Influencer marketing has expanded into nearly every advertising sector, and blockchain marketing is no exception.
Influencer channels include social media, blogs, digital advertising, YouTube, and more. It is gaining more traction because traditional advertising has become less effective overall. For blockchain projects, digital advertising across multiple channels and including the use of influencers makes sense.
Generally speaking, influencer marketing gets results, with most businesses saying that the ROI from influencer marketing is as good or better than that with other marketing channels. Moreover, the majority of marketers say that both customer quality and traffic levels from influencer marketing exceed that of other types of marketing.
Crypto influencer marketing, however, is a bit different from more typical types of influencer marketing. Here’s how to approach it to get the best results while avoiding crypto influencer scammers.
What Makes an Influencer Right for Your Project?
Social media influencers make sense for blockchain marketing projects because so much of the conversation surrounding blockchain takes place on social media. In addition to influencers on old-guard social media like Twitter, crypto influencers are likely to have strong followings on Telegram, or (less frequently) on Discord.
The right influencer doesn’t necessarily have the greatest numbers of followers, though the follower number is important. What’s essential is that the followers be relevant to the project. In other words, are the influencer’s followers people who would be interested in this blockchain project?
Sometimes micro-influencers (those whose following is in the thousands, rather than the hundreds of thousands) is the better choice because they have exceptionally strong engagement with their followers.
Steps to Choose the Best Influencer
The person you pick for your crypto influencer marketing campaign must be a considered choice. Before shortlisting potential influencer candidates, you should take the following steps:
- Define the goals of your crypto influencer marketing campaign.
- Define the campaign’s audience.
- Describe the influencer type you want and the budget you have for the campaign.
- Review the work of candidate influencers.
- Determine whether the influencer is a good fit for the project.
Scammers Are a Real Problem. Here’s How to Protect Yourself.
Unfortunately, influencer scams are real. Scammers who target blockchain marketing projects will frequently display the following behaviors:
- Say they are a well-known YouTube personality
- Have a username very similar to that of an actual influencer
- Compliment your project out of the blue
- Offer their “services” with big discounts or promises of big ROI
- Join Telegram and ask for marketing managers to DM them
- Offer to make a YouTube video in exchange for a fee payable in Ethereum (and then disappear after having received it)
Awareness is the first step to avoiding scams. The adage about something seeming too good to be true definitely applies. Other scam-avoidance tactics you can try include:
- Assuming a real YouTube star is unlikely to randomly join your Telegram group and offer their services out of the blue.
- Asking the alleged influencer specific questions about your blockchain project to see if they know anything about it.
- Check “their” official contact channels on their YouTube page. Do they match the contact details the person presented to you? If not, they’re probably not who they claim to be.
Influencer marketing works, and there’s every reason for blockchain projects to consider doing a crypto influencer marketing campaign. However, it’s absolutely mandatory that you do your research and confirm identities of people saying they are influencers before signing a contract with them. If your blockchain marketing initiative is on the horizon, Media Shower invites you to get a free trial.