Marketing Case Study

Background

OneQube was a digital marketing firm focused on audience development and growth through the promotion of content via paid and organic social media for cryptocurrency and other markets. The firm helped clients navigate the complex digital marketing landscape to ensure that they reached their audience on all relevant platforms to consistently grow and strengthen their customer base.

My Role

I was brought on board to develop the strategy for and manage their blockchain accounts. I tailored OneQube’s existing strategies to the Cryptocurrency marketplace. I led the creation of their Blockchain Marketing framework with the help of the team, implemented the new strategies across the board to promotecontent for client campaigns.

Blockchain Marketing Strategies

Blockchain, as a new financial marketplace, had fluid marketing regulations that were being created and changed frequently. In addition to navigating these fluctuating rules, companies had limited time to attract new investors to their ICO while often faced with strong restrictions on paid blockchain ads. Cryptocurrency products created by those outside of the blockchain community faced skepticism about both the payment viability and safety of their blockchain. Social media and press metrics were especially important in building the reputation for a brand new coin.I focused our strategies on education and developing trust with new community members allowing OneQube to deliver consistent engagement and immediately showed an increased improve 25-30% in engagement numbers.

Defining the Audience

Targeted demographics are essential for maximizing the return on social media advertising budget. Adds must be seen by your key demographic.

For a social media advertising budget to be maximized, ads must be seen by the right individuals. To ensure that I defined comprehensive user profiles and guided the creation of detailed audience demographic. After research and market testing we settled on two different demographic profiles for each client blockchain company: investors and product users. Our goal was to create a large reach to show a high organic social media footprint for potential investors and stimulate interest and participation in the Initial Coin Offering.

Who were those cryptocurrency investors likely to participate in sales? They were Individuals with a high net worth, tech savvy and non-traditional investors. At the time there were very few institutional investors willing to take a risk. The blockchain was a niche market which the general public did not not understand. Our target market included only investors outside of the US, which was one of the first markets to start regulating cryptocurrency investment. At the time, only institutional investors could participate in ICOs. Most of these investors were not interested in the risk, especially for an unproven coin.

The second demographic, the user base, will vary dependent on who the users of the actual product are. For instance, one of the largest ICOs we supported and the first project I worked on was CanYa. CanYa was building a platform where gig workers could be paid in their cryptocurrency, lessening the costs of currency conversions for the global gig market. The user base was made up of working professionals. In the gig market who typically used platforms such as Skillshare and Fiverr.
The average age range of product users was targeted to be mid 20s to mid 40s. Workers were middle-class and their salary ranges would vary based on their countries of origin. CanYa was an Australian company, so the initial target market as Australia.

Content Marketing Strategy

The core of the amplification strategy was creating content that would be shared across multiple platforms to create a large digital footprint that would be continually expanded. This would allow our target demographics to be reached on multiple platforms. We developed two different type of articles for blog content that could then be used for PR content as well.

We wrote articles focused on cryptocurrency and blockchain content that would help lead potential investors to our clients’ sites. We also designed articles about the topics associated with the specific use of the coin with a cryptocurrency spin. This would ideally get potential users of the core product such as CanYa’s gig platform to sign up for newsletters, beta release lists and follow the brand on social media.

The goal was to not only bring investors to the ICO but to also get potential users to buy into the product. Many of our clients such as CanYa were designed for users outside of blockchain based industries and we had to educate their potential users, and make them feel comfortable about using their platforms.

New blog posts were posted a minimum of 3 times a week. Together with management I structured a content calendar to support upcoming PR and wrote the key articles. Any articles I did not write I would review for consistency. Here are samples of some of the pieces I have written:

Organic Social Media Posting and Community Management Strategy

Blog posts were not only posted on the clients blog page, but on blogging platforms such as Medium and Steemit, a cryptocurrency-focused blog site well as on the company’s Linkedin page. I oversaw the creation of all posts, which were linked to the articles and shared on traditional social media sites: X , Facebook, and Instagram. The key to the organic strategy was utilizing blockchain hashtags as well as the appropriate hashtags for the industry aligned to the core product. I updated and maintained a list of relevant hashtags. We also employed traditional follow/ unfollow strategies to increase the clients’ social media followers.

I ensured all article were regularly posted on community platforms frequented by blockchain investors: Reddit, Discord, Telegraph, and forums such as Bitcointalk. We had a set frequency of posts for social media. We posted two to three times daily on X, Instagram ,and Facebook. In addition to posting our original content, we would repost industry-related topics. I defined these topics through extensive research. Any new blog articles and PR posts would be shared in the Clients Discord Channels, Telegram groups, and on their Reddit Pages.

I developed specific community standards. Initially, our team personally managed the the community groups and kept the conversations moving by answering questions and starting relevant discussions As internal teams grew it was preferable to keep community management in-house as much as possible as this builds trust. During the initial phase, while we managed the social media and communities for clients, I built out FAQs that the client would be able to use to better internally manage their online community. We also helped our clients expand into international communities by defining key international markets and helping to hire necessary personnel. For example, when our client, LGO, wanted to expand into the Korean Markets, we researched local social media platforms, hired community managers and translators in the region. This way all content could be shared locally.

While OneQube worked on the social media of companies in multiple industries, amplification was key for blockchain companies. Many had extremely small teams pre-ICO and a large need for community management. In this untested market investors, would determine a coin’s potential in part by how active and robust the company’s online communities were. The founding team was expected to directly interact with these communities. With the proliferation of fraud in the industries, investors needed to interact with founding teams to verify that they were real individuals likely to keep their promises and not misuse their investments. Our role was to help these founding teams interact with potential investors and product users. We helped them build confidence in their brand.

Paid Social Media Strategy

Initially, our greatest challenge was the cost of ads. Blockchain companies were seeing a boom in investment, and new companies were being created almost daily. Ads for industry-based key terms and demographics were of high cost even outside the US where digital ads were typically cheaper. We mostly ran ads on X , LinkedIn and Instagram. Most of our budget was spent on X ads. This strategy quickly became untenable, as the fraud being proliferated with false ICOs, and the lack of regulation in the industry led the leading platforms to ban blockchain advertisements until stronger industry marketing regulations could be developed.

X which was the core of our original strategy, had the most stringent regulations. If a blockchain company posted any ads on X, their account would be permanently banned. This made attempting to run any ads on X too risky, regardless of whether the ad was blockchain-focused or not. At the time, ad regulations were changing daily, many platforms were becoming stricter. We would have to reassess the strategy and change our ad buys based on the rules. I researched varying strategies for us to test, including creating secondary accounts that did not mention the blockchain, from which we ran ads focused on the industry of the core product. I also shifted our editorial focus to include more articles that did not mention the blockchain that could then be safely used with ads.

I determined at the time we should prioritize our Reddit strategy, as Reddit ads were cost-effective, and Reddit communities included a large number of users who fit our investor demographic profile. We also researched and ran ads on international social media communities and on Steemit and other blockchain community sites.

Results of Content and Social Media Strategies

We built out a social media amplification strategy that tailors traditional social media strategies to fit the blockchain marketplace. Since we had a multichannel approach I was able to consistently research and implement dynamic strategies to help us constantly hit our targeted client metrics despite changing regulations. Our framework was designed to be adaptable given the consistent changes in the market. We were able to provide clients with guidance that allowed them to build out their brands. Ultimately the strategy had its desired effect of increasing brand awareness, making our clients into potential industry thought leaders and creating consistent social media growth. Clients worked with us because they noticed a marked 20-30 percent boost in community growth after bringing us on board as well as continued consistent results.

What I learned?

Working in social media amplification and community management showed me how valuable interacting with your users online is for connecting with potential and existing customers. Community and social media management extends beyond initial marketing and is crucial to maintaining your brand’s image and products. Social media communities provide a way for your customers and the overall market to share valuable insights on your products and services with your brand.