Inspiration to Advertise and Market BitShares Decentralized Exchange (DEX)
Introduction
Even though Bitshares DEX has all the features that most other crypto project are "working on", the project is having issues marketing itself. There are many reasons for that but mostly, the issue has been the same issue Steemit.com, it was build for geeks by geeks without thinking of the average person way of thinking.
But I had an ad running on my Youtube feed today and it gave me inspiration on how Bitshares DEX can market itself effectively.
The Decentralized Exchange
Now, when I listened to the last beyond bitcoin show, I was thinking of the hurdles the DEX face.
First Action: Landing page
People talked about running an ad on coinmarketcap and other marketing outreach. To me, it's a strategy that I call "Spray and Pray". It's better than nothing but it's not how success is built.
Right now, there is no marketing behind the project even thou the product is awesome. What we need is to create the right expectation in the mind of the future user before he sign up.
That's why a landing page would be very important. Whenever traffic is being generated via ads, we lead them to a page with cool videos that explain (not in great details) what this platform can do and how it can change the world.
A decentralized exchange is a pretty big deal if you can tell people we can do away with Wall Street, Forex and other centralized corrupted institutions.
Second Action:
On that landing page we need videos , something like the above but with a more "inspirational" side. With a worker's proposal, we can do A LOT of advertising but we first need inspirational media and a kickass landing page that we can split-test A/B.
Conclusion
Hey Bitshares people, I'm in. I'll be there at the mumble on wednesday to talk marketing :-)
gREAT NEWS
I'm sure you've noticed - in the Telegram chat - that participants mostly agree that things have to be done in order to improve Bitshares. What usually lacks is a clear plan and dedication. I'm sure that if you create a clear plan and make a worker proposal, it will get support. If all it requires from voters is approving your plan, it's easy to do. If you have the ability and resources to improve things, that would be awesome. We're all just waiting for being allowed to vote you in!
Have to get my thinking cap on and I'm working on a plan to propose. If I did marketing, it would be around the DEX for sure.
DEX- The very term "decentralized" is a geek term. Nobody but us crypto nerds care about decentralization or unerstand the supposed benefits. " globally networked, direct person to person exchange". (Or something similar. Shorter?) does a lot more to convey to the mass market the revolutionary idea and exciting innovation that is bitshares.
I've been in bitshares from the very beginning and right from the start have been complaining about problems in marketing and product positioning. One thing is for sure: geeks generally have zero ideas about how to market. To do it right, first one must trash the vast majority of terms currently used in the crypto (geek) world. An entirely new more approachable lexicon is needed. I always say, to be successful in mass communications (marketing) language needs to be structured so that a 14 year old with little training can understand and relate to the message easily. If you can set a lexicon that achieves that, you have an excellent foundation to begin to tell your (bitshares) story to the world.
Other terms that need updating for marketing
Crypto currency= digital currency
Trustless system = trust guranteed system
There are many, many others........
Why don't you join forces with cryptoctopus to make a superb marketing plan and then a worker proposal? I'm sure it will get voted in, as everyone agrees that it is Bitshare's shortcoming, and no-one has addressed it properly yet. I have noticed that consensus in the forums means little, and the one that has any significance is consensus on workers. Right now there is nothing to vote on...
This is so spot on
Yep, we need marketing. IMO targeting a market is the key. Cryptocurrencies, blockchain, dex are not ready for prime time due to difficulties for ordinary user to be involve. Things will evolve as the industry move. For now Bitshares is ready for crypto savvy and only this community will understand our message today. So the target market should be the crypto community. Our message should go towards Bitcoin community, Ethereum community, Dash community, students studying economics, computer science, finance or any community looking for alternatives. Target market first, then ad later. I think going for ordinary user now before crypto community might be difficult. Why not sponsor blockchain meetups.
I agree. Crypto is the primary target for sure since we need liquidity...yet, we still need to educate them on a landing page as to "what" one can do with it and why it's awesome.
I appreciate you joining the group man...
We can use as many of you as we can get. 😎
Great !
One way the geeks would get more attention was if they did like exodus and supported a bucket of coins. Just the ability to avoid crappy wallets would be a great entry to the exchange. I personally dont like to trade those "open" tokens. But thats me. Some real tokens should find its way into the platform. I have not started to use it myself since i have just started mining. I hope to reach a couple of thousands before my cerfew at eobot ends.
The open tokens confused me when I first checked out the marketplace. I still haven't traded for any.
cool BitShares
This seems to be the reason behind the success or failure of so many things. I'm also a huge fan of BitShares and am confused why more people aren't more excited about it. I'd love to do all my trading there, but the volume is just too low. Why? Who wouldn't want to trade for basically no fees (a fraction of a penny per trade? How awesome is that!?!?)? It also solves the "don't have your private keys on an exchange" problem because only the browser touches the keys. It's fantastic, but not enough people are taking advantage of it. Goofy. Maybe I'll try promoting it a bit myself with a video or something.
I think the main problem is that there's quite some threshold to getting a grip on Bitshares tech. It's overwhelming. Other projects just focus on one awesome feature they have, and often it's the only value proposition they have over others. But that makes communicating the message very simple and efficient. People grasp the vision by reading one sentence. We need something like that for Bitshares. That might well mean that we drop 95% of our awesomeness from the value proposition, and focus on only one. That could be "Transparent Exchange", or "Frictionless and Fun"...
definitely a technical issue to not have enough liquidity. BTSbots.com has done amazing things to increase the number of transactions, we need more trading bots that's for sure. Maybe a tournament on who can make the most out of a 20,000BTS? Who can create the most profitable bot?
Oh, I really like that idea. :)