Interactive Content Marketing Tools: Brackify

In this new series I’ll be covering the latest tools to help you take a more innovative approach to content marketing. First up: Brackify.
Interactive Content Marketing Tools: Brackify

What it does

Lets you create interactive voting brackets to enhance your content.

How it works

You come up with a tournament idea, establish the voting deadlines for your audience, and Brackify takes care of the rest. They’ll input your tournament information into their bracket template and you’ll have the option to either embed the bracket on your site or simply link to a page that Brackify hosts.
From there it’s time to spread the word and encourage your audience to cast their votes.

Why it’s effective

There’s just something about a bracket that begs for participation. Whether it’s the millions of users who flock to sites like Yahoo and ESPN.com every year to enter their March Madness picks, or the current bracket-picking frenzy coinciding with the World Cup, the fact is people love brackets. Brackify allows you to capitalize on that by creating an engaging, interactive experience for your audience that can lead to impressive — and even viral — results.

Examples of Brackify in Action

BostInno’s Startup March Madness
Local tech and startup news site BostInno scored a viral success with their startup-themed March Madness bracket. By the time the dust settled, the bracket had received over 100K votes and generated engagement with 64 of Boston’s hottest tech companies.

OpenView’s Tech March Madness

We tried out our own version of a March Madness tournament, pitting 16 tech companies against each other to determine who would be crowned the most customer-centric. This was a follow-up to our Cultural-Fit-ology Tournament (crowning the best company culture in tech) the year before, which was the highest performing content piece of the year.

Brackify’s Disney Bracket
Brackify’s own showcase example, what started off as simply a sample of the product turned into a viral success, accumulating over 1.5 million votes and 21,ooo shares on Facebook. App developer Adrian Phillips breaks down the reasons behind the unexpected success of the bracket in a great post on Medium.

Tips for Going Viral with Your Own Bracket Tournament

1) Keep in mind, this is for building brand awareness, not closing deals
B2B marketers are often guilty of having tunnel vision when it comes to their marketing content, focusing it entirely on their products and their features in a narrow-minded attempt to drive nothing but leads. Don’t get me wrong, driving leads is a fantastic end goal, but there are more than a few initial steps that build up to that point.
The fact is, it’s incredibly unlikely a prospect is going to jump straight to purchasing your product or setting up a demo just because they filled out a bracket you created, no matter how awesome it is. That’s not how top-of-the-funnel content like this works (it’s not how content marketing works in general).
By all means, include calls to action (ex: inviting participants to subscribe for updates on the bracket), but keep it light and keep your focus around creating a fun, memorable experience that prospects will associate with your brand.
2) Pick a Theme and Competitors People are Passionate About
Bracket tournaments have the potential to go viral, but only if they tap into a theme that people really care about and can rally around. It has to be general enough to attract a large audience, and the “competitors” in the bracket have to have fans who will actively root for them and make big social pushes to get them through each round.
3) Utilize the Bracket as a Springboard

Bracket tournaments naturally encourage sharing and repeat visits back to your site to get updates and vote again from round to round. That means you’ll have multiple opportunities to build bridges to other pieces of content and continue to make visitors more familiar with who you are and what you do. Going back to the point above, that next piece should still probably be focused on building awareness rather than converting them then and there, but it does give you an opportunity to provide a little more info and set things up for the next qualifying stage.
Pointing voters to helpful related content (ex: our Customer-Centric bracket linked to tips for improving customer service and success) is a great thing to do, and directing them to sign up for email updates is a must.
4) Keep it Relevant
Okay, so we’ve already established asking people to vote for your product’s best features may not be the right recipe for viral success. That said, you don’t want to veer too far off the grid. As with any piece of content, while you want to stand out, your top priority should always be to be relevant to your audience. If you’ve done your homework — developing a solid understanding of your buyer personas, their needs and priorities — then you should be able to hone in on a theme that shows that what you and they care about (and what you provide) overlap.

Coming Soon: More Reviews of Interactive Content Tools

Stay tuned for more highlights of some of the latest tools marketers are utilizing to create innovative online experiences and take their content to the next level. Have a tool or service we should look into and share? Let me know in the comments below.

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Image by  Amelia Schmidt