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 ig🔯nore, dismiss, or don't really consider creating content for.

Why? Because they're too busy fine-tuning their offering♚s at the decision stage or cranking out tons of fluffy content aಞt the awareness stage hoping to bring new people into the funnel.

They focus on the two ends of the funnel, wh🍷ere 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.

I🦹t's here where consumers will do the 𝄹majority of their self-driven 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 conte𓆏nt strategies like and “The Big 5” to identify some of the most important blog art𝕴icle topics you can write.

Both of these approaches involve addressing quest🌟ions 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 abo🎃ut your competitors in a "𝄹best of" list in the past, I'd like to turn my attention tღo 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 piec⛄es of content you 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 r🎃eally important 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 people avoid this with a thoughtful and detailed article, will definitely build trust and get you on their goo🅘d 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

On👍e of the most important things you can do in yཧour comparison article is to include why you're writing the article in the first place.

In your intro paragraphs, make sure you let the reꦰader know that you sell one, both, or all of thꦉe things you're discussing.

If you're not forthright about this a📖nd 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 say you sell apples and your competitor sꦛells oranges.

If you wrote an article comparing apples to oranges without telling the audience that you sell apples and at the very end of the article you have a CTA to buy y🦩our apples, your audience's BS detector will light up the night.

They w𝓀ill start to question everyt﷽hing they just read.

Any negatives you lisꦯted a♉bout oranges will be scrutinized heavier.

An🔜y po💫sitives you mentioned about apples will carry less weight.

In short, you'll lose all credibility, and, more importantly, a potential custom෴er.

On the other h🌜and, when you're upfront about your stake in the apple game, people will be diꦍsarmed by the honesty and willing to give you a chance to explain your position.

Here's of how to be earnest about the comp꧟arison you're writing about.

Right off the bat,📖 they let r✃eaders 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 n🌱ow know River Pools & Spas k൩nows 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

𒁃Remember, blog articles are about being as helpful💟 as possible.

They're about giving consumers as much information as needed so they can make a well-informed pur♏chase decision.

Of course, you want them to buy𒐪 the things you sell, but 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 are they asking these questions to begin wiജth? What do they hope to gain from this? What is r꧒eally the best choice for them?

In the example above, t🥃he writer explicitly states𒉰 this and one of the goals of the article.

She writes, "our goal is for you to walk away satisfied, and part of 🐼how we achieve that is by providing infor🍃mation 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 sur💯e they're not trying too hard to push me on fiberglass if it's not right for me, but my defenses are definitely down a little.

When you're making the content about the reader, you've got to remain as objective as possible. One of the m♏ost important (and hardest) things to aꦐdmit 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 want is🍌 unsatisfied customers coming back with a vengeance to call you out for misleading them into making the wrong൲ purchase.

3. Organize Your Info with Easy to Follow Structure

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

Proper structure is important for a number of reasonsꦺ:

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

So, what are the two methods I teach for structuring a comparisꦜon article?

1. Category Head to Head
2. Pros and Cons
   

Take a look at theಞ fiberglass vs. vinyl liner poo💟l article again:

In the introduction, she lays out exactly the categories th🐲ese 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 popular because it's the most comprehensive and easꦉy-to-follow.

Readers can quickly see a reflection of the concerns they might have and find the information they need. For instance, if co😼st is the most important aspect of buying a pool, pool buyers 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 subsecti💦ons where we can clearly se❀e 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 o🐼ut this example, from one of our clients, on choosing between a (because we all have to make this decision at some🥀꧟ point in our life).

With this method, yo💯u give each competitor equal t🐎ime 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 advantages of this type of overhead crane followed🙈 by the disadvantages.

The next section then does the same fo꧙r double-girder overhead cranes.

If you notice, nearly equal time was given to both options🍎 (between 400🌼-500 words 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🐼 the 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 reader's interest or get them word drunk, add iꦯn some rich media.

Video, pictures, infographics, and even podcast links ༒help break up long sections of plain text and add context to the conꦏversation.

Plus, each of your visitors has their 🔯own preferred method of learning.

Avid rea▨ders appreciate lots of copy, but visual learners will enjoy watching videos, looking at ima🌠ges, 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 comparisons 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 cu🦋stomers in the middle, they do🌳 podcast episodes on all of the topics their blog covers.

5. Have a Strong Outro

So you've written a de🎀tailed comparison article while staying as objective as possible.

Fantastic.

Now you just need a strong wrap-up section.

Here you can finally d🌸rop the objectivity and let the rea🥂ders 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 mentioned earlier, the considera🦂tion stage is my favorite stage of the bu♓yer'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 v🌄endors.

And if you've done a good job of educating t𒁃hem 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 they con♕tact for quotes, demos, or consultations.

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

More Examples

I don't want to leav༺e you hanging with only the two examples to help you create your own comparis༒on articles.

Below you🌟'll find links to more amazing coꦿmparisons.

And remember, whether you're comparing apples to oranges, apples to apples, or Apple to Android, put yourself in the read🐼er's shoes and help them decide what's best for them.

They'll thank you for it an🍸d may even reward you for it with their business.