Gaming platform Haste Arcade Co-Founder and CMO Joe DePinto, who also co-founded top American venue mobile order and payments application Barpay, is one of the executives who shared his expert opinion and firsthand experiences in developing marketing on blockchain during the first-ever BSV Global Blockchain Convention held in Dubai last May 24 to 26.
The BSV Global Blockchain Convention has the goal of spreading awareness and educating audiences worldwide about how a scalable blockchain can do the world a whole lot of good. One of the panels focuses on the marketing industry—what is currently already being implemented and what more could be developed with a blockchain that can meet continuously increasing market demands.
Customer retention is one of the more pressing issues that businesses face in the past and at present; and increasing costs of implementing various marketing strategies have not helped, especially for small enterprises and start-ups. And because scaling makes possible micropayments, the sending of small amounts of money or fractions of a token at fees that cost next to nothing, it opens up the creative mind to explore innovative implementations.
“I’m obsessed with micropayments—that’s what attracted me to Bitcoin to begin with and the ability to use them as an incentive mechanism to have customers promoting businesses… [Barpay] services several thousand bars, restaurants and hotels. Basically, with QR codes, the customers can scan to view the menu, order and pay. And the last piece of that is once you’ve had your experience, people would go and leave a review,” DePinto shared.
“Since you’re getting the opportunity to earn micropayments for the reviews that you leave on these restaurants, so now, the customers are doing the marketing for the venues themselves in a way where they can earn based on legitimate content,” DePinto added.
This kind of revolutionary idea not only makes it more affordable for businesses to deploy marketing strategies, but also offers customers incentives that would engage them to participate actively in the community.
According to a local consumer study, 98% of customers read online reviews before deciding which to buy or where to go to. Honest reviews from people who have already personally experienced the services and tried out the products are highly likely to draw in more customers; and incentivizing them will encourage them to leave reviews.
Once consumers like what they experienced, they leave reviews and keep coming back. It is a positive cycle that bodes well for businesses and consumers alike. The same concept of incentivizing consumers through micropayments is applicable to any kind of business.
“You go on Instagram, you get a ‘like,’ that’s like a dopamine hit. And that keeps you coming back. It keeps them wanting to post. With us, we’re using micropayments as that kind of dopamine hit where you play a game in our arcade; you make a leaderboard; you’re going to start getting these micropayments at fractions of a penny. Sent instantly, you get a notification on your phone, that becomes addictive,” DePinto said.
“You’re pretty much gamifying basically anything because of what micropayments and tokens can do. And I think that can be applicable outside of games,” DePinto added.
Incentivizing consumers through micropayments is only possible on a scalable blockchain. On top of being able to handle big data, an extremely high throughput and instant transactions, it allows for transaction fees to be lowered to very tiny fractions of a penny. This is the power of a scalable blockchain.