Is Blockchain the Future of Digital Marketing?

There is an ever-growing chain of blocks on the internet that is leading to the revolutionary trend of decentralizing the digital ledgers. It all started as a basic technology to help secure the transactions and improve the traceability with cryptocurrencies. But it has now evolved to a stage where it is being used in ways we had least expected. Have you heard about the modern marriages that are “made in Blockchain”? That is the extent to which this concept has penetrated.

Digital marketing is changing in lots of ways and this is helping businesses big and small cut down costs spent on marketing campaigns. But for the customers this is impacting the internet browsing experience. When you open any random web page you are very likely to be distracted by flashy ads. There are ad blockers to help you with this. But that doesn’t change the fact that these ads are bothersome. Businesses however are helplessly in search of new ways to put their products in front of their audience and to win leads. They are also relentlessly trying to gather as much customer information as possible. Amidst all this if there is a magic wand that can help cast an effective spell and streamline all the chaos in the marketing segment, then it would definitely be a big success. As one such magic wand comes the blockchain technology. Are you still wondering what this tech behind the cryptocurrency has to do with advertising and digital marketing in general?

1. The birth of self-sovereign identity:

You browse through an ecommerce portal, leave some products in your cart and then forget about it. But then there is an ad that magically pops up on a different web page with a direct link to the product page. These are measures taken to resolve cart abandonment issues and issues of missed orders. But some businesses end up overdoing this and the whole plan backfires. If there is so much money being spent on buying customer data and gathering customer information it only depicts how valuable user credentials are. So it would make total sense to give the user information the value it deserves by allowing users to control what data is gathered and what data is being shared, where it is being used and how it is being used. Blockchain makes this happen by materializing the concept of self-sovereign identity. What would possibly happen is customers would be requested for information and they can choose to give or not to give. The customers would then be paid a small sum because they are providing the much essential data required for analytics.

2. Give information to get information:

Even the most expensive and the fanciest ad campaigns would make no difference if the business fails to win the trust of the customers. If you would like customers to confidently provide you data then there should be a transparency that would help build their trust. When they know where their data is going they would be less hesitant in providing it. This would also help them understand that you have taken security measures to preserve their data and prevent data leaks. Transparency is also one of the most effective advertisements for any business.

3. A more effective way to understand the effectiveness of an ad campaign:

Ad blockers are major hurdles for businesses. How do you track whether the ad that was posted on the internet actually received a good response? The number of clicks is one of the most convenient parameters. There are paid clicks that ads receive both from human users and from bots. That altogether mars the purpose of ads on the internet. So Blockchain tackles that issue by incorporating the right level of transparency. So businesses would get clear cut information on the actual number of clicks received from bots and those from humans. And this would also help determine whether the ad is being viewed by the target audience.

4. Au revoir middlemen!

When we talk about the benefits that Blockchain offers in the financial sector one of the most prominent benefits is the elimination of middlemen. The same holds good for digital marketing as well. Billions of dollars are being spent in the marketing sector. And of these billions of dollars a major share goes to the middlemen. When the middlemen are removed, then the costs come down significantly. For the businesses the benefit of cost-cutting matters and there is also a merit for the customers in this. Customer data would not go through middlemen and so the possibility of data loss further comes down. Data is also available to the businesses much more quickly.

5. Improved resilience:

Robustness is one of the strongest traits of Blockchain. It is about making data available for access but blocking the permission to copy or remove data. The links in the chain can be added but the existing ones cannot easily be tampered with. The use of blockchain would thus help build a resilient marketing strategy that comes with inherent data security and data recovery options.
One other area where blockchain can significantly show a change is the influencer marketing. All interactions and transactions with influencers and content creators now progress without any norms. Without universal rules for these transactions tracking the activities is getting tough. Blockchain would help by providing smart contract systems which also pave the way for a more streamlined approach for these processes. This can benefit all the parties involved and avoid gaps that usually cause delays and financial losses as well.
As of now there are no regulations governing the terms of Blockchain and it is relatively easy to integrate with the existing system. But it is undeniable that adopting Blockchain would cause a conspicuous and a long term change in the processes. So this is something that has to happen gradually. The speed of integration would also vary from one industry to another, from one business to another.