{"id":23650,"date":"2017-06-14T14:16:40","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T14:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci027cfe6ee01426c3"},"modified":"2017-06-14T14:16:40","modified_gmt":"2017-06-14T14:16:40","slug":"op-ed-future-bright-3-out-4-blockchain-based-startups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/business\/op-ed-future-bright-3-out-4-blockchain-based-startups","title":{"rendered":"Op Ed: The Future Is Bright \u2014 for 3 Out of 4 Blockchain-Based Startups"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
<\/figure>\n

More than $35 billion worth of new investment has poured into cryptocurrencies since the beginning of 2017, and famed investor Tim Draper is publicly supporting<\/a> Tezos\u2019s ICO.<\/p>\n

With news like that, it\u2019s pretty clear to anyone watching that the world of blockchain technology and decentralized-based solutions is heating up rapidly.<\/p>\n

As investment and activity increase, so does the need for greater differentiation. The intensity of competition and number of \u201cme-too\u201d or \u201ccopycat\u201d projects are only going to increase dramatically.<\/p>\n

So, it\u2019s a good thing that some of the startups in the decentralization industry are getting ready.<\/p>\n

Blockchain Startups Have Not Invested in Marketing \u2026 but They Will<\/h3>\n

According to the \u201cMarketing Maturity of Decentralized Startups, Q2 2017 Report<\/a>\u201d just released by the Decentralized Marketing Network<\/a> (DMN) \u2014 a co-op of blockchain startups such as Rootstock, Tierion and OB1, pooling their marketing knowledge \u2014 3 out of every 4 blockchain and decentralized startups plan to increase their marketing headcount in the next 12 months. Further, 70 percent of them plan to increase their spend on marketing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good thing too, because the report uncovered something that most industry observers have known for a long time. When blockchain-based startups \u201cmarket,\u201d their messaging is often inconsistent, ad hoc and typically more aligned to features than benefits. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise really.<\/p>\n

Most disruptive technological periods begin this way. There\u2019s a flurry of great engineering-led innovations, but marketing maturity is low. The report backs this up, finding that an average of only 5 percent of budgets were spent on marketing, and only 35 percent of startups have anyone who even has responsibility for marketing.<\/p>\n

Beware: Marketing Is Misunderstood<\/h3>\n

The number of reasons why marketing as a discipline is misunderstood are many. Everyone has familiarity with tactics such as advertising, promotional items, flyers, business cards and websites. So, naturally, everyone thinks they understand marketing.<\/p>\n

Sadly, that\u2019s not the case. In her fantastic review<\/a> of the book Drucker on Marketing<\/a> by William A. Cohen, Jenny Cheung writes that \u201cselling has to do with persuading a prospect to buy something you have. Marketing has to do with already having what prospects want.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Smart Marketers Do and You Can As Well<\/h3>\n

Marketing isn\u2019t an afterthought. It\u2019s the critical thinking that goes into creating a product or service that actually meets someone\u2019s active or latent needs.<\/p>\n

Getting there doesn\u2019t have to take eight months. It can be done in a few weeks, but it involves:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. creating a brand platform;<\/li>\n
  2. refining a strong, differentiated value proposition;<\/li>\n
  3. understanding your audience and the various personas;<\/li>\n
  4. building a messaging platform (here\u2019s a way to get started quickly<\/a>); and<\/li>\n
  5. creating a tight marketing plan that aligns objectives, goals, strategies and tactics.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It also involves operational and strategic discipline, which are covered more broadly in \u201c14 Rules for Successful High-Growth Marketing<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Most important of all is that it is never too early to get started. Des Traynor, the founder of Intercom (a $50m revenue company), has a really powerful talk <\/a>in which he basically says, \u201cWe made a lot of marketing mistakes early on and I wish we had done it differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Learn the Lesson: Tech Alone Isn\u2019t Enough …<\/h3>\n

    The classic example of a superior technology losing the battle is the Betamax\u2013VHS battle<\/a> in the \u201980s. Betamax started off with a near 100 percent market share, but VHS countered by offering recording times of two, then four, then six hours versus Betamax\u2019s higher-quality picture but with only one hour\u2019s worth of recording time. Why time instead of quality?<\/p>\n

    The answer turns out to be something that sits at the core of marketing. The legendary Peter Drucker said that the \u201caim of marketing is to know the customer so well that the product sells itself.\u201d What the VHS proponents figured out was that customers wanted to record movies. They were longer than one hour, which made VHS a superior choice, even if it wasn\u2019t superior quality.<\/p>\n

    By focusing on extending the length of time available on a tape based on that insight, they were able to meet customer needs and emerge victorious.<\/p>\n

    As decentralized startups enter the next phase, making the investment in marketing earlier rather than later is the wise way to go.<\/p>\n

    According to the Decentralized Marketing Network<\/a>, many startups have realized that. The DMN is planning to offer webinars, newsletters and forums all with the goal of giving technical founders a strong understanding of marketing fundamentals in positioning, value proposition and messaging. The better understood that marketing is as a discipline, the better the chances are for the the success of a technology.<\/p>\n

    This is a guest post by Jeremy Epstein. The opinions expressed are his alone and do not necessarily reflect those of <\/em>Bitcoin Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As decentralized startups enter the next phase, making the investment in marketing earlier rather than later is the wise way to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3522,"featured_media":23651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[556,3240,3224,176],"class_list":{"0":"post-23650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-blockchain","9":"tag-icos","10":"tag-op-ed","11":"tag-startups"},"author_data":{"id":3522,"name":"Jeremy Epstein","nicename":"jeremy-epstein","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/jeremy-epstein-promo-image-96x96.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/op-ed-the-future-is-bright-for-3-out-of-4-blockchain-based-startups.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3522"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}