How to Build Trust in Crypto | Ep. 41

Ty Smith0:04

What is up? Welcome to another episode of the Crypto Marketing Podcast. I'm Ty Smith. With me is Liz. Today we are going into the importance of trust in crypto for crypto brands and authority as well. First things to note, this is our first ever video version of this podcast, which is kind of exciting.

Liz0:21

It is exciting.

Ty Smith0:22

Yeah, I spent probably way too long getting the camera set up and the lighting and everything, but I think it's going to be, I think it's going to be kind of cool. And actually, it ties in a little bit with brand building and trust building. But let's...

Liz0:30

Exactly. Yeah, it does. Eye contact, very important.

Ty Smith0:33

Yeah, yeah, eye contact. Trust me.

Ty Smith0:36

But yeah, so we're going to, not only is this going to be on the normal podcast platforms like Spotify and Apple and Google and all that, but we're going to now have it on YouTube as well. So check out our channel on YouTube. It's coinbound.io/youtube will take you there, or just YouTube search it. All right, let's not talk about it any longer. Let's go into trust for crypto brands. So first of all, let's discuss why trust is important for crypto brands. I think crypto in general is just such a non-trusting group of people that we're advertising to, that brands in our industry especially have to go above and beyond with making sure that people actually trust them if they want to acquire new users. What do you think about that?

Liz1:34

I think that not only are you talking to people who are already untrusting, the space itself has gotten so much, it's been a rollercoaster of media coverage. Whenever the market is really, really hot, people are jumping on it. They're saying Bitcoin and crypto is great. It's like this revolutionary thing. And then as soon as the market starts to dip, everyone's like, 'It's a scam. It's like you'll lose all your money.' I think that a lot of media plays a huge role in that, and a ton of newcomers really don't see the value yet because there's so many different things that are pulling at them saying, 'Hey, this may not be a trustworthy space.' So you're dealing with media, you're dealing with already people who are untrusting, and then you're also looking at newcomers who just don't have a good understanding of this space and are getting a lot of different opinions thrown at them during times where they might want to explore but feel a little hesitant to.

Ty Smith3:02

Yeah, and I think there's, we've discussed this quite a bit, not even on the podcast, but just on our calls, that there's different tiers of who people might be marketing to in the crypto space. There's like this total pure, especially now shortly after a bull run, where there's just this influx of newcomers to the space that haven't been here for several years and don't necessarily trust crypto as a concept, not even discussing as a product, a particular product like an exchange or something like that, but just crypto as a concept they haven't fully trusted yet.

Liz3:23

Right, exactly. And there's been so many different versions of that. People say it's digital gold, they say it's a new currency. And with lack of regulations and oversights, and maybe a friend had like a really bad experience this time around too, most of the people I saw complaining when there was a dip were people who were new to this, and they didn't understand the cycles. They don't understand how to watch the market. They don't know when to pull out, and they may have lost a lot of money instead of just letting it sit.

Ty Smith4:09

Yeah, so that's one barrier that you don't necessarily have control over as a brand builder in this space because that's just crypto as a whole. I still think that it's something that you should probably, if the product that you're trying to market is something that is geared more towards newcomers to the space or something that a newcomer could use, I like to dumb things down as much as possible when it comes to marketing copy for retail products. So not even dumbing it down to the point of helping people understand what the product is, but even how crypto works in relation to your product sometimes could be an important message to get out there.

Liz4:57

Yeah, I completely agree.

Ty Smith4:59

Yeah, and that's only one side of it is getting people to trust crypto. The other side is getting people to trust your brand, which I mean, of course, the product that you have is always different. If you're in the industry in a way that you're managing people's money, if you have a smart contract or if you're a DeFi platform or something like that, or you're an exchange, you're going to need to establish yourself as a credible company is even more important. I would say honestly one of the even most important things. Why do you use Uniswap instead of the million other Uniswap clones? Because you, well, I mean, one, they have great liquidity, but two, that you trust them more than anything else. They've been audited extensively. Everyone has used them for a period of years, or at least a year. I don't know what the actual number is now. And there has not been issues with people losing their money.

Liz5:33

Well, and it's something that's most talked about. You hear about it a lot. If you're a newcomer to the space, a ton of people talk about Uniswap. And it's all over Twitter. It's something that's been recommended to me even personally a few times. And that also adds that piece of trust and authority too, is just the fact that other people trust and use it and then recommend it, or it's recommended through other channels on social or something like that.

Ty Smith6:14

Yeah, trust builds trust, especially in a new industry where people are getting in and they're not necessarily turning to media companies to educate them on what's trustworthy. They're turning to their friends. They want to know what protocols they've used and that they trust. Which is why I always say, when we first start working with a client, before we even start spending money on marketing, there's work that needs to go in as far as making sure that when people do come to our website, they do feel like it's a trustworthy website, and they do feel like the product is going to do what they say it does without a risk of them losing their money or something else happening. And I mean, as far as actual benefits, we talked about the importance of why you need to be trustworthy. The actual benefits of having people trust you is that it just makes everything else less expensive in terms of marketing costs. It helps just kind of, marketing in a lot of senses is like getting the ball rolling and then eventually you get to like a critical mass where it does it a little bit on its own. You'll get there a lot faster if people trust you.

Liz7:19

Yeah, it automatically builds community, too, because you have this group of people that all as one are saying, 'Hey, yes, we have confidence in this thing, this concept, this brand.'

Ty Smith7:27

So why don't we go into actual more actionable ways of building trust in the crypto space? I hinted at one already, which was, if you are a company that your product implements some kind of smart contract, get it audited, and get it audited by multiple parties. That's probably the most obvious and easiest way of building trust. I personally would not put money in something that wasn't audited by at least a couple reputable auditing firms. The ones that I would say I probably trust the most would be like CertiK, Halborn, Quantstamp. Go through those guys. That's going to go a really long way, especially early on, go through those guys and get audited, and then do the marketing after that. A lot of those guys now, I will say though, are pretty backed up. I mean, CertiK just raised what was like $37 million?

Liz8:23

$37 million on top of, and that was on top of other rounds of fundraising, too.

Ty Smith8:27

Yeah, and we speak with the Halborn guys pretty frequently, and they're growing like crazy, and they're a team that I personally trust. A lot of these companies though right now are in such like a blitz scaling mode that they are working on referrals only. You can't even bring new business to them. But fortunately, though, for our clients at least, we can certainly work out a referral. So if you are a company that's in like the DeFi space or something and want to get audited, we can chat and hopefully help out. What else? What else? I always think stay consistent with values. That's just a branding play in general, not necessarily just authority. But figure out early on what it is that your company stands for and then stay consistent to that. There's something to be said, I think, about a brand that flip-flops a lot, not only on the product that you deliver or logos and stuff like that, but being consistent in general is just kind of a hack for getting people to trust you a bit.

Liz9:26

Yeah, well, because from your mission, you can create content from that. That guides so much within your brand. And so if you have something that's constantly shifting or you don't even have established values, it's really hard for people from a psychological standpoint to buy into that. You're asking for people to buy into your brand and buy into your idea, and that can't happen overnight. And that can't happen if you're really inconsistent with what you're doing, and that can be in a sense of time or content or your presence. And so it definitely domino effects into the rest of your strategic planning.

Ty Smith10:15

Yeah, and another thing that I would recommend is, I mean, issues happen in crypto. This stuff is complicated, especially if you have a complicated product. You have to address issues quickly and transparently. Like all the companies that I personally trust, I don't trust them because they've never had issues. I mean, Binance has been hacked. Coinbase has had several legal things go on that are questionable. But it's so much more about not necessarily being error-free, but responding to your issues quickly and transparently. Like I don't necessarily trust Binance because I think there's no way they'll get hacked. I have no idea if they can get hacked or not. But I, especially with how public CZ is and just their brand in general, I feel like if they were to be hacked and somehow my funds were compromised, there's a pretty good chance they would make good on that. And that helps them a ton as far as acquiring new users.

Liz11:15

Yeah, I think that's a great point. I didn't think of that. And it's a lot because everything right now is so public-facing. If there's a problem, you can go to Twitter and tweet about it. And so people are going to see that, and they're going to see how you react and how you handle those things. And if you're going to just put your tail between your legs and run away, probably not the best look.

Ty Smith11:32

Yeah, no, definitely not. I mean, one thing that I always say is, we did an episode recently on marketing in a bear market. There's just a lot of perks, I think, to being around when the market isn't crazy hot like it was two months ago and previously. Stay around, even if you aren't acquiring users at a profit or for whatever reason why you might not be tempted to stay around. People remember that stuff, and people trust companies that are here and invested in our industry long-term.

Liz12:18

Absolutely. And it just gives time to build. It gives time to maintain what you're doing and see what was working and what wasn't, and prepare for the next run.

Ty Smith12:24

Yeah, I mean, there's obvious other perks that we went into in detail regarding staying around in a bear market, but that's just in the context of building trust and authority in crypto. That's another way. Also, I touched on this a little bit with CZ being the example. Having someone public-facing with a good following, either verified on Twitter or at least really actively engaged on Twitter or another social media, whether it be podcasts, that goes a long way as well. It's very easy, especially in our industry where everyone's all over the world and all over the place and not actually meeting in person, having a good public presence goes a long way.

Liz13:12

Yeah, it's definitely crucial for brands, and especially at exchanges and really public projects, to have someone that is the face and can be this trustworthy person. As we were saying at the beginning of this, eye contact is actually huge in creating content and building trust. It's something that is an age-old marketing tactic, and it definitely works because you can see that person, and it adds credibility to whatever you're talking about.

Ty Smith13:32

Yeah, this is kind of unrelated, but I am curious your thoughts. Everyone, our team works remote 99.9% of the time. Do you feel like eye contact into webcams is a trust-building thing? Because we do so much video chatting with people.

Liz13:43

Yeah, I mean, I sometimes have my camera on. I don't always. If I already know someone, then I probably won't always have my camera on. But if it's ever something that's client-facing or someone new, I do try to have my camera on and look somewhat presentable. But also, if I'm taking something and it's 6:30 in the morning and I have to just hop into it, I'm probably not going to have my camera on.

Ty Smith14:25

Yeah, no, I also make a point to put my camera on, but some days it's easier than others, depending on what time it is.

Liz14:28

There's probably been some days where people have caught me looking a little rough, but that adds some credibility, too. You're not always going to have it completely together when you're working from home because you're usually knee-deep in a project early on, so I definitely understand a little bit.

Ty Smith15:05

Yeah. All right, I don't have anything else to add. Do you?

Liz15:07

The only thing I think that is important are reviews, and you kind of already touched on that. But, and those can be in a number of different ways, like a written review on a website or a review from an influencer. It happens in so many different methods and places, but I think that reviews are really important because it speaks to the work that's been done and adds a name to it. And I think that things like that are important, especially with pictures. Again, that eye contact thing. I find that I personally trust reviews that have imagery with it, whether it be of the product or the person who's leaving the review. It just allows me to know that it's real. It's tougher in crypto and in certain things to do that because a lot of people do want to stay more private and anonymous. But if there's some kind of imagery you can put there, I do think that that adds to the credibility.

Ty Smith15:42

Yeah, and you're reminding me of something else. This is actually a whole different topic as far as, we've discussed brand trust and authority, but there's a whole component of getting people to trust themselves in that they can interact with your product in a way that they're not going to mess something up and lose their money. So we do obviously a ton of influencer marketing. One form of that that we'll do for companies is like walkthrough guides of new products. So they'll have an influencer that's experienced with creating content that knows crypto really well and can explain it well, go through a new product and show how it's used so that someone could actually download the product or go to the website, do exactly what this influencer did on their YouTube channel, and say, 'I'm not going to lose my money if I do this.'

Liz16:35

Yeah, it's one thing to talk about something. It's another to actually do it and show how you do it. How-tos, all that kind of, and that's like, again, a whole other episode of what kind of content and positioning you can use that is going to establish authority and trust and confidence.

Ty Smith17:09

Yeah. On the topic of reviews, we'll wrap up this episode. Make sure you review this podcast on, I think Apple is what I'm hearing these days is like the algorithm to target. So leave us a review on Apple if you're listening there.

Liz17:19

A good one, please. More specifically.

Ty Smith17:21

A good one. Yeah, well, now that we're doing YouTube content, I could finally say that the cringe like, make sure you hit subscribe and smash the like button.

Liz17:28

I might have to turn my camera off for that.

Ty Smith17:30

Yeah, yeah. I'll put the subscribe button over your face or something so you don't have to be a part of it. All right. Yeah, and follow us on Twitter. My Twitter handle is @TyDanielSmith. Liz, I always forget what yours is. I'm sorry.

Liz17:38

It's @thatsbizzy. I should probably make it my actual name, but it's been that way for so long, I'm going to keep it. It's like having an old AOL or Hotmail email address.

Ty Smith17:45

Yeah, yeah. All right, cool. All right, so that's it. We will catch you on the next one. See ya.

Liz18:12

See ya.