George Santayana, a Spanish-American philosopher, once stated, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Let’s rewind to the early 1990s when the internet was first establishing itself. Back then, no one really knew how impactful the internet would become and how its creation was the beginning of the digital “gold rush.” At first, we had bulletin boards that ultimately got spruced up and transitioned to AOL chat rooms. Early adopters were reading their news online, while others still preferred newsprint. As time evolved, domain names became valuable currency as entrepreneurs and opportunists alike looked at ways to build businesses online.
The Toys.com domain name, for example, sold to Toys R Us for more than $5 million in 2009, among other historical domain name sales. In those early years, a domain name was thought to be a path to instant business success. Companies such as Toys.com and Pets.com were formed with the belief that “if you build it, they will come.” Pets.com, founded in 1998, raised more than $82 million from an initial public offering. It has since been ranked by CNN Money as the biggest dot-com flop of all time -- the company lost $147 million in the first nine months of 2000, never recovered and was out of business before the year was over.
What went wrong? Pets.com famously spent millions on a dog sock puppet ad campaign that went viral, which culminated with a balloon in the 1999 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and an appearance during the Super Bowl. The company, however, didn’t factor in logistics -- the cost of shipping pet food or the fact that consumers preferred picking up their pet items at a brick-and-mortar store. The marketing was cute and tailored toward the masses rather than microtargeted to the customers they needed to acquire to succeed as an e-retailer.
Today's New Technology Infrastructure
With that said, blockchain is quickly establishing itself as a new technology infrastructure, similar to the internet in the 1990s. Many have foolishly been carried away by initial coin offerings (ICO) and cryptocurrency (crypto) and are discounting the benefits of blockchain or considering it a fad.
Truth be told, similar to the internet, the technology behind blockchain is brilliant, in my opinion. It’s a peer-to-peer network that serves as a smart ledger and creates a record for every transaction, which cannot be altered. For example, Visa, MasterCard and American Express feel threatened by crypto as the security, transaction cost and speed of transactions could all cannibalize the existing credit card industry. Though Bitcoin and other altcoins have not yet become legitimate mainstream methods of payment, blockchain presents a threat to those traditional payment methods.
Since crypto is not yet ready for prime time, many established companies and startups are becoming entrepreneurial and assessing ways to implement and/or use the blockchain. For example, both IBM and Overstock.com are established companies that are making waves in the blockchain space. In fact, according to Juniper Research, IBM was ranked number one in blockchain technology.
These companies see opportunities to secure their information while providing vast user access to accurate records. The common belief is that the technology will revolutionize business due to the fact that the blockchain data can be trusted regardless of those participating in the chain.
Marketing Your Blockchain Company
As entrepreneurs formulate their blockchain businesses, they can learn from the past and implement a strategy to avoid the pitfalls of the dot-com bubble. I'm familiar with these new strategies first-hand, as my company launched a blockchain accelerator, aiding businesses through the process, from concept to widespread adoption.
First of all, it’s important to focus on the business side and ensure that the company is technologically viable and works effectively. Once the business plan has been determined to be sound, marketing and promotion is the best way to scale your blockchain company.
Blockchain promotion techniques and business consulting services are essential for companies seeking to build their blockchain entity and position themselves for growth, investment and/or an ICO. Today, technology is more advanced and spending millions of dollars to promote a business is misguided. Targeted spend leveraging demographic data and psychographic trends is an effective marketing technique that can be used to identify customers, understand customer behaviors and position a company for a successful launch.
Innovative marketing solutions are a way to cut through the noise and deliver a message to the right audience. Early-stage companies must leverage big data and algorithms to get their message and brand in front of key decision makers in a way that establishes their company as a serious player in the market.
With so many startups entering the blockchain sector, it is imperative to implement marketing techniques that can position a company as legitimate within the highly competitive blockchain market. Over the past few years, branding and marketing have significantly evolved, and that pace of change is only accelerating. The way I see it, to stand out tomorrow, solutions from yesterday are already obsolete.
In short, new technologies in the marketing space enable companies to be a step ahead of the competition by amplifying their brand messaging and facilitating success. Whether a blockchain company seeks investment, sales or promotion, innovative marketing solutions can help companies attain their goals and objectives. Therefore, investing in brand development and promotion while building a blockchain company can pay dividends and has traditionally generated results, proving that strategic marketing is a vital part of becoming a sustainable company in the next big thing -- be it the internet of previous years or blockchain today.
