Welcome to this week’s free edition of WingHub-TCO!
Each week we talk about how to grow dApps and Web3 businesses by understanding users and using effective communication.
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“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.”
— W. Edwards Deming
What am I gonna read?
Why Web3 Protocols Struggle to Retain Users—And How It Impacts Revenue and Long-Term Success
Plus, we’ll dive into the best metrics for analyzing user behavior and conversion efficiency in Web3 protocols. What I like to call: “The User Trip“ (will do a separate post about it)
Why does this matter to me?
Whether you’re an investor, founder or analyst, understanding what drives user engagement can help you refine your strategy and uncover how users perceive and use a protocol.
Thus, you’ll know if a project have the potential to succeed or fall into oblivion.
What will I get out of this?
You’ll walk away with actionable insights on what users genuinely value in Web3 protocols.
Ideas that could boost the retention and engagement of Web3 protocols.
Without further ado, let’s dive right in:
As a founder or analyst, it is natural to ask yourself:
Are my users coming back to my dApp or Business as a result of that incentive campaign or that new implementation on the protocol?
How fast is he going to come back and what value is he going to present to the protocol?
First, imagine you hypothesize that most of the users who stopped engaging with your dApp or protocol didn’t do so because they weren’t interested, but rather because they forgot about you amidst the endless stream of new projects and updates in the blockchain space.
Given that, you might consider setting up on-chain retargeting strategies, like sending personalized notifications or token-based incentives, triggered as soon as their last interaction with your dApp ends.
For example, you could remind them to stake their tokens, complete a quest, or claim rewards, ensuring they stay engaged.
Secondly, you analyze the behavior of users who visited your protocol but didn’t proceed to interact or transact. After digging into the data, you discover that many users dropped off at the wallet connection or transaction confirmation step—potentially due to concerns about gas fees, complexity or security issues.
Perhaps you should roll out a campaign offering gas fee reimbursements or simplifying the onboarding flow for returning users. This could help remove a major friction point and encourage deeper engagement.
With these insights, you've identified two concrete actions to boost your conversion rates:
Proactive retargeting for disengaged users
Reducing barriers for hesitant users
Most importantly, this approach builds a framework for addressing similar issues in the future, enabling you to continuously improve retention and user engagement.
And there you have it, cohort analysis, Web3-style!
Nevertheless, this alone is not going to make protocols improve their revenues. And let’s be honest, at the end of the day it’s what every business actually want.
What needs to be investigated is the following:
Where the revenue comes from (Business Model and ARR).
The cost of acquiring a user (CPA - Cost Per Acquisition)
The value the user provides to the protocol (CLV - Customer Lifetime Value)
The image below clearly illustrates how a customer’s value to a business increases over time:
As you can see it breaks down how the revenue generated by customers can eventually surpass the cost of acquiring them—commonly referred to as CAC or CPA (Customer Acquisition Cost).
What makes this concept even more powerful is the role of strategies like:
Upselling, where customers are encouraged to move to higher-priced offerings.
Cross-selling, which introduces complementary products or services.
These tactics don’t just boost revenue; they amplify the customer’s overall contribution to the business, known as their LTV or CLV (Lifetime Value).
💡 Frankly, I’ve yet to see any protocol implement this effectively, making it a compelling strategy worth exploring to boost revenue and enhance KPIs.
But there’s another critical element here: Loyalty.
Retaining customers and keeping them engaged is essential because it extends the period during which they generate value.
One big caveat here is once churn kicks in—that moment when a customer decides to stop using your product or service—all those opportunities for growth vanish.
To prevent this, tokens should start playing a different role from mere financial speculation, acting as a cornerstone for growth, engagement, and sustainable success.
By using tokens effectively, we can:
Drive user engagement through meaningful utility and interaction.
Boost user loyalty by aligning incentives with long-term participation.
Improve and create new revenue streams by giving the token real utility and value.
The main problem:
Web3 businesses often use airdrops, referrals, and KOL campaigns to attract users, but they struggle to retain them.
This lack of retention drives up the cost per acquisition (CPA) and turns into a classic "spray and pray" marketing strategy—offering incentives that primarily attract mercenary investors rather than loyal users.
Here’s the solution:
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
The key is to identify what works in Web2 and adapt those strategies to Web3.
Now, before you say it—I know. The nature of Web2 and Web3 is fundamentally different, and some things simply aren’t feasible to implement across both due to technological constraints.
The real challenge lies in understanding the unique possibilities and limitations of decentralized applications.
This 3 min LinkedIn post I wrote will give you all the context you need for what’s coming next—it’s worth your time, trust me. Click here to check it out.
Don’t forget to follow or message me if you have something to say 👀.
As a Web3 native with over 4 years of hands-on experience testing products and investing my own time and money, I’ve pinpointed two critical elements missing in nearly 90% of projects:
🗣 Focus on the user - Communication
💸 Focus on the money - Incentives
I know, I know—genius level stuff, right?
Right?
Okay, kidding aside. Simplicity is what truly scales.
When you focus on the things that genuinely move the needle for a business, you start to see just how powerful those simple things really are.
When I say “Focus on the user“ I mean:
Targeting and segmentation
Understanding user behavior
Linking specific in-app actions to on-chain personas
This level of personalization not only enhances user satisfaction but also encourages deeper interaction with the project, as users are more likely to engage with content and features that are specifically relevant to them.
In addition to personalization, token-based incentives play a crucial role in driving engagement to a protocol. And here's the key:
Turn curiosity into action and action into loyalty. This is where growth begins.
The User Trip
1. Show users the full potential of what your dApp can do for them—paint a vision so clear they can’t help but see the value.
2. Then, make every interaction irresistible by rewarding them as they explore and engage with the features that matter most to your protocol’s success.
These incentives not only encourage users to remain active on the platform but also deepen their investment in the project’s success, as they become stakeholders with a vested interest in its growth.
Note: Remember, you only get one chance to make a lasting first impression. None of this matters if the product doesn’t deliver. The journey of discovering and using the protocol must be seamless, engaging, and genuinely valuable.
If you have to keep one thing from all this, let it be the following:
Focus on the user and provide value along the way.
The simplest and most effective way?
On-chain Mail Marketing
Stay tuned, you’ll love to see the possibilities this unlocks for you as a user, and for protocols itself 👀
Follow me on Warpcast, the social media of the future without no doubt
Comment below what you want to see or your thoughts about this
