Marketing in Web3 has been a roller coaster to say the least. The decentralized and fast moving nature of the space has led to protocols & applications being built at the speed of light with an emphasis on sound engineering, transaction costs, transaction speed, and network stability. Marketing has often been an afterthought. Due to this, protocols have struggled to align their offerings with user need, but just as importantly they have struggled to market their offerings to the correct audience. This piece will dive in a little deeper into how the space can segment users into buckets and more efficiently identify where their users are.

As mentioned earlier, protocols are born seemingly overnight (hackathons sprout products with insane speed). Once the idea and the capability is built the search for an active user base begins. Unsurprisingly over the past few years a lot companies have found themselves following a similar playbook to get their protocols off the ground.

This playbook is as follows from a birds eye view:

• X (Twitter): Sh*t-posting, community engagement, paid ads, and general thought leadership all stem from X. Very common for an ambitious protocol to be extremely active on X.

• Discord: Discord serves as a powerful medium for community engagement. Protocols can interact with their users and users can interact with each other. The correct Discord setup can drive user growth like wildfire.

• Airdrops: Crypto likely serves as a means to an end for a high percentage of the active user base. Airdrops serve as a reward to early adopters of a protocol. Users drive activity in the early stages and the protocol rewards them down the line. It helps to briefly align the motivations of all users with those of the protocol.

This is a relatively tried and true playbook. While it seems simple, the power of community is unmatched and has helped drive protocols to glory.

So what’s wrong with this setup?

Bluntly, it is a one-size fits all approach. Does it work? Yes. Could it be improved? Definitely.

Web3 protocols have been drinking from a firehose regarding marketing. It seems like very few companies are doing the work to onboard users in to web3 and the rest of the space is competing over anyone even remotely in the space. There are simply too many people to be targeting at once. A deeper level of targeting and audience identification is required to truly drive outcomes.

The funnel below will be a quick example of how protocols can segment and break down an audience to further align it with their specific offerings and advantages.

Example companies for the purpose of this exercise:

• Company A: A startup creating a new wallet with a focus on clean UX and fiat onramps.

• Company B: A complex lending protocol with a focus on cutting edge tech to reduce slippage and guarantee specific rates.

• Company C: A decentralized social company looking to gain users.

• Funnel Breaks

  • Off-Chain: The purposes of this piece will leave this section extremely broad. This section will denote users who may or may not be onboarded into web3 at all. Broad demographic or interest based online targeting could be used to reach potential users anywhere on the internet whether they are viewing content related to web3 or not.

    • Great Fit: Company A.

    • Bad Fit: Company B.

  • On-Chain General: Users who likely have wallets already, follow a variety of web3 accounts on socials, and likely own some crypto. May or may not be active in the space. Could be identified with general online targeting or reached specifically when interacting with web3 content through newsletter ads, X ads, or influencer marketing.

    • Great Fit: Company C.

      • The audience in this bracket is likely onboarded into the first few steps of web3. Some may have lost interest in the bear market, but have the potential to be brought back to active status through a new social protocol with interesting features. Barrier to entry is low since these users are already onboarded.

    • Decent Fit: Company A.

      • Targeting an audience like this will likely gain some users, however an important consideration here is competition within web3. A clean UX and fiat onramps may not be a big enough incentive for general users to onboard onto a new wallet. Potential driver of customer acquisition costs.

There is so so much more to expand upon here and this funnel is an exercise than nearly any protocol could benefit from. Customizing a funnel like this to a protocol can help them segment their audience and identify who they are trying to reach. Then finding the correct messaging and medium combination will allow them to more efficiently drive user volume with less time (and money) wasted on broad outreach. Dialing in on a more targeted approach is the first step in helping web3 protocols find positive ROI from their marketing efforts.

Thanks for reading. More to come.

Subscribe to Precision for more insights and thoughts on making web3 marketing more precise.

Marketing in Web3 has been a roller coaster to say the least. The decentralized and fast moving nature of the space has led to protocols & applications being built at the speed of light with an emphasis on sound engineering, transaction costs, transaction speed, and network stability. Marketing has often been an afterthought. Due to this, protocols have struggled to align their offerings with user need, but just as importantly they have struggled to market their offerings to the correct audience. This piece will dive in a little deeper into how the space can segment users into buckets and more efficiently identify where their users are.

As mentioned earlier, protocols are born seemingly overnight (hackathons sprout products with insane speed). Once the idea and the capability is built the search for an active user base begins. Unsurprisingly over the past few years a lot companies have found themselves following a similar playbook to get their protocols off the ground.

This playbook is as follows from a birds eye view:

• X (Twitter): Sh*t-posting, community engagement, paid ads, and general thought leadership all stem from X. Very common for an ambitious protocol to be extremely active on X.

• Discord: Discord serves as a powerful medium for community engagement. Protocols can interact with their users and users can interact with each other. The correct Discord setup can drive user growth like wildfire.

• Airdrops: Crypto likely serves as a means to an end for a high percentage of the active user base. Airdrops serve as a reward to early adopters of a protocol. Users drive activity in the early stages and the protocol rewards them down the line. It helps to briefly align the motivations of all users with those of the protocol.

This is a relatively tried and true playbook. While it seems simple, the power of community is unmatched and has helped drive protocols to glory.

So what’s wrong with this setup?

Bluntly, it is a one-size fits all approach. Does it work? Yes. Could it be improved? Definitely.

Web3 protocols have been drinking from a firehose regarding marketing. It seems like very few companies are doing the work to onboard users in to web3 and the rest of the space is competing over anyone even remotely in the space. There are simply too many people to be targeting at once. A deeper level of targeting and audience identification is required to truly drive outcomes.

The funnel below will be a quick example of how protocols can segment and break down an audience to further align it with their specific offerings and advantages.

Example companies for the purpose of this exercise:

• Company A: A startup creating a new wallet with a focus on clean UX and fiat onramps.

• Company B: A complex lending protocol with a focus on cutting edge tech to reduce slippage and guarantee specific rates.

• Company C: A decentralized social company looking to gain users.

• Funnel Breaks

  • Off-Chain: The purposes of this piece will leave this section extremely broad. This section will denote users who may or may not be onboarded into web3 at all. Broad demographic or interest based online targeting could be used to reach potential users anywhere on the internet whether they are viewing content related to web3 or not.

    • Great Fit: Company A.

    • Bad Fit: Company B.

  • On-Chain General: Users who likely have wallets already, follow a variety of web3 accounts on socials, and likely own some crypto. May or may not be active in the space. Could be identified with general online targeting or reached specifically when interacting with web3 content through newsletter ads, X ads, or influencer marketing.

    • Great Fit: Company C.

      • The audience in this bracket is likely onboarded into the first few steps of web3. Some may have lost interest in the bear market, but have the potential to be brought back to active status through a new social protocol with interesting features. Barrier to entry is low since these users are already onboarded.

    • Decent Fit: Company A.

      • Targeting an audience like this will likely gain some users, however an important consideration here is competition within web3. A clean UX and fiat onramps may not be a big enough incentive for general users to onboard onto a new wallet. Potential driver of customer acquisition costs.

There is so so much more to expand upon here and this funnel is an exercise than nearly any protocol could benefit from. Customizing a funnel like this to a protocol can help them segment their audience and identify who they are trying to reach. Then finding the correct messaging and medium combination will allow them to more efficiently drive user volume with less time (and money) wasted on broad outreach. Dialing in on a more targeted approach is the first step in helping web3 protocols find positive ROI from their marketing efforts.

Thanks for reading. More to come.

Subscribe to Precision for more insights and thoughts on making web3 marketing more precise.