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Alex Winter

By Alex Winter

Oct 28, 2024

Topics:

Content Marketing The Big 5 Advanced They Ask, You Answer
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Content Marketing  |   The Big 5  |   Advanced They Ask, You Answer

The Power of Discussing Your Competitors to Win More Customers [Endless Customers Podcast Ep. 73]

Alex Winter

By Alex Winter

Oct 28, 2024

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This transcript has been generated by AI and not checked for accuracy.

Brian Casey
0:00:00
My favorite big five topic is best of and talking about your competitors. And there's a ton of reasons why you should. And there's a couple things in the back of your mind that are gonna say we can't. And we're gonna talk about them today.

Brian Casey
0:00:14
And we're gonna talk about them today.

Alex Winter
0:00:15
And we're gonna talk about them today.

Alex Winter
0:00:28
Welcome back to Endless Customers, the show that teaches you how to earn trust and win more business in the age of AI. I'm your host, Alex Winter, and today we are joined by Brian Casey.

Brian Casey
0:00:37
He's a lead coach and trainer here at Impact. Brian, welcome back to the show.

Alex Winter
0:00:41
Thanks, I'm excited to talk about, talking about competitors. Yeah, we have a really good topic today. This is one that I'm fired up about. It's a little controversial, but it's an important topic. We're talking about the difference between

Alex Winter
0:00:52
who knows the Ask Me Answer knows the answer to this question. You should be talking about your competition. But I feel like we were just talking about this before we started recording. A lot of people are afraid as a business to talk about this and they don't really see the value in it. They want to focus on themselves and what differentiates them as being the best or all the fluff, which is great and maybe it is true, but in this day and age, people want info.

Alex Winter
0:01:15
People know what's up, people know how to search, and they want the truth. So why is talking about your competition so important,

Alex Winter
0:01:22
Brian?

Brian Casey
0:01:23
Yeah, I mean, the reality is the conversation already exists. Fact. There's not a business or a market in which someone is going to evaluate you and only you unless you're literally the only game in town.

Brian Casey
0:01:40
Right, which happens never. Everybody thinks you're your own game,

Alex Winter
0:01:43
everybody thinks that you're a marketable one,

Brian Casey
0:01:45
but ultimately nobody is. And so the question becomes, if we know that people are seeking it, do we want to allow them to do that in whatever way they choose to, or do we want to try to own the conversation?

Brian Casey
0:02:05
And when I say own, I don't mean that in a negative connotation like we're being misleading, but do we want to be the place where they learn about our competition?

Alex Winter
0:02:14
Yeah, and I think if we're gonna look at the fundamentals of they ask, you answer, it's rooted in trust. And the best way to build trust is to just keep it real. So with that, I feel like we hear from business owners all the time, they're like, doesn't introducing our competition,

Alex Winter
0:02:29
doesn't that like, couldn't that push our potential clients to our competition or to people that we don't want them to go to? And why, what do you say when people ask you that question? Because it is a valid question. Yeah, there are entire businesses

Brian Casey
0:02:42
that have created their model around just doing reviews of companies. And ultimately, those types of companies are pay-to-play typically. So you think about your Angie's List, you think about your third-party aggregate sites.

Alex Winter
0:03:01
Is that your preferred alternative?

Brian Casey
0:03:03
Is your preferred alternative that whoever pays the most, independent of what type of service they provide, independent of how good they are at the thing that you do, is that how you prefer that someone would make that decision? Or, again, do you wanna own the conversation? Do you wanna be the place where you can say,

Brian Casey
0:03:22
acknowledge as a business, like they're gonna want to know about our competition. And truthfully, we want them to know about the competition. Because they need to be the most informed buyer. If they're gonna buy from us and have confidence, we don't want them to have regret at the end of the day

Brian Casey
0:03:40
that they didn't evaluate someone that they should have.

Alex Winter
0:03:43
So true.

Brian Casey
0:03:44
So true.

Alex Winter
0:03:45
I'm just gonna jump in here because as a consumer, we're all consumers, right? But as a consumer for me, if someone's straight up with me and honest, I'm willing to spend even a little bit more money knowing that I'm dealing with someone

Alex Winter
0:03:56
who's gonna be real with me versus somebody who might be shady, who might be pulling the wool over my eyes, you know what I'm saying? Where like, oh, you might save a buck now, but what are you really saving long term?

Alex Winter
0:04:06
So this resonates huge with me, and I feel like a lot of people are hopefully on the same page.

Brian Casey
0:04:12
Yeah, I mean, I can't tell you how many businesses start talking about their competition, even in sales conversations, and win business because they're the first person to do it. Or they get brought up a competitor by the actual homeowner or the buyer.

Brian Casey
0:04:30
And the way that 90% of the world's gonna react to that is like, well, you probably don't wanna use those guys because of X, Y, and Z. Whereas like the they ask, the answer response is like, you know, there's some pros and cons to doing business with them.

Brian Casey
0:04:42
There's some pros and cons to doing business with us. And ultimately, understanding both of those are gonna help you to make the right decision for you. And oh my goodness, if you're in a sales conversation with someone and they're like, yeah, they're not bad actually.

Brian Casey
0:04:55
There's some things that you really want.

Alex Winter
0:04:58
Yeah, wait, what? You said what now?

Alex Winter
0:05:00
They're not bad?

Brian Casey
0:05:00
Yeah. They do some things really well, they do some things poorly, and we do too. And ultimately we want you to have the visibility to have all of that so that you feel confident in the decision you're making.

Alex Winter
0:05:10
Yeah, also from like a psychological, well from like a psychological standpoint, and I am in no means a psychologist, but like it's disarming because it's not that pushy sales tactic that's like, oh, they're not great, don't go with them, don't make a big mistake,

Alex Winter
0:05:23
stick with us, like when you start to hear some of that, at least for me, those are red flags that I start to go like okay, what's the catch, what are these people really pushing here?

Brian Casey
0:05:30
It's really just a, you have to put yourself in the mind of a buyer. Yeah. And any time you've been in a situation where someone wants to take your attention away from something that could help you to make a right decision

Brian Casey
0:05:47
and pitch you or try to convince you that everybody else sucks and they're great, it's a flag. It sets a cue off in the back of your brain to say, well, why aren't they talking about what they're not great at?

Brian Casey
0:06:01
Or, what are they not telling me? So, total paradigm shift if someone were to just say, yeah, we got our own elephants, so do they, and we're gonna bring our elephants from the back of the room, we're gonna put them in front, we're gonna let you just see our elephants

Brian Casey
0:06:16
and talk about them.

Alex Winter
0:06:17
Wow, I love it.

Alex Winter
0:06:19
It's bold, it's very bold, and I like that. What happens when business owners say, oh, but we can't talk about other businesses like that because we might get in trouble or they might get upset with us, you know, lifting the veil,

Alex Winter
0:06:30
showing people behind the curtain, being that brutally honest. What do you say when people start to say that? Because I feel like it starts to go into the disruption conversation that we tend to have a lot here at Impact.

Alex Winter
0:06:40
Yeah.

Brian Casey
0:06:42
So there's a couple companies that I've worked with that have been threatened to be sued.

Alex Winter
0:06:48
So I want to put that out there,

Brian Casey
0:06:49
that this has actually happened to the point where like the worst case scenario has played out where a business has said like the way that you're talking about us isn't how we want you to talk about us. In both of those situations, the company was confident enough in how they positioned things based on facts, based on third party data, based on things that they didn't, it wasn't an opinion.

Alex Winter
0:07:14
Right.

Brian Casey
0:07:15
They were, they said, you know, go for it. I'm not making any legal decisions or recommendations to anybody, but the principle behind this is if you're speaking factual, if you can validate it with third-party data or with just publicly sourced information and you're accumulating that, making it easy to understand, and helping people to draw conclusions,

Brian Casey
0:07:42
then you don't run any risk. There's nothing that anybody can say unless the facts change. Right, right.

Alex Winter
0:07:51
Now you got me thinking about, so our friends over at Yale Appliance up in Massachusetts, you know, Steve Sheinkopf and Patrick and the team over there, they really crushed this approach, they really did. And I just remember one of their articles,

Alex Winter
0:08:05
it's one of their top performing articles, is every year they put out, so they sell appliances and all different types of appliances for your home, and they have everything from mid-range to high-end appliances and things like that

Alex Winter
0:08:18
that you can purchase, but they always put this list out and they compare all the brands. So it's like Elay and Kohler and Whirlpool and all this stuff, and they just, to your point, it's like the facts.

Alex Winter
0:08:28
It's like here's the most amount of service that we get, like service issues that we get with these brands and here's customer reviews and it's like there's no opinion, it's just straight up data that's like this is what's up and hopefully this helps you make a better decision as far as what you're trying to purchase. And he's had manufacturers reach out to him, like Whirlpool, and be like, hey, you can't do that and you're making us look bad.

Alex Winter
0:08:48
And he's like, no, your products are making you look bad. You need to step your game up. And they have, they actually listened to him. And so the power of this is pretty amazing. I mean, that was one of my first stories that I got to capture here working at Impact.

Alex Winter
0:09:03
And it blew my mind to see the traction that they got and how much it's changed their business and how much growth they've had because of it. And I'm sure you have tons of stories like that with all different types of industries and facets of business.

Brian Casey
0:09:17
I do. I think the thing that you mentioned that I don't want to be understated is the job of talking about your competitors is can we make it as easy to understand the publicly available data in a comparative fashion?

Brian Casey
0:09:35
You're not coming up with, you know, your own ranking system or anything like that, right? You're taking the information that publicly exists about competitors, whether it be on like a third party site that does reviews, whether it be on Google, whether it be in, you know, business listings or certifications, and you're just putting it in a place where you're making it easy to evaluate the competition,

Brian Casey
0:10:03
and the benefit that you're bringing to the table is ease of comparison. Yeah, yep, very well said.

Alex Winter
0:10:08
And that's the key, is that when you package it up in a way that's easily digestible, and it's based in facts and real data, it just makes the buying decision that much easier for somebody on the end of that scale that's just trying to make a good purchasing decision.

Alex Winter
0:10:23
So, very powerful stuff. We also talked about the big five, and I think our community knows what the big five is now. They should know by now. Can we talk a little bit about best in class and creating lists and how this can really play

Alex Winter
0:10:39
into this subject and overall how it can drive your content to drive leads and traffic and sales?

Brian Casey
0:10:45
Yeah, so the example from the book is Barkha Sheridan wrote a best of pool builders in Northern Virginia, Richmond area, and he started ranking when people would search for his competitors or reviews of his competitors. That has been true almost universally

Brian Casey
0:11:05
with clients that have started to do this. So when it comes to not just searching who are the best of the thing that you're doing. But if you think about your primary competitors, people are asking questions about them. They're asking, you know, what are reviews of this company?

Brian Casey
0:11:23
You know, how good are they? Are they one of the best? And my selfish reason for loving best ofs is we get the opportunity to steal branded traffic. And as a marketing organization, typically that's done with paid ads.

Brian Casey
0:11:39
So typically, you're taking like, they search my competition, I need to show up in the position before position one, and the way to get there is, I'm gonna pay for it. And when they search them, they're gonna find me.

Alex Winter
0:11:53
Which we know doesn't always work,

Alex Winter
0:11:55
and I think people are getting very wise to the fact that they see those sponsored ads, I scroll right past them, I have for years. I've been onto that game for a while and I want the organic searches. So how does that play into, you were saying

Alex Winter
0:12:09
that there's a trick to doing this where you're getting on that search, or you're leveraging that searchability by using some of these other brands to help create awareness, basically. Is that right that I'm saying it that way?

Brian Casey
0:12:21
Yeah, I mean if you think about the things that people are searching, they're searching for who are the best in my whatever thing. So the best pool builders or who are the best pricing software companies. And then they're also searching for your competitors. And when you from a like technically from a header structure standpoint,

Brian Casey
0:12:38
when your headers say who are the best and what is, you know, how does this company stack up? Those are things that are searchable. Those are things that people are already seeking out. And this single article, this best of article becomes really like just a haven of searchable terms that are highly relevant. And my favorite part about all of this is these terms have high purchase intention. So if you think about like how much does X cost, there's probably a lot of other things

Brian Casey
0:13:15
that that person has to agree to or come to the realization of to be ready to pull the trigger and reach out to a company.

Alex Winter
0:13:23
Totally, that's usually the entry level question is like I'm just trying to get a gauge of like what's this gonna cost? And then if it's within my budget, then I'll start to search more to understand the process of what it is to buy the thing.

Alex Winter
0:13:34
Yep.

Brian Casey
0:13:35
And with these, it's like I'm ready to talk to a business. I'm ready to reach out to someone. And so there's a high level of like, I'm about to make a purchase with someone when they're doing a best of search. So we're able to meet them there and help them in a way that other people are not going to be willing to help them from an evaluating competitor standpoint.

Brian Casey
0:14:01
And we're likely going to get at least the first call. We might not win the business, but we're at least gonna get the first reach out because of how we have positioned ourselves and made it easy for them to understand the landscape.

Alex Winter
0:14:14
Totally. So, this might be a silly question, but this is where my brain is right now. I'm thinking about, you believe in this idea, you wanna do this big five article, best of, so that you can make your own list for your own industry,

Alex Winter
0:14:26
business, whatever industry you're in, right? What's the rule on putting yourself in the list? Like, I would imagine you don't want to put yourself as number one and be like, hey, we're number one and here's the other nine companies that you should also look at, right?

Alex Winter
0:14:37
Like, what do you recommend when you talk to businesses about this and they ask this question?

Brian Casey
0:14:42
Yeah, so this is actually something that's changed in the last month, or 12 months or so. Historically, the recommendation was you do not put yourself on the list in any capacity because, you know, what does that say about you as a company if you've created a best of list

Brian Casey
0:14:54
only to put yourself on the list? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Alex Winter
0:14:58
That's where I was going with that, right. Yeah. But there's a buck coming, it sounds like.

Brian Casey
0:15:02
There is.

Alex Winter
0:15:03
Okay.

Brian Casey
0:15:04
AI has changed the game to the point where AI overviews are some of the first things that you see, especially around these best of queries. So when you're searching that, there's a good chance that someone's not even going to a website,

Brian Casey
0:15:20
but they're actually just seeing the results that they're looking for on Google without having to go to the page.

Alex Winter
0:15:26
Right, Gemini is just pushing out, it's AI math, or magic, or whatever you wanna call it.

Brian Casey
0:15:32
So if that's the new reality, which everything is showing us that it is, we can't just prop up our competitors and ignore the fact that we are one of the best as well. We have to put ourselves on the list to match the way that shift has occurred in search.

Brian Casey
0:15:50
Now, that having been said, my recommendation almost universally is don't put them in order of best to worst. Do something like alphabetical.

Alex Winter
0:16:00
Nice, yeah, something that's just not biased. It's like here's the top 10 in alphabetical order so that there isn't like a ranking system. That makes sense, yeah.

Brian Casey
0:16:10
Yeah, alphabetical or number of reviews. You pick some factor that you can use to sort by them or you just default to alphabetical. So it allows you to put yourself on the list but then there's a justification as to why you are where you are on the list without coming across as biased.

Alex Winter
0:16:26
Yeah, no, that makes total sense. So I'm curious, I know you help a lot of companies implement this, understand this mentality, get them bought into the idea, and actually start practicing this idea. Do you have any stories you can share with us

Alex Winter
0:16:38
of companies that have done this well and how it's helped their business?

Brian Casey
0:16:42
Yeah, there's a pool company that I work with, or worked with, out of Arizona. They were very hesitant to write this article. They, I remember the coaching call that I hopped on and said, hey guys, we're gonna be uncomfortable with this, but we're gonna write this,

Brian Casey
0:16:58
and I need you to trust me on this. They're a local service-based,

Alex Winter
0:17:02
service, they're a product and service-based business,

Brian Casey
0:17:04
but they're a local business. For local businesses out there that are listening to this that have a local buying audience, Best Of has to go to the number one spot in terms of one of the first articles that you write. Because local-based businesses, you've got to do Best Ofs. They fell into the category within six months, and it has dropped off because they have not

Brian Casey
0:17:31
maintained it. They have done other things. But within six months, they were ranking for hundreds of keywords around who are the best pool builders in Arizona, around their competitors. And they were ranking in top spots to the point where it was actually the number one traffic driver on their page by 3x of their homepage.

Alex Winter
0:17:59
Wow. That's incredible.

Brian Casey
0:18:02
And again, we gotta tie it back to, these are also people that have a high level of purchase or conversation intent. They're looking for someone to reach out to. And so when we're having that conversation, you have an opportunity to have your number one page

Brian Casey
0:18:17
on your website be people that are ready to reach out to someone or are evaluating vendors, it's a no-brainer.

Alex Winter
0:18:24
Yeah, you gotta be ready for what comes afterwards because it sounds like you're gonna get a windfall. That's incredible.

Alex Winter
0:18:32
Yeah.

Alex Winter
0:18:32
So Brian, you said something interesting there that I wanna pick your brain about. You said that after six months, they weren't, there was like fall off or they weren't doing it as well or something changed. How did that affect the search results

Alex Winter
0:18:44
and their rankings and things? What did that do and have they fixed it? I wanna hear more of the story, what happened?

Brian Casey
0:18:50
Yeah, so one thing that is a just universal note is cost articles, best of articles, are not evergreen the moment you publish them. It's an evergreen topic, but the information is subject to change. So there might be a new competitor

Brian Casey
0:19:07
or a company might go under. Same thing with cost, cost changes, especially in 2024, 2025, in a very dynamic way. And if we have a list that we have created that is six or 12 or 18 months outdated, and some of those businesses went under,

Brian Casey
0:19:25
or some of them, like we put information in there that's not relevant, we're not gonna show up as often. So that's the core issue, is this topic is an evergreen topic, but the information in it is dynamic.

Alex Winter
0:19:39
Yeah, that makes sense. You really have to keep up with it, otherwise it won't be as relevant as it should be.

Alex Winter
0:19:44
Correct.

Brian Casey
0:19:45
So that's what happened to this company, is they kind of got fat and happy on the fact that they were driving a ton of traffic and leads to their website. And they were like, that's our golden cow, like that's our ace in the hole article, we're good.

Brian Casey
0:20:04
And we don't want to touch it, that's the other thing. We didn't want to touch it because we didn't want to mess with the success. But they saw a steep drop off in traffic, in leads coming from that article, and positions that they were ranking for

Brian Casey
0:20:19
and driving traffic for because the information became outdated.

Alex Winter
0:20:23
All right, so what's the one thing? What's the biggest takeaway from this? People are not sure, businesses aren't sure whether they should be talking about their competition or not, what do you tell them? What's that one, the one major deciding factor?

Brian Casey
0:20:37
The conversation already exists. People are going to seek your competitors. The only people that aren't are gonna be super uninformed or that might come from a referral. Outside of that, the vast majority of people that are gonna buy in your space

Brian Casey
0:20:54
are going to evaluate more than one vendor. That's just the fact, the reality. So the question is, how do you want to be a part of that conversation? Do you want to let third-party aggregator sites own the conversation?

Brian Casey
0:21:10
Where generally, those are pay-to-play. You can pay for placement, you can pay for a sponsored place in the list. Or do you want to, as someone who understands the ask and answer, that understands transparent education, be the place that has the best answer to, who are my competitors, what do they do well, and where do they struggle? Mic drop.

Brian Casey
0:21:28
Just like, bam, that's it. No, it's a great point.

Brian Casey
0:21:31
Great conversation.

Alex Winter
0:21:31
I'm so glad we got to talk about this. This was necessary. This is one Austin and I were pumped as we were setting up for this show. So thank you for sharing your knowledge and for dropping some truth bombs.

Alex Winter
0:21:48
I hope it helps some businesses and people out there and thank you for being on the show too.

Brian Casey
0:21:52
Yeah, I got one more thing I wanna hit.

Alex Winter
0:21:54
Oh yeah, let's go.

Brian Casey
0:21:55
I want to include in the show notes an article to the best, best of article that I've seen written in a very long time.

Alex Winter
0:22:05
Awesome, I love it.

Brian Casey
0:22:07
It is Shasta Pools out of Arizona.

Alex Winter
0:22:09
Okay.

Brian Casey
0:22:10
A couple things that you'll note in looking at it that are kind of recent updates that we've made to Best-of lists. They talk about what criteria they put in the evaluative criteria. They talk about why it matters to the homeowner.

Brian Casey
0:22:28
And then they do their best of list.

Brian Casey
0:22:30
That's excellent. Okay, cool. It's really refreshing, like new take on a best of article. Because it doesn't just say like, hey here's how many pools they built. It actually says like, this is why you should care

Brian Casey
0:22:42
about how many pools they built. Okay. So it really helps someone understand the data that they're looking at. Excellent, awesome.

Alex Winter
0:22:49
I saw it was taken over there. We'll make sure to include it in the show notes so everyone can check it out. Brian, again, thank you for being on the show. It's awesome talking with you.

Brian Casey
0:22:59
Yeah, absolutely.

Alex Winter
0:23:00
All right, and for everybody out there watching and listening, you know what's up. This is Endless Customers. I'm your host, Alex Winter. We'll see you on the next episode. We'll see you on the next episode.

Alex Winter
0:23:06
Bye.

About This Episode

When it comes to growing a business, we know that being transparent is a necessity, but how far are you willing to take it? Many business owners are cautious about mentioning their competition in content, fearing it might drive potential customers away to seek those competitors out. The question is—should you talk about your competitors openly? The short answer: absolutely.

On a recent episode of Endless Customers, Alex Winter sat down with Brian Casey, Head Coach at IMPACT, to tackle this common concern. Their message to business owners is clear—discussing competitors is not only the right thing to do, but it also builds trust and positions you as an industry authority. Here’s why.

Why Transparency Is So Powerful

Let’s face it, customers are already researching competitors. The truth is, buyers don’t live in a vacuum. They are likely to evaluate several companies before making a decision, regardless of whether you mention them. As Brian puts it, “There’s not a market where people are only going to evaluate you and nobody else.” So, whether you discuss competitors or not, the comparison is happening.

This begs the question: Do you want potential customers to find their information about your market from someone else? Or would you prefer to control the narrative by being the source of that information? According to Brian, “The conversation already exists. Do you want to own it?”

The Fear of Losing Customers

One of the biggest concerns for business owners is that talking about competitors could drive potential clients toward them. This is a valid fear, especially in competitive industries. But, as Alex points out, “People know how to search, and they want the truth.” The days of trying to present yourself as the only option are long gone. Modern customers want transparency—they crave it. By addressing competitors openly, you’re not pushing customers away. Instead, you’re showing them that you’re confident in your product or service.

One great example of this is how businesses like Yale Appliance in Boston compare appliance brands side-by-side for their customers. They don’t hide the fact that some brands have more service issues than others. They lay out the facts, even if those facts don’t always make their top-selling products look perfect. And guess what? Customers respect that honesty. This level of openness often wins their trust and, ultimately, their business.

Discussing Competitors Builds Trust

One of the core principles of the They Ask, You Answer framework is the importance of trust. “People buy from businesses they trust,” Alex explains. The best way to build that trust? Be upfront, even when it’s uncomfortable.

Brian shares how acknowledging your competitors in a neutral or even positive light during sales conversations often leads to better outcomes. Rather than attacking competitors or ignoring their existence, acknowledging their strengths and weaknesses creates a more balanced, transparent conversation. “There are pros and cons to doing business with them, just as there are pros and cons to doing business with us,” Brian advises. “We want the buyer to make the right decision for them, and that means being honest.”

In fact, this open-minded approach can make your business stand out. It demonstrates confidence, removes the traditional "salesy" pressure, and disarms potential buyers who are used to being pushed in one direction. As Alex puts it, “It’s not the pushy tactic that sets off red flags.”

What About the Legal Side?

Some business owners may worry about the legal ramifications of mentioning competitors, particularly in highly regulated or litigious industries. “What if they sue us?” is a common concern. 

Brian acknowledges that some companies have even faced threats of lawsuits, but he reassures listeners that there’s nothing to worry about if you’re sticking to facts. “If you’re speaking factually, validating with third-party data, and using publicly available information, you’re on solid ground,” Brian says. As long as your content is fair and fact-based, the risk of any legal blowback is minimal.

The Impact of “Best Of” Content

One particularly powerful form of competitor-focused content is the “Best Of” article. Businesses that rank themselves and their competitors within a specific category (e.g., “Best Pool Builders in Arizona”) can capture a lot of high-intent search traffic. Brian shares how one of his clients, a pool company in Arizona, was hesitant to write a “Best Of” article. But after publishing it, they saw tremendous results. “It became their top traffic driver, bringing in three times as much as their homepage,” Brian explains.

People searching for “best” companies are usually at the end of the buyer’s journey. They’re ready to make a decision, and they just need a little guidance. If your company is the one providing that guidance, you’re in an excellent position to win the business.

HERE’S AN EXAMPLE OF A “BEST OF” ARTICLE

One key tip: when creating “Best Of” content, be fair and balanced. Rather than putting yourself at the top of the list, use neutral criteria like alphabetical order or customer reviews. This approach keeps your content unbiased while allowing you to include yourself in the rankings.

Regular Updates Are Essential

However, Brian warns that these types of articles are not “set it and forget it.” They need to be updated regularly to remain relevant. Pricing changes, companies go out of business, and new competitors enter the scene. A once-popular article can quickly lose its effectiveness if it’s not kept current. “It’s an evergreen topic, but the information is dynamic,” Brian emphasizes. If you let your content become outdated, you’ll see a drop in traffic.

Control the Conversation

Ultimately, the decision to talk about your competition boils down to one simple fact: the conversation is happening with or without you. “People are going to evaluate more than one vendor,” says Brian. So why not be the one to guide them through that evaluation?

By being open about competitors, you’re not only building trust but also positioning your business as a thought leader in your industry. And in the process, you’ll attract more qualified leads who appreciate your transparency.

Connect with Brian Casey

Brian uses his background in sales & inbound marketing strategy to coach clients on creating content that impacts sales and helps businesses reach their ideal buyers. His experience in working with clients spans across all types of businesses in unique markets.

Check out Brian’s IMPACT Bio

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