B2B Competitive Marketing Strategies: How to 1up Your Competition

Feb 26, 2025

I was recently talking to a marketing leader at a SaaS company, and they had a problem: Deals were slowing down. Customers were taking longer to buy, shopping around more, and making the sales cycle more competitive than ever.

They asked me, "Does our business look competitive from the outside?"

I told them, “If you have to ask, you’re probably not as competitive as you should be.”

That’s the reality for many businesses right now. It’s not about who has the flashiest branding or the biggest funding round anymore. When budgets tighten, customers scrutinize every purchase. They compare options, take their time, and make businesses fight harder for every deal. If you’re not actively positioning yourself as the better choice, you risk falling behind.

So, how do you stay ahead when the market gets tough? Here are four competitive marketing strategies to help you win more deals – even in a crowded space.

Key Takeaways

• Don't be afraid to do the bake-off. Customers like comparisons, so make it easy for them to understand why you're better.
• Prioritize customer stories above all else. They create a social proof that's difficult for competitors to argue against.
• Make your differentiators loud, obvious, and easy to find. Your website is the number 1 way to accomplish this.

1. Create Us vs Them Content

Let’s be honest: Customers love comparisons. They’re going to Google your product vs. your competitor anyway… so why not control the narrative?

Some marketers will tell you, “Feature vs. feature comparisons don’t win deals.” Sure, but that’s not the point.

Comparison pages aren’t about closing deals on the spot. They’re about giving your customer ammunition to fight for you when you're not in the room.

Us vs Them comparisons help you do that and can also set traps for the competition by forcing them to explain specific feature gaps.

Here's an example of Crowdstrike vs SentinelOne.

Now here's SentinelOne vs Crowdstrike.

You'll notice the pages have a very similar structure:

Optimize them for SEO so they appear when people search "X vs YourCompany."

You can rake in a ton of qualified search traffic just by publishing a comparison page. More importantly, you prevent that traffic from making its way to your competitors' version of the same page.

2. Make a "Why Us" Page

Not everyone wants to go head-to-head in comparison battles, but every business needs a strong “Why Us” page.

When you’re competing against a dozen alternatives, this page makes your case clear. Think of it as your business’s closing argument.

A great "Why Us" page helps customers sell your product internally. It also becomes the foundation for RFP responses , sales decks, and investor pitches.

Don’t have one? You’re missing out on a powerful way of communicating your value proposition.

Here's Hubspot's Why Choose Us page. It has all of the key elements you want a customer to walk away with:

Key stats that demonstrate a measurable impact can be a double edged sword. If you can't back up your numbers, or feel as thought they're not compelling, then don't use them.

3. Double Down on Customer Testimonials

You know what sells better than your marketing team? Your customers.

If you have happy customers but aren’t actively collecting testimonials, you’re missing out on free, high-impact content.

Here are some common misconceptions about customer testimonials pages:

It needs to be a big library of customer quotes and videos. Not true. Customers aren't going to read dozens of testimonials anyway. Having one or two referenceable customers can go a long way.

You need big name enterprises to demonstrate competence. Actually, you need names from your target industries to demonstrate you can serve their vertical.

Anonymized customer testimonials don't work well. Some customers may not want their face or name used in your marketing materials… so anonymize them.

4. Bid on Their Keywords

This is one of the most overpowered competitive marketing strategies. If they're doing it to you, you need to do it to them.

Bidding on competitor keywords is one of the best ways to intercept traffic.

Tips on running competitive Google ads without going broke:

1. Bid on Exact Match phrases ONLY.
2. Ignore the Top of Page rate.
3. Optimize for Clicks Over Conversions.

If you want to stay ahead in a crowded market, you need to be proactive, strategic, and willing to outmaneuver the competition. These competitive marketing strategies will help you stand out, attract more customers, and close more deals (even when budgets are tight.)

George Avetisov

George Avetisov is the founder and CEO of 1up, where he oversees day to day operations across Product Development, Sales, and Marketing.