Introducing Dr. Dream - How We Protect Our Brand from Competitor Poaching (and Had Fun While Doing It)
If you’ve ever built a B2B SaaS brand, you know what happens next: competitors start bidding on your name in Google Search Ads and creating “alternative” comparison pages in an attempt to intercept the demand that you’ve built.
At Dreamdata, we’ve seen this happen to us, too. Instead of just watching it unfold, we decided to fight back in a way that was both strategic and fun.
Rather than letting competitors own the "Dreamdata alternative" search term, we created an alternative of our own.
Meet Dr. Dream.
How Competitors Try to Steal Your Traffic
When a company builds awareness and demand, people naturally search for its name. But in competitive industries, rivals will bid on those branded keywords or create pages claiming to be the better alternative to capture organic traffic.
For example, if someone searches for Dreamdata, they might see ads or organic pages from competitors claiming to be a Dreamdata alternative.
This is all fair game in marketing, but it doesn’t mean we have to make it easy for them.
Launching a “Dreamdata Alternative” Website
Rather than letting competitors control the “Dreamdata alternative” narrative, we built DreamdataAlternative.com.
A website dedicated to our fictional dream data analyst, Dr. Dream (or, if you prefer his full title: Dr. Reginald Sigmund III PhD, MD, LLC, ICP, TMZ, TLC, CDP, PsyD, PPC, BBC, and B2B).
Dr. Dream is a world-renowned (and entirely fictional) dream analyst, best known for his 34-volume, almost-bestselling Dream Data book series.
We took this to the extreme, creating an elaborate and fully developed world around Dr. Dream.
How We Did It
It wasn’t enough to just redirect traffic. We also wanted to make a point.
So we created Dr. Dream’s newest book Dream Data Vol. 34 for Marketers.
The book serves as a nightmare dictionary for B2B marketers, helping them understand what their subconscious is trying to tell them about their pain points (and helped us tie the page back to our own product).
Dr. Dream’s testimonials took things even further.
We created a series of customer reviews highlighting the book’s findings. Including one from Lars, our CEO who, in the fictional world of Dr. Dream, accidentally bought the book while researching competitors and couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t about B2B marketing at all.
As funny as they are, every element of the site served a purpose:
We sprinkled in the search term throughout to ensure we captured it before competitors could.
We used the book and testimonials to highlight real weaknesses of competing tools in a way that was both entertaining and painfully relatable.
We turned a competitor’s marketing tactic into a creative win for our brand.
Why This Works
This fun project effectively became an SEO and brand defense strategy.
By creating our own "Dreamdata alternative" landing page, we took back control of the conversation. Instead of letting competitors position themselves as the better choice, our version of the "alternative’ mocked the entire idea while subtly reinforcing why Dreamdata is the superior option.
We also ensured we owned more real estate in search results, reducing the chances of potential customers clicking on a competitor’s page instead. And the best part? It was cheaper than trying to outbid competitors on Google Ads.
Rather than spending money to win back our own traffic, we created a self-sustaining, organic way to capture those searches over time.
What You Can Learn From This (even if you’re not building a fake dream doctor)
If you’re in B2B SaaS, your competitors will try to capitalize off your brand traffic. It’s inevitable. But that doesn’t mean you should just let it happen.
Instead, take control.
Here’s what you can do:
Build your own "alternative" page before they do.
Make sure your website ranks for all variations of your brand name.
If necessary, run defensive PPC campaigns to prevent them from dominating search results.
And most importantly, get creative and have fun.
A Final Word
In B2B SaaS, your brand is one of your most valuable assets. If you’re not actively protecting it, someone else will take advantage.
With DreamdataAlternative.com., we’ve turned a common competitor tactic into an opportunity to own our narrative and have a little fun while doing it.
If your competitors are poaching your brand traffic, it’s time to fight back.
And if you’re in the market for wildly unverified subconscious insights, Dr. Dream will see you now.
But if you actually came here looking for real marketing attribution and audience software, well… you’ll want to go to dreamdata.io instead.
