Marketing in Crypto: Crash & Burn or Build & Prosper?

What will you choose? I bet the second variant. I had my first attempt to search anything about marketing of cryptocurrencies a year ago, but ended with zero of helpful information. Seemed like everything was limited to PRs, referrals and newsletters mostly. Many things changed in 365 days. Here are some crucial areas not to miss, when building and executing a marketing strategy for cryptocurrency today.

1) Identity

All is simple: let’s think of crypto community members and newcomers as a customers first. Then open CoinMarketCap and count the number of projects: 1586 cryptocurrencies are competing for your existing and potential customers. It has been 10 years since Bitcoin was born and cryptocurrencies now become a more common definition in our lives. If we consider cryptocurrency as a product, brand management should take a place in a marketing story.

Identity can be a magic spell. Color palette, typography, imagery, tone of voice, even icons set and online elements are able to communicate beyond the words. Build your project a “face” to deliver a message.

Take seriously external materials, such as brand book, press-kit, one pager and different media templates. Creative materials guidelines are necessary to keep the holistic image persistence. Do the same for internal documents. Why? Your employees are internal customers and potential brand advocates. Have you seen team members standing up for honor of a project? The goal is to make it happen and keep it constant.

One day a newcomer brand will be able to sell an image and trust itself to ensure customers they hold a right cryptocurrency in their hands (and they are in right hands themselves).

Think about forming the first impression, scientific approach and even brand archetypes. Prepare necessary project documentation and marketing materials.

2) Positioning

Crypto is not going anywhere, deal with it. But at some point market will start to eliminate weak projects more actively, than ever.

At least because people become smarter on ups and downs, #dyor’s and read white papers more precisely. Try to answer yourself a few questions:

• Why are you in the market?
• Which problem do you solve?
• Do you know your consumer pains, wants and desirable gains?

Perfect! Now go back to your product and formulate a sentence, which explains your value proposition. Do you know what is frustrating? Is when you can’t understand what’s the project about. Try to review first 500 cryptocurrencies on CoinMarketCap. You’ll see you can name a few, who have a clear statement about the product.

Think about target audience, competition and which value you are bringing in. Keep it as anchor.

3) Content

We have to remember that financial sector exists for 60 years without almost any innovation. Majority of people struggle with financial illiteracy. This is reality. Now we have cryptocurrencies, a new phenomenon with all its marvelous technical side. The meaning of money becomes even more complicated. Have you ever seen any bank to teach you about money? Me neither. The financial sector rarely tries to inspire you with something, right?

Crypto is in infancy, so the majority of people will expect a lot of provision work from teams. You have a chance to break through the tedious communication clutter. Quality content is a must. We don’t talk about appealing visuals only: the message you deliver must be a credible story.

Who do you want to say what? Ensure brand communication is clear, understandable and supports one particular story line. The key is to create emotion and pierce it with a red thread through all pieces of brand representation.

4) Deliverables

Yeah, it’s a red zone. Start from the main point: deliver before you promise. People in crypto are extremely vulnerable for unfulfilled promises. Development deadlines may be postponed due to various reasons, but it’s always better to keep in touch on the progress. Roadmap is not only a piece of your website, but the most important report to community. Be honest, be smart — warn in advance. Transparency always leads to better relationships and prevents misunderstandings.

There is a saying: catch the bear before you sell his skin. In a volatile crypto world we all need proofs of the team work done in order to stay in a good psychological condition. Be a human as well. Project for a few steps forward to caution possible rage and complaints.

Have you missed the deadlines and didn’t inform anyone? Made a forced last-minute report? Memory keeps the bad track record. After a few unfortunate occasions of careless communication, it may become your characteristic.

5) Talents

Take care of who you hire. Crypto requires a level of understanding depending on role and scope of work. You are operating in a totally new sphere, where enthusiasm and personal interest are important when it comes to make a job offer. Think about those, who will fit your project: high nerds, libertarians, crypto-anarchists, mathematicians, trolls, angels, financial gurus looking for new perspectives? Essence, terms and trends should be a constant informational landscape and a hobby for these people.

Simply, having a technical writer in your team in addition to creative copywriter is a plus. Someone should be familiar to the crypto world as a duck to water.

Do not underestimate the necessity of education. If you see a potential in a candidate and it's mutual, you can always organize an introduction to the crypto world, establish a mentoring system between co-workers and create favorable conditions for continuous education.

Big investors are watching. Do you want to confuse them with non-acquaintance?

6) Networking

Crypto is a special world in which people are insanely motivated. I've never met so many enthusiasts with those shining eyes and desire to do things. A lot happens in the corridors or tables in between the reports at conferences, related events or meet-ups. In the end, this is exactly how it works — through the search of mutual opportunities. People are busy, but strive to build.

Stay in sight, communicate, do not be afraid to approach unfamiliar people and ask what they are doing. Don't bother people for nought. Think about preparing yourself a selling story to deliver an idea in 3 minutes.

7) Information Security

You ask me: how is it connected to marketing? Not a secret, that crypto market attracts a lot of scams. Not only end users are a target, but projects and their employees too. Not all of us are familiar with the existence of potential threats, their types and forms. Sometimes partnership proposal letter is not what you think, but a phishing email. Imagine an exchange listing went wrong, after you have sent bitcoins to someone, who seemed totally credible? Stealing funds can take place via domain attacks as well and are not limited to these scenarios.

The best is to have a dedicated role in organizational structure. In other case, get some conversance with information security discipline. How to detect a scam by yourself? At least, know how to check your emails and don’t hesitate to verify anything via official channels.

Thanks for reading! Wanna talk? You can always reach me via social media: Twitter or LinkedIn. Cheers!