Write a Comparison Blog

Comparison blogs can be a great type of blog for your business. This is some classic sales strategy. In case your background isn’t sales, it’s this idea:

You want to sell a tablet. It’s $899. In order to sell this, you set it up by placing it in the middle of two other items: one costs $299 and one costs $1299. Based on perception alone, a customer sees the middle option as the one that offers the most value at the best price. Boom.

That’s what comparisons can do for what you sell. They provide a foil, to get Shakespearean: a backdrop against which to compare your product. This is especially vital if what you sell is NEW. If you have very little market differentiation, that might actually hurt you, because no one knows how much your product is supposed to cost. And people always want to feel like they’re getting a good deal.

So, that’s the psychology of it. Now, the technique. Here are the decisions you need to make and how you need to structure a good comparison blog.

Comparison Blog: What to Include

So, you have your product or service. This is the dazzling diamond that you need to cleverly conceal in a helpful comparison blog. In order to set it just right, so that it sparkles, you need to include items/systems that compare to your product in the following ways:

• Lower in cost and higher in cost
• Have fewer features and have more features
• Are older and newer
• Have worse reviews and have better reviews
• Have a lower social following and a higher social following

Let’s go here for a second. It may seem counter intuitive to set your start-up against a nobody OR a behemoth brand, but both of these have huge value and have a place in a good comparison blog.

Compare Your Brand Against Smaller Brands

Now, “better” and “worse” are subjective terms, of course. More aptly, I’m talking about the observable attributes and even measurable metrics. In other words, who’s doing better than you and who’s doing worse? The point of a comparison article is to jump into a customer’s sales decision process. By joining them in their analysis of marketplace options, you can sway their opinion.

Even if you have 3 people on your team, you don’t want to be the lowest-priced, smallest option out there. People are immensely skeptical. In addition to doing things like building social proof and establishing authority, you need to have some comparison point for someone who is smaller/cheaper/leaner than you. Even if it’s a stretch and a start-up in some remote country, find them. And compare yourself to them.

• Unlike [competitor brand] who solve a single problem, we solve for all of your problems!
• Our specialty is to…
• While you could buy [platform/product] for $, our tested system is worth the investment.

If you’re small, this is a stretch. If not, you need to focus on price and value. Most commonly, people don’t actually choose the cheapest option for something they’re going to the trouble to find online reviews about.

Compare Your Brand Against Bigger Brands

First, remember that all customers are not your customers. If no one has told you: you won’t beat Amazon. But hopefully you didn’t need to be told that.

If you have a niche, if you are a start-up, if you are small, all of those things can work for you, if you cast them in the right light. Much like a realtor describes a 700 square foot dive as “quaint,” you can use the right terms to shed light on what makes your brand the best. Comparison blogs give you a good chance to authentically present your brand for what it is… and get the customers who are looking for just that. They’re out there.

When you compare your brand to bigger brands, you need to be smart. Because this is YOUR blog, it’s YOUR platform, and you can say it however you want. So, say it well:

• You aren’t “smaller,” you’re a lean, powerful team.
• You don’t have 15 people, you have former Google employees (IOW, highlight professional accomplishments, not how many people are on your payroll)
• Price works in your favor here, because it should be easy to price a margin below a premiere product.

Write a Blog That Compares Brands

Now, the assembly. This isn’t essentially a product review blog or a “15 best” blog. This is a comparison blog. So, you want to compare a limited number of items. Here are some extra tips:

• Make sure you’re comparing them for the exact same features or functions
• Be sure that you aren’t blasting or criticizing anybody
• Be realistic and not contrived with what you do and don’t offer, compared to these competitors
• Don’t link directly to competitor sites (no free traffic for them!) – link to external sites or other 3rd party reviews

Examples of Comparison Blogs

Here are some examples (unaffiliated) of blogs that do this pretty well:

• https://www.businessinsider.com/sephora-vs-ulta
• https://www.thestreet.com/lifestyle/food-and-drink/pepsi-vs-coke-14776822
• https://www.productplayoffs.com/charmin-vs-cottonelle/‍

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