Crypto Marketing Strategy Insights From Big Blockchain Exchanges

By Anastasia Semianova

Ask any team behind a successful business if marketing is an important part of its development, and the answer will undoubtedly be a Yes. At the same time, when we think of a blockchain and crypto industry, where developments happen at the speed of light, the standard approach to marketing doesn’t seem to apply. Conventional outreach switches to crypto marketing and the rules change. It is a market that sees hundreds of crypto projects springing to life on a daily basis and this, in turn, begs a question…

How can a new or existing crypto project stand out in a medium where critical changes happen in a matter of hours and competition ramps up unlike in any other industry in the world?

In hopes to find out the ever-important marketing insights, we reached out to the experts that represent established crypto exchanges in the blockchain space. To our surprise, the interviews outlined that they all use widely available tools. But it is how they use these marketing tools, that can become a breath of fresh air for crypto marketeers that are struggling to take their projects global or keep them afloat in the realms of fierce competition. Hence, without further ado, let’s delve into the best crypto marketing strategies, and how to apply them in a bid to turn any crypto project into a success that doesn’t fade. 

All four interviewees were asked to answer three marketing related questions that look into:

• How to build a healthy relationship with the crypto audience

• How to attract new leads in a widely congested blockchain space

• How to stand out from the rest and however blatant it may sound, stay afloat

Crypto marketing advice from AAX

We spoke with Anton Gulin, the AAX’s Country Manager about crypto marketing strategies that pave the way to an effective blockchain business.

1. How did you build communication with your clients? Tell us about the main tips and mistakes in building customer relationships

Today, you win clients by clearly identifying your values and letting the audience feel connected to the goals that you are after. It is all about the purpose of your company’s existence and being able to assist the users at every step of their journey. I believe that forming a community around your brand is incremental to its success and before you do that, one must first acquire the audience with a trustworthy message. 

2. How do you attract new clients?

Our client acquisition strategy is based on display ads, content and participating in blockchain-related events. We use Bitmedia ad network for banner marketing, whilst content in the form of articles and blogs is created in-house. Display ads act as a funnel that attracts new users through CPM marketing, converting prospective leads into active users with CPC campaigns and reminds non-returning users of our brand with remarketing. 

Content is another important part of our outreach as we see it as the voice of the brand. Whilst educational content lets our readers learn something new, articles on the industry’ blockchain industry development allows them to stay on top of what is really going on. The latter, I am sure you would agree, is very important in the space we operate in. 

Fairs and blockchain events serve as a tool for us where we can not only find new partners, but also be part of the industry. In fact, we started to participate in such events without any strong expectations and were astounded at how effective they ended up being for the brand. 

3. How do you make yourself stand out given that the market is developing at such a tremendous pace?

A quickly developing market requires its players to continuously develop with it, in order to stay afloat. Survivors in the blockchain space must be quick to adapt to changes and continue to perfect their products and services regardless whether they are at the bottom or top of the leaderboard. More so, no one says that the market has reached its peak iteration. Instead, we see it as a foundation on which its best services haven’t been developed yet. And this is what we are aiming for. 

Crypto marketing strategy from Bybit

The pillars of a successful bitcoin marketing campaign by Anastasia Koltovich, the CMO of Bybit.

1. How do you make yourself stand out given that the market is developing at such a tremendous pace?

Visibility in my opinion is the key resource that must not be forgotten. Blockchain is still at its early stages of development and hence it, on a daily basis, attracts users who are totally new to it all. This is where visibility becomes an important leverage. By employing content marketing and display ads, we try to always be where the people go when they start getting a kick out of everything crypto. 

Marketing in crypto and blockchain by CEX.IO

Next, we come to CEX.IO and their extensive multi-tier insight into how they nurture growth and stay relevant through some very specific crypto marketing techniques. 

1. How did you build communication with your clients? Tell us about the main tips and mistakes in building customer relationships.

Building relations with the customers combines several aspects. 

1. Learning our customers

2. Transparency

3. Empathy

4. Flexibility

5. Being human

Knowing your customers, identifying their needs and offering them exactly what satisfies those needs is the key to their success. As an example, customer portraits are an immensely important tool for us. To do this, we collect information and constantly analyze the behaviour of our customers, gathering not only demographic data but also their pains, needs, motivations, and so on. 

You need to listen to your customers: what they say when contacting the Customer Care team, in their comments and feedback, when they share their experience in community channels. This allows you to spot their needs. The more we know about them, the better we can serve them.

The idea is to base our marketing communication on the characteristics of the customers. There are big differences in approaching different customers, for example, millennials and members of generation X, crypto enthusiasts and professional traders.

You can’t overestimate the importance of transparency. This is the way to build trustful relations with the customers. In the first place, we need to be transparent because we’re partially responsible for the customer's success with us. Another thing, transparency gives us more security in the long run. 

Transparency also refers to the way we work, the more we explain processes, share information and provide regular updates to the clients, the more understanding they can be. Not to mention, that this also helps educate customers to use our products. 

Having empathy for the clients is one of the most crucial parts in building customer relations. We always put ourselves in their shoes, which enables us to more closely align with their goals, better understand needs and offer them efficient solutions.

We strive to speak our customer language and adjust to different personality types. Some prefer that we communicate with them like with a friend.  Others like to talk strictly business — wanting nothing more but how to solve their question. Being flexible and adopting a customer way of communication is the key to understanding and fruitful relationships.

Last but not least, customers are human first. We’re convinced: if you meet clients in their humanness, you're halfway to customer communication excellence. Our approach is to have patience, and ask them more questions to better understand their needs. We try to anticipate what needs or questions customers may have, and proactively provide for them. Acknowledging that we are different, and some customers may learn differently from others, we strive to find custom solutions and make sure every client has everything they need to succeed with us. 

2. How do you attract new clients?

Our mission is to be a guide to open finance for everyone. We want to help customers find solutions to their needs in the ecosystem of our products and benefit from them. For that purpose, we use a complex approach, which combines digital ads and content marketing tools aimed at both potential and existing customers.

Say we want to help customers understand how the industry works. So we create many practical guides. Or we want to create strong relationships with our community. Then we launch a lot of engaging activities in our social media. Help your customers succeed with us, recognize the opportunities your products offer and benefit from them. In that case, we may use a complex approach with the specifically-crafted content strategy, retargeting ads, affiliate marketing, and so on. 

3. How do you make yourself stand out given that the market is developing at such a tremendous pace?

We strive to stand out in many aspects:

1. First of all by being an ecosystem. We help customers grow within our products by introducing them to different services that can relate to their experience with crypto and blockchain: from simple, suitable for entry-level customers, to more complex — fit to professionals. Being a one-stop shop your customers won’t have to look for the alternatives. 

2. We were first in many places and it pays. For instance, we were one of the first platforms where you could sell your crypto and withdraw money to the card. There aren’t many companies which can offer it, and this niche has given us a lot of traffic. Likewise, other crypto projects should also be in a constant search of competitive advantages, because it is how you discover new markets.

These are the aspects we communicate through all the channels: be it digital or content marketing, PR, customer service. We came to industry to develop it, and such should be the notion of every new crypto project on the block. 

Marketing insights by Smart Valor AG

By this point, it became apparent that there is no one single crypto marketing strategy that works for all. Therefore, we decided to continue our quest towards blockchain marketing knowledge and spoke with Mincho Stoyanov, the Head of Marketing at Smart Valor AG. 

1. How did you build communication with your clients? Tell us about the main tips and mistakes in building customer relationships

Customer relationship is an incremental part of our business and it is what we dedicate a great chunk of our time to. I would go as far as say that no successful business has ever been built by having a wrong attitude towards its clients. 

Crypto and blockchain are not straightforward enough to be taken for granted and this is why a good support team comes imperative to our domain. It is important not to ever give false promises and to always deliver on those that you give. Fail to do so and the client will never come back again. Always accept whenever you are wrong and be transparent. It is this that counts in building strong communication with your audience. 

2. How do you attract new clients?

We first started with strategic partnerships and used it as a tool to attract first users to our platform. The benefit of this route is that it helps when your service or product is being referred by an already trusted name in the industry. Therefore, if you are behind a fresh blockchain project, look around and figure out what existing companies can benefit from partnering with you. This way you aid your newfound partner with the services your brand offers and in return, they give you access to their existing clients base. 

Another channel of attracting new users to our exchange, are the display ads. By dedicating a good share of our marketing budget towards display ads, we make sure that we stay seen. It is also a great way of reminding one time visitors of our great product and service. 

3. How do you make yourself stand out given that the market is developing at such a tremendous pace?

Constant movement, adaptability and development. These are the main pillars we rely on. As you’ve mentioned, it is a market that develops at a crazy pace and sees no end of slowing down. This is why our marketing campaigns are targeted at both new user acquisition via a crypto ad network and existing community-wide improvements with interesting content, challenges and trading tournaments. 

Final words

After talking to these behemoths of the blockchain world, few incremental points become apparent. First, there seems to be no single size that fits all in terms of a crypto marketing strategy. At the same time, the general tools these established companies use in order to remain at the forefront of the industry are the same. The difference lies in the way they use these tools and the thinking behind it. All these companies pay great attention to the community, outreach and ads. They all use marketing on an ongoing basis, and do not pause, in hopes to continue to thrive based on the original marketing foundations they have built. Therefore, the main idea that can be picked up from the conversation, is that staying on top of the blockchain industry leaderboard requires continuous marketing, staying on top of industry trends and taking extra care for the community that already believes in your crypto brand.