It’s Marketing Madness!
Since we are in the heart of a certain sport’s madness season,* we thought it would be fun to post marketing brackets for a fictional brand and its marketing tactics. We’ll call it “Brand X.”**
*We can’t call it by its name because a cadre of lawyers constantly stalks the Internet, sending cease-and-desist letters to anyone that uses the trademarked phrase.
**Don’t use Brand X® because OUR cadre of lawyers is constantly stalking the Internet, sending cease-and-desist letters to anyone that uses the trademarked phrase.
Every brand’s marketing mix depends on its target audience, its products or services and its history, and we’re using brackets to illustrate this for one brand. Keep in mind, every brand can have different tactics, so their brackets would look completely different than this one.
This bracket marketing madness is for a fictional B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that has a very successful product. This company targets a very specific, male dominated, old-school audience in a well-established industry. The tactics and color commentary are provided by our well-coached, high draft pick marketing play-by-play experts.
OK, ready sports fans? Let’s get ready to rummmmmmmm [content deleted after we received a C&D from Ready to Rumble LLC].
(Cue over-excited sports play-by-play announcer:)
Welcome to Marketing Madness everyone! We’re sure to see some barn-burners and the pre-tournament darling pick is VIDEO, but we think the dark horse to keep your eye on is BLOGGING. But like anything else, it ain’t over until the band goes home. And who will the Cinderella pick be? DIRECT MAIL? CASE STUDY? Maybe, if everybody still reads the Saturday Evening Post while listening to Little Orphan Annie on the radio! But, stranger things have happened – we’re looking at you, 1969 Mets!
With that, let’s tip it off!
SWEET 16:
DIRECT MARKETING VS. BLOG*
VIDEO* VS. WEBINAR
Whoa, nellie! No surprises as the glamour pick, VIDEO moves on to the Elite 8 due to the strength of its ability to visually explain and simplify complex and detailed services, like the ones Brand X offers.
CASE STUDY VS. SEO*
TESTIMONIALS* VS. INFLUENCERS
BOOM! goes the SEO dynamite as it pulls out an impressive win over the tried-and-true CASE STUDY. Since Brand X is a SaaS company and its target audience are technical decision-makers, SEO provides an edge when the target is looking for an answer to its pain points.
TRADESHOWS* VS. PODCAST
PR VS. EMAIL*
Proving that “old school” is a pretty good school, TRADESHOWS took it to the hoop and bounced new-kid-on-the-block PODCASTS right outta here! Since Brand X sells to a well-established industry, tradeshows are still a strong draw for decision-makers, and getting in front of them is key.
DISPLAY ADS VS. SEARCH ADS*
SOCIAL MEDIA VS. MARKETING AUTOMATION*
The “Battle of The Ads” was hardly the 3-point shot heard ‘round the world, but SEARCH ADS came out as the champ. Brand X has an incredibly high conversion rate of turning software trial accounts into paying accounts, so they focus on getting new prospects to try their service which is why SEARCH ADS, which are better at attracting new traffic, defeated DISPLAY ADS, which are better at retargeting repeat traffic.
Whew! That was an action-packed first round! As the tactics gets better, so do the brackets!
ELITE 8 (Bracket winner):
EMAIL* VS. TRADESHOWS
SEARCH ADS VS. MARKETING AUTOMATION*
BLOG* VS. VIDEO
SEO* VS. TESTIMONIALS
EMAIL pulled off an impressive come-from-behind win over dark horse TRADESHOWS and sent it packing. EMAIL works for Brand X because it is always innovating and introducing new features and products, so staying in touch with prospects and users helps keep it a leader in its industry.
MARKETING AUTOMATION has been flying under the radar, but its ability to manage Brand X’s marketing processes and campaigns automatically has really opened our eyes! It. Might. Just. Go. All. The. Way!
FINAL 4:
SEO* VS. BLOG
MARKETING AUTOMATION* VS. EMAIL
Both close contests, but SEO pulls it out for the win, as does MARKETING AUTOMATION, both very successful tactics that have driven traffic to the Brand X website to learn more about its offerings, and helped move interested prospects through its sales funnel until they are ready to buy.
Now it gets real. Now it gets intense. Now we find out which marketing tactic is the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Tactics) for Brand X.
It’s also time to use up the rest of the basketball cliches we’ve been saving up. So, let’s go full-court press and get our game face on. It’s gut-check time because it’s going to take a total team effort to cut down the nets after the Big Dance is over.
Now…the ball is in Brand X’s court.
CHAMPIONSHIP:
SEO
MARKETING AUTOMATION*
MARKETING AUTOMATION WINS! MARKETING AUTOMATION WINS! MARKETING AUTOMATION WINS! MARKETING AUTOMATION is Brand X’s G.O.A.T.!!
Its ability to work in the background, nurturing prospects into customers, makes it one of Brand X’s most important and effective marketing tools. OK, one more basketball cliché: for Brand X, it’s a slam dunk.
Again, every brand’s marketing mix will be different. What works for a CPG company might not work for a B2B company. What works in the Medical industry might not work in Finance. The key is to understand your audience and what issues they are trying to solve and how best to reach them with your message.
Not sure what marketing mix is right for your brand? Or, do you need an outside partner to execute some of your marketing tactics? DRM can support your marketing efforts. Have a challenge? We’d love to hear about it.
DRM is a full-service marketing agency that uses creativity to connect your brand to your audience and help your business grow. We were founded to do what we are passionate about: Putting creativity to work and connecting brands to their audience, connecting audiences to your company goals, and connecting your business to the success it deserves.
