Decentralizing digital marketing: The benefits of a blockchain-based strategy

As technology continues to transform, the realms of digital marketing continue to evolve. In a post-pandemic digitally savvy landscape, the ‘modern consumer’ has become increasingly active, especially amongst a number of popular online platforms.

In response, digital marketers need to work harder than ever before. The consumer of today is smart, savvy, and not easy to persuade. As the e-commerce industry booms, rising 35% since the onset of Covid-19, competing companies need to prioritise a secure, transparent strategy that aims to put the customer in control. 

This is where the birth of blockchain steps in. Known for revolutionising the financial sector and enhancing data-sharing in a corporate landscape, the question is, could it be the key to digital marketing success too? Let’s find out.

Blockchain changes how we store and access data

According to Investopedia, “a blockchain is a distributed database that is shared among the nodes of a computer network. As a database, a blockchain stores information electronically in digital format.”

Known for revolutionizing a number of sectors ranging from finance to healthcare, the data security ledger has found its way onto the corporate scene, enhancing the security and transparency of cross-border data transactions in a new globally connected online network.

Storing data in ‘blocks’ across a number of networks is just one benefit of blockchain enhancement. In the wake of cybercrime rising by 600% as a result of Covid-19’s digital shift, blockchain’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) is becoming a vital tool for the corporate sector as they strive to reduce cybersecurity threats.

In 2022 alone, the global blockchain market is set to see a growth of 40%, with just under half of the market’s expansion coming from North America alone. 

As we step into a globally digital future for corporate success, experts suggest that blockchain adoption could be the key to success for all aspects of business practice, ranging from cross-platform transactions and sales to nurturing B2B relationships.

The question is, just how much of an effect will it have on the marketing sector?

Digital marketing’s challenges today

Digital marketing has remained a powerful tool for communicating with customers during the last pandemic-ridden two years. In fact, 77% of marketers believe that the role of marketing has become much more important in a new digitally forward landscape, and will continue to evolve as customer demand increases.

However, with more customers to serve than ever before, the marketing sector continues to face challenges regarding transparency, personalisation and keeping up with the ever-changing digital trends. 
Did you know that 86% of modern consumers demand more transparency, authenticity and clarity from the businesses they interact with?

As data breaches continue to become an ongoing challenge for marketing giants, active consumers now want to know where their personal data is going and how it is being stored, forcing digital marketers to improve their data privacy regulations and adapt to new opt-out schemes.

As new data transparency regulations make it harder for markets to gain important customer information, many in the industry are turning to AI-infused analytic tools such as Finteza and Google Analytics to track customer engagement and gain insight into demographic trends without breaching data privacy.

Another challenge currently dominating the marketing scene is personalisation. In a technologically demanding landscape, active consumers require more than ever before from the businesses they interact with. With so much competition on the market, smart marketers are turning towards personalized campaigns, creative copywriting and artificial intelligence in order to hook their potential leads, taking much more time, money and effort in order to see success.

In fact, over half of the customers in a recent Salesforce survey revealed that they expect all campaigns to be personalized in order to receive their attention.

Could a blockchain-based strategy be the key to success?

In a sector filled with data-based challenges, introducing blockchain technology to your marketing strategy could be the key to success.

From boosting consumer confidence when sharing personal information, to improving customer retention and streamlined personalisation throughout each campaign, let’s have a closer look at some of the benefits blockchain could bring to the table.

Boosting consumer confidence

Consumer privacy continues to be an important concern for digital marketers. Consumers continue to worry about their transaction confidentiality when engaging in data sharing online. Whether this is their bank details during payment, or personal information when becoming a member of a site, they are reluctant to provide digital marketers with their PII. 

In fact, 87% of consumers protect their privacy by requesting companies to remove their PII information from their databases due to security and transparency concerns.

Blockchain technology can boost customer confidence when engaging in data sharing with a blockchain infused platform. Thanks to its decentralized and distributed nature, consumers can know exactly what data is being captured and shared, and any PII can be minimized and/or encrypted, reducing cybersecurity threats while still encouraging transparency for all parties involved.

Reducing fraud threats

Did you know that the marketing sector accounts for 43% of all cybercrime targets? As the corporate sector continues to enhance its digital security, smart marketers are not far behind.

One of the security issues facing the marketing and advertising sector today is click fraud, a recent phenomenon that aims to destroy the credibility of pop up marketing campaigns, by mimicking their appearance to cover up illegitimate links.

Defined by Frontiers In Blockchain as “an intentional act in which a natural person or organization tries to obtain illegitimate interests or drain a competitor’s advertising budget using automated scripts, computer programs or employing natural persons to mimic legitimate web users to click on online advertising,” experts suggest that click fraud alone will cost advertisers $44 billion by the end of 2022. 

Blockchain technology aims to mitigate some of the risks associated with the rise in click fraud by improving the authentication of clicks. By creating an ‘adChain’ both marketers and consumers can benefit from real-time impression tracking that provides all parties with transparency and credibility throughout the advertising campaign.

Improving customer retention

In a densely populated e-commerce landscape, prioritizing customer retention is vital if you want to see your conversions soaring. From increased personalisation to the introduction of loyalty programmes, brands continue to store and utilize consumer data to create the perfect campaign for their demographic.

This is where blockchain technology steps in. Not only can it aid marketers to gain customer insights transparently, encouraging consumers to share their information for personalisation benefits, but it can also improve the creation of loyalty programmes.

According to the Frontiers In Blockchain, “Blockchain technology has the potential to reform how loyalty programs are designed, tracked, and communicated to consumers.”

Using transparent integration, markets, consumers, sales representatives and even other connecting businesses can gain visibility of their member’s profiles, purchase history and promotion engagement in real-time, bringing fragmented teams together to create a more customized and attractive loyalty programme.

Looking to the future

Blockchain may only just be surfacing in the corporate sector, but it’s destined for a future in transforming marketing strategy. From decentralizing data sharing to increasing transparency between the business and the consumer, marketers can look forward to seeing more consumer engagement with their campaigns.

As the pandemic pushes for more automation than ever before, a blockchain-based strategy could be the key to standing out amongst your competitors.

“It looks like blockchain is here to stay,’ comments Reid Hoffman, COO of the popular corporate social platform, LinkedIn. “I think it’s going to be a powerful technology for modern society.”