4 Ways in Which Blockchain Impacts Digital Marketing Strategies in 2020

While the most well-known application of blockchain is cryptocurrency, the technology has proven to be highly beneficial in many other industries.

Digital marketing is one of them.

Already, digital marketers and other players in the industry can take advantage of blockchain through numerous tools and websites. Content producers, for example, are already earning money through blockchain-powered content monetization platforms.

To understand how blockchain is already changing digital marketing, let’s take a look at these four ways.

1. Content Monetization with Cryptocurrency

Creating engaging content is the most important thing in digital marketing. Videos, blog posts, infographics - this is the product that people look online. Doing content marketing is a long-term strategy that requires a lot of time and effort investment.

Yet, many content creators lose big by having content sharing platforms taking their commission. On YouTube, for example, video makers must get millions of views to get rewarded, which is often extremely hard to achieve.

Blockchain can change that.

By taking the power away from centralized bodies like YouTube, it connects content creators and consumers. Based on the decentralization, content creators can register on a blockchain-based monetization platform and receive cryptocurrency.

Contentos and Machi X are great examples of such a platform. Contentos is a decentralized global content ecosystem where people share their content and get paid fairly thanks to transparent credit systems. Machi X, a social marketplace for music copyrights, is co-created by a Taiwanese A-list musician Jeffrey Huang.

2. Reducing Plagiarism and Piracy

Plagiarism is a major concern for content producers and businesses.

Getting content stolen undermines the performance of digital marketing campaigns and wastes a lot of time and effort.

But the worst thing is, it’s often hard to detect plagiarism right away. As a result, the damage is already done, and content writers won’t see the results they could have achieved.

To avoid plagiarism issues, online businesses often make additional precautions. Using confidential writing tools like Grammarly and/or signing copyright agreements with contractors are just some of these precautions.

That’s why having more protection against plagiarism is something that content creators will appreciate. Thankfully, blockchain has already shown promise in this area.

It relies on public-key cryptography, a tool that proves the identity of a content user with a special block of info. This means that each file shared online is “marked” with unique private access.

Key cryptography also allows verifying the authenticity of any type of online content. Content owners can track such details as time of creation and evidence of infringement, thus having a real way of proving their authorship.

The ultimate benefit is much better protection of content against plagiarism and piracy.

3. Eliminating Fees in Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing today heavily relies on the presence of a network, or some other sort of middleman. Since making transactions transparent by removing middlemen is what blockchain is all about, no wonder that many affiliate marketers have been watching its development closely.

“A decentralized affiliate platform where merchants and affiliates connect with each other without third parties is the ultimate promise of blockchain,” says Dana White, a blockchain researcher at Studicus. “All financial transactions between players are safe and trackable thanks to smart contracts.”

Apart from reduced fees, blockchain increases the transparency between the players, which minimizes fraud.

4. Reduce Mistrust in Digital Advertising

Fraud and other trust-related issues are a known problem that plagues the digital advertising industry.

The process of running ads is often too expensive and ridiculously complicated. On top of that, it’s completely controlled by big players like Google and Facebook.

The digital advertisement system has also grown unnecessarily complex. According to this PwC report, it takes about 23 different middlemen to get an ad from the marketer to the publisher to a consumer. This complexity makes tracking ad metrics almost impossible.

Blockchain can help by creating a platform where ad buyers can verify and adjust the performance of their ad campaigns. The platform would also provide access to analytics and give consumers the power to avoid sharing personal data with advertisers.

Issues like lawsuits, data breaches, and incorrect payments will also be minimized thanks to blockchain-enabled transparent transactions.

Here’s the PwC’s vision of how blockchain can help to address three major pain points in digital advertising.

Clearly, the technology can minimize the issue of mistrust in digital advertising, which could transform the entire industry.

Blockchain and Digital Marketing: Conclusion

Blockchain could improve the impact of digital marketing while helping to reduce numerous fees for businesses that pay millions. At this point, blockchain’s main promises to the industry are well-known, and many people are working hard to make them a reality.

As industry impact grows, more people will appreciate a secure and transparent experience provided by the blockchain. So it’s easy to assume that more will be inclined to explore its benefits for them.

AUTHOR BIO

Helene Cue is a senior writer, editor, and an educational advisor at BestWritingAdvisor, the writing services review site. She is also a relentless guest writer about all things digital, a proofreader with years of experience, as well as provides essay writer online on blockchain and business-related topics. Her portfolio consists of thousands of articles on digital marketing written for small and medium-sized businesses. When she’s not writing, Helene is working with small business owners to create a content marketing strategy that generates leads.