The Cryptocurrency (Crypto) and Blockchain environments are different to traditional markets. Their marketing has to be different too.

With all the talk being about Bitcoin, Ethereum and NFTs, this post looks at how companies operating in the Decentralised finance and Blockchain space can make the most of their brand.

Like most emerging markets, Cryptocurrencies have been around for a while. They have gained more public exposure through a series of events that were mostly triggered throughout the pandemic of 2020 and the early part of 2021.

 Some of the main drivers for growth include:  

• The rise of the Bitcoin price from $8,800 on 6th May 2020 to $63,225 on 15th April 2021
• The growth of retail investors buying stocks like GameStop as well as Crypto
• Stimulus cheques in the US being invested in Crypto
• The sale of “Everydays – The First 5000 Days” by digital artist Mike Winkelmann known as Beeple by auction house Christies for $69m
• The lure of investors into Altcoins looking to find the next Bitcoin
• Adoption by large institutional investment organisations like JP Morgan and Blackrock in Blockchain and Crypto
• Announcement by Elon Musk on acquiring a large amount of Bitcoin and Dogecoin
• The Initial Coin Offering (ICO) of new Altcoins into the market
• The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Coinbase on Nasdaq debut on Wednesday, that gave the cryptocurrency exchange an initial market cap of $85.8 billion 
• The impending IPO of Binance and growth of its Binance Coin

The list goes on, but these seem to be the more significant drivers.

So, with all this going on in a relatively short space of time, it is clear that those companies involved in this expanding market need to differentiate and raise their awareness to a new found hungry audience – this includes B2B, B2C as well as a variety of different stakeholders.

The areas below refer to both B2B and B2C markets and though the approach may be different, the crossover of the market segments has been well documented.

Define Your Proposition

Crypto and Blockchain technology is confusing enough for people in the business. It is important to define your brands role in the ecosystem and get back to basics and build out from there.  With all the changes in the market, it can seem like the wild west. Defining who you are, what you do and where you sit in the Venn diagram is an imperative starting point.

Source: Taylor Pearson via Unchained Capital

Educate and Inform

After defining their core market, many of the companies that have IPO’d or are looking to go public or raise funds, have invested in educating their core investors and stakeholders as well as attracting new prospects. Some great examples of this are Coinbase and Binance. 

Coinbase has been educating both professional and retail investors on LinkedIn. Examples of posts include:

Source: Coinbase LinkedIn

Know when to be lite and when to be technical

Binance’s spot trading platform can seem incredibly complex to the novice but is ideal for professional traders. Equally there is a lite version of the Binance platform that allows entry to the beginner. When Binance reached 3 million followers on Twitter and 1 million followers on Instagram, they posted a clever picture to celebrate whilst giving a nod to Dogecoin in the process: 

Source: Binance LinkedIn

Talk to Digital Marketing Experts

As the complexity and offering rises in popularity for Crypto and the Blockchain, it is imperative to put your trust in a marketing company that understands the market and can help you navigate the various digital and social media platforms out there. 

In a highly commoditised space, it can be difficult to find the right match. Look for those marketing companies that can help provide you with both a strategy and plan before diving into marketing on a platform, hoping for the best. These campaigns without the right strategy will invariably fail. 

In Conclusion

The Crypto genie is out of the bottle. Blockchain has numerous applications to business and society. To stand out and raise your brands profile, work with those that are the right fit and understand your business.