You know what my favorite stage of the buyer's journey is?

The consideration stage.

This is where buyers really start to ask the 🍨questions that will ultimately decide what they purchase.

It's also the stage most businesses ignore, dismiss, or don't really consider crꦡea♏ting content for.

Why? Because they're too busy fine-tuning thei💧r offerings at the decision stage or cranking out tons of fluffy content at the awareness stage hoping to bring new people into the funnel.

They focus on the two ends of the funnel, where people come in as strangers and where they exit as customers, but it's the middle of the funnel🌊 where most of the buying decision really happens.

It's here where consumers will do the majority of their self-dri♐ven research into all the possible solutions to their problems.

And it's here where I teach my clients to focus a🍨 lot of their content✤ creation efforts.

You've probably heard us talk about content sꦕtrategies like and “The Big 5” to identify some of the most important blog🌟 article topics you can write.

Both of🐬 these approaches involve addressing questions about costs, problems, reviews, “best of” lists, and comparisons as they eliminate many of the objections someone might have when buying.

While I've written articles on how you can address cost on your website and how you can write about yo🥃ur competitors in a😼 "best of" list in the past, I'd like to turn my attention to🌞 one of my favorite topics: 🍌comparing products and services.

How to Compare Products and Services in a Blog Article

As I've said, this is one of the most important pieces of content youಌ can create: how your product or service stacks up against other similar products or services.

Making the right choice between two like options can be really importaꦜnt to consumers, and many are willing to do a lot of research on this topic.

Why?

It all boils down to buyer's remorse.

Nobody 🐈wants to make the wrong decisions -- Especially if it's a costly one. So, helping peoღple avoid this with a thoughtful and detailed article, will definitely build trust and get you on their good side.

So, how can you write an article addressing comparable products that connect with your audience and help them make ⛦the best decision for them?

Here’s my advice:

1. Be Honest About Your Position Early On

One of the most important things you can do in your co🔥mparison article is to include why you're writing the article in the first place.

In your intro paragraphs, make sure you let the reader know that you sell one, both, or all of the things you're dis💦cussing.

If you're not forthright about this aꦬnd your readers find out on their own, you will lose all credibility with them, and they'll probably leave your site.

For an easy example, let's ꦑsay yo🅠u sell apples and your competitor sells oranges.

If you wrote an article comparing apples to or꧃anges without telling the audience that you sell apples and at the very end of the article you have a CTA to buy your apples, your audience's BS detect🍒or will light up the night.

They𝕴 will start to question everything they just read.

Any negatives you listed about oranges will be scrutinized hea💝vier.

An😼y positives you menti🍌oned about apples will carry less weight.

In short, you'll lose all credibility, and, more importantly, aꦡ potential customer.

On the other hand, when you're upfront about your stak🌄e in the apple game, people will be disarmed by the honesty and willing to give you a chance to explain your po🥂sition.

Here's ꧙✃of how to be earnest about the comparison you're writing about.

Right off the bat, they let reade🅰rs know that while the subject🐎 of the article is comparing vinyl liner pools to fiberglass pools, their company specializes in fiberglass pools.

Not only do people appreciate the candor, but as someone in the business, they now know River Pool🔥s & Spas knows what they’re talking about.

You probably ❀also noticed they took things a step further to disarm the readers.

That brings me to my next point:

2. Address Everything The Reader Wants to Know

Remember, blog arti🌳cles are about being as helpful as possible.

They're about giving consumers a♊s much information as need𒈔ed so they can make a well-informed purchase decision.

Of course, you wan♐t them to buy the things you sell, ൩but if you're truly about educating prospects, then you'll put aside your own desires and think about things from their point of view.

What do they want to know? Why are꧙ they asking these questions to begin with? What do they hoജpe to gain from this? What is really the best choice for them?

In the example above, the writer explicitly states thi💮s and one of the goals of the article.

She writes, "our goal is for you to walk away sat💮isfied, and part of how we achieve that is by providing information⛎ on all types of pools, not just the ones we sell."

I don't know about you, but a statement like that makes me feel like 🐠the company is being honest with me, and honesty fosters trust.

I may be a little on guard as I read the content, making sure they're not trying too hard to push me on fiberglass if it's not right for me, but my defenses are defi♒nitely down a little.

When you're making the conte𓄧nt about the reader, you've g❀ot to remain as objective as possible. One of the most important (and hardest) things to admit is when your product service is not a good fit for the reader.

Doing so may lose you a lead, but if the product or service wasn't right for them anyway, why try and push them🌄 into a bad decision?

The last thing you wan𝓰t is unsatisfied customers coming back with a vengeance to call you out for misleading them into making the wrong purchase.

3. Organize Your Info with Easy to Follow Structure

Through writing several of these article types myself and helping dozens of others𒊎 do the same, I've found there are two really good ways to structure them.

Proper structure🍨 is important for a 💯number of reasons:

• People don't land on an article and immediately start reading the first paragraph. They quickly sc൲roll the content to see if it's worthy of their attention.
• They🦩're looking to see hoജw the argument is laid out.
• They want to know how in-dep𒊎th and/or long it's going to be.

So, what are the two methods I t💟each for structuring a comparison article?

1. Category Head to Head
2. Pros and Cons
   

Tak﷽e a look at the fiberglass vs. vinyl liner pool article again:

In the introduction, she lays out exactly t♔he categories these two options will go head-to-head in.

She lists out things like customizable features, time to install, costs (both initial and over time), durability, maintanence, and so many more.

This article structure is one of the most populaඣr because it's the most comprehensive and easy-to-follo🅠w.

Readers🍸 can quickly see a reflection of the concerns they might have and find the information they need. For instance, if cost is the most important aspect of buying a pool, pool buyeဣrs can quickly jump to the section on cost without having to look for it buried deep within the content.

Each of these category sections also has subsectio🔴ns where we can clearly see when she's discussing fiberglass pools and when she's discussing vinyl liner pools. There's even a "conclusion" section for each category.

Another method is to list the pros and cons of each option.

Check out t🦹his exampꦇle, from one of our clients, on choosing between a (because we al💫l have to make this decision at some point in our life).

With this method, you ജgive each competitor equ🎐al time and attention.

The intro here first describes what a single-girder overhead crane is and gives a brief overview of situations it might be the best option. Then, it lists all the advan꧋tages of this type of overhead crane follo♛wed by the disadvantages.

The next section then does the same for double-girder overhead🎃 cranes.

If you notice, nearly equal time was given to both options (between 400-500 wꦦords each).

If you don't give each of your options a fair share of the spotlight, it may hint at your bias and set off theܫ reader's BS barometer.

4. Use Rich Media

If you've got a lengthy article on a topic and don't want to lose your read🌊er's interest or get them word drunk, add in some rich media.

Video, pictures, infographics, and even podcast links help break up long sections of plain text and add co🗹ntext to the conversation.

Plus, ea🅺ch of your visitors has their own preferred method of learning.

Avid readers appreciate lots of copy, but vi๊sual learners wi𓆏ll enjoy watching videos, looking at images, and checking out infographics, while audible learners would appreciate listening to a podcast.

If you look at the two examples given, River Pools uses a video 🐽at the top of the article.

They even include two different infographics to give some visual compa♓▨risons of the different types of pools.

Mazzella, the overhead crane team, discovered that many folks in their audience enjoy listening to podcasts. So, to meet their customers in the middle, they do podcast episodes on all o൩f the topics their blog covers.

5. Have a Strong Outro

So you've w𝐆ritten a detailed comparison article while staying as objective as possible.

Fantastic.

Now you just need a strong wrap-up section.

Here you can finally drop the objectivity and le༒t the readers know how you really feel about the options and encourage them to connect with you if the options you sell match up with their needs.

As I ment🧸ioned earlier, the consid🌠eration stage is my favorite stage of the buyer's journey.

Why?

Because when you create high-quality content 🌺here, your articles might just be among the last they read before they're ready to talk to potential vendors.

And if you've done a good job of educating🅠 them thoroughly on this topic, they may be ready to reach out sooner than later --possibly as soon as they get to the end of the🐠 article.

This is your best shot at being among the top of the vendors th🧸ey co𝐆ntact for quotes, demos, or consultations.

Always end an article with a next action. Whether there's other content they should read first or even a CTA to start a conversation, you ju🦩st might be their last stop in the consideration stage and their first stop in the decision stage.

More Examples

I don't want to leave you hanging with only the two examples to h🐻elp you create your ow📖n comparison articles.

B🐷elow you'll find links to 🌳more amazing comparisons.

🦩And remember, whether you're comparing apples to oranges, apples to apples, or Apple to Android, put yourself in the reader's shoes andꦉ help them decide what's best for them.

They'ꦍll thank you fo𓃲r it and may even reward you for it with their business.