The Web3 Marketer Handbook - Foresight News EN

Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Users

Are you ready to take your Web3 business to the next level? In this guide, we will show you how to increase brand awareness, reach new users, and drive growth. From setting up essential processes to engaging with your community, you will learn key marketing strategies and tactics you need to succeed in this exciting new space.

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1/ How to use this guide

Use the Content page and click on the relevant section or page that fits your marketing needs
For more in-depth study, check out the marketing models and case studies interspersed between each section
Note that this guide curates the most essential tasks, processes, and strategies for each marketing area. Further information can be found on the Tools & Resources section.

1.2/ What is Web3 Marketing?

Selling new and disruptive technology, such as Web3 products, means you are up against a number of largely unknown challenges. You will need a steady focus on your vision, value, and roadmap. Another key thing you must hone down – marketing. There is already plenty of content and resources dealing with marketing in the Web3 world. However, many do not provide you with concrete steps on how to go about promoting your product. This guide cuts through all the noise to deliver you step-by-step approaches and checklists within key marketing verticals. This section gives a you a brief background on how Web3 and blockchain will mark a shift in the paradigms of marketing.

1.3/ Existing Misconceptions

The marketing of Web3 products and services often involves educating customers about the benefits of decentralised technologies and how they can be used in everyday life. This may involve explaining the various differences between traditional centralised systems and decentralised systems, as well as the benefits of using decentralised technologies for things like security, privacy, and transparency.

Unfortunately, there is a prevailing marketing strategy in the Web3 space that has been affecting the onboarding experience. This frequently-used approach includes:

While the above strategies are reasonable starting points, they do not reap long-term benefits. Effective marketing strategies should be backed by some fundamental concepts and consumer psychology. Additionally, as Web3 expands into mainstream discussions, people are becoming more aware of the spammy and hype marketing involved in the industry. Thus, in order to differentiate yourself from the crowd, your marketing strategy needs to be modified accordingly.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The following sections will take you through various strategies for different marketing aspects and touch points that Web3 brands can use to improve their growth. Marketing models and case studies are interspersed throughout this guide for more in-depth study.

Overall, the goal of Web3 marketing is to increase the long-term awareness and adoption of decentralised technologies. As a Web3 marketer, you will need to help your users, investors, and partners understand the potential benefits and uses of your product in their daily lives.

CONCEPT: ANSOFF MATRIX

Marketing ultimately aims to drive growth of your company. This especially holds true in Web3, where adoption remains a major challenge. Whenever marketers talk about growth, the Ansoff Matrix is usually brought up.

WHAT IS THE ANSOFF MATRIX?

The Ansoff Matrix is a strategic planning tool used to analyse and plan a company’s product and market growth. It is a way to explore the potential risks and rewards of different growth strategies. Companies often use this planning tool to organise marketing strategies that are essential to growth in an effective manner.

HOW DO YOU START?

The model identifies two ways to approach a growth marketing strategy: adjust the product or adjust the market. Depending on your approach, you will fall into one of the four quadrants: market penetration, product development, market development, or diversification.

HOW DO YOU APPLY THE MODEL TO WEB3?

To apply the Ansoff Matrix to your Web3 business, you will first need to identify the current products and niches that your company is involved in. Then, you can use the matrix to identify potential opportunities for growth. The following are some basic growth strategies to consider:

You would need to consider the potential risks and rewards of each growth strategy, as well as the resources and capabilities of your company. By carefully analysing these factors, you can determine the best course of action for your business.

2. BRAND BUILDING

2.1/ Web3 Brand Strategy Guidelines

Building your Web3 brand is more than simply creating a logo and visual identity. It is not the same as posting ads. You do not need a fully developed brand book in the early part of your journey. Brand building starts with your founder’s purpose and story behind their business idea. It is about communicating how you are creating a difference in the world, in your market niche, and for your customers.

Building a brand for a Web3 project involves many of the same steps as building a brand for any other type of business. Here are some general guidelines to follow:

HOW IS BRANDING DIFFERENT FROM MARKETING?

Branding and marketing are connected, but also separate. In today’s competitive and oversaturated Web3 marketplace, you need to differentiate your business and products from all others. To do this, you need both strong branding and strong marketing.

2.2/ 5 Tips for Building Your Web3 Brand

Create a USER PERSONA for your target audience
Gather comprehensive data that explains your target audience for reference purposes when you run out of ideas. It helps to ensure the rest of the marketing team maintains the same brand voice and identity
Encourage the founding teams to build PERSONAL BRANDS
More than 58% of companies get more visibility through their founding teams. As a marketer, it is advisable to leverage the popularity of your founders when marketing products. If feasible, hire a personal copywriter for your founding team to build community via their social media. Establish your founders as industry thought leaders before talking about your product.
Incentivise your community to create USER-GENERATED CONTENT
Identify the most active members of your community and incentivise them to produce content (e.g. video tutorials, guides, testimonials) through reward systems.

Having an amazing DOCS PAGE that is regularly updated and maintained
Documentation is the main entry point to your users. For open-source projects, in particular, having a no-nonsense, concise guide for developers will help them be more successful at using your product.
Create DEDICATED CHANNELS for conversations to take place
Launch targeted platforms or spaces (e.g. Twitter Communities, Discord channels) for individuals in the community to gather, asks questions, and form relationships. Build trust by helping those who are not even using your product. Go beyond and create curated community chats with top builders and users in your community to explore potential marketing activities and ambassador campaigns.

CASE STUDY: LIQUID DEATH

WHAT IS IT?

Hardcore water brand on a mission to end single-use plastic while getting people to drink more water
Has a targeted marketing strategy with clear branding and positioning. Instead of talking about nature, purity, and taste that are typical of water brands, it evokes darker and edgier motifs – murdering thirst and death to plastic.
Gained a cult following in Web3 by playing with people’s perceptions of their brand
Runs a successful Web3 loyalty programme called “Country Club”, where hundreds and thousands of fans “sell their souls” for early access to limited-edition merchandise drops, private events and more

Liquid Death’s actual product and MHDC collection

WEB3 STRATEGY

Onboarded on Web3 e-commerce platform, Novel
Imported their new NFT collection, Murder Head Death Club (MHDC), onto the Novel platform
Selected items and officially token-gated them
Holders get exclusive discounts, celebrity experiences, live VIP event access, among others
Built Web3 community through various activities, such as holders getting to DJ on Liquid Death’s radio station, a screening of horror movie on Discord, and hosting poker nights
Set long-term plans for more NFT-gated perks, such as private access to CEO, early previews, and access to merchandise drops

RESULTS

MHDC featured a collection of 6,666 unique NFTs
NFTs depict severed heads of dead thirsts, created by well-known artist Will Carsola
MHDC collection sold out in three hours after launch
With initial minting fee of 0.0666 ETH, MHDC’s launch generated around 445 ETH in sales

KEY POINTS OF SUCCESS

Consistent brand messaging from Web2 to Web3
Acted on company brand values of sustainability (e.g. donated 10% of royalties from MHDC collection to charities and offset 110% of carbon emissions from initial mint)
Maintained brand message and personality in MHDC collection
Active community-building activities and engagement both online and offline

3. DIGITAL MARKETING

3.1/ Key Components of Digital Marketing

As a Web3 business, you will need to reach and communicate with your potential customers where they are spending more and more of their time: online. This is where digital marketing comes into play. By using digital channels and technologies, Web3 projects can create personal and engaging experiences that can lead to increased customer loyalty and higher sales. There are 8 major components of digital marketing. This guide filters out the noise and runs through the most essential areas for blockchain-based projects.

3.2/ The Essential SEO Checklist

A strong Web3 strategy for search engine optimisation (SEO) is the best approach to raising brand awareness of your project, whether it be a NFT, DeFi app, or stablecoin. SEO can also help build your authority in the industry, increasing trust among the Web3 community. There are three basic categories in an SEO strategy, as shown below.

3.3/ Advertising in the Metaverse

Advertising in the metaverse involves creating and placing advertisements in virtual worlds or online gaming environments. The ads can take many forms, such as virtual billboards, product placement within the virtual environment, or sponsored in-game events or items. One of the key benefits of advertising in the metaverse is the ability to target a specific audience and track engagement with the ads in real-time. Advertisers can use data from the virtual world to inform and optimise their advertising strategy. However, it is also important for advertisers to be mindful of the context and tone of the virtual world, and to ensure that their ads are appropriate and do not disrupt the user experience.

3.4/ The Ultimate NFT Marketing Strategy

Marketing an NFT project involves a variety of strategies that you can use to raise awareness, generate interest, and ultimately drive sales of the NFTs. It is important to note that the crypto and NFT space is fast-moving, so staying updated on the latest trends and best practices is crucial to the success of your marketing efforts.

TIPS ON TOKEN GATING STRATEGY

NFT token gating refers to a system in which the owner of an NFT is able to control access to certain features or benefits. This can be done by using smart contract technology on a blockchain network to create a digital “gate” that can be opened or closed based on the ownership of a specific NFT.

NFT token gating allows creators to reward their holders with exclusive access to certain features, which can help drive the demand for their NFTs and increase their value. This strategy opens up both marketing and monetisation opportunities for brands and creators.

3.5/ Tips for Successful Email Marketing

Build your EMAIL LIST
Include sign-up or subscribe buttons on your blog pages, social network bios, and email signatures. Collect email addresses from website visitors, social media followers, and other sources.
SEGMENT your subscribers
Divide your emails list into smaller groups based on factors such as interests, behaviour, and engagement with previous emails. Design highly personalised emails for the right segments.
Create catchy SUBJECT LINES
Make your subject lines stand out. Keep it brief. Incorporate humour if appropriate. Use questions to draw people’s attention.
Write a compelling PREVIEW TEXT
Provide an eye-catching sneak peak into the email content. Make it brief while conveying the most important facts.

Optimise your CTAs
CTA (Call to Action) buttons help draw people to navigate through your web pages. Consider the content, colour, and location of your buttons. Use trigger action words and make sure your text button accurately describes what the button does.
AUTOMATE and MEASURE your email campaigns
Use marketing tools, such as MailChimp and HubSpot, to automate repetitive tasks. Track key metrics, such as open rates and click-through rates.
INTEGRATE with your other marketing channels
Include links to your social media and other marketing platforms in your email campaign to grow your following into other channels.

CONCEPT: CONSUMER BUYING PROCESS

Selling disruptive products, such as blockchain-based apps, is practically impossible without understanding the needs and preferences of your potential users. The Consumer Buying Process helps you to figure out this aspect as well as barriers and motivators to purchasing your product. The information can be used to improve your business and marketing strategy, increasing the adoption of your product as a result.

HOW DO YOU APPLY THE MODEL TO WEB3?

Information Search: The consumer searches for information on blockchain products that could potentially solve their problem or meet their need.
Problem/Need Recognition: The consumer recognises a need or problem that they believe can be solved or improved by a blockchain product.
Evaluation of Alternatives: The consumer evaluates the different blockchain products that they have found during their information search to determine which one is the best fit for their needs.
Purchase Decision: The consumer makes a decision to purchase a specific blockchain product.
Post-purchase Evaluation: After using the blockchain product, the consumer evaluates their satisfaction with the product and their decision to purchase it.

4. CONTENT MARKETING

4.1/ A Content Marketing Plan in 6 Steps

Whether the purpose is to inform and educate users and investors or develop credibility and authority, Web3 projects need to have some sort of content marketing plan in place. Having a perspective as well as a commitment to high-quality, transparent content are key to building trust. However, content marketing is more than simply blogging on Medium. It needs to be planned and created with intention so that your content can create real value for your business. The following 6-step plan helps to structure your content marketing towards clear goals.

4.2/ 5 Content Strategy Frameworks

Blog and pray is not a strategy. An effective content strategy outlines how you will use your content to achieve your business goals. It focuses on how you distribute content to grow your audience and hit your performance metrics. The following five content strategy frameworks involve tactics that cover the most common business goals.

1/ LEAD GENERATION

Who is it for

For big project launches that require making more touch points with a prospective customer at every step of the consumer buying journey

How it works

Rather than going from content directly to offer, this framework move people from the awareness stage toward taking action – from stranger to customer.

Produce one piece of content for each stage in your sales funnel (awareness, interest, decision, action)
Start driving traffic to your “awareness” (i.e. not hard selling) piece using paid and/or organic social
Organise and create custom audiences for visitors who read each post
Run retargeting or email campaigns with the next article in your series catered each custom audience

For example, target people who have already visited your “interest” content with “decision” content and so on in a continuous cycle.

2/ EVERGREEN FOREST

Who is it for

For businesses that want to raise the dominance and visibility of their content on search engines

How it works

This low-cost approach focuses on letting organic search do most of the heavy lifting, meaning that it will take some time to generate results. Your website’s authority will grow gradually over time, meaning your content will slowly make its way up from #100 to #3 in search engines.

Produce evergreen content on your website or blog. Evergreen content are search-engine optimised and stay continuously relevant over a long period of time.
Organic search on your evergreen content on its own does not work. You will need to raise the authority of your website’s domain in order to increase the visibility of your content. Use link-building content to grow your domain authority. For an in-depth dive into the link building strategy, go to our Tools & Resources page.
As you create more link-building content, you will begin to see compounding growth as you publish more search optimised evergreen content. Each content piece should ideally grow higher in search ranking.

3/ COMPETITIVE SEO

Who is it for

For businesses that want to raise the dominance and visibility of their website, aligned with specific searches relevant to their target market. For example, you have a SocialFi platform and you want to rank #1 for searches on “SocialFi”.

How it works

This approach is similar to the Evergreen Forest framework. However, instead of creating evergreen content, you will need to create content targeting a single, competitive keyword that is relevant to your business or product.

4/ COMMUNITY BUILDING

Who is it for

For projects that are more interested in using content as a way to foster and build community than directly sell a product or service

How it works

The goal of this approach is to drive engagement, return visitors, and conversation between community members. To accomplish this, you will need to engineer content that is specifically designed for people to share through their networks. As a result, your content will be cast out to a wider network within your target market.

5/ TRIFECTA

Who is it for

For companies with ample resources because while this strategy can meet almost any high-level business goal, it also involves many moving parts

How it works

There are two ways to approach this strategy. Invest more into content marketing to handle all of the various types of content or have a slower build up as each piece starts to generate both long- and short-term results.

Build a library of evergreen content that is closely tied to specific keywords relevant to your target audience.
Use link-building content to elevate the visibility of the evergreen content over time, driving organic traffic.
Generate short-term results by using viral social content that drives traffic and engagement through social and traditional distribution channels. Examples include infographics and Twitter thread summaries of your blog articles.

CONCEPT: PESO MODEL

The Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned (PESO) model is a great tool to categorise the types of communication that a brand has with consumers. It allows you to see the bigger picture when it comes to your marketing activity. You can see where your efforts are being channeled into and where the gaps are in order to create a seamless integrated mix.

5.1/ Checklist for Twitter, Discord, and Reddit

By building a strong community of users who are invested in the success of your Web3 product, your project can gain valuable feedback, support, and contributions that can help you improve and grow over time. In order to achieve this, social media is required – practically indispensable. Through social media, community members can get updated on your project’s progress, new developments, and answers to questions about your product’s technology and roadmap. This helps to increase transparency and trust in your project, which is crucial in the decentralised and often complex world of Web3.

5.2/ Top 20 Discord Bots

Much has been said about how challenging it can be to navigate around Discord, particularly for first-time users. The following are some tools to help you create more organised and seamless experience for your community members.

1. Mee6
Helps automate tasks, like sending welcome messages, assigning roles, and setting up custom commands

2. Dyno

Offers a wide range of features, including music streaming, server backups, and custom commands

3. Tatsu

Helps with server engagement, offering features such as custom reaction roles, leaderboards, and server stats

4. Ticketbot

Allows users to create, manage, and close support tickets directly from Discord. Helps collect user feedback.

5. ServerStats

Allows you to see statistics of your server, like how many messages have been sent and how many people joined

6. Xenon

Helps backup, duplicate or clone your Discord server, make archives, and synchronise changes

7. Dank memer

Offers bot commands for you to share memes or create your own

8. Invite Tracker

Tracks where your new members are coming from and who is inviting them. Often used to fill whitelisting spots.

9. Bump Reminder

Offers various features, such as general reminders, a vote tracker, the question of the day, and welcome messages.

10. Epic-RPG

Offers mini, chat-based role-playing game to keep your server’s community members engaged and alive

11. Quizbot

Create customised quizzes and host trivia nights to reward users and enhance engagement

12. Helper.gg

Enables you to reply to user queries by creating support tickets within your Discord server

13. PollBot

Allows you to construct time-sensitive polls, simple yes-or-no polls, and polls that require custom answers

14. Apollo

Assists with events management tasks, such as scheduling events and meetings and setting reminders

15. Zira

Assign server roles depending on user responses. Greets hello and goodbye to new and returning members.

16. Statbot

Displays statistics, such as total number of members, server activity, and other customisable options.

17. GiveawayBot

Allows you to organise and streamline the process of your giveaways

18. Arcane

Moderates your server using a levelling system to offer members a chance to gain XP and rewards

19. ProBot

Offers various features, such creating welcome graphics, using social commands, and monitoring rule violations

20. Captcha.bot

Conducts account verification and anti-phishing to authenticate new users joining your community

CASE STUDY: REDDIT

WHAT IS IT?

Popular social news and discussion platform that has an active Web3 community
Launched new NFT-based digital collectible avatars on the Polygon network
Reddit Collectible Avatars are limited-editions and based on the social platform’s mascot, Snoo
Collection was designed by Reddit creators and independent artists

WEB3 STRATEGY

Avoided using Web3-related lingo, such as NFTs and wallets, in their content marketing based on their prior market research that 35% of Reddit community believe that brands can ruin the future of NFTs
Created a frictionless onboarding experience through social media platform, with buyers simply needing to create a “Vault” on Reddit that acts as a digital wallet
Reduced barrier to entry by removing the need for buyers to own cryptocurrency to purchase
Holders receive perks on their Reddit profiles, such as the ability to customise and switch out gear and accessories
After a month from launch, top contributors and builders on Reddit received free airdrops to reward their contribution and also have them act as brand ambassadors to promote the collection

RESULT

Launch of avatars led to the creation of more than 3M crypto wallets, 99% of which are unique users. This figure surpasses OpenSea’s 2.3M active wallets.

KEY POINTS OF SUCCESS

Avoided technical terms, such as “wallet”, in order to entice largely non-crypto users to turn into this new digital initiative
Conducted market research of their potential buyers beforehand
Provided its community a product that it wanted, packaged aesthetically, and sold with ease using simple interfaces and hassle-free processes
While blockchain technology powered the product, it was not the star of the show. This helps make a somewhat disruptive product more digestible and appealing.