Marketing is More Than Hype & Influencers

I write a lot, for many reasons, but I think imparting knowledge is one of the main reasons. And that could be to my audience or myself. When I write, I want to be thought provoking and informative or I am using it to release my emotions and thoughts. For the thought provoking/informative, articles I do hours of research, or I have knowledge on the subject. I read into what I am writing about, or make certain of my knowledge and then write about a subject in my own words.

The River Taw. Not far from where I am living.

Marketing is top of my list for writing at the moment. The Web3 industry talks about marketing a lot but for the most part it doesn't have a clue. It releases things on a whim, when they haven't been tested properly and then says marketing when in actuality the vast majority of projects or protocols mean hype and influencers. The good old pump and dump philosophy.

Lets get everyone hyped about our product, give tokens etc. to influencers to show that they value the project or protocol, because they won't sell it just after go live when they see a top. And then their friends definitely won't follow suit in selling and the price of our product, service or token won't just crash... oh...

Rant aside, there is a reason that companies have a CMO. A Chief Marketing Officer that sits on the board of directors, is fully responsible for all things marketing and reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer or Chief Operating Officer. The dictionary definition of Marketing is the activity or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising. That statement impacts every area of a business from research & development, data analysis, customer & staff announcements to system updates and much, much more.

Dave Swinbank

@Davc_s

What's A Customer/User Journey?
An explanation of customer/user journeys and some tips to review yours.

This sounds a bit Web2. They are marketing processes and thoughts that have been around for a while. I can't deny it.

Doesn't mean they aren't useful or valid

Treat this…

The P's of marketing. There used to be 4, now there are 7, there may even be more depending where you look, and these P's highlight how integral marketing is to any business, brand, product or service. The 7 P's of Marketing are Product, Price, Promotion, Place, People, Packaging and Process. I am not going to break them down today, that is for another time, and it isn't really blog material.

There is also the 5 M's of marketing. This could be more pertinent to the market and space we operate within. The 5 M's of Marketing are Mission, Message, Money, Media & Measurement. For solo artists/creators or people who are starting a business in their free time, ROI in relation to time and money is vitally important.

Marketing effectively costs both time and money. Even if there isn't a financial cost in a marketing plan, there is a time cost. And for people with limited time, that time is money. There are numerous processes and tools that can help, or hinder, depending how you use them. Having processes is important. They add clarity and provide guidance if done well.

I may have shared this previously in a blog, I may not, either way the windswept beard makes me smile!

When we look at The Blockchain/Crypto/Web3 space, specifically at NFT's, marketing is in everything we do. So much of the business or output is front end and customer or user facing. Artists, businesses, creators, projects - are all selling things with a visual aspect. Marketing is an important thing because converting someone from a social media post to a collector is almost entirely marketing.

This is why 3 of the last 4 article I have written have been about marketing. Specifically Customer/User Journeys, Customer/User Touch Points and The Customer/User Experience. You can find them in this blog and I really do appreciate and look for feedback. It helps me improve and makes sure the content I am creating is easy to understand and useful. I know it's useful, but if people aren't reading it or understanding it, then how useful is it?

The customer journey, touch points and the customer experience are only one aspect of marketing. And coming back to this space, which operates mostly on and around social media and within The Attention Economy, branding/brand awareness is vital. Once you have captured someone's awareness/interest, the ease of their journey decides if they buy into an artist/business/creator with their time/effort/money.

Dave Swinbank

@Davc_s

Customer/User Touch Points
This article follows on from the Customer/User Journey

What are Customer/User Touch Points?
They are all the places that a brand or business interacts with a customer or user. First impressions count and an experience that backs up that impression is…

Dave Swinbank

@Davc_s

Creating a strong brand identity is key. Hopefully I have made at least that much clear. An aspect (and it is a big one) of this industry is that customers/users (community) are closer to artists/businesses/creators than ever before. There is a huge opportunity to build strong relationships. But before that can be done, they need to have reason to buy in. Does that always need to be hype or influencers? They will always play there part but focusing on them will lead to short product life cycles.

How do you create a strong brand identity? With hard work and an understanding of specific aims, goals and values. I urge anyone to start with their values and what they want to achieve. It is so much easier to be true to values that you believe in, for your brand or business. How do you work out your values? You question yourself. What makes you get out of bed, what makes you tick. Who are you friends with and what drives them? It is very likely that your drivers and values align.

Once you are certain of your values you can work on what you want to achieve. What's your objective in regards to your art, business, creativity etc. For me I want to reduce barriers and create opportunities for people. I want people to have opportunities that weren't available to them before. It's pretty lofty I know, but at heart, I just want to make the world a little bit better and believe kindness and consideration can do that.

My friends chickens. Chickens worry me a little and I think is is Steven Spielberg's fault. He made the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park move in the same kind of way!

The importance of implementing your values and goals into your imagery cannot be understated. Almost every potential customer or users first interaction with an artist/brand/business or creator will be visual in some way. Consentient branding helps set customer/user expectations and can increase a business/brands presence in a market.

There are all sorts of studies on how to brand, including what the correct colour and font is to put your message across in a way you want. Some of these studies will be relevant, some not so relevant. If you would like some insight, type 'how important is brand imagery' into google and spend some time looking at the results.

I had no idea where today's blog was going to take me, sometimes I write a rough plan, more often than not I just write. Todays blog was one that was just written. These blogs are very specifically about what I am feeling, and at the moment that is a knowledge gap that I believe is holding this industry back.

And if it isn't knowledge it's time. I believe discussing these topics and sharing thoughts and experiences about them help us build our knowledge and in turn processes. In an effort to save ourselves some time and help us drive more revenue or interest.

Dave Swinbank

@Davc_s

Building the Customer/User Experience
What to do with the information from The Customer Journey and User Touch Points

What is a Customer/User Experience?
It could be any number of things, but it is essentially the experience a customer/user has with a brand or a business and the…

I know this isn't exciting or fun. I get it. However, when I write about this topic in article form then I aim to make the information digestible, reduce some of the corporate language and offer insight that is useful.

Thank you for reading this weeks blog, I believe it's important information that this entire space needs to think more about. Have a great week and it's my sisters wedding next weekend. Next weeks blog may well be short and sweet.