E188 – Comparison Marketing

Here is the story that caught Dave's attention Wix Negative Ads Against WordPress Generate Backlash and without it honestly Dave likely (and Mat) wouldn't have even seen the video. Meanwhile if you too haven't watched and want to see what you missed, here it is:

So now that the video and article that spurred this episode is out of the way, what about the rest of the episode? The guys focus more on the idea of going after your competitor and how to do it.

Also if you create something "controversial", the possible free impressions and media coverage (like this podcast) could amplify your content and message for free. So you may make some people mad but get free coverage - the reward/risk to doing such a thing is up to you!- Dave

If you are in the SaaS space and you are NOT creating compare pages go watch this video from Aleyda and her Crawling Mondays series. Matthew Howells-Barby from Hubspot and Jackie Chu from Uber dig into some of the content you need including compare pages. Go give a watch/listen later when you have a chance.

Comparing to The Big Fish

So while you may disagree with the execution in this case by Wix the fact that they are going after the big CMS is just something they should do. Think of the market leaders in any space and then think about where if you are an upstart or smaller fish, where is it easiest to gain market share? From the leader of course!

Google in Search (88% -ish market share in US). Bing and DuckDuckGo have to go after Google and often do over privacy or anything they can.WordPress (30-74% market share depending on source) in CMS. Wix, Squarespace, Drupal, and everyone else are way behind.

Compare Pages

In most industries it does and will make sense for you to look at making pages that compare you to the big fish. If you are a CMS upstart creating Company X vs. WordPress. Company X vs Squarespace. Company X vs. Hubspot. Create a page that is Alternatives to WordPress. Alternatives to Squarespace and so on. People are searching for these types of things and they clearly are looking for whatever it is you sell or do.

Video or Radio Ads vs. Ranking in Search Engines vs. Bidding on Competitor Names

So now that you are convinced that you need to go after the market leader the real question is how best to do it. This episode was spurred on by someone doing a video but there are so many ways to go after the market leader in your space or just some competitor.

Bid on their keywords or brand with PPC.Rank higher on 3rd party sites by paying or having more/better reviews.Creating vs. content or "alternative to" content and going after them through SEOCreate radio, TV or other audio/video content to make the comparison.

In the end how you compare yourself to them is up to you. Do you highlight their flaws? Do you highlight how you are better? Do you do both? Do you start a price war or just stick to features?

How you do that is up to you but be weary of how some might see your videos and ads as is the case with the Wix ad in this case.

Full Episode Transcript

Matt Siltala: [00:00:00] Welcome to another exciting episode of the business of digital podcast, featuring your host, Matt  and Dave roar. Hey guys, excited to have you join us on another one of these businesses, digital podcast episodes, and we are going to jump into it right now. How's it going, Dave?

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:20] We are, I don't know, ask us

positive or negative five days after what's today. We're uh, I actually say we're recording this on Thursday. All of this stuff just happened this week. Is this one's going to go live in three days. So ask me again Monday. All right.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:41] So everybody, what we're going to jump into today. Um, we're

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:46] going to talk about that.

You didn't ask us to talk about. Which is fine.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:48] We're just gonna do it. It's fine. Um, so yes, there's a little video going around in