Blockchain companies face unique challenges with regards to marketing. Blockchain is an extremely new technology, still in the development phase and with unknown potential applications. For this reason, blockchain enabled startups have to not only promote themselves, but also educate the public on a complicated, new technology.

If you are a blockchain company for good, as many of Scrypt Media’s clients are, expertise and authority in both your impact and technology spaces are even more important. A social enterprise might look for certification, for example, from the Fair Trade Certified mark or officially marked as organic, to increase the value — however, as blockchain is a new technology, there are few ways to certify your technology is viable beyond traction and testing.

Keeping these differences in mind, your marketing strategy should incorporate your technological solution and impact. The first place to start, is your brand.

Branding basics for Blockchain

A brand is much more than just fonts and colors (although that is important too!) – it is the visual and written embodiment of your company’s mission, and therefore a key aspect to not only acquiring customers, but also creating significant impact using blockchain technology.

The foundation of your brand is your audience. To be a successful brand, you need to identify what your target customers value. This requires you to emotionally disconnect from your personal values and objectively, and rationally, assess the viability of your target market. Your customer will be a part of your brand’s journey, and it is important that they believe in your mission and understand your technology.

To assess your target customer market consider the following:

  • What is your ideal customer demographic (e.g. age, gender, location, income levels, employment etc.)?
  • Do they, or will they, purchase the products you wish to create?
  • In what quantities and frequency will they purchase?
  • What price are they willing to pay for the products you produce?
  • What values inspire them?
  • Will promoting those values increase the volume or value of products sold?

Understanding your customers to this level helps you to identify what inspires them and, most importantly, the potential value they place on this. It is critical to know that your target customer community is large, motivated and wealthy enough to make your business commercially viable.

The following business model canvas is especially useful for identifying audiences for impact-driven companies:

When developing your blockchain brand you have to both define your customer and define exactly why your solution requires blockchain. Once you identify who your audience is, you should then begin to identify the best way of communicating the technology to this audience in a way they can easily understand and relate to.

The promotional channels you utilize will depend on the stage of the product in the product life cycle, the campaign objectives, the customer profile and the market positioning determines which media are used. A campaign integrating multiple media avenues is recommended as it ensures that the marketing messages are reinforced.

Large corporations have the ability to take weeks, sometimes months to fully develop a precise brand. Startups, especially those in emerging technologies, must constantly be moving forward and very seldom have time to explore different branding options or your precise voice.

Instead, we suggest a forward-motion try and test method, where your brand is constantly evolving but in a structured way. For example, you can test different visuals on two different landing pages and compare click-through-rates.

Whether you have 10 million dollars funding or no funding yet, we highly suggest taking a couple hours – a day if possible – to sit down and think about who your company represents, and how you can visualize and embody your message through copy, posts, photographs and video content.

Branding Template

To get started in developing your brand, use the following template to help guide the creation of useful, usable content and manage content as a business asset. This chart is also incredibly helping in drawing and developing the larger story that an organization tells to engage an audience, using content to drive profitable behaviors.

First, some definitions…

Vision statement – A carefully crafted ethical vision statement clearly and concisely communicates your Brand’s overall high level goals to the market and your employees. This is future oriented and defines what you company wants to be.

Mission statement – This statement communicates your brand’s activities, target markets and impact focus. It concisely identifies your short to medium term focus in a sentence or short paragraph.

By developing a consistent visual and textual tone throughout web, social media, apps and all interactions with customers, your startup will be equipped to continuously build strong relationships with users and potential clients through brand management.

Vision: “To increase the number of successful impact-driven blockchain companies.”

Mission:  Project specific: “To add 250 subscribers to a newsletter list.”

Voice: “Intelligent, forward-thinking, helpful.”

Message: Project specific: “We can create an impactful visual identity for your #blockchain startup – from logo and website to user interfaces.

Targets & Tone: Depending on audience and project, tone will change to appeal to their specific needs and therefore provide customized value.

Some questions to discuss with your team…

  • What topics can we talk about in depth and with authority?
  • How do the above topics translate into things people actually want to read/watch?
  • With every post, ask: What does it mean for my brand? Does it align with our vision?
  • What kinds of content are most useful and where should these go?
  • How much content and when to post?

Pro-tips:

  • Remain flexible to stay relevant. Flexibility in the brand will allow you to distinguish yourselves from competitors as well as adjust to speak to specific audiences.
  • Use emotional triggers in branding to strengthen customer relationships and foster loyalty

Do you want to know more?

Reach out to our team to discuss your specific branding challenges, and get some in-depth advice from our experts!

 

 


Scrypt.Media guides emerging tech projects on their way to change the world. We bring the revolutionary ideas of our customers to life through the refinement of strategy, communication and usability. We help our customers navigate the difficulties of early stage organization, development and funding. In doing so, we help them to focus on the important thing – changing the world.