How SMEs Can Win Big Companies with Blockchain: Welcome to the Battle
It seems like SMEs have lost the tech battle a while ago. But just as we all thought there probably is no way to break GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) monopoly, the SMBs unexpectedly got a powerful ammunition for the big fight. They got blockchain.
Nevermind the fact that big companies seem to be actively exploring the opportunities of blockchain, the mere existence of decentralized system puts their leadership in jeopardy. Why? Because the technology that is built on decentralization is a real threat to monopolies. Moreover, it gives SMEs possibilities they could only dream before, arming them for a fight with big cats.
The battle has begun.
Round 1 — SMEs can collect data
By all means, blockchain equals decentralization. That means all data you collected goes not to a central provider but directly to you, with no mediation. Before SMEs had to pay big companies to collect data for them, simply because there was no way to do it on their own.
Blockchain changed the game.
With decentralized solutions around, SMBs can collect customer insights on their own, without paying commision for big corporations like Google or Facebook. Adding Artificial Intelligence to the mix, they also receive a smart assistant who, by analyzing triggers, can analyze user behavior and base campaigns on it.
Why did we need blockchain for that?
Collecting data requires strong security algorithms. That was mainly the reason why these were mostly big corporations that could collect big data. They were the only ones to possess the resources enough to build strong and secure analytics.
Blockchain, on the other hand, is built on the algorithms of peer-to-peer encryption and hashing. Even if hackers get to the database, it’s almost impossible to decipher the information. No data breach risks. With the secure innovation around, SMBs can put less efforts on building security (because technology has already provided them with it), and concentrate on gathering comprehensive insights.
Of course, the glass can’t be all that full. Blockchain security is undeniable yet there are important safety issues left to tackle. The foremost one is the data: once it’s collected, it’s stored in the database forever. With that in mind, SME’s owners have to be extremely careful with what and how much data they collect so their actions are GDPR compliant.
Round #2 — Digital advertising
The advertising industry online has faced the problem of fraud, with bots clicking on ads and business owners ending up paying for a fake. With existing automated technology, it’s difficult to differentiate whether it’s a person who clicked the ad or a bot. For SMEs, this problem is a real roadblock because unlike big corporations, they mostly target local audiences, choosing more narrow audiences — and therefore, paying more for clicks. Spending money on bots is just not an option.
Google doesn’t care. As far as it earns this much, everything is fine.
How can blockchain solve this? To ensure the interactions are real, business owners would benefit from the smart system of bot recognition which won’t allow ad distribution to unverified users.
Blockchain is a technology that allows doing precisely this — to verify target audience and sort bots out. Moreover, business owners can increase ad precision by putting specific location requirements and pay only for those visitors who can really convert into clients.
The last but not the least advantage of blockchain-based advertising solutions is that they are cheaper than traditional Google advertising. The competition among ad providers encourages companies to adjust the prices constantly, and Google, as a monopoly, doesn’t have to do that. So not only blockchain-based ads are more precise but also, much less expensive.
Round #3 — Bringing businesses to the international scale
Many SMEs owners would like to globalize their business but they don’t have resources to overcome geographical limitations, especially when it comes to doing payments. Without globalizing, small businesses risk to exhaust local markets and simply get stuck.
Blockchain solves this issue, with its transparency and decentralization. Cryptocurrencies solve the problem of international payments minimizing losses due to conversion. With decentralization, things get even easier.
The existing platforms for team management and cooperation are centralized which means you are dependable on the service provider. Transferring sensitive information via centralized platforms, you risk losing it due to a number of unexpectable issues — a software glitch, the server failure, the termination of technical support. With distributed systems, all the data belongs to you and do not store on the third-party platform. If something happens to the platform, your information won’t go anywhere.
Obviously, blockchain makes teamwork and management more comfortable by providing the needed security to the data which is usually exchanged during remote co-operation. It arms SMEs with serious tools for globalizing, conquering other markets, and targeting new audiences.
Round #4 — Client management
SMEs owner is the Jack for all trades. He/she does dozens of things at the same time taking care of accountancy, shipping, logistics, client management. Since a company, even a small one, needs to continuously maintain dozens of business flaws intact, it’s easy to get lost — especially when it comes to management.
That’s how many fields a business owner should take care of, according to The Journal of Small Business Innovation
Before SMEs have used CRMs to get the things handled. However, they turned out to be expensive and have limited number of functions. The worst part was, you paid for a cat in the sack. Buying a platform, you invest a lot of resources without knowing what’s going to come out of it.
As it turns out, blockchain has a way out of this struggle as well. A smart contract system. Instead of merely trusting the words of service providers and potential clients, you can sign a contract with them and pay only after you received the desired outcome. With blockchain, business owners create and enforce smart contracts for any transactional activity whether it’s invoicing, paying employees or bills, settling interest fees, creating insurance policies, handling fulfillment of inventory, or closing new deals.
Round #5 — Marketing automation
Straight up, marketing defines a big part of company’s success. While big enterprises have the resources to create entire departments dedicated to firm’s promotion, small businesses have no such luxury.
To survive the competition of big dogs, it’s crucial for small businesses to invest time and resources in marketing. However, existing marketing automation platforms are not only expensive but also complicated. With no background, it’s impossible to set campaigns and manage the promotion successfully. It turns out that platforms that are initially designed to make marketing easier just complicate things immensely.
Blockchains comes in handy here, especially in tandem with Artificial Intelligence. AI collects customer insights by analyzing their behavior and turns them into campaigns and blockchain takes care of security.
We’ve already discussed benefits of centralization for data collection and international cooperation. For marketing, it works just as fine as well. If existing automation solutions offer you instruments with no explanation what data is collected in the process and how to secure it, with decentralization, you know exactly why to use this or that tool, and most importantly, you don’t depend on platform creators.
It’s a big deal. Before if something happened to the platform, all the data you gathered is as good as nothing. With blockchain-based systems, it’s stored on your server and nothing that could happen to the platform, won’t take your information away.
Do this solutions already exist? Yes. Triggmine, for instance, is a blockchain marketing automation platform which gives SMEs owners possibility to independently manage their marketing strategy, paying only for the end result due to a smart contract system.
Basically, technology has prepared a solid battlefield for SMEs to defeat big cats in a fight for a solid market share. It’s time to use it.
P.S. For more articles on SME’s possibilities of blockchain application, follow our blog. To find out more about Triggmine, visit https://triggmine.io/
