Powering a Universe of Financial Opportunity

A goal bigger than Mars

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has a mission we can rally around: to create equitable access to the global financial system. This organization supports the development and growth of Stellar, an open-source, decentralized payment protocol that allows for fast cross-border transactions between any pair of currencies using blockchain technology. This enables people and businesses to participate in a stable financial network regardless of where they live.

In April 2020, SDF and KPS3 became partners to reach lofty goals, including the desire for the Stellar network to be THE protocol for cross-border payments and remittances.

Not just another star in the galaxy

SDF looks beyond the now, towards the future. And we love that. The first step in our partnership was to better understand the landscape. We audited the Stellar brand as well as its industry and digital presence compared to competitors.

Along with the brand audit, we carried out a baseline digital report, which helped us identify a starting point for Stellar’s digital marketing strategy and determine measurable KPIs. Then, we presented where Stellar fit into the overall landscape. Not only did we pinpoint the whitespace, we provided recommendations that aligned with their goals. From there, we established a brand archetype to position our messaging, creative, and website content.

Once we had everything we needed, we moved into testing… and even more testing.

Iteration makes perfect

The insights gained from the discovery phase launched us into action. Our first move was to make sure the messaging was clear—and determined based on who their audiences are. We wrote and tested new messaging through quick and agile AB tests and, later, focus groups. (Good things DO come out of that initial awkward conference room tension! Besides snacks, of course.)

The feedback provided clarity on what tones worked and how language came across in this industry. Time and time again, it came back to a need for authenticity. Luckily, both SDF and KPS3 strive to do this every day, so it was simple to lean into that tone in branded copy.

Our audiences included enterprise companies with ongoing blockchain projects, both small and medium fintech companies, and app developers. We drafted messaging we believed would resonate with them and continued to refine. Now the question was, “How can we get their attention?”

The right balance of media

It was important for us to boost our targeted audiences’ awareness as well as establish key conversion points for lead generation. To do it, we needed to find the right mix for every audience and KPI. We decided to use the following channels and methods:

• Awareness: Twitter ads, Google/Youtube ads, display ads, and paid media partnerships
• Engagement: Twitter ads, Google/Youtube ads, and display ads
• Lead Gen: LinkedIn ads, sponsorships, and SEO/organic traffic

What were people searching? Where were they searching? How were they interacting with stellar.org? What phrases or keywords resonated most? We collected data and crunched the numbers. Once we understood our audiences and paired engaging messaging and sleek creative in the right channels, website content was the last obstacle.

Content optimization taking us to the moon

It was time to kick it into high gear—and, by that, we mean we had to uncover organic opportunities as well as which landing pages we needed to amplify to give our strategy the highest chance of success. We provided content outlines, design, copywriting assistance, and development expertise to create the needed pages. Some of these landing pages were created to boost lead gen while others were to answer questions directly from our audience.

These additional pages and a revised information architecture improved SEO and better addressed what people were looking for. We love an easy-to-navigate site.

For our awareness and engagement campaigns, we made sure the content answered popular questions like how Stellar works with CBDCs, how fintechs can harness the network’s power, and what a stablecoin is. When it came to lead generation, our content took the form of whitepapers and e-books that were used in conjunction with LinkedIn native form-fill ads.

Getting more face time

In other news… We also got the chance to work with Stellar’s internal PR team to expand their presence in the business, fintech, and trade media markets. The effort communicated and supported the network’s growth, spotlighting the ecosystem that helps further SDF’s mission to create equitable access to the global financial system.

We leveraged proactive media relations, thought leadership, and newsjacking to draw attention to SDF and the successes of the ecosystem, which was positively reflected in the media:

• Fed up with fees? Crypto use is growing for cross-border payments - survey
• After the Collapse of Terra's UST, What's Next for Algorithmic Stablecoins?
• Mercado Bitcoin partners with Stellar Development Foundation to develop Real Digital MVP with Central Bank approval
• What Are the Best Smart-Contract Capable Blockchains?
• Stellar Network To Support MoneyGram’s Crypto-To-Cash Service

Long story short

These last few years proved that SDF and the Stellar network will continue to break out in their industry—and continue to move blockchain-savvy audiences with messaging that demonstrates their authenticity and mission. Now that’s a partnership we can learn from.