Blockchain is the Next Big Thing in Digital Marketing

Written by Sharoon Emmanuel

The very first thing that comes in mind while talking about blockchain is buying & selling of cryptocurrencies but in reality, it is much more than that.  As key stakeholders, business owners need to follow up the latest marketing trends and understand how blockchain technology can make them future proof.

So, What Actually is Blockchain?

Blockchain technology is similar to a shared ledger or an open record system that is used to keep track of various transactions. In blockchain, each one of the transactions is segmented by blocks i.e. name. The formed blocks get verified by other users within the system and once verified they cannot be altered. This permanent block gets added to a chain of other blocks which have been validated earlier.

Here’s a visual representation of how blockchain works: -

Owed to blockchain, marketing and levels of data transparency may take strides forward as it is rapidly making its place in varied industries. While being massively discussed in the financial & baking sector, the implications of blockchain outside traditional marketing are also noteworthy.

A recent survey by Statistica revealed that blockchain research is underway by the telecommunications, media and technology sector. 40% of these subjects discovered that they were in the awareness phase, 39% of them were experimenting and 12% already deployed blockchain technology for business purposes.

The implementation of blockchain technology in digital marketing will allow business owners and marketeers to streamline data collection and its utilization, ad management, amplify the overall customer experience and much more. 

Here’s an overview of how blockchain will impact digital marketing: - 

Better Keyword Tracking

For marketeers, tracking keywords is a cumbersome challenge. Due to the constant updating of search engine algorithms, marketeers have to adopt other ways of seamlessly tracking competitive phrases. Most common issues faced are disparity in results on different devices and different geographical boundaries. Organic SERP results are complicated and many marketers have to assume or use the median technique while creating reports.

Utilizing blockchain, marketeers would have real results when it comes to keyword tracking. A tracker based on the blockchain could account for all of the discrepancies that marketeers now have to account for when summarizing efforts. The keyword tracker making use of blockchain technology could easily track keyword positions across all devices and regions. Marketeers could then make use of these insights to create more data-driven, precise campaigns.

Also Read: - Google’s Major Algorithm Updates Impacting Your Business in 2019

Higher Percentage of Mature Leads

With blockchain technology, marketeers can capture better leads. Currently, marketeers are collecting data from a variety of sources to put together a campaign. This method isn’t 100% efficient as there are chances of campaigns being run on inconsistent or incorrect data.

As blockchain transactions are decentralized, marketeers can acquire data right from the consumer. Marketing professionals can compensate or incentivize consumers for their data. While the cost of data collection may seem higher upfront, the ROI generated utilizing this data will be considerably high. This method would allow marketeers to have accurate data at their disposal for better campaign creation.

Consumers that do give out information will most likely be interested in a company. This makes lead generation and conversions much easier because the info giving people are already prospects ready to be nurtured. So with blockchain, marketeers are more likely to gather better leads.

Readers May Also Like: - Moving Along the Digital Demand Curve: Lead Generation Trends to Follow in 2019

Transparency for Customers

Most blockchain technologies provide ultimate provide transparency to consumers by giving them key information like who has their data and how was it acquired. Due to this, marketeers have more data at their disposal to run campaigns. Though marketing professionals may have to pay for data collection, the information received is highly usable in campaigns.

Enhanced Social Listening

By implementing blockchain technology, business owners as well as marketeers can work their way with social media marketing efforts and analysis without having the traditional surveillance over their heads. This new blockchain infused tool would allow users to benefit directly from the value they are adding online. Along with having access to key social media data such as viral content, trending topics and connections, users will enjoy more control over their data.

For marketeers, getting their hands on insights matters a lot as it drives their digital marketing initiatives. While some marketeers may resist this due to the fear that they will lose out on data from the current social network giants but in reality, it will simply change the way marketeers generate leads.

The very first step for getting this done would be assessing the relevance of these decentralized social networks and whether or not it will appeal to a large consumer base. Another determining factor would be whether or not brands are willing to offer complete transparency.

Prevention from Scams in the Ad Space

Due to the frequent click fraud in online ads, companies such as AdChain are utilizing a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain to allow only authentic ads to be displayed. The Ad impressions and clicks thus received are authentic because they’re on the trustworthy blockchain. This addresses end-to-end transparency of data and ad fraud.

The Helicopter View of Blockchain’s Impact on Digital Marketing

The digital marketing industry is apparently just beginning to embrace blockchain technology but the potential and implications of it are boundless. Its applications have the aptitude to transform the digital marketing world as we know it.

The implementation of blockchain technology will give marketeers the provision of diminishing the role of middle parties for buying or selling of advertisements. It will allow consumers to have more control over which companies can send them information.

Since blockchain transactions are an open ledger accessible for everyone, businesses will be held responsible for their actions and forced to be transparent.

So, how prepared is your business to embrace the digital marketing modifications associated with blockchain?



Originally Published March 1, 2019 02:00 AM, Updated March 11, 2019.



Our Latest Blogs

Our Latest Blogs