When developing a crypto campaign, most marketers hope that it will perform well, deliver healthy ROI, and be well-received by the target market. But this doesn’t always happen. In fact, there is no shortage of campaigns, crypto or otherwise, that faced a lot of backlash. Some campaigns can be so poorly received that they negatively impact the business for years to come.
While no one wants this to happen, it is important to have a plan in place for if it does. In this article, we highlight some steps you can take:
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Identify the Problem
It is impossible to address the issue if you don’t know what exactly your campaign is receiving backlash for. Many brands have found themselves in even more hot water for trying to address the backlash whilst not fully understanding it. The first thing you should do is see where the backlash is coming from. Is it in your Instagram comments? Are people tweeting about it? Is crypto media reporting on the campaign? Find out where the backlash stems from them then begin to review it. Read the comments and opinion pieces and try to find the theme. Perhaps people thought the campaign was insensitive or poorly timed or badly designed. Take note of the pattern within the backlash to help you choose your next steps.
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Take Down the Crypto Campaign If Needed
Sometimes it is best to cut your losses and this applies to a crypto campaign as well. If the backlash you are getting is overwhelming and you’ve been able to determine what the issue is, your best bet might be to take it down ASAP. Say you put out a campaign that is considered politically incorrect and there is little way to salvage it.
In that case, it could be best to take down the campaign before more damage is done to your business’s reputation. In other cases, the backlash might be mild enough that you can weather the storm, so this should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
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Bring in Crises Experts
Crisis management is a distinct branch of PR and while some instances of backlash can be addressed in-house, some are more severe. If the backlash your crypto campaign is receiving only seems to get worse and other options like taking it down and putting out a statement don’t work, you might want to reach out to a crisis management agency.
Most likely, the agency has dealt with issues similar to yours and will be able to help you navigate its complexities. From consulting on how you can mitigate the backlash to crafting statements or even recommending a rebrand, these agencies have a lot to offer.
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Put Out a Statement
As a business, you always want to remain in the good graces of your customers and sometimes, this means taking the high road and apologizing. If your crypto campaign has been deemed insensitive, poorly timed, or otherwise would offend people, it might be in your best interest to put out a statement.
In this statement, acknowledge that there was wrongdoing on your part, apologize to those who were impacted, and promise to do better moving forward. Sometimes, simply stopping the campaign is enough the address the issue but if the backlash keeps coming, it might be best to say something or risk coming across as even more insensitive.
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Take Practical Atonement Steps
In the most extreme situations of a crypto campaign getting backlash, you’ll have to take steps beyond just apologizing or taking it down. You might have to do certain public acts of atonement to put your business back in the public’s good graces. For example, say your crypto campaign was deemed to be offensive towards a certain racial group.
Your company could publicly announce a donation towards an organization that supports said group as part of your redemption efforts. You may commit to not using certain elements of the campaign ever again or making changes in your hiring practices. This will typically only happen in the most extreme of circumstances but if you want to keep your business going, this is what you might have to do.
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Learn From Mistakes
No matter what course of action you choose in response to the backlash, you must look at it as a learning opportunity for the future. The entire marketing team should sit down and review the campaign in question and the things that went wrong with it. You should be able to say, down to the most minute detail, what went wrong and why the public reacted the way they did.
With this, a report can be drawn up that lists the issues with the campaign, how much goodwill or revenue it costs, and what must be done differently in the future.
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Course-Correct
It is not enough to simply know what was done wrong with one crypto campaign. You also have to make sure that future campaigns do not make the same mistakes and instead, do better. Before a new campaign goes live, review the report of the one that received backlash and make sure none of the issues will likely occur again. Sometimes, the best way to take the public’s attention away from a previously maligned crypto campaign is to launch a new one that has none of those issues. By showing the public that your business is committed to doing better, you are more likely to regain their trust.
Conclusion
No one wants their crypto campaign to be criticized by the public, but sometimes it happens. It is better to be prepared in that case than to be caught unawares which is why in this article, we highlight the steps to take. A lot of this boils down to doing damage control, including taking down the campaign and putting out a statement as soon as possible. in more extreme cases, you might need to have an agency step in or take public steps to rectify the issue to avoid further damage to your business’s reputation.
