In that vein, it might be wise for them to join an ad coop of sorts. There are a number of companies which facilitate this very easily and can supply ads and pay a fee for the space on Steemit. It will be in fiat, but it's a revenue stream and doing this will align their goals for a larger revenue stream from that coop with acquiring and (more importantly) retaining more users.
The main problem of Steemit was never a marketing issue. It's always been a user retention issue. Social Media sausage factories don't have a long shelf life.