Salespeople get a bad rep, and let’s be honest, some of it is true. It probably has something to do with a stranger calling you at odd hours to convince you to make a purchase you probably don’t need.
The outdated references aside, the principles of sales representation and marketing have not evolved much over time. As I write this piece, some sales rep somewhere is adding you to an email list to periodically irritate you with spam messages.
You know those messages, right? A yuppy greeting, a body of text with generic promises, a ‘catchy’ CTA, and an obscure unsubscribe button creatively placed in the last place you’d think to look.
Think about all the important messages you miss because they got lost under the piles of cold emails you get every day.
Now, let’s pump the brakes on knocking on marketing agencies for a bit. Marketing still remains an essential service that every blockchain project needs at some point. I’d go out on a limb to say that when that time comes and you need a blockchain marketing agency, you’d want to work with the best one you can find.
Well, good luck landing on the perfect fit from the hundreds of marketing agencies out there (Yeah, there are that many, and tens of them probably send you unsolicited emails already).
Obviously, the last thing you need right now is another list of top marketing agencies that ends up as a sales pitch for the agencies that appeal to the writer’s bias. So, we won’t do that. Why don’t we let good ol’ investigative journalistic objectivity take the wheel and see where we land?
Our Analytic Process
Finding the best blockchain marketing agency is one of the times when a simple keyword search is simply not enough to guide you to the answer you need. You’ll find results, but do you know what you won’t find? A consensus!
Why is it so hard to compile an objective list of blockchain marketing agencies when the blockchain is supposed to function on the principle of publicly accessible decentralized ledgers? If that is the answer you’re looking for, you won’t find it here.
Now to why you’re here – how did I compile this list?
First, I added every marketing agency I could find with blockchain services to a list. There were hundreds of them (Yeah, that many). Then, we ranked them according to various criteria, including activity in the blockchain space, experience, reputation, and characters within the core team, among many other KPIs.
The blockchain experience exclusion criteria immediately whittled down the list – agencies with less than two years of experience did not make it past this stage. The energy and dynamism of youth are eternally appealing, but we are compiling a list of agencies that have been there and done it. Hence, agencies with limited experience may be a little green, with key decision makers learning on the job (on the client’s dime).
Then, I moved the slider a little further on the experience criteria until we landed on 2017 – the year people started to notice blockchain technology’s potential. In hindsight, the blockchain attracted unwanted attention because investors, innovators, marketing agencies, scammers, cash grabbers, and fakes followed the money, and it led them into the blockchain space.
Many of the marketing agencies formed during this period lacked the fundamental knowledge to incite a market that was not already excitable. So, it is no surprise that many of them no longer exist but not before they gained infamy as they went down with the ICO era.
Are we in the mood to take risks with agencies that padded their stats during the ICO craze of 2017? I didn’t think so. Hence, the exclusion.
Next, we considered years of experience, specifically in the blockchain industry. The last bull run saw a talent influx into the blockchain space, including hybridizing traditional marketing agencies to cover blockchain services.
It was nice having these metamorphized agencies around, sharing the workload when you could almost do no wrong at the peak of the bull run. However, to uphold the standard of this list, I exclusively considered specialist blockchain marketing agencies – because they guaranteed the fundamentals. It may not be immediately apparent, but there’s a huge difference between selling plastic windows or family holiday destinations and revolutionary blockchain innovations.
At this point, the list was about 80%-90% shorter, but that was still not good enough. I still had to dig deeper. If you’ve ever dug for gold, you’ll know you don’t find it on the surface, and it is fitting because we are talking about digital gold here.
So, I continued by checking the backgrounds of the core team members of the agencies left on the list. I looked at the projects they contributed to in the past (in any capacity – marketing or not), checking for successes, failures, rug pulls, scams, community development endeavors, etc.
Now, to check the definitive statistic – the success rate of these agencies. Finding the failures proved more difficult than picking up the success stories, but I already understood the task before I started, so I was not surprised.
Then, I reached out to the remaining marketing agencies on the list. I also reached out to some of the founders, and I got more than a few responses, surprisingly – people get chatty when they know you’re a fan. Unfortunately, we can’t have too many names on the list because it starts to lose some of the glitters of exclusivity – and that was kind of the point for all this genius investigative journalism.
As far as the marketing agencies knew, I was a potential customer reaching out to discuss business. Talking to them led me to remove agencies that offered “marketing packages” without considering the peculiarities of my “project.”
Just as no single pill can cure every illness, no single marketing package works for every blockchain project. Considering how fast the market evolves, the same marketing strategy that worked in April could fail in June.
Using this criterion, I eliminated the agencies that didn’t offer the customized solutions I would have needed if I were a potential customer.
Finally, we considered their areas of specialization, using key performance indicators. So, while the names in this article score very high on the core skills and fundamental requirements, each one outscores the rest of the field in their specific niche.
Why did I go through all this trouble?
Marketing is a priority concern to achieve success in any industry, especially in the crypto space. While crypto marketing has elements of traditional marketing, the skillset required to launch successful blockchain campaigns differs markedly. Poor marketing strategies and lack of commitment are some of the leading causes of underwhelming performance and the eventual death of many projects.
So, before you go any further with your project launch, familiarize yourself with the top marketing agencies in the blockchain space according to their performance in their areas of specialization.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the aspect of marketing that focuses on creating and publishing engaging, relevant, and valuable content optimized for specific audiences and distributed through online channels. The content can come in different forms and formats, including articles, podcasts, news publications, newsletters, short videos, whitepapers, social media posts, etc.
Content marketing is not just about content creation and distribution. It involves end-to-end launch campaigns with content at its core, with various accompanying services to help projects foster meaningful relationships with existing customers and improve their reputation with potential clients.
A successful campaign builds a synergy between clients and products so that they immediately think of the product when they eventually choose to buy – either immediately or later in the future. It has always been the go-to strategy for projects seeking a competitive advantage in the market.
Content marketing occurs in different stages that involve end-to-end and non-linear processes that often overlap or skip entire stages, according to the strategy.
- Building awareness
- Product consideration
- Closing/making the sale
Quality content creation and distribution help projects progress through these phases. Content marketing has many benefits, but some are immeasurable with objective metrics. Some of the more tangible benefits of content marketing include,
- Improved sales
- Effective and efficient marketing resources allocation
- Better reputation
- Revenue generation through strategic content placement
- Improved customer relationships
However, one thing content marketing cannot do is improve the quality of your product. So, while copywriting, website and SEO optimization, social media marketing, PR releases, and editorials bring in the audience, you still need to stick the landing.
So, our pick for the content marketing category is – KEY Difference Media.
KEY Difference Media (KDM)
KEY Difference Media stands out in the blockchain marketing space because of a reputation built on content creation and optimization, extensive media and influencer networks, blockchain connections, and relationships beyond the crypto industry. KDM is the brainchild of Karnika E. Yashwant, also known as Mr. KEY, a unique character from the exotic sub-continent of India. His portfolio spans multiple decades and includes leadership and contribution roles in top blockchain news and content-creating media.
KDM opened its doors in 2007 and has experience working with traditional finance giants and Fortune 100 companies like CISCO, AJC, etc. It entered a pretty young and wildly unpredictable blockchain space in 2013 and worked with bitcoin-powered gaming companies. By the time the ICO craze of 2017 rolled around, it already had almost half a decade of experience and connections. All these resources combined for more than $550 million raised for its partners.
The company has come a long way since 2017, with a solid claim as the largest and oldest blockchain-exclusive marketing agency globally. Its growth was built on a foundation of blockchain marketers, advisors, media connections, outlets, and enthusiasts.
If peer-reviewed recognitions and awards count for anything, which they do, KDM has also racked up numerous awards in this department. 350+ members, 15+ years in the marketing industry, and 9+ years in the blockchain space – you’re more likely to find what you need here than anywhere else.
Community management is an essential part of a successful project launch. It is the process of building and maintaining a project’s reputation and audience across different platforms, online and offline.
Social media and community management often overlap in definition and practice, but subtle exist between them. Simply, community management includes social media management responsibilities, while social media management is a significant facet of community management – since most of the community exists online anyways.
Some of the essential skills to consider when hiring community management professionals include –
- Impeccable communication skills
- Community organization
- Market knowledge
- Data collection, research, and analytics
- Proactiveness and adaptability
- General project management skills
The roles and responsibilities of community management professionals include –
- Building community loyalty
- Maintaining brand reputation
- Community engagement and interaction
- Setting guidelines and maintaining community standards
- Developing community engagement campaigns and future opportunities
- Community appreciation and incentivization
- Monitoring industry trends
The blockchain space is a tightly knit group of communities that overlap in terms of priorities and members, so they often as they compete for these same resources. The transparency of blockchain technology and the openness of social media means that every community member sees how the project treats every other community member.
Considering the skills, roles, and responsibilities required of a community management agency, AmaZix earns our nomination as the overall best according to these criteria.
AmaZix
In a space where diversification (skill and portfolio) is basic knowledge, AmaZix presents an almost irrefutable case for specialization. Its expertise and experience in the community management niche is its competitive advantage.
Founded by Jonas Sevel Karlberg in 2016, AmaZix has assembled a team of professional community management experts with extensive industry knowledge and experience. His success in his role at Bancor paved the way for the new era of community management as an essential service.
Community management is no longer the job of the team member with the least technical skillset. One can trace this changing perspective to AmaZix, its founder, and team members. If a portfolio packed with record-setting fund-raising results built on the foundations of community management means anything to you, then AmaZix is the name you’re looking to see.
Strategic Marketing
Strategic marketing is a combination of planning and tactical execution to help companies find the most efficient ways to achieve success and sustain growth. It involves objective product reviews to find your product’s competitive advantage and proficient market knowledge to set yourself in a position to grow and develop.
A marketing strategy should have clear objectives and time frames to maintain accountability and measure progress. Effective strategic marketing is an essential part of a marketing plan and is integral to executing the rest of the decision-making processes in a project. It lays the foundations for a project to make the right decisions that reflect its mission, vision, and values.
The competitive blockchain space is unforgiving. That is why the emphasis on getting this phase right is essential to a project’s survival and long-term success. It also saves costs and streamlines the growth process for any project because they know what they need and cut out distractions and misplaces priorities that spread a project’s resources thin.
Our pick for this category is Belkin Marketing.
Belkin Marketing
Belkin Marketing is an international group of professional marketing experts led by its founder and CEO, the charismatic Yaroslav Belkin. The outfit specializes in developing customized marketing plans to help its partners achieve their goals. BM has a portfolio that spans over 15 years, with over $220 Million raised for 100+ clients.
Belkin Marketing also has deep roots throughout the blockchain industry, giving them access to private data, insights, and insider knowledge. This privy information helps them direct their partners’ decision-making, especially in the strategic marketing phase. The experience and expertise of its in-house experts and blockchain partners provide the combination to prepare your product for the market and do it properly.
With an emphasis on quality over quantity, you can be assured that Yaros Belkin, the founder and CEO, will also contribute directly to your strategic marketing plans. Interactions with Yaros Belkin leave lasting impressions, and his marketing agency has left an indelible mark on the blockchain space.
These excellent standards flow through every level of Belkin Marketing, and it remains its competitive advantage in the area of strategic marketing.
Conclusion
It is 2022, and the blockchain space is going through uncharted territories. However, it is also apparent that we are only a few innovations away from going mainstream. With a global audience comes global impact makers, and the competition worsens.
There are many ways to stand out from the crowd, and marketing is one of the most popular and reliable means. However, marketing is an umbrella term for different aspects of product promotion that require diverse skillsets.
Depending on what you need, you should first identify that the partner has the same goals as you. I hope you find the answers you’re looking for in this article, and if not, I believe you know better to make informed decisions and not allow the noise to distract you.