The Web3 industry is constantly evolving, with new utilities and use cases being forged on a monthly basis. These include innovative games, digital identities, metaverse IP, and everything in between. For projects looking to launch a Web3 centric narrative, it is more critical than ever to be organized and develop a marketing roadmap that is actionable and realistic.
At Rarestone Capital, we have invested, helped launch, and grown numerous Web3 projects. Over the past two years, we have seen projects fail and others succeed, all nuanced by a few critical errors or implementations that determined the fate of each respective project. The following three tips, while high-level, represent the most important things we have seen when marketing a web3 project.
- Stay consistent and over-communicate
Similar to traditional tech user acquisition, projects need to build an effective communications strategy that discusses what value they are providing and how it directly impacts their users and communities. First, the key is to be consistent. Going “stealth” is a wild card strategy that can be used early on to gain momentum, but should not be the focus as a roadmap progresses. Over-communicate vs. under-communicate is my advice. Especially since attention spans are decreasing and community members will take their interest elsewhere if they don’t know exactly what is happening and when.
Second, make sure to have at least one marketer on your team. It sounds simple, but we find numerous dev-heavy teams that neglect marketing until the very last minute. In these situations, it is completely fine to outsource to agencies, but you need to have a point of contact internally to help coordinate and review each activity. Even someone junior is fine. A common misconception is that a good enough product will market itself, but the industry is becoming more crowded and moves at warp speed – you have to stand out from the crowd.
- Appreciate the sophistication of the Web3 generation
Communities, users, and even speculators are more sophisticated and to an extent, unforgiving. Short-term focused tactics that were often seen in the last cycle are now quickly exposed if detrimental to a project. For example, there is a recent trend that is questioning the long-term impact of staking. Often seen as a necessary early-stage strategy that helps reward engaged long-term users (and makes for a strong community announcement), industry players are now questioning the sustainability of staking. Is staking just a ploy to maintain a positive price trajectory and reduce sell pressure, or is it really about the community?
These are the questions and dilemmas that projects need to question when building a well-rounded marketing strategy.
- Do not sacrifice long-term health for short-term gain
Many projects. are not long-term focused. Make sure your marketing strategy aligns with your long-term vision and roadmap. For example, I see founders get caught up with flashy marketing campaigns that are detrimental to a project’s long-term token health. With generous emissions, interest spikes early on and then wane as community members move on to the next shiny object. During this process, you need to evaluate what risk a marketing campaign must hold and why. Without this knowledge, all it would take is one bad market downturn to eliminate all momentum and possibly create a situation that is impossible to recover from.