Back in November 2021, the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) protocol distributed 25 million ENS DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) tokens via an airdrop. Similarly, popular decentralized exchange, Uniswap, conducted a retroactive airdrop for its users in late 2020. The list goes on with the likes of Trust Wallet Token (TWT), Basic Attention Token (BAT), and more.
In the last couple of years, crypto airdrops have become a common yet effective practice for projects to gain new investors, build trust, spread awareness, and boost overall brand growth. An airdrop crypto marketing plans is steadily becoming a game changer especially because the industry is witnessing the launch of countless new projects on a regular basis.
Airdrops can not only help boost the market value of your crypto or NFT token, but they can also substantiate your project in the industry. Their benefits go well beyond sales. Overall, airdrop is now considered as one of the best marketing strategies for organic growth. Be it attracting new investors or rewarding existing ones to attract more investors, airdrops hold the potential to take your project to new heights.
Thus, it is important to understand what airdrops are all about. In this article, we’ll discuss how airdrops are an effective marketing tactic and how you can use other marketing channels to promote your airdrop for more exposure. But before we get into the thick of it, let’s take a glimpse at the different types of airdrop and how they work.
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How Do Airdrops Work?
An airdrop is the distribution of crypto or NFT tokens to select users or investors of a blockchain project. In exchange they may have to perform certain actions like signing up for a project or its products and services, sharing social media posts, inviting new users or investors, etc.
Overall, airdrops are a medium to send free cryptocurrency or NFT tokens to select users’ wallets. While there are different types of airdrops, the end goal behind all of them remains the same. They are a channel to attract new users or investors and motivate existing users or investors. So, let’s take a look at some of the most popular types of airdrop campaigns.
1. Standard Airdrop
The aforementioned definition of airdrop satisfies this category. However, anyone can take part in standard airdrops as they are essentially meant to promote projects, while raising awareness about them. So, if yours is a new crypto or NFT project, you would want to go for a standard airdrop to build your community, spread awareness, and establish yourself in the industry.
2. Exclusive Airdrop
This one is primarily meant only for those die hard fans who have been with your crypto or NFT project since the beginning. Not only that, but it is also meant to reward users or investors who are deeply invested in your project and community. On the other hand, you can also collaborate with influencers for an exclusive airdrop.
Doing so will help you gain their followers, while boosting your visibility as well as trust within your community. The idea here is to offer free crypto or NFT tokens to a select few existing or new investors in order to boost trust within the community and gain new investors at the same time.
3. Bounty Airdrop
These are similar to standard airdrops as anyone can participate in bounty airdrops. However, the supply of crypto or NFT tokens is conditional here. This means that participants will have to engage in some sort of promotional activity in order to receive tokens.
Activities like following the project on social media, sharing their posts, signing up for their products and services, joining their Telegram, Discord, or Reddit communities, etc. are quite common in bounty airdrops. Overall, bounty airdrops are great for advertising your blockchain, crypto, or Web3 project with the help of your target audience in order to attract new users.
4. Holder Airdrop
These are usually meant for those who seriously invest in cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Essentially, users or investors who are not just loyal to your brand, but loyal towards the blockchain technology, in general. Here, your target audience is those who already own other cryptocurrencies or NFT tokens.
The sole purpose behind holder airdrops is trust. It can help you establish your project as a genuine contribution to the blockchain space. So, if you have been into the crypto sphere for some time, be sure to reward those you think are deeply and genuinely invested in the technology that’s driving your project.
These are some of the most common types of airdrop crypto marketing plans that can help your project to grow organically.
Is Airdrop an Effective Crypto Marketing Strategy?
Any blockchain brand’s growth strategy should involve activities like airdrop, giveaways, and NFT mint. This is simply due to the fact that people will only value you more, if you offer value to them without them even asking for it.
– Faseeh Zaman, Senior Community Marketing Associate at Blockwiz
Now that you know the different ways you can distribute your crypto or NFT tokens, it is time to understand the efficacy of airdrops as a marketing technique.
1. Generate Hype Around Your Crypto Project
Airdrops tend to attract a lot of attention towards the projects conducting them. This is simply because of the fact that the market value of a crypto or NFT token rises after a successful airdrop. Be it standard or exclusive, an airdrop has the potential to create the buzz your project deserves.
So, if you want to build, grow, engage, or spread awareness in your community, airdrops are the perfect marketing tools.
2. Control the Distribution of Your Crypto Token
The more users or investors hold your crypto or NFT tokens, the better it will be for your project. The supply of most cryptocurrencies or tokens is predetermined. It is, therefore, essential for projects to have a strategy for distributing their tokens in a way that is most valuable for your project.
From standard to holder, airdrops allow you to boost the value of your crypto or NFT token as you control where and how you wish to send them.
3. Build a Valuable Leads Database
All airdrops will provide you with the details of your investors. Also, once the value of your token rises, chances are high that your project might get more investors. You can make good use of all the investor information you have. You can reward existing loyal users via bounty airdrops and ask them to promote your project in their respective groups.
Also, holder airdrops will allow you to boost trust and credibility within your community. All this will further contribute towards attracting more investors and boost sales. Overall, airdrops are among the most effective mediums to generate valuable leads.
4. Reward Loyal Investors
As mentioned in the section above, you can boost your credibility and trustworthiness by rewarding loyal investors. This is among the most important aspects of airdrops especially if you plan to use them as a crypto marketing strategy. If you reward investors who are loyal to your project and blockchain space, in general, they will most definitely spread the good word about your brand.
Thus, a crypto or NFT airdrop is one of the most effective marketing strategies when it comes to overall growth.
Executing Airdrop Crypto Marketing Strategy via Other Channels
While an airdrop is a crypto marketing tactic, it does not mean that your airdrop does not require promotion. After all, you want the community to know that you are holding an airdrop if you want to attract as many investors as possible. So, here are some of the best marketing mediums to promote your airdrops.
1. Social Media Marketing
Social media is the most popular crypto marketing channel for not only airdrops, but virtually anything and everything that revolves around your project and industry, in general. So, if you are planning to hold an airdrop then be sure to announce them on platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
2. Community Marketing
Apart from social media platforms, platforms like Telegram, Discord, Reddit, etc. are quite popular when it comes to crypto community management. If you have been in the industry for a while then you definitely have a community around your project on one or all of these platforms.
You can share updates within your community to let your members know that you will be holding an airdrop. Also, you can even ask them to spread the word about your airdrop. This will give your airdrop more exposure, and it might also help attract new users or investors.
3. Influencer Marketing
Crypto influencer marketing has been the perfect medium for projects to boost their authority, credibility, and trustworthiness. In fact, many projects attract a significant amount of their target audience with the help of influencers. So, it is always a good idea to collaborate with influencers and have them spread the word about your airdrops.
This will help you gain more leads as influencers’ followers will become your community members.
4. Video Marketing
While airdrop is not particularly a new concept, there are many enthusiasts who don’t realize its potential. Crypto video creation and marketing can help you educate such enthusiasts and ultimately convert them into potential investors. You can share explainer videos across social media platforms and within your community.
Create buzz around your airdrops by sharing influencer videos and regular industry updates. Overall, video is among the most widely used marketing channels when it comes to events like giveaways and airdrops.
The Key Takeaway
While airdrops are among the best and most efficient marketing strategies, marketing is something that requires a lot of expertise. It is, therefore, always better to work with those who have extensive experience in the crypto marketing domain. You need an established crypto marketing agency to handle all airdrop or related activities for your project.
So, learn more about the best marketing services that you can avail with Blockwiz by heading here. After all, the endgame behind every airdrop is to grow your business in the most efficient way.