Written by Stacey Mankoff, Managing Principal of the Mankoff Company, Founder of After the Bell Events, and producer of The Bellringer.
The landscape for blockchain applications has changed tremendously over the last few years. From being something mysterious, allied with the dark web and nefarious dealings, to moving mainstream where established institutions from JP Morgan Chase to Walmart are utilizing the technology. The average lay person has also become familiar with the jargon - including the upswing in talk about NFTs. This provides terrific opportunities for those involved in the creation and execution of a blockchain product. The global blockchain technology market size is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 82.4% from 2021 to 2028 to over $394.6 billion. As the chart below indicates, Blockchain technology is likely to impact many different parts of the economy.
Marketing your product well is critical to capitalize on this potential, and while manyof the traditional marketing techniques (specifically, the Four 4 Ps of marketing: Price; Product; Place and Promotion)are still applicable, in order to achieve success in funding or sales,certain steps must be taken with your marketing strategy working even harder than traditional ventures to strike the right tone for both experiencedblockchain individuals and neophytes.
Following are a few targeted marketing applications for your blockchain product:
Build a Strong Brand
Branding is important in every company, but it is especially important in the blockchainspace where a unique and memorable brand enables you to stand out from therest. Your brand reflects the Unique Selling Point (USP) of your product. I would recommend investing in solid marketresearch into what is important to your potential investors and customers inorder to develop the right plan for your targeted audience. The brand startswith the website and then permeates all through any marketing communicationyour company will produce.
Website Creation
Content is critical here and it starts with a mission statement. Make sure that you candescribe the what, why, and how of your product in one sentence - what used tobe called an ‘elevator pitch’. Keep the tech jargon to a minimum and target howyour product will benefit users. It is also important to include an ‘About Us’page which includes your people. The more information you share, the moreconfidence a client will have in investing in your organization. Videos and testimonials are also very effective. Optimize your user's experience (‘UX’) with specific UX and marketing analytics and create both an intuitive and accessible website. For blockchain sites, transparency is key. Investors want to see full disclosure on both your website and all communications. Your whitepaper, roadmap and team bios should be easy to access so potential customers are able to get in touch.
Engage with Media
A critical part of getting blockchain investors interested is to get publishinggiants to write about your business. Most of these investors don't spend time on Twitter or Facebook, but read Business.com, Forbes or the WSJ. If you canget some of these established publishers to write about your product, this will be key in gaining investors' attention. Write a brief, clear and interesting proposal to these publishers highlighting how your product or project solves a problem in an innovative way - detail concisely the strengths of your service and make it simple to understand. You can also utilize an influencer in the industry to write about your blockchain project or include it in an article. Create interview-style videos with these influencers and have them share it on their social media accounts. Another tack is that as a founder of a blockchain business, this is an excellent opportunity for you to carve out a niche as apro by writing your own opinion pieces and sharing them. This establishes you further as a credible figure in the blockchain market space. Social media is a terrific place for content marketing and if your content is good enough to go viral, your project can be promoted through retweets and shares at little timeor cost to you. Aim for an original concept, eye-catching visuals, and aninteractive element.
White Paper
Awhite paper is a detailed, authoritative report helping the reader understandan issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. White papers add credibility to your blockchain service/product by addressing an issue and then illustrating how you can solve it. Investors and clients look to learn as much as they can about a company prior to partnering, and with a white paper you're offering them more information about your business and the technology used, therebygiving them more reason to partner with you. White papers can be published onyour website, LinkedIn, linked to Twitter and Facebook, Telegram and so muchmore. The white paper should also be disseminated to leaders in the blockchainindustry and can be promoted on their sites as well.
Create a Bounty Program
Bounty programs are used by developers and marketers before the ICO to incentivizeactions and afterwards to gain feedback from external developers or to rewardpromotion on media channels. Crypto enthusiasts with social media flair canspread the word about your business and earn tokens for their actions. Thisfurther enhances your marketing initiatives by inclusion in YouTube videos,blog posts and infographics, and raising awareness on social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Quora, LinkedIn, TikTok, Bitcointalk or Reddit.
These are just a few of the recommendations tothe creation of a targeted and effective marketing plan for your blockchainproduct. There's a tremendous amount of competition in this space, which isonly growing. With that in mind, it becomes mission-critical to define yourbusiness and ensure that it stands out from the rest to guarantee success.