Your Five-Minute Guide to Crypto Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing now forms a crucial part of most successful crypto marketing strategies, as firms of all sizes increasingly look to leverage the buzz-making potential of some of the biggest, most distinguished influencers to evangelize their offering.
But what do crypto influencers actually do, and what can you expect when launching your own influencer marketing strategy? Find out below.
What is Crypto Influencer Marketing?
As the name suggests, crypto influencer marketing is a specific type of marketing that uses influencers with a following primarily composed of cryptocurrency users, blockchain enthusiasts, investors, and financial professionals with a passion for all-things-crypto.
These influencers command the attention of tens, to potential hundreds of thousands of avid investors and can help stir up significant interest in crypto products, services, and other offerings that their followers may or may not already be aware of. In turn, a fraction of these viewers will go on to further interact with the brand, by buying products or services for example. Influencers achieve this by creating content, such as videos, articles, stories, features and tweets that help to inform and promote — without coming across as disingenuous.
Since traditional digital advertising, such as banner advertising and PPC can be difficult in the cryptocurrency sector due to bans on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and Google, crypto startups and established firms are increasingly turning to crypto influencers to get the message across, spread breaking news, and drive sales and adoption.
Though there are a relatively small number of crypto influencers (compared to other niches), the crypto and blockchain industry is growing at a rapid pace, and individuals and businesses are increasingly looking to their favorite influencers for product suggestions, advice, and guidance. Likewise, with an average ROI of more than 600%, and typically immediate results, crypto influencer marketing is now a key part of most strong advertising strategies.
Which Platforms Do Crypto Influencers Use?
In many cases, crypto influencers will have the majority of their following on a single social media platform, as well as a smaller following on a handful of other platforms.
For cryptocurrency projects, the most sought after platforms for influencer marketing include Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Telegram, whereas other platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn are less commonly used, but can still be considered, depending on the target audience, budget, and nature of the project or product being advertised.
The effectiveness of these channels can vary considerably based on the size, analytics, and individual flair of each crypto influencer. A brief overview of the most commonly used platforms follows:
Twitter has by far the largest number of crypto influencers, with some of the largest having well in excess of 100,000 followers. Due to its diverse user demographics, Twitter can be used for advertising almost anything crypto, and close to half of Twitter users follow their favorite brands on the platform.
YouTube
Arguably the most engaging platform of them all, YouTube influencers can provide massive exposure to projects looking to get the word out, grow their user base, or drum up investment. YouTube videos are arguably one of the best ways to market a product or service, due to the amount of time they hold the viewer’s attention, and the flexibility it offers to brands.
According to the latest age demographics data, more than half of all Instagram users are aged between 18 and 34, while around 70% of the most popular hashtags used on the platform are associated with a brand. Instagram is rapidly gaining popularity among crypto firms, due to its excellent user engagement and rapidly expanding user base with a significant disposable income.
Telegram
Telegram is quickly growing in popularity as a crypto marketing channel, as a small number of crypto influencers have managed to amass sizable followings in their Telegram channels and discussion groups. This platform is best used for marketing new tokens and investment opportunities, due to the large number of crypto traders and investors that use Telegram for business and socially.
What Is the Difference Between a Brand Ambassador and an Influencer?
If you’ve ever considered using crypto influencers as part of your marketing strategy, then you will have almost certainly thought about working with brand ambassadors too. Though the two are similar in some ways, there are some important distinctions to make, which can impact your decision.
Briefly, both crypto influencers and brand ambassadors are used to market your product or service, to help onboard new users, increase sales, driving traffic, or improve some other key metric. However, crypto influencers are usually individuals or firms with a large following or engaged user base, whereas brand ambassadors don’t necessarily have a massive following, but usually have some authority or major connections in the industry.
Crypto influencers generally promote your product or services in their own words and style to their audience, and are generally hired for short and medium-term campaigns. They may not already have any exposure to your products, and will usually requirement payment in the form of cash or free products. Brand ambassadors, on the other hand, are usually intimately familiar with your products and are genuinely interested in their success. Brand ambassador relationships are usually medium to long-term, and are either unpaid, or are paid based on performance.
Both crypto influencers and brand ambassadors can vary considerably in their effectiveness and reach, but carefully selected partners can help provide a compelling reason to trust your brand and products.
Differences and Similarities
An overview of the key differences and similarities between the two is provided below:
| Crypto Influencers | Brand Ambassadors | |
| How they promote your brand | By featuring the product or service on their platform, either as a full feature or brief mention. | Through their network, at events, and in online communities via word of mouth. |
| Marketing potential | Medium to high, depending on the influencer. | Low to medium in most cases. |
| Relationship length | Generally short to medium-term. Most crypto influencers will only promote your brand a handful of times at most. | Usually medium to long-term, promoting the brand ad hoc whenever the opportunity arises and through designated channels on a regular basis. |
| Payment/incentives | Almost certainly paid for, either in the form of money, free services/products, or shared exposure. | Mostly free, but can be rewarded based on performance or payments in kind. |
| Experience with your brand | May not be familiar with your brand or have used its products/services yet. | Pre-existing customers and active users that already buy/use your products/services. |
| Selection process | Based on size of audience, engagement analytics, cost-effectiveness, and results. | Already an established/vocal member of your community, and/or long-standing customer. |
| How to reach out | Reach out via their business (or personal) contact where available, this is usually found on their influencer profile. Be prepared to go through an agent for the largest influencers. Smaller crypto influencers may promote the brand for free after receiving samples or early access to information or breaking crypto news. | Brand ambassadors generally love your products already, and will likely be happy to jump on board as an ambassador. Once you’ve spotted someone you think is a good fit, simply invite them to your ambassador campaign to begin working out the details. |
How Much Does Crypto Influencer Marketing Cost?
As with most marketing strategies, the cost of crypto influencer marketing can vary considerably based on a large number of factors. Your budget and personal needs will influence the number and size of influencers you are able to bring on board, and may also have a knock-on effect on the effectiveness of your campaign.
As you might expect, the top, most influential crypto influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers/viewers will charge significantly more than smaller ones. However, the cost usually doesn’t scale with their size, as it often gets proportionally cheaper (when measured per follower/viewer) to hire larger influencers — though the absolute cost is higher. Likewise micro-influencers will often be extremely cost effective, and will often charge very little (and sometimes nothing) due to their relatively limited reach.
According to a recent report by Influencer MarketingHub, nearly 80% of brands have a dedicated influencer marketing budget, while a similar number spend at least 10% of their marketing budget on influencers. Most of these spend under $50,000/year on influencer marketing, but 5% spend more than $500k. Likewise, according to a 2019 survey by MediaKix, most brands (19%) spend between $1,001 and $10,000 per year on their influencer marketing strategy, whereas slightly fewer (18%) spend between $100,001 and $500,000 per year.
With 89% of brands stating that the return on investment (ROI) for influencer marketing is comparable or better than that of other avenues, it is hard to go wrong when working with professional crypto influencers.
Who Are the Top 10 Influencers in the Crypto Market?
As with any industry, the cryptocurrency industry has a huge variety of influencers to choose from — each of which has their pros and cons, different follower/audience demographic, and content style. Here’s a list of ten of the very best to help you get started with your crypto influencer strategy.
Universal Crypto influencers
Blockgroup
Why settle for one influencer, when you can have them all? Here at Blockgroup, we have established long-term relationships and partnerships with many of the largest influencers in the crypto space, and have already vetted them for effectiveness, value, and reach. Whether you simply want to get your brand noticed, drive adoption, or sell products, we’ve got you covered with our comprehensive crypto influencer packages.
Twitter Crypto influencers
Vitalik Buterin
When it comes to crypto influencers, few have more clout than Vitalik Buterin — one of the original founders of Ethereum (ETH). With over 960,000 followers and incredible engagement on nearly everything he posts, Buterin has a massive amount of sway in the crypto space.
Andreas Antonopoulos
Andreas Autonopoulos is a prominent Bitcoin and cryptocurrency advocate and entrepreneur. He is the host of the popular Let’s Talk Bitcoin podcast and a best selling author. As one of the most popular advisors in the crypto space, Autonopoulos has racked up an impressive 516,000 followers on Twitter, and more than 200,000 on YouTube.
Nick Szabo
Nick Szabo is a world-renowned computer scientist and cryptographer that is known for pioneering the concept of smart contracts. He has been frequently touted as the individual behind the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto (the creator of Bitcoin), and holds considerable influence in the crypto industry.
Youtube Crypto influencers
Boxmining
Michael Gu, also known as Boxmining is a prominent YouTube personality and influencer known for his educational and up-to-the-minute videos on a variety of crypto trends and important blockchain news. He currently has in excess of 216,000 subscribers and posts videos several times per week.
DataDash
Nicholas Merten, the founder of DataDash, is an international speaker and thought-leader in the cryptocurrency space, and has amassed one of the largest crypto followings on YouTube, with over 350,000 subscribers. Each video tends to average over 20,000 views, while some top out considerably higher.
Ivan On Tech
Besides being one of the largest YouTube crypto influencers, Ivan on Tech is a prolific content creator and posts new videos practically every day. His main topics include general finance, altcoin technical analyses, product deep dives, and altcoin discussion.
Instagram Crypto influencers
BitBoy_Crypto
Ben Armstrong, better known as BitBoy Crypto, is the co-host of the popular Beards and Bitcoins podcast and is a prominent content creator on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. He has a following of more than 36,000 users on Instagram, and regularly posts crypto memes, videos, and other engaging content on the platform.
Girl Gone Crypto
Girl Gone Crypto is a rapidly growing crypto influencer and content crypto that posts a range of clever and creative content designed to capture the readers’ attention. The founder of the account, Lea Thompson, also has a sizable following on YouTube and Twitter, where she posts both video and static content about almost anything crypto.
Sharecrypto
Sharecrypto is a prolific Instagram user that can frequently be found sharing the latest news and financial insights to crypto investors in a quick, easy-to-read format. The account essentially acts as a simple crypto magazine that can be used to get an overview of the crypto market in as few words as possible.
