Product Marketing Case Study: Twist’s Comparison Page

If you’re a product marketer interviewing for a role, buckle up.

At some point during the interview, you’re going to be asked to name remarkable brands that pop into your mind when it comes to marketing novelties, for lack of a better word. All this to make sure you’re up-to-date with the industry in general and don’t switch career lanes out of nowhere.

The thing is, 90% of you will give out the same answer: Drift.

Nothing wrong about it, Drift is rightfully the real housewife of tech marketing these days.

But you will be expected to give more than one answer. What then?

Turn to this marketing case study series, whose main goal is to serve as a reference of fresh inspiration. First up: Twist’s alternative page.

Twist’s alternative page

For context, Twist is a team communication app that promises to be less distracting than, you guessed it, Slack — which is what their alternative page is all about. Here’s how they nailed it:

1. Name your enemy

This might seem obvious since it’s an alternative page, yet Twist starts with it even on their homepage when they admit that:

Back to the alternative page, they do a smart job at underlying the primary feeling you have when you experience Slack. Yes, it may be fun at first. But eventually you’re going to get overwhelmed trying to be present in all places (channels, group chats, private chats), all at once.

The statement is bold and the more effective thanks to Slack’s notoriety — being everywhere, means you’re nowhere. I think Seneca said it first 😅

2. Laddering

According to NYU Stern Marketing Prof. Scott Galloway, “laddering” refers to the attempt to deposition your competition by choosing an attribute at which they’re bad and you’re good at the same time.

Wait, didn’t I witness that at the previous point? Yes, you did. Twist, however, goes one step further when it capitalizes on Slack’s CEO’s public worry, perhaps snipped from one of his interviews:

It takes some balls to include it in their copy, I’ll have to admit, yet the stakes are high when you try to be the #1 Slack alternative and Microsoft Teams is casually winning more market share.

3. Before-after comparison

Remember Ryan Deiss’ “before and after” grid? Twist’s copywriters borrowed it, comparing life before and after Twist on 4 different levels:

Arguably, this can represent the start of a conversation with your manager in case you wish to replace Slack and need their buy-in. If still not enough, continue reading and use..

4. Social proof

Twist does this better than anyone else. At the top of the page, they encourage you to join over 100k teams that have ditched Slack in their favor, displaying a “See Twist in action” link to watch a video for a real feel of the tool.

Followed by a series of three twitter testimonials, although I wish they were snipped from twitter and not edited (for familiarity).

The page goes on by developing on the 4 different levels mentioned before, at the end of which there’s a strong CTA to check their “Why Twist” page, that tells you in % how much more efficient are switching teams than on Slack.

NOTE: If I click on it, the numbers don’t add up (it says 85k teams have onboarded, not 100k — so guys at Twist, fix this 😉 ).

To finish the page strong, they save the best for the last, i.e. reviews from big tech publications like TheVerge, Tech Crunch, engadget, and PC Mag.

Now I didn’t talk about the small details such as copy or when the Twist benefit boxes turn blue once you scroll down to read them, but this small analysis should give you a glimpse into how to structure an alternative page.

That’s it for this Sunday!

If you’re serious about product marketing or know someone who’s just starting out on this career path:

1. Clap this story 👏
2. Share it with them 😊