How crypto businesses can survive the bear market: user insights-to-ROI marketing and a client-centric approach

As the World Bank is warning about a possible recession, crypto has to brace itself for its first-ever bear market coinciding with a downturn in traditional markets. To survive under these conditions, blockchain startups have to optimize every single business process. How? Here are the 5 top tips from the crypto consulting agency BDC Consulting.

Will we see a new crypto winter in 2022? And if so, will it come after the final BTC blow-off top above $60k? Nobody knows, but with the inflation in the US at its highest since 1981 and interest hikes looming, the global economy could indeed be heading for a recession – and drag the crypto market with it.

So what should a blockchain startup do if Bitcoin goes below $20k and retail investments dry up? The answer, according to the online marketing and consulting expert Ales Kovalevich, is a combination of 3 S’: save, streamline, survive. Save funds – not buy shutting down any processes altogether, but by maximizing their efficiency.

The team of the crypto consulting firm BDC Consulting knows something about this, having worked with 70+ crypto startups, including during the previous bear markets. Based on this experience, its marketing and consulting specialists have created a five-step action plan to get through the potential bear market and even come out of it stronger than before.

Step 1: Develop a client-centric approach

According to Deloitte, those financial services companies that strive to anticipate the needs of their customers are 60% more profitable than the businesses that don’t practice a client-centric approach.

What is a client-centric approach, though? Ales Kovalevich, CEO at BDC Consulting, an internet marketing and consulting agency specializing in blockchain, explains:

“When revenue and investments go down, you can only afford to spend money on things that actually move the business forward. Products that the target audience will want to buy. Protocol features that they will use. Media content they will enjoy reading or watching, and so on.

We are a digital marketing and consulting services firm, so we focus on achieving and outperforming the KPIs set by the client in every marketing campaign. But you can also apply the client centric approach to financial planning, HR, partnerships, and so on. As you come to understand how different segments of your target audience consume media, you won’t have to waste money on less efficient platforms or social networks. In other words, the client-centric approach allows you to understand what should be included in those 20% of effort that will yield 80% of the result.”

Step 2: Audience research – understanding what the users really need

When crypto startups first contact a marketing and consulting agency like BDC Consulting, they are usually convinced that they know exactly what their end user’s ‘pain’ is and how their product solves that pain. But after a round of in-depth interviews or a poll, the startup often has to rethink their whole USP and brand positioning.

BDC Consulting is the only blockchain marketing and consulting firm in the market that relies on a user-insights-to-ROI strategy. This means conducting market and user research first, followed by formulating scaling hypotheses. Don’t speculate about what the customer’s problem is – go out and ask them!

Conducting field research, such as interviews and polls, requires very specific expertise and is better left to a crypto consulting services partner. The startup’s role is to prepare to act on the insights – which can mean taking some radical steps. Consulting and marketing expert Ales Kovalevich continues:

“Once we interviewed the users of a new stablecoin and found out that the feature that the founders thought was the most attractive (the high APY) actually scared the potential buyers away, as it seemed too good to be true. The whole messaging around the APY had to be changed.”

This user insight-based approach to marketing, analytics and consulting  can have a dramatic effect on the ROI of a campaign. “Thanks to research, you know what users really want to buy, which words and visuals will attract them, and which fears need to be dispelled – so you don’t waste a single dollar.”

Step 3: Outsource the marketing

Research by the Startup Genome project shows that startups that scale too early tend to have three times larger teams than those that scale properly. And yet, most startups that scale prematurely never reach the $100k a month revenue threshold.

This also applies to blockchain startups, which often raise millions from venture funds and proceed to hire a full in-house marketing team. Hardly any of them can afford to maintain such a team during a bear market.

Instead of hiring 10 people just to have to lay them off later, it’s wiser to outsource most of the  activities to a marketing and consulting company.

In this case you will have a clear idea of what can and should be done, how much time it will take, and how much it will cost. You can also expect that the strategy will be implemented on schedule and that every dollar you spend will turn into tangible results – and if not, you’ll be able to renegotiate the terms.

At first it can seem that marketing and consulting companies charge too much for something that your own marketing team could do at no extra cost, but once you have experienced the results of a promotional campaign planned and executed by a professional agency, you will understand why many successful blockchain startups outsource almost 100% of their PR and marketing activity.

Step 4: build an all-in-one ROI-based strategy

If a crypto winter does arrive, no single marketing tool will save you. No matter how good your community management or content writing are, they will not be enough. You’ll need a complex, all-round strategy that covers user acquisition, token metrics growth, community management, partnerships, investor relations, product and scaling, and market research.

On a more practical level, the strategy can include content placements in the media, paid advertising (PPC), influencer collaborations,  Twitter giveaways, an ambassador program, and any other tool that the user research stage has shown to be effective.

Above all, ROI (return on investment) should be used as the basis for making marketing and spending decisions – and track the ROI of every campaign and every tool. Spending money on a marketing initiative is justified only if it yields positive returns.

If you outsource most of the marketing activities, as per Step 4, it will be up to the marketing strategy and consulting agency you choose to track the ROI of marketing campaigns and set the KPIs. However, your marketing manager will need to constantly communicate with the project manager on the agency side, ensuring timely feedback on every piece of content that the agency produces.

Step 5: remember that this too shall pass

At the start of any bearish market phase, there are lots of people who say that crypto is now dead and that Bitcoin will never make a new ATH again. But in reality, markets move in cycles, and Bitcoin tends to have shorter cycles that stocks or commodities – so after a few months or perhaps a year of bear, crypto will rise from the ashes.

In fact, for many blockchain startups the bear market can become the trigger they need to pivot to an ROI-based approach in their marketing, product scaling, and user acquisition.

The easiest way to do this is to use the marketing and consulting services of a reliable partner that can deliver an actionable strategy based on research insights. A startup that prioritizes ROI, quality research, and client-centricity will not only survive the crypto winter but also position itself correctly for the next bullish cycle.