Blockchain, although only recently established, has had a rocky history up to this point. Although rates of scam IDO and ICO projects are falling as blockchain becomes more mainstream, it’s hard to overlook the history of investor’s money suddenly disappearing.
Take the shocking statistic from 2018 that out of 1,500 ICOs investigated by Satis Research Group, 78% of them were identified as scams. That 78% accounted for nearly $1.3 billion in investments.
It’s safe to say, with a history like that, people are wary of blockchain. Due to this, there are a few core differences in how blockchain marketing and digital marketing are approached.
Let’s take a look at three essential differences between how these distinct forms of marketing occur.
Digital Marketing is More Predictable
Digital marketing has been around for a very long time. In fact, it currently accounts for the majority of all marketing budgets, coming in at around 62.3% of total campaign costs.
With a longer history comes a certain predictability to digital marketing. This 2020 Forbes article even details a step-by-step process to forecasting the best marketing channels to invest in for your business. It’s quite literally down to a science at this point.
That’s not to mention the 2020 average PPC conversion rates by industry. You’ll be able to accurately predict your conversion rate based on which industry you’re running your digital campaign.
Blockchain marketing, on the other hand, does not have the same levels of stability or predictability. That considered, you need to pay more attention to setting goals and tracking your progress. By working out your own personal history, you’ll be able to predict your own marketing costs more accurately.
When it comes to future prediction, a blockchain marketing campaign certainly has its work cut out when compared to a traditional digital marketing campaign. Many Digital Marketing Agencies, for example, employ practices that produce only fleeting results, such as black-hat search engine optimisation techniques and spammy backlinks. However, these get-rich-quick schemes will not result in real clients, conversions, or income. In actuality, your website will most certainly get shadowed-ban and will penalise you. Therefore you must hire an experienced Digital Marketing Agency to ensure ethical practices.
Blockchain Has a Rocky Relationship with Social Media
By 2025, marketing managers will be spending $135 billion per year on social media advertisements.
Yet, blockchain marketing most likely won’t be contributing to that figure. Way back in 2018, social media placed advertisement bans on cryptocurrency. This covered the majority of the largest social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram.
This completely changed the way that blockchain marketing campaigns have to go about their marketing. While digital marketing campaigns can utilize these regular social channels, blockchain marketing has to think outside of the box.
Instead of Facebook and Twitter, blockchain marketing companies flock to lesser-known social platforms. Sites like Reddit, Medium, and Steemit provide the perfect location to share information and find investors.
Similarly, another way that blockchain marketing has to utilize different channels is by hosting podcasts and interviews. Considering the rocky past of false IDO campaigns, those in charge of a campaign are usually expected to expand their audience by creating content.
By participating in these platforms, the leader of a project will establish themselves in the cryptocurrency community. Doing this demonstrates their knowledge of the topic, building rapport and trust within the community.
A digital marketing plan rarely has to include credibility building, but with blockchain marketing it is essential.
Crypto SEO
Finally, we come onto the holy grail of marketing – SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
In digital marketing, SEO is one of the primary points of focus, launching link building campaigns and ensuring all on-site pages are optimized efficiently.
This integral part of marketing is often severely overlooked by blockchain companies. Those in the cryptocurrency space often fail to make use of this strategy.
One key way that excellent blockchain marketing agencies set themselves apart from the crowd is by having dedicated crypto SEO initiatives. By focusing on this underrepresented part of the cryptocurrency community, they can capitalize on what others are ignoring. This helps blockchain marketing companies put an IDO project a cut about the rest and secure that valuable funding.
Final Thoughts
Although both these forms of marketing are digitized, they are not entirely comparable. While there are a lot of crossovers, blockchain is less stable, while digital marketing has an established history.
Small changes like this are what divide these two art forms into different camps. It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with both, allowing you to maximize your efficiency when running either digital or blockchain marketing campaigns.