Top 5 Applications of Blockchain in Marketing & How They Change Marketing

If there is one kind of technology that has burst upon the marketing scene and proliferated in the past decade, it is blockchain. Though most synonymous with digital currency, blockchain technology has applications far beyond that domain. The application of blockchain in marketing, for instance, has expanded its use cases, and the list is nowhere close to being completed.

Nearly every aspect of marketing now has some space in which blockchain technology can be utilized. What’s more, multiple studies demonstrate that using blockchain for these applications improves their efficacy significantly.

A complete understanding of blockchain can be rather difficult to obtain. Engineers and computer scientists have spent years and years trying to understand blockchain technology and to code using this technology.

Blockchain technology is essentially a decentralized ledger, decentralized being the keyword here. Several computer devices store parts of the database in the form of nodes. Each exchange of data is stored in entities, which are known as blocks. Each block’s contents comprise the stored data, the timestamp, and a hash code, primarily preceding the block’s location.

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So, how can this technology be used for marketing purposes? Here are some applications of blockchain in marketing:

Applications of Blockchain in Marketing

1. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has been increasing in its scope in tandem with the number of influencers on various social media platforms. However, there are some difficulties that brands hiring influencers to help spread the word run into. A rather significant problem is the difficulty in tracking the influencer’s efficacy.

There is no way to know whether the influencer’s reach is nearly as much as claimed. Blockchain technology can be of great aid in analyzing the data generated by every individual customer’s promotions and thereby assess their efficacy as an influencer.

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Must Read: How to Make a Successful Career in Blockchain? Everything You Need to Know

2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing can suffer from many of the same problems that influencer marketing does. There is no doubt that affiliate marketing is effective, given that it is used in nearly every domain now. Just how effective it is is the question. Blockchain can track and improve the efficiency of affiliates in several ways.

It can introduce the use of cryptocurrency to make payments, thus simplifying transactions. Blockchain can also be used to introduce smart contracts, making it very easy to track the number of users brought in by each affiliate. This will save brands from investing in affiliates that do not bring any evident value.

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3. Loyalty Programs

We are all a part of one loyalty program or the other. One might join a brand’s loyalty program either because one is a frequent shopper of a brand or because one sees some kind of monetary benefit in joining the loyalty program. But a large portion of loyalty program reward points generally goes unredeemed. This creates large financial liability for the brand that owns these points.

With blockchain in marketing, multiple brands can tie up and form an alliance with a common reward points system. Once this system has been created, reward points from one brand can be used with another, leading to a win-win situation for the brands and the customer.

Also Read: Cryptography in Blockchain: Types & Applications

4. Targeted Advertising

This is among the holy grails of marketing. How do you reach customers who are more likely to use your product than others? Targeted advertising for brands can often be like shooting arrows in the dark, hoping that at least one will hit the target. In the process, brands end up spending huge amounts of money with very little return. Blockchain changes all that.

The technology helps brands create Ethereum tokens, which can be used as payment only if the advertisement hits a target customer and the customer interacts with it. The payment process is completely automatic and works by a formula, so all the parties involved earn and spend as per the performance of the advertisement.

5. Ad fraud

Another major application of blockchain in marketing is its use to prevent advertising fraud. A score of networks can swindle brands that are paying for legitimate advertising by posting these ads on illegitimate websites with absolutely no return. This can also be done in the form of fake or malicious advertisements, which have no return on investment for brands and damage their reputation.

Blockchain technology can be used in this regard to remove all the middlemen involved in a transaction. Only the brand and the advertisement publisher are involved and are in direct contact, and payments are made automatically.

Conclusion

To use blockchain in marketing, you will first need to go through a course in blockchain technology. Lucky for you, upGrad provides some great certificate courses from the best universities in the world to help you gain all the required knowledge of blockchain. So, get learning!

If you’re intrigued by reading this article and want to start your Blockchain career, you can visit upGrad. Check out IIIT-B & upGrad’s Advanced certificate program in blockchain technology to learn building smart contracts and chain codes. The course will surely help you understand Blockchain’s basics and its future in marketing strategy and technology.