How Blockchain Allows For Targeted Marketing While Monetizing End Users
For companies of all sizes, there are fine lines and many overlaps between marketing and advertising campaigns.
One of the biggest conversations that regularly take place revolve around whether it would be more strategic to conduct campaigns at mass, or in a more targeted fashion. Both methods are highly effective when done right, and can drive leads and sales for businesses – all in their own unique ways:
Mass Marketing - The goal is to reach as many people as possible, which can get expensive. In an effort to have broad appeal, all messages must be stated in a basic form, which may ultimately lead to diluted messaging. However it’s the best way to attract a lot of attention in a short period of time. It’s usually done by big brands with fitting budgets.
Targeted Marketing - The goal of targeted marketing and advertising is to reach specifically defined and profiled audiences. It allows greater flexibility, and can potentially help save time and money on lead generation expenses. This also allows marketers and advertisers to define unique value points to target audiences in a more personal and effective way. However, the opportunity and exposure are much smaller and drive less attention.
Achieving the right balance between mass and targeted outreach efforts can get a little tricky. Many brands are naturally drawn to the benefits of targeted advertising, but the question becomes – at what long-term cost? The objectives to drive both short-term performance and long-term outcomes require marketers and advertisers to get smarter in their approaches without targeting too much.
Traditionally, the best balanced approach is one that acknowledges the benefits of quantitatively data-driven targeting approaches without losing sight of mass-reach approaches that brands have relied on for decades- approaches which are in need for disruption.
Marketers and advertisers must also bear in mind that content production and delivery is being disrupted on several fronts. For instance, how and where people consume content is very different compared to just a handful of years ago. Thanks to the mobile-first approach, Internet-connected smart devices can deliver targeted content at the fingertips of users. Podcasts and immersive digital experiences are disrupting the way marketing is delivered as well.
With these technological advances came changing consumer behaviors and expectations. Unsolicited commercial emails, more commonly referred to as spam and junk mail, is universally seen as an annoyance. It is worth noting that emails in general were devised to establish a simple communications system for the free exchange of ideas – it was never meant to be used for commercial interests. But that isn’t stopping influxes of marketers and advertisers from sending the unsolicited messages, despite having the best intentions. At that point, the greatest offense committed by companies is the lack of tact which resulted in wasting the time of their prospects.
On the flip side, when brands demonstrate real interest in their prospects by going the extra mile, the prospects themselves will follow along. An example that exists thanks to the blockchain technology is paying users as seen with email service BitBounce. Once contacts are synced, a price can be set for emails to be sent to the inbox. The filter automatically intercepts every email not on the whitelist, and the sender receives an autoresponder in return. The email asks them to pay a small cryptocurrency fee if they want the message to reach the inbox.
Their Ad platform pays cryptocurrency to end users for every advertisement delivered to them, allowing them to be compensated in Credo for their attention. The CredoEx cryptocurrency exchange currently supports 12 other currencies.
In additional to email marketing campaigns, cryptocurrencies can also be used to ensure the quality of results coming from any form of online advertising, whether it’s reactions from social media, or clicks onto websites. After all, it’s no secret that it is possible for people to pay for bots or hired “clickers†to artificially pump up numbers. With that in mind, AdChain uses its own native token to establish a trusted ad space where users benefit from campaign auditing and cryptographically secure impression tracking. In layman’s terms: companies can make sure they get the advertising they pay for.
Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology serve to be the disruption that has been overdue for digital marketers and advertisers that are looking to take their targeted campaigns to the next level.
This article was originally posted on Forbes.com
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