I’ve been thinking a lot about competitive campaigns.

It’s not something I typically obsess over (I leave that to my friend Andy), BUT we are recording a live bonus episode of Ready for Launch on October 30 at Compete Week, and the theme of the episode is Best Competitive Launch.

So I’ve been digging. (This is my chance to take the crown back from Andy 👑).

And, as luck would have it, earlier this month a fairly controversial competitive campaign was dropped by Beehiiv (the platform I actually use to write this newsletter). Product marketers have been buzzing about it online — was it tasteful or did they take it too far?

In today’s edition, I’m going to break down the campaign, explain why I think it works, and share how you can use their campaign principles to position yourself against competitors too.

Positioning Against Competitors

First, some background. Beehiiv and ConvertKit are the leading players in the newsletter space. ConvertKit was the original player, but Beehiiv has been growing rapidly and is the tool of choice for many popular creators. They’ve publicly been battling for a while now.

Earlier this year, ConvertKit announced they were rebranding to Kit. And, as part of the rollout, they created A LOT of content showing their behind-the-scenes process. There was even a YouTube series about it. On the day of their rebrand, October 1, Beehiiv hijacked the news with a competitive rip-and-replace campaign.

Personally, I think there are four things that made this campaign effective: they identified a strategic opportunity, highlighted their competitive advantage, chose their timing wisely, and incentivized change.

Here’s my thinking around each one 👇🏻

Identify the Opportunity

The first step in positioning against a competitor is recognizing the right opportunity. This often emerges when a competitor undergoes a rebrand, introduces a new product line, or faces public scrutiny.

These moments create a window for you to differentiate your product and sway undecided or unhappy customers. In order to capture these opportunities, you need to be paying close attention to the competitive landscape AND you need the ability to whip up a campaign quickly.

🐝 Beehiiv Breakdown

Since ConvertKit was very public about their rebrand months ahead of time, this gave Beehiiv the runway they needed to determine how they would respond. The result was their "Convert to Beehiiv Kit" campaign, which targeted ConvertKit customers. In a LinkedIn post earlier this week, the company’s CEO Tyler Denk claimed the campaign has already generated $175,000 in pipeline (plus A LOT of publicity).

Highlight Your Competitive Advantage

To successfully position against a competitor, you need to clearly define your unique value proposition and your competitive advantage. What makes your product distinctly better or more aligned with the needs of your target customer? Instead of trying to beat your competitor at everything, focus on specific areas where you stand apart and where the competitor may fall short.

It’s important to remember that a competitive campaign is different than an evergreen competitive comparison page. With a campaign, you can take a more focused and timely narrative.

🐝 Beehiiv Breakdown

Beehiiv’s campaign pulled at the strings of ConvertKit’s rebrand to re-position it in a new light — as a distraction rather than a value-add for customers. Their own narrative was entirely focused on creators, which provided a stark contrast.

Choose Your Timing

Timing is crucial when positioning against a competitor. By launching a counter-campaign during or immediately after a competitor’s big announcement, you can leverage their momentum for your own benefit. This is often called “event jacking” or “trend jacking,” where you ride the wave of a competitor’s news to inject your message into the conversation (like when Taylor Swift announced her new album at the Grammy’s).

🐝 Beehiiv Breakdown

As I mentioned, Beehiiv used the timing of ConvertKit’s rebrand to launch their own competitive campaign, literally on the same day. Rebrands can be sensitive, especially for customers who may have a deep affinity for the original brand. Beehiiv knew ConvertKit customers would be reading about the rebrand that day, and they wanted to insert themselves into the conversation too with a multi-channel campaign.

Incentivize Change

Regardless of how clever your competitive campaign may be, you need to give customers a good enough reason to switch. Switching from one software to another is painful, and the tradeoffs need to be both clear and compelling. This is where a well-crafted offer can make all the difference.

🐝 Beehiiv Breakdown

Here’s an image from the "Convert to Beehiiv Kit" landing page. You can see that in addition to their competitive narrative, they also put together a strong offer to help reduce friction for creators and set them up for success on the new platform. I love that they put an expiration date on the offer to help drive urgency (again, this is a limited time campaign, not their evergreen comparison page).

At the end of the day, competitive positioning is more than just being better. It’s about seizing a specific moment in time to showcase your differentiation, and then providing the right incentive for change.

What do you think — are you team Beehiiv or team ConvertKit?

CAMPER ESSENTIALS

📚 Reading List: For more competitive goodness, check out my friend Andy’s newsletter Healthy Competition (coincidentally also on the Beehiiv platform).

🎧 Playlist: Ready for Launch is back for one special episode — and we’re recording it live. RSVP to Compete Week to tune in on October 30.

Until next week,