Playbooks

Catch customers searching for an alternative to your competitor

A playbook for getting your product recommended when people unhappy with a competitor look for a replacement, whether they ask ChatGPT or search Google and land on a Reddit thread.

The hard part: earning real mentions in Reddit threads and AI answers, which takes a product people genuinely recommend and steady daily effort.

Setup 3 daysRuns $30/moYour time A few hours a weekNeeds ClaudeWebflow

Who pays

This playbook does not earn money by itself. It brings customers to a product you already sell, and those customers are ready to switch. jakezward reports that Tally grew from $258K to $422K in monthly recurring revenue in 10 months, with AI search as its top source of new users. Those are the poster's figures, and the poster notes Tally spent years building a product people already recommended.

How to build it

  1. List the searches that matter

    Write down the phrases switchers use, such as '[competitor] alternative', 'replacement for [competitor]', and 'best [category] tool'. Search each one on Google and in ChatGPT and note what comes up.

  2. Build pages shaped like AI answers

    Use Claude to draft comparison and 'alternative to' pages with rankings, 'best for' labels, pricing, feature tables, and pros and cons. Publish them on your Webflow site.

  3. Refresh the pages often

    Set a regular date to update prices, features, and rankings so the pages stay current.

  4. Get alerts for competitor mentions

    Set up free F5Bot email alerts for '[competitor] alternative' and similar phrases on Reddit. Reply within the first day or two from a real account, and share honest experience instead of an ad.

  5. Ask new users what they typed

    Add a signup question asking where they found you and the exact prompt they typed into an AI tool. Track the answers in a sheet.

  6. Ask happy customers for reviews

    Ask for reviews on sites like G2 and Product Hunt in your newsletter and after support conversations.

Sources on X

  • jakezward · Aug 19, 2026

    jakezward reports that AI search is Tally's #1 source of new users, that 10,000+ new users every week say they found Tally through AI platforms, and that Tally grew from $258K MRR to $422K MRR in 10 months with 11 people. These are figures the poster relays. The poster says Tally has 7 competitor pages plus 15 'best', 'alternative', and integration guides built like AI answers, refreshes them constantly, and asks new users for the exact prompt they used.

  • honeydreamss · Aug 2, 2026

    The poster says people who try a competitor and don't like it search '[competitor name] alternative', and a Reddit thread usually shows up in the top 3 results. They advise showing up as a real person with real experience, not a fake account, and using F5Bot for free email alerts on phrases like '[competitor] alternative'.

Ideas are curated from public posts and untested by us. Read the full note.