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What is Web3 Marketing?
Web3 Marketing represents a transformative approach in the digital marketing landscape, marking a shift from the traditional, centralized Web2 methods to a new, decentralized framework based on blockchain technology. This evolution in marketing strategy is not just about adopting new tools; it’s about fundamentally changing how businesses interact with their audience.
Central to Web3 marketing is the challenge of educating the public about blockchain and cryptocurrencies, concepts that are often new and complex for many. Moreover, given the history of frauds and scams in the crypto industry, building trust and establishing credibility are crucial aspects of Web3 marketing strategies.
Core Aspects of Web3 Marketing
Aspect | Description | Approach |
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Educational | Focused on making complex blockchain and cryptocurrency concepts understandable to a broad audience. | Create videos, illustrations, and content that simplify technical terms. Emphasize the importance and relevance of these concepts in layman's terms. |
Trust and Credibility | Aimed at overcoming skepticism and building confidence in the crypto industry. | Highlight the team's expertise, conduct AMAs, interviews, and participate in community activities and conferences to showcase transparency and reliability. |
Community Engagement | Involves connecting with and empowering online communities, moving away from traditional marketing methods. | Engage with users through forums, social media, and interactive platforms, encouraging community participation and feedback. |
Token Incentives | Utilizing digital tokens and cryptocurrencies to enhance customer engagement and loyalty. | Implement rewards programs using digital tokens, offer exclusive access or benefits for community involvement and loyalty. |
NFT Marketing | Incorporating Non-Fungible Tokens in marketing for unique opportunities and engagement. | Develop exclusive digital collectibles, provide NFT-based access to events or products, and leverage NFTs for branding and exclusive content. |
Personalization & Privacy | Balancing tailored marketing campaigns with the high privacy standards of the Web3 community. | Craft personalized marketing initiatives that respect user privacy, using secure blockchain technology for data management. |
Adaptive Content Strategy | Adjusting content to appeal to an audience interested in blockchain technologies. | Produce informative and engaging content, focusing on the practical benefits and innovative aspects of blockchain. |
Influencer Partnerships | Using influencers and social media effectively within the Web3 context. | Collaborate with influencers knowledgeable about Web3, targeting platforms where tech-savvy audiences are active. |
Cross-Platform Integration | Combining traditional and decentralized platforms for a unified marketing strategy. | Seamlessly integrate campaigns across various digital and decentralized platforms, ensuring a consistent user experience. |
SEO & Tech Content | Concentrating on search engine optimization and creating content that appeals to a technology-inclined audience. | Optimize content for search engines, focusing on keywords related to technology, innovation, and blockchain. |
Events and Webinars | Engaging the community through informative and interactive events focused on Web3. | Organize and participate in events and webinars that are both educational and interactive, catering to the interests of the Web3 community. |
How Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 Evolved into Web 3.0
The emergence of Web 3.0 rests upon the pillars of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Web 1.0 is known as the first model of the internet. The first internet wave started in 1994 and lasted until 2000.
But what were the features of Web 1.0?
How did the transition to Web 2.0 start?
Web 1.0 was characterized by static pages to obtain information (text and graphics). This version of the internet was limited and did not allow users to interact or exchange other forms of value among themselves. The transition to Web 2.0 set the stage for more possibilities with the internet.
The second internet wave started with Web 2.0 in the early 2000s. Web 2.0 significantly captured the definition of the internet by the World Wide Web (WWW) creator Tim Berners-Lee. He described the internet as “a collaborative medium, a place where we [could] all meet and read and write.”
The emergence of Web 2.0 enabled the internet to be interactive, as millions of people could create and comment on each other’s posts.
Newer technologies like Javascript and Ajax also emerged to enhance website interaction. Aside from this, websites could integrate user-generated content while focusing on maximum user experience.
The Web 2 revolution also witnessed the arrival of social media networks established by Web 2 giants such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Instagram, and YouTube. Despite the many benefits of Web 2.0, what led to Web3?
Now, Web 3.0 Marketing Illustrated
Web 3 Marketing is a relatively new concept. It introduces decentralized technologies to the marketing world. In Web 2, we saw companies employ tools like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to attract clients to the products and services they offer.
Web3 marketing takes a different approach, leveraging emerging trends and new technologies like blockchain.
In Web 3 marketing, businesses adopt user-centric strategies to advertise opportunities. A company that adopts any Web 3 marketing strategy introduces perks that its users can benefit from. In this context, ‘users’ are not only consumers but also Venture Capitalists, investors, and partners with stakes (no matter how minor) in such a business.
The Web 3 technology ushered in the idea of decentralized digital ecosystems where every participant is a winner, irrespective of the value of what they own.
Web 3 marketing accomplishes the same brand marketing goals — a mission purely focusing on its user base’s natural desires and content needs. For instance, a business can use utility tokens as an incentivization model. Users could exchange the tokens for products or services offered by the business or trade them on secondary marketplaces.
Web 2 companies compensate their loyal customers with referral bonuses and discounts. Compared to the myriad of incentives available in Web3 marketing, this incentivization model is ineffective.
In 2021, OpenSea, a popular marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs)— one of the primitives of the Web3 economy— attempted to file for an initial public offering (IPO).
However, this move was met with outrage from thousands of NFT traders that use the platform. They argued that a token to reward users would be fairer to the community than an IPO that may only benefit investors and developers.
Web3 Marketing and The Blockchain Technology
Blockchain technology is inseparable from the Web3 economy. Thus, a close-knit relationship exists between Web3 marketing and blockchain.
What is the extent of the relationship between the two? The technology behind blockchain is based on the idea that a network can have many participants, such that there is no central authority.
Each participant contributes to the distributed network and gets rewarded for his contributions. Web3 marketing integrates this trustless, permissionless, and decentralized system so that businesses can leverage it to offer more value to their users.
Data security and decentralization are some benefits businesses leveraging Web3 marketing enjoy. Blockchain technology is designed in such a way that makes it tamper-proof.
The technology helps the brands using Web3 marketing to store clients’ data without suffering risks such as exploits from hackers.
The blockchain distributes and stores data across several nodes, eliminating a common problem in Web2— a single point of failure. Customers would connect with you directly without any intermediaries.
They’d also take control of their data privacies with blockchain technology since it guarantees data transparency and security due to its distributed ledger approach.”
Why Traditional Businesses Should Leverage Web3 Marketing
The business world continues to evolve. And thanks to various technological advancements over the years. The competition between traditional businesses is now fiercer.
Most of them now capitalize on new trends and technologies to stay ahead while broadening their client base and increasing their ROI.
Web3 marketing is changing the way businesses advertise themselves and view their consumers. In the past, most brands were only focused on attracting more sales or subscriptions without paying attention to how their clients would benefit more from the relationship.
With Web3 marketing, that has ceased to be the status quo. Here’s why you should integrate Web 3 marketing into your marketing structure if you run a traditional business.
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Users Enjoy a Personalised Experience
A Web3 integration allows your brand to offer users a personalized experience accessible on any device or screen with real-time data sharing capabilities.
Web 3 marketing allows your business to adopt cutting-edge technologies like blockchain to improve the experience for clients. For instance, your clients could access the services you offer in a different location because their data is synced and distributed in real-time. The data is not stored in a single point; there are many access points.
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Developing More Incentives for Users
Traditional businesses can utilize Web3 marketing to develop more incentives for their users. This marketing approach helps companies stay relevant to their clients.
When your clients realize that they have a significant holding in your business by owning tokens, they will want to stay. At that point, it is more of a partnership than a business-client relationship.
A rival NFT marketplace to OpenSea called LooksRare adopted this approach to attract more users to its platform. LooksRare developed a token — LOOKS with which it rewarded certain OpenSea users during its launch.
In addition, it allowed users to stake (hold) the LOOKS token to earn transaction fees from the marketplace. Today, many NFT traders have moved from OpenSea to LooksRare because the latter utilized one of the most attractive models in Web3 marketing.
What does Web3 mean for Brands?
Web3 represents many things for its adopters, but what does its adoption mean for brands?
Before its emergence, brands relied on social platforms to connect to their target audience. But they also risked losing this access if the platform where their audience is hosted shuts down.
In October 2021, a widespread downtime across Facebook-owned platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp, saw brands lose audience access. The downtime also caused losses in millions to them.
Web3 helps brands to avoid risks like this by hosting their audience on a decentralized platform like a decentralized social network with blockchain serving as the underlying technology.
Blockchain technology allows the social network to be hosted by distributed nodes. So even if a section of the nodes fails, the other nodes continue to sustain the network.
Web3 gives brands easy access to a massive swathe of users’ data in social media marketing. Instead of storing data on a centralized database, it is hosted on several independent and decentralized servers, giving you a business owner real-time access to it. Users benefit from this arrangement since he can determine who gets access and profits from his data.
Web3 also means democratized access for content creation and distribution. Over 200 million businesses actively use Facebook’s tools, and numerous content creators rely on Instagram for sponsored posts, affiliate links, and sales revenue. During the October downtime that lasted several hours, many creatives lost access to their audience.
Hosting a website on different servers prevents downtime challenges and enables content creators to own their audience instead of relying on social platforms to generate traffic to their content. Content creators will also get paid for their time and efforts.
How will Web 3.0 Affect Advertising?
Web 3.0 has been touted as a wave that will revolutionize different sectors. Web3 will also change the scope of advertising and how brands gain access to a vast audience for their products and services using tools like AI, IoT, and blockchain. How will the change occur?
Web3 will open new avenues for brands to market themselves. In Web 2.0, brands rely on the following advertising options— SEO and social media to reach their target audience. However, these media are controlled by big corporations.
Web 3.0 decentralizes these advertising options, eliminating the middleman barriers and paving the way for data transparency. So there is a direct relationship between brands and their consumers.
The Metaverse is a shared digital space that enhances users’ digital experience with VR and AR technologies. It is one of the hallmarks of the growing Web3 economy.
Web2 giants have already begun leveraging the technology to create a better digital experience. But marketers and other businesses can also draw on this tool to reach their target audience.
Recently, leading American investment bank, JP Morgan joined the train of legacy firms that have established their presence in the Metaverse. According to the bank, it sees vast opportunities for virtual goods there.
Annually, about $54 billion is spent on virtual goods. Thus, online shopping brands like Shopify can increase their audience reach by adopting Metaverse technology.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are one of the most vital reference points of the Web3 trend. They are used to prove the ownership of an item (whether physical or digital) using the blockchain as an immutable ledger.
NFTs have shown potentials beyond this and can be employed by brands to attract colossal followership. Adidas used NFTs to attract a larger audience. Nike adopted the same model following its acquisition of RTFKT (pronounced artifact)— a brand that produces digital wearables such as digital sneakers.
As previously stated, brands can look into the token economy as an advertising model based on the idea that tokens will be the currency of Web3. Web 3.0 has eliminated the practice of treating users as mere data.
Users are after value just as business owners. Thus, brands can offer their audience value using crypto tokens or NFTs. With Web 3, advertising becomes highly user-centric and transparent.
How Can Blockchain be Used in Marketing?
Blockchain technology is a bedrock of Web 3.0 marketing, and the opportunities provided to brands in marketing are limitless. Let’s take a look:
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Data Security
You can leverage blockchain to secure all necessary data as a business owner. The decentralized and distributed nature of the blockchain makes this possible. Data is essential to every business. Yet, it is easily manipulated. However, with blockchain, businesses can obtain accurate data and leads.
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Authenticity and Transparency
Blockchain can help businesses achieve authenticity and transparency. Consumers’ purchasing decisions are often informed by their preferences and the available data on the product or service. They always want to make better purchasing decisions.
A business can help its clients by providing trusted information on blockchain products or services. This way, it can gain its clients’ trust.
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Combating Fraud in Advertising
Brands battle offensive clicks and impressions when you create ads. You can adopt blockchain as a readily available solution to ensure authentic clicks and impressions on your ads since the blockchain verifies every data.
What Brands Need for Web3 Marketing
Brands looking to commence Web3 marketing campaigns should adopt specific strategies before doing so. The success of their marketing depends on these strategies.
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Develop a well-designed and secure website
As a Web3 brand, you wouldn’t want to continue with platforms owned by Web 2.0 giants to reach your audience or attract new users. Developing an attractive and secure website that your audience can always visit is your best bet.
Moreover, you can drive traffic generated on social media platforms to the website, which also helps you retain your loyal audience.
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Content Strategy that Gives a Content Calendar for Blog Posts
Have a blog for consistent updates of contents that benefit your brand and users through a content calendar of well-researched topic keywords. You can keep track of users who visit your website. You can also quickly gather relevant information about existing and upcoming products or services.
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Visibility Enhancement
Visibility is essential for every brand. Being visible shows your audience that you are willing to be transparent. Your brand’s and team’s profile should appear on relevant platforms like LinkedIn and Crunchbase to ensure that your business is easily visible online.
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Channeling of Marketing Efforts and Resources to Relevant Channels
The Web3 community is fast-growing. A large percentage of this community is seen on platforms like Reddit, Twitter, Discord, Reddit, Steemit, and Bitcointalk. Your brand can establish its presence on these platforms as a marketing strategy. The massive audience in the Web3 community is an edge for any brand.
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is a reputable and powerful marketing strategy many Web 2 businesses have adopted for their brands. SEO is still relevant in the emerging Web3 economy.
It however appears that brands do not pay attention to this strategy and how it can benefit their websites. Here’s why your brand should not ignore SEO in Web3 marketing.
SEO can enhance your website’s ranking. 5.6 billion Google searches are done per day. Below is an illustration of how many searches have happened on Google search at this minute of writing, according to Internet Live Stats.
Right now, according to Google Trends, NFTs have the most searches globally among Web3 trends. Sites with the keyword witnessed more visits from users because they ranked on Google’s first page.
Leveraging SEO on your brand’s website will attract the attention of millions of internet users to your business.
Trends in the Web3 Economy
While the Web3 economy is yet to attain its full potential, it has inspired some trends, currently gaining traction in mainstream industries.
Metaverse and NFTs are part of these trends. Seeing the interest that these trends have generated, experts have predicted that they will further the growth and adoption of the Web 3.0 economy.
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Metaverse
The origin of the Metaverse is traceable to Neal Stephenson’s famous sci-fi novel, Snow Crash. In the novel, Stephenson depicted the Metaverse as a shared virtual space that connects all virtual worlds using the internet and augmented reality.
The Metaverse is an innovation aimed at enhancing the digital experience for internet users. Existing platforms like The Sandbox, Roblox, Second Life, and Decentraland offer just a sneak peek into the possibilities of the Metaverse.
Mainstream brands like Adidas, Nike, Facebook, and more (Now Meta) are already adopting the Metaverse into their business infrastructure, including marketing.
As we speak, the most major utility of the Metaverse is for the acquisition of NFTs. However, in the coming months, we will see more use cases for the Metaverse other than NFTs. With the influx of big players, the Metaverse will become an environment where we carry out most activities.
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NFTs
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have registered huge interest from several brands. While they first emerged in 2017, they did not become a sensation until 2021, when digital artist Mike Winklemann (also known as Beeple) auctioned one of his works for a whopping $69.3 million.
NFTs sold within the first half of 2021 are valued at $2.5 billion. NFTs are non-fungible because you cannot exchange them for other assets. Suppose you have a five-dollar bill; you can easily replace it with another bill having the same value.
However, if you spill ink on the first bill to prove that you own it, it becomes unique and irreplaceable.
Non-fungible tokens have other use cases apart from being used to prove ownership. NFTs are now a marketing tool in the Web3 economy. Individual and corporate brands now create awareness for their products using NFTs for storytelling and audience interaction.
Artists also connect to their audience with NFTs and earn additional revenue from their creations. The possibilities are endless.
Conclusion
Brands will continue to leverage valuable resources to give themselves the necessary exposure and help them stay ahead of competitors. The business sector has always benefited from new technologies and trends.
Web3 marketing is one of the trends that traditional businesses can take advantage of to expand their reach.
Your brand needs to adopt the rich opportunities in Web 3 marketing to attain next-level growth and scalability. It will help you retain a significant market share and stay ahead of your competitors in whatever industry you find yourself in.
FAQ
How is Web3 Marketing different from traditional marketing?
Web3 Marketing distinguishes itself from traditional marketing primarily through two essential aspects.
Firstly, it prioritizes establishing a Web3 project as a credible and authoritative company within the ecosystem, which is crucial due to the presence of bad actors that might harm the sector’s reputation.
Secondly, Web3 Marketing focuses on simplifying complex technological concepts, making them accessible to a broader audience. This approach encourages people to invest, use, or become part of the project, ultimately contributing to the growth and success of Web3 companies.
How can brands use SEO in Web3 Marketing?
Brands can effectively use SEO in Web3 Marketing by implementing the following strategies:
- Conducting in-depth keyword research: Brands should identify relevant keywords and phrases that users commonly search for within the Web3 ecosystem. This process involves analyzing search volume, competition, and user intent to determine the most effective keywords for their niche.
- Creating high-quality, strategic content: After identifying the right keywords, brands need to develop informative, engaging, and valuable content that resonates with their target audience. This content should be tailored to address the needs, concerns, and interests of users in the Web3 space. Additionally, incorporating the selected keywords naturally within the content will help improve search engine rankings.
- Optimizing on-page elements: Brands must ensure that their web pages are optimized for both users and search engines. This includes writing compelling meta titles and descriptions, using header tags, optimizing images, and incorporating internal and external links. Properly structured content and a mobile-friendly website design contribute to an enhanced user experience, ultimately boosting SEO performance.
- Building a strong backlink profile: Acquiring high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites within the Web3 industry will help improve a brand’s search engine ranking. Brands can achieve this through guest blogging, creating shareable content, and forming strategic partnerships with other reputable companies in the space.
- Focusing on technical SEO: Brands need to address technical aspects of their website, such as site speed, mobile responsiveness, and secure connections (HTTPS). Additionally, submitting a sitemap and implementing schema markup can enhance search engine crawling and indexing, resulting in better visibility.
- Leveraging social media and community engagement: Promoting content on relevant social media platforms, forums, and online communities within the Web3 ecosystem will drive more traffic to the website. Active engagement with the audience not only increases brand awareness but also fosters trust and credibility.
By employing these SEO strategies, brands can effectively drive targeted traffic to their websites, increase visibility, and establish a strong presence within the Web3 industry.