Blockchain is a relatively new yet widely used technology. It enables you to store and distribute digital information without the fear of data breaches. In addition, blockchain allows transactions between two parties without third-party verification.
The fraud condition through the present world is going on; blockchain is the technology worth keeping an Eye On. Although blockchain is widely used in areas such as cryptocurrency and finance, blockchain in digital marketing is becoming increasingly popular as this technology can benefit the digital marketing industry greatly.
Marketers and customers can leverage blockchain to gain maximum transparency during transactions. Isn’t this what customers have always wanted?
Unarguably, blockchain is one of the most disruptive technologies to hit the marketing landscape. But how is it changing the digital marketing dynamics? How is it benefiting businesses and customers? We’ll help you understand all the technicalities and facts associated with blockchain to help you decide whether or not you want to use blockchain strategy for digital marketing.
Before getting started with the benefits of digital marketing with blockchain, let us understand the concept.
What is digital marketing with blockchain?
Think of blockchain as a series of digital records. These blocks are interlinked with each other and do not need third-party verification. Blockchain is the technology responsible for the growing surge in use and the success of Bitcoin. This technology verifies and records all transactions in one place. The best takeaways from this technology are increased transparency and data protection.
This has helped many marketers gain access to accurate leads and provide their customers with a better experience. Blockchain can do wonders for marketing and data transparency. This is why it has become one of the most rapidly growing technologies across various industries.
The most popular industries that rely on the blockchain are financial and banking. However, there are various other implications of blockchain outside of the conventional markets.
Some of the fast-emerging industries that are using blockchain are media, telecommunications. IT and some others. This sector can further be divided into various parts depending upon which industries are completely aware of the blockchain concept.
The industries are still educating themselves to become familiar with the concept, sectors that are still experimenting with blockchain, and the industries that are successfully deploying blockchain in their business.
If you are among those who haven’t heard of this concept by now, you might have a brief idea about what it is. But since the entire concept resonated with the finance and banking industry- you would wonder, is using blockchain in digital marketing possible?
The answer is YES! There are various ways in which blockchain strategy in digital marketing can help a business function much better.
Though marketing automation can do most of the marketing tasks easily, managing ads better changes the way marketers use ads for fetching data. Blockchain can boost the efficiency of a lot of marketing practices.
Authenticity and transparency
Remember when you like something online, and you decide to buy it, with fingers crossed- hoping to receive exactly what you ordered? Bid goodbye to this uncertainty. With blockchain, you don’t have to worry about receiving anything other than what was marketed to you.
Let’s say you ordered an organic jute bag. With blockchain, you’ll have access to various intricate information such as where the product was manufactured, the labor involved in the production, how the workers get paid there, and other vital information.
This is great for business, too, as customers will be able to establish credibility in your business. In addition, modern customers like to know everything about a brand they’re purchasing from, so this could be a real asset to both businesses and customers.
It is not easy for smaller businesses to gain the trust of their consumers. People are becoming more attentive and cautious of the information being told to them by the brands. People want truth and transparency from these brands.
They want every information about the product, where it is coming from, what are the things used to make the product.
In the internet era, people are constantly gaining knowledge from various sources before making a choice. When the choice has been served to them, then they want authenticity and details of the product.
Trust is impacting majorly on purchasing decisions. While the majority of consumers are using social networks to inform their buying decisions, despite the fact, social networks are currently an underutilized aspect of the marketing process.
Blockchain will make the business maintain transparency in their operations.
It will record and verify all the steps and will document every information for everyone. In addition, it will ensure the information is available on an open network. As a result, consumers can have complete information about the supply chain of a retailer or a distributor.
Each process will be tracked from where the products are getting manufactured to where they are being supplied. Every step of the larger process is getting tracked with blockchain. As the information will be open to the public, companies will become more responsible and accountable for their actions.
The company can’t lie to the public if anything goes wrong or can’t accuse the supply chain or retailer if the fault persists in the company itself; the same applies to the other participants in this process.
Companies have already started investing in blockchain technology; companies like IBM and Walmart enable the supply chain process with blockchain technology.
Technology is helping to track where the food products are coming from, where it is now. Then, the whole thing is applied to trace the source and supply of every product through each step of the supply chain.
Protect consumer’s digital rights
As a customer, every company would love the opportunity to get your details and market. From Amazon to Walmart, everyone wants your details such as phone number or email address so that they’re able to reach you in certain apps and websites, but it will return to the user) as soon as the job is done rather than being stored on the server.
However, this may not be good news for digital marketing businesses as you won’t be getting any information from customers to serve them better. But from a customer protection point of view, this is a major benefit.
No keyword inconsistencies
One of the most challenging things as a market is keyword tracking. Two reasons make keyword tracking complicated.
One is that the Google algorithms are ever-changing. And let’s admit, it is difficult to keep track of all these changes. The other reason is that your target audience is using different devices. And it is problematic to track keywords of various devices and decipher a local versus national search.
This is when as a marketer, you might resort to guesswork or assume while creating reports. With blockchain, you can have real numbers for tracking keywords. It will help you to track keyword positions effectively regardless of the devices and the location. This can help you create an accurate campaign that is more data-driven.
Accurate leads
Usually, data collection for marketing is an integration of different approaches. Marketers collect data from various sources, combine them and run a campaign based on the same.
Although this is a common approach, it is not accurate. These campaigns run on inconsistent and inaccurate data. To curb this problem, blockchain will help you to get access to accurate data. All blockchain transactions are decentralized.
So, marketers will have an accurate source for data collection, i.e., directly from the consumer. As a marketer, you can either pay or incentivize consumers for their data. This will ensure high ROI from the campaign run-off and, of course, highly accurate data sourced directly from the customers.
In simpler words, those consumers who agree to give your brand their data are most likely already interested in your products/services. Hence, scoring leads and conversions will be much easier because you have access to a customer base ready to make a purchase.
It is to be noted that this requires time and effort, and yes, the cost upfront will also be higher, but you’ll be able to gather far more accurate leads using blockchain. So yes, it will be more effort and cost upfront, but marketers will gather far better leads using blockchain.
Combating fraud in the ad space
As a marketer, you will be aware of common fraud in advertising. Of course, this is done for faster and more frequent clicks. But to our luck, AdChain is a company that is trying to combat this with adChain Registry. An adChain Registry is a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain.
It ensures authentic clicks and ad impressions because they’re on the trusted blockchain.
Their main motto is to eliminate the lack of transparency and high levels of ad fraud. Not just this, but the platform also provides end-to-end transparency of all data. This is a rare feature as it does not exist in the traditional ad space today.
Customers could control the Content
Being a marketer, you would like to show your ads every single time to your target customers. However, the customer will eventually get a little (if not a lot) annoyed when they keep on seeing your ads. This is the reason why ad blocking penetration has started rising between the consumers.
According to customers, when they are paying for the internet they are using, they should have full control over it. A survey suggests that people want on-demand content without waiting for the ad to load. Sometimes showing an Ad before the content or middle of the content is okay, but now it has grown way larger.
But you can’t blame the marketers for this. The technology, which made the consumer digital experience convenient, has also made the ad targeting better for the marketer. The audience from Facebook ads makes it much easier for businesses to reach the target markets.
You must have observed that when you make any transaction or share information with one party, you start receiving advertisements even if you have not opted for it. Blockchain technology gives consumers the power to charge companies for revealing their contact information. As per blockchain, if a company wants customers to subscribe to their newsletter, then they have to drop an email, and customers can reply with their price to avail of that content.
Transactions will be processed through cryptocurrencies automatically. This system allows consumers to have complete control over their information from being shared with anyone.
These limitations could affect the brands, but they need to think and create an effective way to benefit both sides.
Blockchain has made companies accountable for building trust within the consumers. Blockchain technology is making companies hide everything to hide nothing. And now the public can see the digital contracts between two parties.
Payment Methods will be affected
It will provide more liberty to the business regarding their payment methods. Generally, all the payments online happen through a payment gateway. The payment gateway receives information from the client and sends it to the bank & provides approval of the purchase.
There are some challenges in payment gateways, and ideas are being developed to overcome those challenges. Although cryptocurrency can become a solution, you are not probably paying your coffee bill through Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency.
But, we are not too far from those days. Some of the companies have already started preparation for adapting these alternative payment methods. They are eager to accept Bitcoin and planning to get this system included in their business. Although it has not penetrated the consumer market yet, it is approaching the market-paying habit faster than you think.
As a marketer, you should be prepared for this technology. You need to recognize these market payment trends before they hit you and force you to change everything. That will cost you. You should be in a position to adapt to those changes in the coming two to three years.
Other than cryptocurrency payments, Blockchain technology will be used for various purposes in the future, and it has started taking place in some areas as well.
The application of blockchain will change the way of digital marketing activity, we are familiar with. Blockchain provides the ability for the marketer to remove middlemen in selling or buying advertisements, just like in a PPC campaign.
It will be considered a competitive factor for advertisers in digital marketing, and they can’t ignore it. Some companies have started some pilot projects through Blockchain technology. It will be helpful for other companies if sector-wide data & experience sharing will be available about its implementation. In addition, organizations should look into the processes that blockchain could simplify or help to monetize.
Consumers will have control over the information from which companies they need to receive from. In addition, as blockchain transactions will be available for the public, businesses will be held responsible and accountable for their activities, and it will ask them to maintain transparency.
We suggest you keep an eye on this trend in the coming years as your companies might not be ready for cryptocurrency. But, at the end of the day, what will matter is how your company is preparing for digital marketing changes associated with blockchain technology.
Author Bio- Sanket Patel is the founder of Blurbpoint, a leading Digital Marketing Company specializing in Ecommerce SEO & Local Services, Online Reputation Management, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, and many more. With over a decade of experience, he helps businesses transform the way they market their products and services online, keeping track of the buying pattern of modern consumers.
Image Credit: provided by the author; thank you!
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