A couple of months ago, many marketers and few programmers raised a fortune overnight by having a fancy website and hundreds of buzzwords in a whitepaper — all in a novel market that attracted thousands of young and inexperienced investors. Bitcoin’s drastic tumble eventually knocked greedy investors out of the sky and introduced reality back to the crypto people’s minds. The mentality in the market is slowly changing to a more mature position and diligence is spreading amongst investors.
As more and more companies continue joining this digital revolution, the noise in the space is getting louder every single day. Projects that don’t take marketing missions very seriously, no matter how much their product actually has to offer, will simply be left behind. Understanding the impacts of certain promotional strategies has become a crucial aspect for every successful blockchain marketer.
Know your audience
The lion’s share of all entrepreneurs is aware of public relations and its potential effects on brands. However, especially the cryptocurrency world inheres a high percentage of discount marketers, who try to spread vacuous messages to the wrong audience. Excellent PR takes a lot of time, effort and sometimes even wealth. But when a strong story about your vision reaches customers, entrepreneurs and investors, your brand is the one that will shine brighter than any of your competitors.
Addison Huegel is a PR specialist who worked with big names, like Ethereum and Zilliqa, at his firm BlockPR. In an interview Huegel recently told me that “Many projects throw a lot of resources into PR without success because they fail to truly understand the blockchain space – which, at the moment, is completely different than marketing in the consumer or enterprise software markets, for example.”
He went on to say that “Understanding who it is you are marketing to is key and having the right message, at the right time, and in the right medium can be the most effective way to cut through the noise.” As so, studying the blockchain media landscape is one of the first missions new marketers should take on. From our experience at PolyGrowth, blockchain journalists and editors tend to be a lot more sceptic than their colleagues. Consequently, nurturing contacts with cryptocurrency journalists is an essential part of being an efficient blockchain communicator.
Other traditional marketing strategies, such as pay-per-click ads, often developed into a waste of resources for cryptocurrency projects. Not only are display ads generally losing their effectiveness due to ad blindness, but in the blockchain space, they are also frequently associated with fraudulent projects. Furthermore, running a referral program or, heaven forbid, a multi-level marketing system could potentially spread the word of your project, but it usually comes with a heavy loss in reputation as well. In highly confusing environments like the blockchain world, reputation means everything.
Adapt your techniques
Apart from conventional marketing methods like PR, there are also some interesting ideas that emerged in the blockchain space over the past few years. The most beneficial approach for marketers is possibly a so-called bounty campaign. In a bounty program, community members are usually being rewarded with cryptocurrencies for the completion of small assignments, such as liking a post or publishing a review. These tasks are either completed directly in coordination with the start-up team or through cryptocurrency freelancing platforms like Bounty0x. Over the past few years, bounty operations turned out to be effective yet inexpensive tools for building communities and outsourcing basic marketing tasks.
An airdrop is another cryptocurrency specific advertisement practice that instantly establishes a community around a certain coin or token. By giving out free tokens, your cryptocurrency has the potential to attract thousands of investors without spending a single penny. In addition, some blockchain projects previously donated branded clothing or other tangible products to their loyal followers. However, the initiators of physical airdrops should always keep in mind that one should never give out poor quality products, as the first impression always counts the most.
No matter if you are launching your very own cryptocurrency or just a blockchain related company: cryptocurrency supporters usually prefer different social networks than the average consumer. While most enterprises see a lot of value in strong Facebook or Instagram accounts, blockchain aficionados often appreciate activity on LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube, according to our research. Moreover, the social news aggregation network Reddit, as well as the online publishing platforms Medium and Steemit, appear to be fundamental parts of a powerful social media marketing strategy.
Meet the people
Establishing connections is undoubtedly valuable for any business in the world, but in the blockchain space, it’s simply a must. The world of cryptocurrencies is still tiny in size, which allows its enthusiasts to connect to like-minded people quite easily. You could start your journey by visiting smaller meetups in our hometown or every time you travel to a bigger city. The crypto folks are surprisingly kind people who would love hearing your story and sharing theirs with you. Advanced professionals should consider attending greater events, like conferences or even a blockchain cruise.
By actually meeting adopters in person, you are being granted the precious opportunity to present your skills and knowledge. There are thousands of new projects awakening every month. Sitting in front of a computer all day long could perhaps support your marketing efforts, but it surely is not as persuasive as actively engaging with the community. Additionally, in the hard times of a bear market, you will rather meet actual business owners than greedy investors. If your true goal is to be successful in the blockchain world, you can not get past this.