This is an opinion editorial Max Mannheimer, A Former sales account manager with background in training and industrial-organizational psychology.
These days, it seems like every absurd blockchain project has a set of founders who use massive amounts of money (or pre-made tokens) in social media marketing. They pay teen influencers to pitch their scripts to millions of followers in hopes of pumping up the market cap of vaporware projects that will never exit the alpha stage. In good cases they have good intentions and bad execution, but in many cases they have bad intentions and their execution is flawless. The history of the cryptocurrency rug bridge operation speaks for itself.
Naturally, anyone new to digital assets will not see it coming and may not even understand what happened after their portfolio went below sea level. As a result, most of the new entrants to the space are overwhelmed, confused or outright duped when they use exchanges that promote open scams. Some might say that this is a natural progression for new cryptocurrency users who have to learn on their own, “Like we had to! Do your own research (DYOR)!!!” It is precisely this mindset that is going to slow adoption and cause more pain than necessary for newcomers.
This article is an extension of the same metaphor I proposed in my earlier article, “Bitcoin Customer Service Department.” Bitcoin exists as a completely novel, decentralized organization. The community is acting only on the incentives contained in the protocol. There is no CEO or board of directors prioritizing the activities of the participants.
The Mrs-esque ethos of bitcoin will dictate that the rigor and impetus of the technology are essential to the success of the bitcoin network. For a long time, I completely agree with that sentiment, but I’m currently feeling disappointed with my progress given all that is at stake. Although I have seen the brave efforts, I am overwhelmed by the community’s ability to counter the negative and misleading narratives emanating from many media outlets. At the time of this writing, it seems to me that these efforts resonate within the bitcoin bubble of blog posts and podcasts.
Let us imagine that bitcoin has a marketing department, or in a fashion similar to the decentralized nature of the network, multiple marketing departments. What will these marketing departments be focusing on? In my estimation, it would be wise to reach out to as broad a base of investors as possible. There are two reasons for this: adoption has a powerful network effect and widespread adoption increases the political defense of bitcoin. Much of the messaging surrounding bitcoin has found itself in a moderate or tech-savvy territory. That’s totally understandable, but how is everyone else interested? In fact, there are many people who fear technology and many who do not agree with liberal views. Bitcoiners often simply write off these people or consider them a lost cause. I am not so quick to give up on personal adaptability and intelligence.
At the risk of sounding grand, for the sake of this illustration I am imagining myself as the vice president of marketing for bitcoin. If I heard one of my executives say that we are going to ignore 50-70% of our addressable market because they don’t understand the product concept, I would fire that person on the spot. It is a do-it-yourself attitude and at the core of every value-driven marketing effort is the intention to educate the marketer about the product and what it is good for. Writing off potential customers on ideological grounds or for emotional reasons would be a decidedly defeatist approach.
If a teacher is failing half of her students, it could be a sign of too complicated subject matter or an ineffective teacher. Of course we know bitcoin is a complicated subject, but does that remove all responsibility from teachers? Does this give us confidence to raise our hands and blame the media for misleading people? Many people are not giving up on this endeavor. They are working to support the understanding of bitcoin with metaphors, comparisons, metaphors and hard data. I wholeheartedly appreciate those efforts.
What I’m not seeing, however, is a thoughtful marketing push beyond the bitcoin filter bubble into the public sphere. There must be dozens of other niche communities that overlap with interests related to bitcoin. Examples could be in the energy sector, liberal publications, organic agriculture, hunting magazines, video game review sites, or any organization operating within the scope of a government’s reduction in size or military activity. In my opinion they are the low hanging fruit. There are also more challenging avenues that exist outside the typical bitcoin wheelhouse of freedom-loving, sovereignty-seekers, technology enthusiasts.
How could bitcoin be of interest to political progressives, environmentalists or activists? Is there a way to reach those communities without alienating them? I see Alex Gladstein making a bold attempt, but I also know many bitcoiners who don’t want to offer an olive branch. That reluctance may simply be rooted in a lack of humility or a fear of being controlled by a centralized force of networks. Is that reluctance a rational behavior or is it simply short-sighted? Most bitcoiners know that once a person buys bitcoins, the learning process speeds up significantly. Having skin in the game changes individual incentives in a way that benefits the network and humanity.
Imagine a billboard in downtown Seattle that reads “Defund the Military Industrial Complex” or “The End of Bank Bailouts” with QR codes directing viewers to educational materials. This is the type of marketing that will make people stop and think. In cases where the target audience is likely to be impulsively opposed to bitcoin, it may also be wise to direct people to a site that lists facts about data and fiat issues before a solution emerges. Is.
Imagine going to the JM Bullion website and seeing a banner ad with gold bars on the left and a pile of scrap metal on the right. On the left panel, it says “Bitcoin” in Helvetica or Times New Roman, and on the right, it says “Crypto” in Comic Sans. This is an easy visual representation to explain the perspective that bitcoiners have on the market and it communicates the reality of the situation quite effectively. Any publication that reaches gold worms or precious metal investors will immediately relate to it. I have often found that talking to gold worms about bitcoin is consistently a downhill effort.
Imagine driving I-75 between Chattanooga, Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia and seeing a big orange billboard that says, “Trust the Federal Reserve and Wall Street? Do you have an alternate plan?” or “Inflation got you down?”
This will lead to a market that is completely unaffected at the moment. There is a world of rural working class people who have practical skills that have been continuously misused by the prevailing monetary system. These people may not have social media, but they may have hundreds of acres of arable land and generations of agricultural knowledge. From my assessment, the true value of the bitcoin network is based on what can be achieved with it. Recording value in the real world can be just as important as the bitcoin commerce hash rate. Rural Americans often understand hard money better than armies of keyboard warriors on the Internet. How do we bridge that gap?
Using the US Postal Service website, I was able to get a quick estimate of $40,000 for mailing letters to 50,000 individuals, or $30,000 for postcards. Marketing along those lines with engaging content has the potential to reach an audience and an age group that is currently untouched. An orange envelope with the bitcoin logo can be a nice touch. Now add “inflation is theft”. Looks to me like the experiment might be worth a shot.
One of the biggest advantages of a public blockchain is its constant availability for audits. If a collective bitcoin marketing fund were created, those who contribute could see their fund grow. Photos of physical installments, click data and QR counts can be collected to assess the effectiveness of a marketing campaign in a report to investors. It may also be possible to enable contributors to have something to say in a marketing approach, but let’s be very careful not to post cringe content and embarrass ourselves.
There are sharp minds all over the world, who are working round the clock to sell complete waste products to the general public. They have a lot of market data and experience with advertising campaigns. Let’s not ignore the talent in the market. Some bitcoiners argue that the marketing industry is part of the fiat mess, but the chess pieces stand out. Let’s interpret bitcoin as one way that diverse populations can agree to and use any tool at our disposal.
Civil Rights: “Bitcoin Doesn’t Know the Color of Your Skin.” Autonomy: “I do not need permission from a customer service representative or anyone else to transfer my bitcoins.” Environment: “Bitcoin replaces archaic systems that drive the production of products that are built to fail.” If you like my ad measures, steal them. I’ll have more.
We’re sitting quietly talking about what amounts to the best product ever made.
Many of us know this directly because as soon as we figured it out, we bought as much bitcoin as we could afford. Some of us bought more than this. The grassroots level of understanding of bitcoin is inevitable and it seems to be accelerating as more content is created, but that doesn’t mean we can’t help it with some strategic spending. As a decentralized asset, these ads are not required to direct potential users to a specific website or exchange and no matter who has the ads. They simply crowd out bitcoin knowledge and we all benefit.
How else can we bring this digital movement into the physical world? Doesn’t the implicit incentive structure to hold bitcoin drive this marketing behavior from large holders? Why aren’t groups of bitcoiners coming together to hire marketing firms to educate the public? What is stopping us from creating a pooled fund to allocate capital to an experienced marketing team?
The answer, of course, is nothing. No one can stop us from doing this.
This is a guest post by Max Mannheimer. The opinions expressed are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.