This article first appeared in my weekly newsletter where I share my latest marketing thoughts and ideas with 2,000+ superstar subscribers. I’d love to have you join.

We are in the midst of hiring a product leader at Buffer. (If you or anyone you know might be great at this role, we’d love to be in touch.) 🙏

In an interview this week one of the candidates asked me:

“How do you think about Buffer’s competitors?”

I thought it was such a great question. And it gave me a chance to share a perspective that I love talking about and thinking about when it comes to Buffer’s marketing and go-to-market strategy.

This is somewhat semantics, but …

I think in terms of alternatives rather than competitors.

(This is a concept from the folks at Reforge.)

Alternatives are the different ways our target customers might choose to solve their problems. Sometimes this includes competitors, but more often than not, there are a host of other solutions that go beyond the discrete set of products in the social media management space.

For instance, here is the list of alternatives at Buffer:

• Sprout Social (competitor)

• Later (competitor)

• Hootsuite (competitor)

• Google Sheets & Microsoft Excel — used for managing social media content

• Native social media — people scheduling directly with Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter’s native tools

As you can see, there are a number of real competitors here. These products (and a handful more) are part of an annual SWOT analysis we perform. But when we’re talking to customers and getting to know the market, there are many other ways that people solve the problem of social media management. And it’s important to know not just how we stack up versus competitors but also how we can better serve customers versus alternatives.

e.g.

How can Buffer differentiate from Google Sheets?

We provide awesome analytics and engagement tools that you simply can’t get from a spreadsheet / calendar.

How can Buffer differentiate from native social media?

We let you do all your jobs in one central location, saving you time and letting you get more done.

Finding alternatives becomes especially interesting when you think about category creation (addressing a brand new problem in the market). There typically aren’t that many alternatives because the problem itself is so new. Let’s take Substack as an example.

Substack positions itself as a place for independent creators (primarily writers) to build a community and monetize content.

What are Substack’s alternatives?

• ESPs like Mailchimp or Convertkit — These email tools match Substack’s primary delivery system (email) and audience focus, but they aren’t as obviously connected to direct monetization

• Ghost — This WordPress alternative has a subscription service built-in

• Patreon — Individual creators have typically turned to Patreon to monetize content, although Patreon positions itself more toward art and campaigns

• Miscellaneous — Often creators figure this stuff out for themselves by stitching together a mish-mash of tools like Stripe for payments and Mailchimp for email and Anchor for podcasts.

But the biggest alternative to Substack? The biggest alternative is creators failing to see any way to make a living from their content at all and therefore doing nothing about it. With category creation, education is huge because you’re often so early that your chief alternative is the status quo.

What do you see as your company’s main alternatives?