Web3 Marketing Practices: The What, The Why, and The How
Web2 is known as the social media era. Social platforms simply dominated the landscape, hitting exciting valuations and user uptakes. But it’s continued to evolve, creating even more thrilling opportunities for businesses to reach new markets.
Joey Armstrong reports that Web3 is the gradually upgrading version of Web2 involving AI and semantic web tech like blockchains, smart contracts, DeFi, crypto, NFTs, and the metaverse. Tech giants characterize it as crafting a virtual world where people interact and purchase products or services. In short, it’s set to improve the internet.
To harness the full potential of Web3, businesses need to start integrating new-and-improved marketing strategies to keep (or achieve) the competitive edge and attract customers.
What’s Web3 Marketing?
During Web2, companies invested heavily in sales and marketing, generating the majority of their value for the platform only. However, that’s set to change in Web3. The new model lets users share the value alongside the business through community rewards.
Awareness and lead generation exist at the top of the Web2 funnel; retaining and converting customers are at the bottom. In Web3, rewards are given to early users, even though no network effects have begun.
It’s revolutionizing how people consider the internet. It’s more than just SEO and websites; it’s a way for marketers to jump on the interactive advertising train and improve user experiences.
Why Now Is the Time for Businesses to Adopt Web3 Principles
Some companies think that because their audience doesn’t understand Web3 or its components, incorporating them is pointless.
But truthfully, there aren’t many who truly understand how the internet works, but everybody uses it. Therefore, consumers will use Web3 artifacts whether they know their inner workings or not.
Two significant reasons why businesses would harness Web3 marketing strategies now include:
Blockchain = CRM
The blockchain is the internet’s most powerful custom relationship management and retargeting system. All buyers’ habits are recorded and available on the public chain.
Marketers should think of it as a reverse social platform — it doesn’t show consumers’ identities, just the part that matters (their buying behavior).
NFTs Turn Rights and IP into Assets
Fiat currency was Web2’s asset; cryptocurrency is Web3’s. But the latter brings a new asset class built on IP and rights rather than currency.
Companies can unlock the value from rights and IP they own by selling them as NFTs in Web3, creating a new revenue stream that won’t impact existing products.
How Companies Can Implement Web3 Marketing Practices
Businesses can unlock the benefits of Web3 practices by implementing various strategies, including
- Community rewards — Active Web3 participants want rewards for getting involved with participants. Token-gated merchandise, attendance tokens, and retroactive distribution are great ways to do this.
- Take advantage of the self-marketing system — Similar to ambassador programs in Web2, self-marketing makes the ambassadors part of the community.
- Customization is king — Payment structures in Web3 allow for more autonomy and freedom to create user-personalized experiences in secure online locales