaaS brands are G2 Crowd, Capterra, and Twitter.
You should look for customer reviews that tell a personal story rather than ones that make a general statement. In the above image, you can see Notion has used reviews that have a personal and narrative element.
You can use customer reviews just as you use testimonials. They can help you emphasize your Unique Features and Key Solutions.
Like testimonials, customer reviews can also be scattered throughout the comparison page. Each set of reviews can emphasize the importance of different features or solutions.
Customer Success Stories
Customer success stories tell the visitors that someone has already achieved their goals with your SaaS product. This section says that “If they can do it, you can do it too.”
Comparison pages usually do not feature the entire story. The central message is featured on the page with a link to the detailed case study. This message is usually a quote from the customer either directly recommending the SaaS product or praising its features.
Customer Success Stories are an extension of testimonials. They build trust by showing that other people have already trusted the brand and are happy about it.
These success stories are usually positioned at the bottom of the comparison page. Most of the time they look like testimonials. Only they are linked to detailed case studies.
Case studies of different customers can be distributed throughout the page to show that a success story is not a one-off thing. By showing the success stories of multiple customers, you communicate that success from using your product is the norm, not an exception.
User Ratings
Ratings on product review sites are considered more impartial than individual reviews or testimonials. They are the collective voice of numerous customers. SaaS comparison landing pages show ratings from either G2 Crowd or Capterra.
There is a reason why only 20% of the comparison pages have exhibited their ratings. Most brands might not have a great score. This is understood by the customers as well. So if you have good ratings on any major review website, showcase it on your competitor comparison page.
SaaS comparison pages showcase their overall rating as well as individual aspect rating such as ease of use, customer service quality, ease of setup, etc.
Like many trust-building elements, ratings are usually featured at the end of the comparison page. It is followed by a final call to action.
Media Coverage
Media coverage among SaaS brands is even more sparse than excellent ratings. Hence we found only 3% of SaaS comparison pages highlight some kind of media coverage.
You have to do something newsworthy or pay a media agency to feature your brand. The bigger the media agency, the greater the impact. Freshbooks, for instance, shows that it has been featured by renowned media brands like Forbes, the New York Times, and Bloomberg.
If your brand has been covered by media, you should showcase it on your comparison page. It will lend additional weight to your credibility and industry recognition. People know that it is not easy to get your name on the news. Getting featured by a major media brand is considered a great achievement in itself.
On the other hand, you should not feature small media brands that are recognized by the general audience. Use this section only if your brand or SaaS product has been featured by a renowned newspaper, magazine, or media website.
Unlike other trust-building elements, Media coverage is featured at the top of the page, right after the initial CTA. Such is the prestige associated with being on the news.
Copywriting for Trust Building Elements
This section requires very little copywriting. You only need to worry about the headline and let the words of the people do the rest.
Some of the common headlines for trust-building elements include:
Many of the trust-building elements are self-explanatory. So you do not even need a headline for them. These include customer reviews, awards, media coverage, and market ratings. But, you need to assure people of their authenticity.
You can convey the authenticity of trust-building elements by adding a link to the source. This can be done for any of the elements except testimonials. The other way you can convey authenticity is through design & presentation.
Designing for Trust-Building Elements
The elements of this section do not need to be dressed up with the design. The purpose of visuals for this section is to convey authenticity. Trust-building elements should not look “Designed”.
Much of the visuals for this section come directly from the source. You can extract customer reviews, ratings, media coverage, and awards as they are on the source website. All you need are good screenshots.
It may be tempting to redesign them to match the theme of the page. But, matching the visual branding of the source conveys more authenticity. In the images below you can see how trust-building elements reflect their sources.
You just need to arrange the elements to look visually appealing. You can build designs and patterns around them as long as their authenticity remains intact.
Liberty in design is possible with Testimonials, Customer Case Studies, and Major Customers. For each of these, the customer’s brand logo is the most important visual element. Even if your customer’s logos do not match the theme of your comparison page, you should display them as it is. Here again, communicating authenticity is paramount.
For testimonials and Customer Case Studies, you can also add a picture of the customer alongside their company’s logo.
Growfusely’s Verdict:
These are the factors that separate your product from the competition. Differentiating factors are an extension of a brand’s identity and philosophy. They help highlight a brand’s USP and how their product provides a unique customer experience.
This section is all the more important for SaaS brands that focus on a niche audience. Using differences, you can communicate how your product is custom-built for an ideal type of customer or a specific purpose.
This section is used in competitor comparison landing pages to show:
In our research, we found that 66% of the comparison pages highlight important differences between them and their competitors. If you are comparing against a single competitor, this section is the second most important element on the page after the comparison table.
Comparison pages highlight differences in features, solutions, product purpose, customer reviews, ratings, and brand philosophy. 63% of brands use differentiating factors to highlight their product’s USP. And 49% of the comparison pages highlight differences in features and solutions.
A few brands have themed their entire competitor comparison landing pages around differentiating factors. For Example, Signature’s comparison page entirely focuses on how their product is simpler when compared to DocuSign, their competitor.
Signaturely has compared features, solutions, brand identity, product purpose, and customer reviews. They have used each of these factors to show that Signaturely is a better choice owing to its ease of use and simplicity.
Comparing customer reviews and ratings serve as the punctuation mark for the differentiating factors. Trust-building elements are used to show that differences in features & solutions create different user experiences.
SaaS brands evenly distribute differentiating factors throughout their comparison pages. Differences in brand identity, product purpose, USPs, or user experience are generally put at the top of the page. They are either placed alongside the opening CTA or immediately after it.
Differences in features and solutions are distributed throughout the page. Usually, a difference in feature is linked with the difference in solution as well. These differences are supported by customer reviews of both the SaaS brand and its competitors.
SaaS comparison pages also call attention to their competitor’s drawbacks in the guise of differences. This too is done at the beginning of the page and continues through the length of it.
Differentiating Features & Solutions
When your product has the same features and offers the same solutions as your competitors, you need to show how they are different.
Is your product more efficient? Is it easier to use? Does it work better for a specific type of customer? Are there things your product can do and the competitor’s cannot?
These are the questions you need to answer by comparing features and solutions. A great example of features & solutions differences is Slite’s comparison page against Google Docs.
By comparing its features against those of Google Docs, Slite shows how its product is easier to organize and better for collaboration.
You can use such differences to show what it would be like to use your product against the competitor’s product. Differences in features & solutions also subtly hint at the ideal customers and purpose of the products.
In the above examples, Signaturely says that it is built for simple & straightforward processes and Slite says that it is great for teamwork.
Differentiating USPs, Brand Philosophy & Product Purpose
Several comparison pages open by defining the differences in the purpose of the products, USPs, and brand philosophy. Such opening statements are revisited throughout the comparison landing page.
More than highlighting the differences, these statements are meant to communicate why someone should choose their product instead of the competitor’s product.
A few brands have used this section to praise their competitors as well. In doing so, they show that they are not being petty when highlighting the competitor’s drawbacks. It is also a great show of confidence. Statements of praise convey a sense of humility and transparency. This influences the reader’s perception of the rest of the content.
Drift & Missive both praise their competitors for something. Though Missive’s content feels more genuine. They recognize the popularity of Slack and the role it played in changing the market. Only then does it talk about differences in their products.
Some SaaS comparison pages even recommend their competitors for a certain type of user.
Such recommendations are only seen on comparison pages that have clearly identified their niche audience.
Missive says that their competitor is great for certain types of people. At the same time, this line of recommendation also highlights their drawback. Also, note how Missive has recommended SparkMail for a limited audience type while recommending itself for a wider audience.
The missive has done this quite smartly. Though a few SaaS brands have also used sarcastic tones when recommending their competitors. Such statements are used to demean the competitors as well as the competitor’s customers.
Differentiating Customer Response
In our research, we found that 26% of the SaaS comparison pages use reviews of competitors to show how their product is better for the users. 9% of the comparison pages have also shown user ratings from review sites like G2 Crowd.
A great example of a comparison with customer reviews is ProcessKit’s comparison page against Trello.
Processkit shows how its product works well for larger teams with complex workflows. At the same time, they present Trello as a basic and insufficient task management tool. They have put customer reviews of Trello against their own to showcase this.
By showing such reviews, SaaS comparison pages tell the reader that people who have chosen their competitor are unhappy. This comparison is presented as yet another reason for the reader to migrate.
A few SaaS comparison pages also compare ratings to show better satisfaction among their users compared to those of the competitor.
Copywriting for Differentiating Factors
SaaS comparison pages use vivid language to describe the differences between their product and their competitor’s product. The tone is conversational rather than instructional.
For this section, comparison pages use the inverted pyramid format. A headline describes the difference followed by two paragraphs to explain further. One paragraph is used to describe the competitor and the other to describe the home product.
The headlines for this section usually focus on a particular solution for a specific type of people. This solution en described by highlighting differences in features, product purpose, customer reviews, ratings, or brand philosophy.
Headlines for Differentiating Factors:
The description paragraphs follow the lead of the headline. You can describe your product first and the competitor’s product in the second paragraph or vice-versa. The section is not bound by an order. Many comparison pages have changed the order within the same page.
This format works for all differentiating factors. One paragraph is used to highlight the benefits of your product and the other to highlight the drawbacks of the competitor.
The descriptive paragraphs usually communicate one of the following messages:
In descriptive paragraphs, it is important to give more weightage to your product. A few SaaS comparison pages have rambled on about competitors’ drawbacks without showing how their product works.
The majority of SaaS comparison pages use 2 lines or less to describe the competitor in each section.
In the above example, Drift highlights that their product is designed for sales & marketing people while Intercom was built for developers and designers.
Drift then shows how its features are designed to function better for sales & marketing people as compared to Intercom. The headline highlights the difference in a solution and two paragraphs explain it further.
Designing for Differentiating Factors Section
Most Saas Comparison pages use alternating blocks designed for differentiating factors. The first section has text on the left and a design element on the right. The second section makes a switch by putting design elements on the left and text on the right.
This format is used for differentiating features and solutions.
Most SaaS comparison pages give a preview of their software in this section. Some pages use screenshots of the software while others showcase features with GIFs or short videos.
As for brand statements or differences in product purpose, comparison pages use only text with little to no graphics.
Comparison of customer reviews is done in many different ways. Some comparison pages create separate sections for their reviews and competitor’s reviews.
Each set of reviews is used to highlight one drawback of the competitor. On the other hand, some comparison pages exhibit their reviews and competitor’s reviews side by side.
This format highlights differences in user experience. At the same time, it showcases differences in features and solutions.
Growfusely’s Verdict:
Many of the customers visit comparison pages to look for an alternative to their existing software. This could be because they are facing an issue with the current software or they want a more cost-effective solution.
Regardless of the reason, offering easy migration from your competitor’s software to your software can make a huge impact. If a customer is using your competitor’s product, they will have existing projects and saved data on it.
You need to help them overcome status quo bias. If you can assure them that they don’t have to start from scratch again, they are more likely to choose your product.
Despite its obvious advantages, only 26% of the SaaS comparison pages offer easy migration. This section is very well highlighted on the page. SaaS brands offer migration support in 3 ways:
The migration support section also works as a conversion CTA. It is positioned as the final or second-last CTA on the competitor comparison landing page.
The migration Support section contains a headline, description, graphical elements, and a CTA button.
Copywriting for Migration Support Section
This section only needs to convey that the customer will not lose their data and continue their work with the new software.
The headline for this section says: Import data from [Competitor Product] to [Your Product]
The description outlines how this migration is done. It also assures the visitor that the migration will be easy, they will get all their data on the new software and the company will help them complete it. The description is usually linked to a detailed blog about the migration process.
A few SaaS comparison pages have also provided video guides in the Migration Support section.
Designing for Migration Support Section
This section does not require many design elements. SaaS comparison pages have used software previews and video guides as graphical elements. Some comparison pages only show logos of two companies with an arrow to symbolize migration.
Growfusely’s Verdict:
FAQs on competitor comparison pages are used to summarize points of comparison in form of answers. They also feature common questions about the software, its uses, and pricing plans.
Types of Questions in Comparison Page FAQs:
The answers to FAQs are short and to the point. The answers are linked with other pages on the website related to the topic.
Copywriting for FAQs Section
FAQs are usually headlined as FAQs. Both the questions and the answers in this section use first-person language and have a conversational tone. The questions are framed from the customer’s first-person perspective and the answers are written from the SaaS company’s first-person perspective.
Designing for FAQs Section
Most SaaS comparison pages with FAQs use expanding and collapsing sections. Each question gets a button that shows the answer when expanded.
Other than that, this section does not feature any design elements.
Growfusely’s Verdict:
Though not an essential part of comparison pages, supporting resources can help keep the visitor on your website for a longer period. Supporting resources can also be used to create further intrigue about your product.
Only 17% of the SaaS comparison pages use supporting resources like blogs, customer case studies, eBooks, use cases, or product demonstrations. This section also allows you to build internal links to relevant content on your website.
The blogs featured in this section focus on product comparison, product features, relevant tips, strategies for the product, competitor drawbacks, user guides, or case studies.
Growfusely’s Verdict:
For all the wonderful things you can do on a comparison page, there are a few things that you absolutely should not do. Unless you like the trouble of the legal kind.
You can’t have a comparison page without mentioning your competitor. You should be mindful of how you represent the competitors or their products on your comparison page. Company name, product name, company logo, product icon, and company trademark are very important elements.
Here are a few things you should keep in mind when you mention your competitors:
You cannot outright claim that your competitors have a bad product. Disrespect towards a competitor will make your brand look petty. You should stick to facts and objective comparisons. Any subjective claims you make should be supported by facts or third-party sources.
For example, if you claim that your competitor’s software is not easy to use, you should show customer reviews from third-party websites to support this claim.
Most SaaS comparison pages use respectful language when talking about their competitors. 34% of the comparison landing pages we analyzed praised their competitors. While 23% of the SaaS comparison pages also recommended their competitors for a few features or solutions.
You do not have to praise or recommend the competitor, but you should be very careful not to disrespect them either.
Thin content comparison pages are made just to target certain keywords. But such content will soon lose its SERP. Such content does not fulfill the visitor’s desire and hence has high bounce rates.
This would only damage your website’s SEO and your overall brand reputation. If a visitor comes to your website and finds thin content, they are likely to discount your brand as unreliable.
Visitors searching for comparison pages are seeking true and objective information about both products. If you focus only on your product, they are likely to go elsewhere to learn about the competitor.
In this case, you lose the opportunity to control the narrative and convert such visitors into customers.
You must offer an objective comparison between two products, their similarities, and differences. This will require you to mention your competitors quite a few times. But, don’t unwittingly promote their product as the superior alternative.
At the same time, do not falsely discount your competitors. If you make false claims about competitors’ products, the visitors will find out about it from elsewhere. Furthermore, your website will be penalized for spreading false information and your competitors may also take legal action.
Do not add insignificant features, tools, or solutions in your comparison just to lend weight to your product. The comparison should focus only on things that would matter to a customer.
You should only include aspects of the products that affect the cost, customer experience, or product utility. You can create detailed pages about your features and link to them. But, minor details have no place on a competitor comparison page.
Even for important aspects, you should keep the descriptions short and precise. Most comparison pages feature concise text and sharp language. Long descriptions will make your comparison page tiresome to read.
This comprehensive checklist will help you create the perfect competitor comparison landing page. This checklist focuses on the SEO, marketing, and sales goals of a comparison page. Each point will help improve your chances of converting a visitor into a customer.
Also, check out a concise version of the checklist with an infographic.
To make the most out of a comparison page you need SEO, Content Creation, Content Marketing, and Digital PR. Growfusely does all four and more. We are a content marketing agency for SaaS companies.
Instead of working just on the comparison page, we develop a marketing campaign around competitor comparison. Here’s how we do it:
The first order of business is learning about your brand and its product. We want to know the story of both from origins to the status quo. Your story has as big an impact on the conversion rate as features in your product. This will also help us define your brand’s identity and purpose. In turn, this helps creates an origin story for the product.
The next step is understanding your product through and through. Like test driving a race car, we want to see what potential and possibilities your product holds. Then we will learn about things that make it tick: features, mechanics, user interface, and so on. This will help Growfusely prepare a list of solutions that your product can offer. From this, we identify the ideal customers for your product.
Growfusely studies your competitors as closely as it studies your product. We find out the purpose their product serves, the features that make it special, the company that created it, and the solutions it offers. We first take an objective approach toward the product. Our goal is to understand it from a user’s perspective. Only then do we start picking out the differences between the two products. Growfusely puts equal emphasis on comparing user experience as it does on features and solutions.
After understanding both products, we listen to their customers. Growfusely clients are gracious enough to connect us with their customers. We are especially interested in the people who switched from competitor’s product to your product. These folks can help us identify key differences between the two products.
We also go through testimonials, social media, and review sites to learn what people are saying about both products. We want to know what they like about the product, how they use the product, the problems they face, and things they wish to have in a product like that.
Once we understand the audience, we target their search patterns. We focus on generating relevant traffic and ranking the comparison page for targetted keywords. Our SEO strategy targets a variety of audiences including, but not limited to, people searching for
This wide targeting will bring relevant traffic to your comparison pages. Our SEO strategy also helps with brand awareness. We target people looking for a product in the market as well as people searching for competitors’ brands.
Even if your brand is not the biggest name in the market, Growfusely can help you put your name in big conversations.
We create comparison pages in “One vs Many” and “One vs One” formats. Each of these targets a different set of keywords and brings in different types of audiences. Though the ultimate goal for both of them is to get conversions.
The “One vs Many” comparison page aims to highlight your product’s USP and attract ideal customers. This landing page serves people searching for options and helps your product stand against bigger fish in the market.
On the other hand, the “One vs One” comparison landing page focuses on people searching for a particular competitor, customers unhappy with that competitor’s product, and people trying to decide between your and competitor’s product.
Growfusely creates a different “One vs One” comparison page for each of your competitors. Each page highlights differences between two products, the competitor’s drawbacks, the best features of your product, solutions your product offers, and the difference in user experience.
The content creation is based on points of persuasion. These are identified during product and audience research. Each of the customer’s pain points is addressed and we show how your product solves that problem. We also focus on your product’s unique factors to create a sense of fascination in the customer’s eye.
The entire competitor comparison landing page flows like a story that culminates in conversion.
Once the comparison pages are ready, we focus on marketing them through internal and external resources. Growfusely creates supporting content like blogs, how-to guides, listicles, customer case studies, success stories, and so on. This helps attract top and middle funnel audiences.
We build up the authority of the comparison page as well as your brand with digital PR. This activity helps drive quality traffic to the comparison page and increase its SERP. Digital PR also gives third-party credibility to your product and your brand.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, we aim to create a long-lasting marketing campaign around comparison pages.
Growfusely’s strategy incorporates the present as well as the future. Some of your competitors may shut down and new competitors may emerge. That’s why our strategy changes with time.
There will also be changes in your product, your competitor’s product, audience needs, market trends, and more. We will upgrade the content and the marketing strategy to stay ahead of the ever-evolving variables.
Based on our research, we have created a template for an ideal comparison landing page. The template is for the “One vs One” comparison format. It is designed to highlight your product’s USP, show differences between the two products, and guide the visitor toward conversion.
Once your comparison page is up and running, you should track its performance for SERP, traffic, visitor behavior, and conversion. It is necessary to update the landing page based on these insights.
Higher SERP will bring in more traffic. You should work on the comparison page’s SEO to get better rankings. It is also important for controlling the narrative about your brand. If your competitors rank higher than you for comparison searches, they get to speak first about your brand.
After SERP is sorted, you should study the behavior of the visitors on your page. Here conversion is the most important metric to track. If the conversion rate remains low despite high traffic, you will need to make changes to the comparison page.
You can use metrics like scroll depth and heat map to see where the visitor stops reading the page. This way you can identify problem areas to increase conversion through the comparison page.
Most importantly, you should keep updating the comparison page at regular intervals. Sooner or later your competitor will update their product and so will you. The comparison page must provide accurate information about both products
Thank you for reading this far. We hope that this guide helps you in making a killer competitor page that brings in quality customers to your brand. Speaking of which, here are a few bonus tips to help you market your comparison landing page.
You have come this far, you deserve more.
You can market your comparison page in a variety of ways. It is a very useful piece of content to target middle and bottom funnel audiences. Aside from direct search engine traffic, you can also incorporate comparison pages in content marketing and paid ads campaigns.
We have already talked about writing supporting blogs for your comparison page to expand its reach. It is a form of content marketing. You can also create listicles of different options in a product category and link them to your comparison page.
For example, if your product is a CRM software, you can create listicles like top 10 CRM software, 10 best CRM alternatives to Salesforce, 5 ways to use CRM software to get more customers, etc.
You can also write guest posts for customer guidance and review websites and link them to your comparison pages. These guest posts can be on similar topics as supporting blogs and listicles.
Video blogs are a quite popular form of content, but only a few brands have used them for product comparison. Only 9% of the comparison pages have a video version of the page. You can get an edge over your competitors by creating one.
Youtube videos face less competition and rank faster than web pages. This tactic can help you outrank review websites and your competitors for a variety of search queries.
Content marketing can help create a lot of different channels to drive traffic to your comparison pages. Although, you should be mindful of avoiding common content marketing mistakes.
It might take time for your comparison page to reach the top 3 ranks in SERP. In the meantime, you can use search ads to target relevant keywords and bring traffic to your landing page. As we mentioned before, SaaS brands target comparison search queries to place ads.
You can target all the keywords you used for creating the comparison page. Check the “Keywords for Comparison Page” section at the beginning of this article to get the list.
You can also target people who have visited your competitor’s website, review websites, product guidance websites, and so on. For comparison landing pages, you should target all people looking for a product or are on the verge of making a decision.
If you drive such traffic, your comparison page will not only help them make a decision but also guide them toward purchasing your product.
Just like content marketing, comparison videos are also a great tool for paid ads. You can target the same audience as your comparison page with video comparisons.
You can use social media paid ads to target people who have mentioned your competitors in their posts. You should especially target those people who have posted complaints about the competitor’s products.
A comparison page opens up a world of possibilities and a good one can act as a dedicated salesman for your product. Combine your comparison page with marketing automation and you have a gift that keeps on giving.
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