The world of crypto is truly dynamic; there is no shortage of amazing projects making their debut at any given time, as well as a customer base that is truly passionate about the industry. But the impressive growth of the crypto sector means that, now more than ever, a crypto marketing strategy is needed for projects trying to survive and thrive.
But what exactly does this entail? And how can businesses in the space succeed at marketing themselves to the public? In this guide, we’ll break down all the components of a crypto marketing strategy and offer practical steps for success.
What is a Crypto Marketing Strategy?
A crypto marketing strategy refers to the deliberate effort that a crypto project will take to raise awareness around it and its products/services among its target demographic. Businesses of all types practice marketing, but crypto projects find themselves in a unique position. Because crypto projects are engaged in the online space, much of their marketing is digital. At the same time, this isn’t a hard and fast rule. We know more than anyone else that crypto marketing can include both online and in-person efforts.
And if you take a closer look, you’ll see crypto marketing campaigns all around you, from influencers pushing the newest tokens to targeted social media ads, to everything in between. Crypto marketing strategies are also very diverse in terms of duration, budget, and much more.
Why is it Important?
As a business in the crypto space, you have to understand just how important a marketing strategy is for you. First, it helps you to reach your target audience. Because the crypto industry is borderline oversaturated, consumers are not always looking out for new projects to invest in. Instead, you have to go to them and convince them of why you are worth spending money on. Crypto marketing also leads to increased sales, greater prominence in the industry, and much more.
But even though crypto marketing has all of these benefits, it is not something you want to go into thoughtlessly. Instead, you have to plan every aspect, from the budget itself to the platforms you will use, and much more.
Building a Crypto Marketing Plan
Once you understand what crypto marketing is and why it is important, you’re best off developing your own ahead of your next campaign. Here, we’ll break down all the aspects of a crypto marketing plan and how to go about deciding on what works for you:
Budget
As with any other major undertaking your business might consider, you need to think of your budget. While, as we’ve said in the past, there are several ways to market your projects for cheap or even free, drawing up a concrete budget is important. Your budget will be influenced by several factors in this guide, including the platforms you want to advertise on and what type of content you might want to produce.
A single feature article in a top publication can cost tens of thousands of dollars, for example. If your budget for marketing involves multiple such publications, you’ll need to budget tens of thousands of dollars. It is worth looking at how much your business has to spend and what types of results you’d like to achieve. Using a spreadsheet before you even begin can give you a rough estimate of how much you will need to spend (it’s best to assume that the final spend will be a bit more or less). If you’re concerned about budgeting, feel free to reach out to us, and we can craft an in-depth plan that works regardless of your current budget.
Duration and Dates
The next thing you’ll want to decide as part of your crypto marketing strategy is the duration of the campaign itself and what specific dates you want it to run for. A crypto marketing campaign can run for a few hours, days, weeks, and even months, depending on your needs. To figure out an ideal timeline, first consider what exactly you want to sell and work backwards from there.
If you want to sell a new token via presale, for example, you’ll want to begin running a campaign weeks, if not months, ahead of time. Because the average customer needs to be exposed to a product/service several times before they make a purchase, you’ll need time to convince them. You also want to consider when marketing efforts will cease. Will they end after you reach a specific sales target? Or will they end on a particular date, regardless of what the sales figures say? Consider this, and once you know your duration and dates, you can begin designing a campaign to operate within this.
Content Formats
So, you’ve decided that your crypto marketing campaign will run for 8 weeks and will end a week after your presale has gone live. The next thing you’ll want to do is choose your content formats. Marketing materials can be delivered in multiple formats, including flyers, banner ads, social media images, videos, articles, and much more.
The type of format you should choose depends on your budget, but also what you are trying to sell. If you are selling a physical product, for example, you’ll need to go heavy on the visuals to secure consumer trust. But if you are selling something like crypto custodial services, text-based advertising will work well.
Designing the content is another task to get through. Some businesses create their materials in-house, some hire freelancers, and some reach out to agencies such as us to get their needs met. This depends on several factors, including the talent you have on your team and your vision. We have a wealth of experience delivering marketing materials based on customers’ wishes, as well as what the market is responding to, so you should definitely keep this in mind.
Digital Platforms
If you’re marketing a crypto project, chances are that you will need to turn to digital platforms for this purpose. These include social media sites, news sites, blogs, newsletters, and much more. You’ll have to decide well ahead of time which of these platforms you want to turn to and why. Some social media sites might be chosen because this is where your target audience congregates. Some news sites might have an especially high readership, which makes them suitable. Before you decide on any of these platforms, you’ll want to find out the financial implications of using them.
While posting to your company’s Instagram page might be free, running ads is not, and you’ll have to allocate a budget to it if you want to do that. You also have to find out how much a feature story or banner ad costs on top crypto websites. Luckily, we offer several packages that will see your business spotlighted on these sites with ease and with a budget to fit every business size.
Real-Life Platforms
As we’ve said, crypto marketing can take place not just in the digital world but offline as well. From radio ads to billboards and the like, many of these can help you reach an audience that might not have heard of your business otherwise or aren’t deeply embedded in crypto circles.
Whether this is the right move for you, however, is a complex question. It all depends on what audience you are targeting and where you believe that they can be reached. If you are conflicted, feel free to reach out to us here at BTCWire to discuss further.
Influencers/Spokespeople
In the 21st century, virtually every business you can imagine is advertising using influencers and spokespeople. The former are especially popular as they offer a level of relatability to an audience that can endear your projects to them. Not every crypto project needs influencers to succeed, but if you choose to go that route, you’ll have to be very intentional. First, you have to choose influencers who are firmly in your crypto niche. Some influencers specialize in tokens themselves, while others are more focused on services like custodial and mining. After you’ve chosen one that is within your niche, you have to look at things like their audience demographics, their retention rate, and much more.
You can either speak to the influencer directly or through an agency that specializes in such engagement. Then, you can have content published that markets your product to their audience. This could be review content, unboxing, and much more. In the best-case scenario, you can develop an ongoing relationship with the influencer and continuous exposure to their audience.
Consumer Engagement
One thing to keep in mind is that the crypto industry is built on community, and thus, a successful crypto marketing strategy means engaging with your community as much as possible. There are several ways to approach this, including creating closed communities on platforms like Telegram, hosting airdrops, conducting Q&A sessions, organising pop-up events, and more. These are very valuable forms of marketing because they not only push a product or service in the short term but also try to curate a connection with customers in the long term. By doing this, you are essentially investing in your future success.
Conclusion
Crypto marketing is more important than ever before and has to be handled with a lot of care. As we’ve explained in this article, there are several aspects to such a strategy that have to be considered before the campaign is launched. From the type of content you plan to use to the platforms you want to publish on to even your budget, there are many moving parts that have to be considered.
Using our guide, you can begin to develop these strategies for yourself. At the same time, you can always reach out to a business, such as what we do here at BTCWire, for guidance. With our years of expertise, we can handle every aspect of the marketing process and make sure you reach your goals.