Blockchain Marketing Strategies
New frontiers for businesses adopting crypto economy
Introduction
In the current landscape of blockchain projects, which is now heavily congested, it is essential to generate buzz and build a supportive community long before the official launch. This is especially important in this type of business model, as the ability to attract, onboard, and retain a community is crucial for success. Nurturing hype and support in the early stages of development can help ensure the success of a project.
4 main Blockchain Marketing Strategies:
- Crypto Bounty Programs
- Cripto Airdrops
- Crypto Faucets
- Crypto Giveaways
1. Crypto Bounty Programs
Crypto Bounty Programs consist of a rewarding system, which addresses contributors (bounty hunters) orbiting a given blockchain.
Specifically, the team behind the project draws up a list of tasks needed by the network at that point in time. Each task is associates to a prize and then promoted on proprietary touch-points (i.e., Telegram group, Social pages, Newsletters, etc.) and/ or on third parties platforms that collect bounties from many different blockchain projects simultaneously as the case of Bounty0x.
Bounty reward -in most cases free or discounted amount of tokens - is collected by users upon a proven completion of the job. In other words, bounty hunters run marketing activities on behalf of a company in return for amount of project’s tokens.
In the vast majority of cases, Crypto Bounties are promoted in conjunction with ICOs (Initial Coins Offering), but can also be expected in stages after the launch of the token as measures for community strengthening and maintenance. Therefore, the nature of the tasks listed may vary depending on the phase in which the project is located.
Here are some examples of Crypto Bounties:
- Bug Reporting by encouraging coders and security researchers to discovery and report bugs and vulnerabilities. The amount of prizes paid might vary according to Severity, which is a combination of Impact (low, medium, high) with Likelihood (low, medium, high) as in the case of Ethereum Bounty Program.
As a matter of fact, the mechanism underlying these category of bounties is not new to the tech industry. Before the advent of Blockchain, there were already companies such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook that put in place Vulnerability Rewards Program (VRP) or Bug Bounty initiatives to reward their security researchers.
- Translation activities related to pitch deck, official websites, forum/ blogs posts and even whitepapers with the aim of increasing global outreach by facilitating the access to official documentation from all over the world.
- Affiliate marketing or Referral programs these are marketing strategies already well known to many of us: they are “bring a friend” activities. Although these are marketing strategies already seen, within the crypto economy these represent an interesting opportunity for passive income. In fact, there are platforms that guarantee earning for the entire lifetime trading activities of each referee you bring onboard.
It should also be said that the referral process for referees is not, at least at the moment, the most user-friendly: in all probability they will have to perform at least one of the following actions: open a personal e-wallet, sign-up on trading platforms, stake a given amount of crypto in your balance, complete proof-of-identity procedure, … - Bitcointalk Signature Campaigns are open to all Bitcointalk forum members. The membership level of each user (ranking status) defines the possibility or not of participating in the individual Bitcointalk Signature Campaigns as well as the maximum amount of prize that can be earned.
But what exactly do these campaigns consist of? Members (users) need simply to rent their signature space giving a room to promote a given blockchain projects. For each post written in the forum, the sponsored signature will appear clearly according to a business model similar to that of online advertising banners. So in essence, the advertiser pays just for posting and advertising services in your forum signature.
- Social campaigns anyone from an enthusiastic user to professionals can take advantage of their personal accounts by executing marketing actions in order to gain tokens in return.
The ultimate goal is to generate awareness and virality through promotional activities by exploiting every form of interaction available. It can be anything such as: post, repost, likes, comments, views, shares, reviews, mentions, hashtags on the most popular social media platforms (i.e., Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, WhatsApp, WeChat and Telegram, TikTok). - Content creation a call to contribute for bloggers, writers, graphic designers, video and content creators. They are paid to create digital contents / assets for the project team. The amount of the reward may depend on the quality of the job or the level of engagement generated later on.
In conclusion, within the Crypto Bounty Program there is a little space for everyone: enthusiastic and informed users, coders & developers, content creators, social media influencers, blog writers, freelancers, UI and UX designers, etc.
2. Crypto Airdrops
A Crypto Airdrop is when a blockchain project distributes free tokens to its community and stakeholders. There are two main strategic reasons why a company decides to opt for this marketing strategy:
- To make an ICO more inviting, early investors receive additional “new” free coins or tokens is the case with Airdrop ICOs. Airdrop applicants are asked to perform simple procedures such as: subscribing to the newsletter, registering to social channels, entering official chat groups (e.i., on Telegram) and submit e-wallet address.
- To reward most loyal token-holders in the long term, creating a sort of fidelity program in a crypto version. In this case a variant is represented by Airdrops proportional to the amount owned by the token-holder: the higher the amount staked the higher the bonus in Airdrop terms.
3. Crypto Faucets
Crypto faucets are app or website that allow visitors to claim small amounts of cryptocurrencies like water drops dripping from a leaking faucet, precisely. They dispense rewards upon the completion of very simple tasks carried out by the user.
At the dawn of this marketing strategy, the required main activity was a simple click on a button and, on top of this, the possibility of extra earnings through referral activities. It has been the case of websites like: moon bitcoins, moon dogecoin and moon litecoin.
The users of these services “only” needed to register on the websites, open a support e-wallet to direct claims and visit the sites periodically to collect the prize by completing a captcha. From business perspective it was possible to frequently convey an audience of well-targeted visitors towards banners and sponsorships positioned all around the “claim button”.
In recent years, the number of Crypto Claimers has increased significantly. Consequently, apps and websites have evolved to offer both Crypto Claimers and Advertisers more complete and user-friendly services.
To date, platforms such as faucetcrypto.com and cointiply.com offer a much broader list of possible remunerated tasks to be submitted to claimers:
- Viewing ads;
- Watching videos;
- Playing games;
- Solving quizzes;
- Clicking on external links;
- Filling in questionnaires;
- Downloading applications.
4. Crypto Giveaways
A Crypto Giveaway can cover both cryptocurrencies and NFTs. It is a reward mechanism that distribute crypto assets to users that signed up for the giveaway o purchased specific products.
As we will see in the case study below, in some cases, several steps are required to be eligible for the giveaways .
A very recent and interesting case study is that of a promotional partnership between Burger King and the Robinhood Crypto investment app. The name of the initiative? “Burger King with a side of Crypto Powered by Robinhood Crypto”.
The total amount of the first allocated to this initiative was 2,000,220 coins divided as follows: 20 Bitcoin, 200 Ethereum (Ether), and 2,000,000 Dogecoin.
In order to apply for the claim, user had to:
In conclusion, it is clear that in the current crowded landscape of blockchain projects, it is crucial to generate hype and build a supportive community in the early stages of development. There are several marketing strategies that can be utilized to achieve this goal, including crypto bounty programs, airdrops, faucets, and giveaways.
Crypto bounty programs offer rewards to contributors, or “bounty hunters,” for completing tasks that are beneficial to the project. These tasks can range from bug reporting and translation to affiliate marketing and signature campaigns. Airdrops, on the other hand, involve the distribution of free tokens to a selected group of individuals, often as a way to increase awareness of the project. Crypto faucets and giveaways, meanwhile, provide users with small amounts of tokens or the opportunity to win tokens through various means, such as completing surveys or participating in social media campaigns.
While these strategies can be effective in building a community and generating hype, it is important for the team behind a project to carefully consider which strategy is the most appropriate for their goals and to ensure that the tasks being offered are clearly defined and reasonable. It is also essential to maintain communication and engagement with the community after the initial launch of the project in order to foster long-term support and success.
