Have you seen this coin before?
Of course you have. Now ask yourself: “What does this coin do?”
Well, I hate to break it to you, but it does nothing. Dogecoin, like many other altcoins (alternative currencies to Bitcoin), only has utility insofar as people use it for transactions.
Currencies Such As These Are Known As Shitcoins.
Whether they are increasing interoperability, providing development tools, or decreasing centralization, most crypto projects serve to provide some sort of unique utility or solution to an existing problem. However, shitcoins rely solely on marketing to survive because they have little to no purpose outside of using them to buy or trade.
The success of an altcoin with zero purpose hinges on its team’s ability to market their coin correctly.
What is marketing?
Marketing is all about developing a strategy to drive demand to your company.
Building a successful marketing strategy requires a few key points:
- Understanding the context of your business
- Knowing the problem you are looking to solve,
- Identifying your target audience
- Having competence in the necessary tech tools
- Having the ability to test and understand metrics
A great marketer understands what they are selling and which problem it seeks to solve. They have proficiency in all the tools and platforms that are necessary to reach their target audience. Ultimately, they must come up with a system that generates leads and profit for their company.
Marketing Shitcoins
In most cases, the process that goes into marketing a shitcoin is as follows:
Step 1: Put a meme on a coin.
Step 2: Shill it on social media.
Step 3: …
Step 4: Become a millionaire!
I would like to say that developers put a lot of thought into how they can tap into the current pop-culture to brand their coin, but the reality is that in most cases, they simply choose a meme.
Once they have created a brand for their coin, the next step is usually to shill it on social media. The core team as well as investors constantly produce content promoting their coin.
Currently, the most common platforms used to promote projects are Telegram, Reddit, Twitter, and Discord.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, in some cases), most of these projects fall short after this step. If their marketing campaign is successful, it’s not uncommon to see developers rug pull the token.
However, some shitcoins end up finding success. A prime example of this would be DogeCoin.
Why DogeCoin Succeeded in Marketing and Why Others Fail.
The success of DogeCoin over other shitcoins can be boiled down to novelty.
In other words, it was the first of its kind. It was the first coin that exclusively used irony and memes as its selling point.
The devs and early investors understood that catering their marketing campaign to a young audience that was tapped in to the internet could lead to lots of success.
They also had a great understanding of the popular internet platforms at the time. Doge was one of the first crypto projects to be marketed perfectly through the usage of internet slang and norms.
After the massive pump it had in May 2021, many people tried to launch their own shitcoins with a similar marketing strategy.
Investors have become increasingly wary of shitcoins. They have seen the same marketing campaign over and over again. The tactics used to shill tokens are now easily identifiable and looked down upon in most online crypto communities.
Many investors are no longer willing to invest in projects with no utility, on top of the risk of rug pulls.
Development teams are always looking for ways to draw as much positive attention to their projects as possible. In the future, we may see new and innovative marketing strategies for both shitcoins and real projects.