Blockchains and Digital Marketing

Advertisements are viewed on a daily basis, and digital marketing expenditures are expected to reach $120 billion in the United States by 2021. Information about consumers is collected continuously, however, close to 50% of all advertisements are generated by bots. This causes companies to spend thousands of dollars on ads that may never reach potential customers and leaves no guarantee for an increase in sales.

All of this may dramatically change though with the introduction of blockchains and smart contracts. Their primary functions are to allow for more control for consumers on how much of their data a company receives and create contracts that enforce certain obligations on all parties involved in advertising a type of service and/or business.

Blockchains allow for data to be stored more securely so that, as it is stored and distributed, it cannot be changed or copied by an outside source. This eliminates the need for a middleman that would sell your data to advertisers and gives consumers the control over what data they want to sell. Companies like BitClave have incorporated search engines that use Ethereum, a public blockchain network, to allow consumers to select the amount of data they want to be released and then be compensated by the advertisers for it.

Smart contracts help avoid the need for lawyers and other players when exchanging money, shares, or anything of value. These contracts work on blockchain technology that ensures the terms of a contract are executed as outlined, allowing for conditions to be changed only by replacing the initial contract with a new one. It is an efficient tool for those involved in promotional marketing with bloggers and influencers of personal brands. So, if a blogger failed to make a post or publish an article on social media about a brand, then the smart contract will not allow the blogger to be paid until the requirements they agreed to are met.

The transparency given by these two types of technologies offers consumers a feeling of ease knowing data collected by companies cannot be manipulated and that what they are viewing is factual and accurate.

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