Even though marketing crypto and traditional marketing methods look so similar, there is no doubt that these are two different things. Marketing a crypto project is different from marketing an awesome course for business owners.
By the end of this post, you’ll find out why we say these two are different forms of marketing.
What is Crypto Marketing?
Thousands, if not millions, of crypto agencies have emerged since its launch in 2009, and more of them are still being formed each year.
With the rise in crypto businesses and agencies, it’s becoming more difficult to get any attention from their ideal customers. This is where crypto marketing comes in.
Crypto marketing is the marketing done to promote a crypto project or business. Like any form of marketing, crypto marketing is done to
- Create brand awareness
- Improve visibility
- Stand out from the competition
- Increase sales
This kind of marketing has become exceptionally important lately, because it’s becoming difficult to retain customers, even for established crypto businesses.
Even though crypto marketing and digital marketing are both forms of marketing, they are slightly different from each other.
Let’s talk a bit about digital marketing.
What is Digital Marketing
Gone were the days when marketers relied heavily on newspaper ads, direct mail, billboards, and print magazines to create awareness around their brand and products.
In the digital world we live in now, everyone is online. Hence, marketers need to meet their customers where they can be found– online!
Digital marketing consists of every form of marketing done on the internet.
It includes paid advertising, social media ads, or search engines. Businesses leverage emails, blog posts, videos, and podcasts to reach their potential customers globally.
In other words, digital marketing is the method used to attract, delight, and engage with your customers online.
Digital marketing is so effective for many reasons;
- With digital marketing, when one strategy isn’t working, you can easily switch gears to another
- It’s easy to measure the metrics of digital marketing
- Digital marketing is more cost-efficient than traditional marketing
- It’s easy to engage with your customers at every stage of the buyer’s journey
- Digital marketing helps you focus on prospects that are more likely to make a purchase
When done right, digital marketing is the heart and the main propelling force behind the success of your online business.
Although digital marketing and crypto marketing are two different forms of marketing, there are some things that both forms of marketing have in common. After all, they are all marketing!
Similarities between crypto marketing and digital marketing
Even though both forms of marketing are different in their unique ways, there are some things that both have in common. This is not a surprise, because they both connect customers to products and services.
Here are a few similarities;
1. Both require research
Crypto marketing and digital marketing both require some form of research. It’s like fishing in a river.
You can’t expect to catch any fish simply because you cast your net or set fish traps. You need to know what kinds of fish live in the river and what to use as bait. You even have to find the best time to likely find them feeding.
It’s the same with either of the two forms of marketing. You’ll have to research the market trend, what your competition is doing and what they’re not, and your customers’ needs.
Whether you’re marketing a crypto project or you’re marketing an e-course, you need to know who your customers are, what problems they need to solve, and everything that’ll help you provide them with whatever they want.
Making this kind of in-depth research would help you know which marketing strategies to use.
2. You need a strategy for digital marketing and digital marketing
Back to the fish illustration we used earlier. Now that you know all there is to know about your fish, it’s time to come up with a fishing plan.
Your marketing strategy ( your fishing plan) is the sum of all the things you’ll implement to drive traffic to your business and close more sales.
In other words, whatever you’ll do to get people to see your business and make sales is called a marketing strategy.
Every form of marketing needs a strategy, whether it’s a crypto project or a real estate agency.
Marketing without a strategy is like building without a building plan.
Having a solid marketing strategy would help you create measurable goals. It also helps you maintain consistency in your marketing efforts and be proactive in the changing marketing trends, instead of being reactive to them.
3. Both require marketing tools
Just as you’ll need tools and equipment to catch the fish, you’ll also need tools to market your services, no matter what you’re selling.
There are so many marketing tools available at your disposal, depending on your marketing goals.
For instance, if you want to engage personally with your customers, you’ll need tools to send marketing messages to your customers.
If you want quick traffic to your business, then you’ll also need tools to create and display your ads.
Digital marketing requires tools to reach potential customers wherever they are, and so is crypto marketing
Search engines, social media channels, ads, videos, podcasts, and the like are digital marketing tools.
Crypto marketing also relies on similar tools to create brand awareness, educate customers, and facilitate crypto transactions.
4. Both require some form of tracking and analytics
Tracking results is one of the most critical aspects of marketing. The old method of throwing a lot of spaghetti on the wall to see which one sticks is no longer a great idea.
No matter what kind of marketing you’re doing, you need to find a way to track your progress.
Tracking the progress of your marketing efforts is helpful for so many reasons. It helps you know which channels are converting most of your customers. It enables you to understand how your customers are engaging with your brand.
Analytics enables you to know what’s working and what isn’t. This kind of tracking enables you to make adjustments to your strategy and know where to concentrate your efforts.
Now that we’ve seen how crypto and digital marketing are similar, let’s discuss their differences.
Differences between Crypto Marketing and Digital Marketing
Even though crypto marketing and digital marketing are both marketing forms, there are subtle differences in their methods and marketing approaches.
1. Crypto marketing takes a dynamic approach to marketing, whereas digital marketing is somewhat stable
Cryptocurrency is somewhat new in the system, compared to many things online. Hence, its marketing strategies have not yet been set in stone.
One strategy can be working today, and in a few months, it’ll no longer be effective.
For instance, at first, crypto was successfully marketed on Facebook and its related social media channels, until suddenly Facebook decided to ban any form of crypto marketing on its platforms.
With the new development, crypto agencies and firms had to find alternative ways to market their project.
It was then that websites like Blockchain Marketing decided to step in and provide ways to market crypto and provide a list of platforms that allow crypto advertisement.
Thankfully, Facebook has somewhat lifted the crypto ban. However, crypto business owners are still looking for the best ways to market their projects, making experiments here and there.
Digital marketing is fairly straightforward and stable. For long, long ago in internet times, content marketing, social ads, PPC, SEO, email marketing, and the like have continued to be the life of digital marketing.
And if there were any chances, we are sure that these methods would only improve, not disappear entirely.
2. Crypto marketing is built on trust
Crypto scams have skyrocketed for a while now. A 2018 report found that crypto scams and theft have hit $1.7 billion.
These figures are the thefts that CipherTrace can and has validated. We can say with some confidence that the true number of global money lost in crypto assets would be much larger.
This had made it very difficult for customers to trust crypto projects, businesses, and firms, the genuine ones included.
Also, many people still do not fully understand how cryptocurrency works. Therefore, marketing a crypto business requires that you consciously educate your audience, nurture their interest, and win over their trust.
You get to do this through blog posts, video training, slideshows, podcasts, and many more. This kind of education takes several months and even years to gain the trust of the community.
Once the trust has been established, it becomes easier to introduce crypto projects or products. Since you have secured them as your loyal fans, they’ll be the ones to spread the glad tidings of your project, and then profits will start rolling in.
Digital marketing, on the other hand, doesn’t require this kind of lengthy trust-building process. Of course, some level of trust is needed before a customer would decide to do business with you.
But building trust doesn’t take so much time compared to crypto marketing.
As long as you have a track record of providing quality products and services, you have a few good reviews, and your marketing is solid enough, you’ll win new customers in no time.
You can post an ad today, and you’ll literally start seeing sales in a few days, if not in a few hours.
That is why marketing crypto is slightly different from digital marketing
3. Crypto marketing focuses on projects, and not on products
Digital marketing is done for products and services. Take an insurance company for example. Digital marketing would emphasize the kinds of services the company offers and how you can benefit from their services.
You can also do digital marketing for a restaurant or a dental hospital.
The same cannot be said about cryptocurrency. Instead of products and services, crypto is more about projects. These projects can be likened to systems that are set in place to achieve specific results.
Here’s an example to explain the concept.
Chainalysis is a crypto project that focuses on reducing money laundering and theft in crypto trading by helping companies and organizations identify the real people behind those transactions.
Instead of a product or service that can be purchased, crypto projects are in the form of innovative systems to serve special purposes.
This difference makes crypto marketing different from digital marketing.
4. Crypto marketing is a long-game strategy, compared to digital marketing
As we mentioned earlier, crypto businesses are built on trust. Since trust is very difficult to come by these days on the internet, it’ll take a long time to win the hearts of your ideal customers.
With this in mind, crypto marketers condition their minds for the long game and craft their strategies as such.
With normal digital marketing, it doesn’t take too much time to market a product. Even though it may take about six to twelve months to see real results in a brand new digital marketing campaign, it is relatively a shorter-term strategy compared to crypto marketing.
But when the work has already been done and you have quite an awesome reputation, then you’ll see real quick results in your marketing.
Final thoughts on crypto marketing vs digital marketing
Even though crypto marketing is different from digital marketing, they both have some common grounds. In fact, cryptocurrency impacts digital marketing in several ways.
No matter the similarities, it’s pretty obvious– if you’re selling a crypto product, use crypto marketing strategies; use digital marketing for any other thing that needs to be marketed.
A lot of people have experience with digital marketing, compared to crypto marketing. This makes seasoned crypto marketers very expensive to hire.
Therefore, if you think you don’t have the budget for hiring a full-grown crypto marketer, it’s alright to start with digital marketers. They’ll help you with creating educational content to build trust in your community.
As time goes on, you can graduate to the crypto marketers.