In an increasingly saturated and noisy space, how do you make your project stand out?
In a world where everything needs to be marketed blockchain projects are no exception. Today only 19 per cent of consumers are aware of the blockchain. A recent Gartner poll of Chief Information Officers (CIO) states as much as 77 per cent of the CIOs it surveyed indicated that their organization had “no interest in the technology and/or no action planned to investigate or develop it”.
Cryptocurrencies don’t fare much better in terms of adoption and usage. A whopping 87 per cent of those who are aware of Bitcoin have not used it in any way.
These challenges are why one of the most prevalent global trends is shifting from crowdsales that involve masses of small investors to working with funds and venture capital.
Creating buzz is what attracts investors, users and builds community. In this guide you will learn: — How to create highly visible posts and threads on social media networks — How to grab the attention of journalists and bloggers — The top digital marketing tools and services to bring targeted traffic to your posts and website and more.
Here’s the digital marketing secret sauce for your project to take off.
What you need to know before launching your digital marketing campaign
It may be difficult to get users to adopt your project. Blockchain technology and crypto are still in relative infancy compared to the Internet. But the more the target community knows about your project the more they will appreciate the coming benefits. But there has been a tightening of the “rules of the game”. Facebook, Twitter, IG, Google etc. ban ICO advertising.
If you intend to raise most of the money for your project from private investors through a crowdsale then the community plays a key role.
On the other hand, if the project initially seeks to raise money from funds and institutional investors, then public relations will play a vital role.
You can engage with the community on platforms like BitcoinTalk with posts, questions and bumps. Additionally purchasing various positions on relevant blockchain-related websites is an effective tactic.
Build the expectation that this is a cool project. Generate buzz and hype. What is the problem that you want to solve?
Make your reputation trustless with proven value. There are some key elements of value for Altcoins. Speculation, Usage case, Community, Ecosystem, Team, Technology, Security Concerns. What are your elements of value?
Develop a high quality whitepaper that includes your roadmap, tech and team woven into a compelling narrative and story. Make the user an integral part of your product roadmap.
For blockchain projects, you have to paint a picture of success that engages and excites your audience. Are you the next Uber, Berskshire Hathaway or Google? Explain this simply.
Get quality mentions of your product in the media, blogosphere and influencers. Then generate backlinks, buzz and hype in related community forums.
Sending press releases to a great number of blockchain, crypto and business media. The stronger the media coverage, the more views you can expect to receive.
Choose an interesting topic and talk about it as the founder or leader of your project. Then approach current columnists of major media outlets and offer this content or commentary. In the case of a blockchain project, PR is not needed for traffic, but to build trust in the new company and product.
Can you create controversy by showing how your product disrupts an industry norm or kills a sacred cow? If you can passionately defend your position an audience of loyal followers can be your reward. Think classic themes like “Us against Them”, “David versus Goliath” or “New Innovation takes on Old Inefficiency”.
Keep reminding people about your blockchain project every 2–3 days. Use a mix of locations, techniques and platforms. AMAs on Reddit, bumps in BitcoinTalk, answering questions on Quora and a new release on ProductHunt grab attention.
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Promotional campaigns require a great deal of effort, so plan in advance.
Many crypto companies distribute free coins to their communities to increase their project’s visibility, increase the circulating supply and stimulate trade. These free distributions are commonly known as “airdrops.”
Bounties have become a valuable component of the marketing ecosystem for crypto and blockchain projects. They reward participants with tokens for following specific rules and completing simple social media tasks (joining their Telegram group, reposting on Twitter and such). The “bounty hunters” advance the goals of the ICO or STO.
Reddit is a powerful platform for engaging an audience, research and driving traffic. Reddit Insight is an analytics suite for Reddit.com using their public API, combined with real-time data analysis and graphic visualizations of historical data.
This is a great way to improve page rank, search results and connect with your audience. Blogging is still the most cost effective way to get users and customers to buy your product or service.
If your team and advisors do not have strong LinkedIn profiles then you’re waving a red flag at your audience. LinkedIn presents an cost-effective way to connect with users, investors and media professionals.
There is a marketing adage, “the money is in the list”. This applies for blockchain projects. Capture email addresses and mobile numbers so that you can build your audience and reach them directly for free.
Want an excellent community to reach the tech audience? The GitHub platform can host your open source code for review and collaboration with million of developers from around the world. Git is a revision control system, a tool to manage your source code history. One of the biggest advantages of Git is its branching capabilities.
Here are some popular subreddits for blockchain and crypto communities:
Blockchain – 56, 000 subscribers
Bitcoin – 1,000,000 subscribers
Ethereum trader – 204,000 subscribers
Ethereum – 424,000 subscribers
Cryptocurrency – 787,000 subscribers
Altcoin – 79,000 subscribers
Cryptomarkets – 171,000 subscribers
Crypto ICO -72,400 subscribers
EOS blockchain – 62,000 subscribers
Bitcoin Beginners – 65,100 subscribers
BTC – 237,000 subscribers
Every blockchain project requires promotion since they want to take money, time or other resources from people. The industry is nascent and competitive. More often than not these ideas and products are still developing. There is no long track record of success in this space and the best marketing can separate winners from losers.
People ask how much should we spend or budget for marketing our blockchain, ICO or STO? The actual number will vary based on your specific situation. We advise that if you have a hard cap of US$10 million then you should spend a minimum ratio of 1 to 10 which equates to US$1 million on marketing. Be sure you consider your timeline, sentiment and the market landscape.
The best teams use all of the marketing and public relations tools. This requires a great deal of effort, so you should plan the promotional campaign well in advance. Typically a minimum of 2–3 months is required for the preparation of announcements, images for social networks, columns and commentaries for the media and blogs.
Blockchain projects have many different aspects including financial, legal, political, technical and sociological. These very different viewpoints across numerous fields demand an effective digital marketing strategy.
Despite the level of interest in project questions often exist in terms of scalability, security, performance, adoption, utility and decentralization. The cost of effective marketing is increasing. Google, Facebook, and Chinese portals are banning a lot of things. Investors are warier and conversion rates are decreasing.
Every blockchain project requires promotion because they are developing and lack a final product.
To advance will require a lot of money or support from people internally or externally. How can you communicate to them that you are going to do something with these resources?
By definition, resources are always limited and competing with other potential use cases. Follow the steps indicated above to market your project.
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