When putting out a crypto or blockchain project, you likely find yourself developing a whitepaper. Generally speaking, a whitepaper is a document that outlines the specifics of a project. For those in the blockchain sector, the whitepaper includes the tokenomics, use cases, team, marketing plans, and much more. And believe it or not, a crypto whitepaper can be a marketing tool in itself.
While it is easy to dismiss a whitepaper as less consequential for promoting a project, we know that there are several ways it can be leveraged.
Who Reads Whitepapers?
To understand how a crypto whitepaper can benefit your marketing efforts, it is worth knowing which customers read it in the first place. Crypto whitepapers are mainly read by people looking to invest directly in it, industry experts, potential customers, and peers. Potential investors and customers will look at a whitepaper to determine whether a project actually has a decent use case or if it is a fluke.
As a rule of thumb, investors are advised to read whitepapers in depth to decide whether a project is worthwhile or not. Industry experts also look at whitepapers to identify emerging trends and develop their own opinions about your specific project. If experts are looking to understand AI use within crypto, they will look at the whitepapers of AI-led crypto projects.
Your peers and competitors within the crypto sector will also look at a whitepaper to have an idea of what you are doing and how they can possibly incorporate this into their own projects. A whitepaper is typically a multi-page document that is published directly on your website or circulated within the industry.
How to Market With A Crypto Whitepaper
Now that we understand the basics of a crypto whitepaper, it is worth looking at how you can use it for marketing.
Advertise It
If you write the most amazing crypto whitepaper ever, but nobody reads it, you have achieved very little. To make the most of your whitepaper, you have to put it at the forefront and encourage investors to read it. First, make sure it is prominently featured on your website and visitors immediately to know what to click on to read more. You should also announce via newsletters, social media posts, and much more that you have a whitepaper written and that it is worth reading.
This is especially true when engaging with groups of potential customers. If a member of your team is speaking publicly about the project, they should always refer people to the whitepaper. By making sure the whitepaper is prominent, you are more likely to earn the support of the public by simply having one and then by delivering worthwhile information within it.
Identify Market Gaps
It’s not enough to simply advertise your crypto whitepaper. The actual content of the document needs to convince investors that your project is worthwhile. One of the first ways to do this is to identify a market gap and address it very early on. Always remember that a crypto whitepaper can be several thousand, if not tens of thousands of words, and some people have the time to read all of that.
Luckily, there’s typically an abstract at the beginning that summarizes the project in a few hundred words tops. A good idea would be to talk about the market gap in the first few paragraphs and how your project is addressing this. These help to hook consumers’ attention from the get-go and position your project as something worthwhile to pay attention to. It’s been said many times that consumers’ attention span is shorter these days, and this means you have to sell your whitepaper as early as possible.
Add Precise Use Cases
It’s also worth noting that you shouldn’t describe your project’s use cases as abstract but rather as practical. Let’s say you have a crypto project that grants access to real-life events. Rather than talking about events as an abstract concept, give some examples of the type of events or specific ones that customers can have access to. Remember that your whitepaper is not just describing your project but selling it as well. Unless the person is already deeply invested, they will not spend the time looking for potential use cases. As such, you have to bring it to them
Create Smaller Pieces in Multiple Formats
As we’ve said, a crypto whitepaper is tens of thousands of words that not many people will have time to read in its entirety. Our recommendation is to turn the whitepaper into smaller bits of content and use these for marketing. Take that 10,000-word document and create a 500-word article that can be read in a matter of minutes. Also, create visuals such as infographics that can be shared easily on social media and condense all the information into digestible pieces. Perhaps have the content turned into a video that can be shared on platforms, and will drum up publicity. When it comes to selling your crypto whitepaper, you have to meet the audience where they are.
Invite the Press
When it comes to promoting your crypto or blockchain project, the media is your best friend. When you’re dealing with the whitepaper, you might want to reach out to members of the press to read it. If there are specific publications or journalists who are known to cover exciting whitepapers or projects, feel free to send it along to them. To increase your chances of coverage, send a summary first. Of course, feel free to reach out to us here at Proleo.io to convert whatever documents you are working with to marketable formats.
Conclusion
A crypto whitepaper is not just a way to gain a positive reputation among your industry peers. It could also be a great way to market your projects if done well. Consider some of the suggestions in this article and reach out to us to take your whitepaper and marketing efforts to the next level.
