As Bitcoin itself only turned 10 years old earlier this year, the cryptocurrency industry is very young, with truly mainstream levels of adoption still to come in future years. In the time since the development of the first altcoins, the rise of Ethereum, and the boom and bust of the ICO era, an extraordinary amount of progress has been made. Even in a dull market, developments in cryptocurrency-related businesses are being made at record pace, and there is already a high demand for quality products and services.

To match this high demand is an increasingly competitive business sector, with several projects rushing to get ahead of one another in order to secure their piece of the crypto industry pie. It is this feeling of the need to rush - to get your product or service out there before the next guy - that frequently drives projects into making fatal mistakes. All of these mistakes are avoidable if you are willing to put the proper amount of time and focus into the marketing of your project, as well as the project itself.

In this article we will review some of the biggest mistakes frequently made by crypto projects in the marketing of their product or service and give you a few tips on how to make sure they don’t happen to you.

#1. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver

While it is of course important to make your project sound cool, useful and exciting, it is important to remember the bounds of your limitations, and reflect these within your marketing content. During the ICO boom of 2017-2018, a lot of crypto startups pitched some amazing ideas, collecting equally amazing amounts of money for them in the process. Their one downfall: they had no idea how to actually implement these ideas.

Scores of coins and tokens have suffered 90-99% drops in price since their ICO, leaving thousands of investors dismayed and wary of the idea of crypto investments. In 2019, investors are more skeptical than ever, which is why it is important to develop and present realistic plans as outlined on a realistic road map. Only market plans that you know you are capable of carrying out. Only set goals that you know you can accomplish. Investors will be turned off by grandiose ideas that seem unworkable, so don’t oversell your project with what are likely to be untruths, or overt stretches of the imagination.

#2. Don’t hurry the creation of your marketing materials

It is true that crypto market trends move quickly, and you want to strike when the time is right and the iron is hot. The feeling of needing to get word of your project out there ASAP can often introduce unintended consequences: errors forced by rushing and doing an incomplete job. These errors can take the shape of not only the publishing of incorrect or irrelevant marketing information but embarrassing bugs in the release of product software as well, which could have the potential to kill your project.

Before posting anything online or making it available to your customer base, be sure to double-check it for errors. It’s always a good idea to have another set of eyes on texts that you are getting ready to publish, even if just for the sake of getting a second opinion. Don’t forget to make sure that your marketing messages are non-controversial, indicative of your general project focus and within its Terms and Conditions. The idea of double-checking also applies to social media posts, such as those on Twitter or Bitcointalk.

Perhaps most importantly: don’t plagiarize the works of others. It can seem like an extraordinary time saver to use text from elsewhere on the internet, but if you get caught it could be the death knell of your project. Always remember that it is difficult to gain a good reputation in the crypto industry but easy to lose it quickly. It’s even easier to gain a bad reputation.

#3. Don’t forget to create a blog (and update it regularly)

Creating your own project-centric blog is important for a number of reasons. Not only is it a self-contained place where you can post updates and news about your project, but it is also a source of highly-relevant traffic and an indicator of the liveliness surrounding your project. An active blog signifies an active project. Use it to update your audience of the latest developments being made in your project. You can also use it for demonstrations of use-case scenarios of your product or service and help potential customers understand what it’s all about.

Blogs are designed to be more personal and have a looser feel than technical documentation or other marketing devices, so use it to connect with readers on personal level. Provide regular updates (at least once a week), and be sure to provide a link or two to your product or service web page to obtain a traffic boost that is far more likely to result in conversions than most other traffic sources. Don’t think of writing blog entries as just another part of the job but as a chance to talk directly with your user base.

#4. Don’t burden your customers and audience with excuses

Quite frequently, crypto project developers will pin the blame for certain non-deliveries or failures on individuals or organizations outside of their team and use it as an excuse to pass on to their customers. Not only is this poor form, it is largely unprofessional, and most of the time nobody wants to hear it. Don’t blame your failure to meet deadlines or expectations on 3rdparty developers, internet services, or other companies not related to your own business.

Perhaps the worst move of all is blaming a failure on your clients or investors themselves, which happens all too often in heated moments in Telegram group exchanges, on the Bitcointalk forum, Reddit, Facebook, etc. Don’t be that guy who loses their cool on social media and is ridiculed for months by the community afterward.

Everyone makes mistakes, and of course, the unexpected can and does happen all the time. When it happens to your project and sets things off or behind, your response to handling the matter can be a make-or-break moment for your reputation. Just keep in mind that your customers don’t want to hear excuses; they want to hear solutions. Talk about how you are going to deliver a reliable service or product as promised in light of a setback. Be strong, take responsibility, and attempt to resolve everything as soon as possible. This will not only keep your customers happy but also demonstrate your authority as a leadership figure.

#5. Don’t forget about mobile users

In this day and age, an ever-increasing percentage of internet users are accessing the online world via smart phone or other mobile device, and ignoring these users can be a costly mistake. It is important to remember to configure your website to be mobile friendly in all aspects.

This also includes making sure that any newsletters or communications you send out are readable on mobile devices, so be sure to test their readability on your own before hitting the “Send” button. Don’t miss out on the rapidly growing share of mobile traffic, as the newest generation of the online audience feels just as comfortable (or more) on a mobile device as they would on a desktop or laptop computer.

#6. Don’t spend too much time on social media

Of course it is recommended to set up social media accounts for your business or project; the most essential of which include LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. If your project is technical-oriented, you will also want to showcase developments being made in a GitHub repository. However, creating unique content for standard social media pages is not entirely necessary. Rather, use social media to link to updates in your blog or items on your website.

Most crypto-oriented social media pages have massive numbers of followers that were usually purchased as some sort of package deal but look strange with almost no activity, which is often the case. Creating unique and engaging content for social media can be time-consuming, so before getting started try to determine if your audience really needs it or if your time would be better spent working on something else.

#7. Don’t forget to listen to your customers

Don’t be afraid to make alterations to your project’s goals or roadmap if the majority of your customers or user base supports them. Sometimes a plan will require some adjustments if it turns out that a particular feature is deemed necessary or useful by your customers and keeping an open mind to their wants demonstrates that you care about them and are willing to listen. Messages sent to your users to let them know that you have acted on their advice are always well-received and are all the more likely to help your project develop a positive reputation among the community.

User feedback has the potential to not only make your product or service more desirable to the public but can let you know where certain problems exist that may have otherwise gone unrecognized by your team. They may be looking at things from a unique perspective unavailable to you, which can make their feedback immensely valuable. Remember that your project exists for the benefit of your customers, so take in their feedback and don’t be afraid to be flexible in terms of catering to their particular wants and needs.

Conclusion

When taken into consideration, the advice provided within this article can help you to build a strong foundation on which to market your crypto project. It’s a competitive world out there and even the most brilliant of ideas can fail if its marketing is poorly implemented.

If you would like to up your marketing game to the next level, Cointraffic has several different, highly-customizable advertising formats that were created to boost marketing of crypto-oriented businesses. Contact us today to begin reaching the right audience for your project or business. We can help you to get the attention of real customers who are actually interested or already participating in the ever-growing crypto industry.