Welcome back to
Missed the earlier chapters?
The Lost Art of Web3 Marketing : Why most projects get community marketing wrong.Fixing Web3 Marketing: Understanding the Real Web3 Audience : Learn about the audience types you might be missing.- Fixing Web3 Marketing: What Channels Actually Work in Web3: Learn about what channels drive results - how to get your project noticed and attract the right audience to your brand.
Web3 has never been short on innovation or ambition. It’s reimagined ownership, redefined community, and challenged how the internet itself works. But for all its technical breakthroughs, one challenge remains unsolved: how to communicate clearly and sustainably.
The next phase of Web3 growth won’t be powered by hype. It’ll be powered by education, trust, and long-term strategy. The projects that succeed won’t just build better technology; they’ll build better understanding.
Did You Know?
HackerNoon’s community mirrors the diverse Web3 audience you're aiming to reach. With
- Developers
- Tech enthusiasts
- Entrepreneurs
- Investors
- Marketers
- And more
You could start engaging your target audience in one place.
Ready to start building your Web3 audience?
Why Education Is the New Growth Hack
Most potential users still live in Web2, not because they dislike Web3, but because they don’t understand it. Wallets, gas fees, and seed phrases can feel intimidating to anyone outside the crypto bubble. According to Consensys (2023), 92% of global internet users have heard of crypto, but fewer than 10% have interacted with a Web3 app.¹
That’s not a product problem; it’s a marketing problem.
By shifting focus from hype to education, broadening the audience, and building real-world value, projects can create sustainable growth models that attract not just users, but loyal communities.
- For founders, this means crafting a clear, relatable message that goes beyond crypto jargon and reaches real people.
- For users, this means engaging with platforms that offer genuine value, not just the promise of a quick payday.
- For investors, this means backing projects with long-term potential, not just the hottest token of the moment.
— Electric Capital, Developer and User Growth Report 2024²
By adopting a more human-centered, sustainable marketing strategy, Web3 can finally break free from its niche and fulfill its broader promise.
Projects that invest in education are better positioned for long-term success, as they foster deeper understanding and trust.
—ConsenSys, Global Survey on Crypto and Web3 2023³
People can’t adopt what they don’t understand, so simplify it! Education is the bridge between interest and adoption, and projects that prioritize it, create smoother onboarding, clearer value propositions, and a stronger sense of trust. They explain the why before the how. Teach users why your project matters and the problem is solves in relatable terms without assuming your audience is already fluent in blockchain speak. Build an onboarding funnel that includes easy-to-understand explainer videos, guides, and tutorials that walk new users through your project step by step.
HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program makes it easy to share educational content while growing your brand. Publish directly on HackerNoon to boost visibility, build SEO authority, and start teaching your audience about your project—all at once.
Here's what you get:
- Backlinks to your website (yes, including CTAs)
- A personalized
Tech Company News Page featuring your logo, intro, call-to-action, and socials - Full editorial support to make your story shine
- Multiple permanent placements on HackerNoon and social media promotions
- Stories converted into
audio format and distributed via audio RSS feeds - Automatic translation into
12 languages for global reach - Your brand also gains domain authority and SEO via canonical links and the story is distributed across 8 different relevant keyword/tagged pages for better organic discoverability.
Start turning your knowledge into reach and impact today.
Turning Complexity Into Clarity
So what does translating Web3 terms to Web2 audiences look like?
- “ZK rollups” → faster, cheaper transactions
- “Decentralized governance” → you help shape the product
- “Token utility” → rewards for contributing to the ecosystem
Simplification doesn’t mean dumbing down; it means focusing on outcomesthat matter to users.
A 2024Cointelegraph Innovation Study found that 68% of potential users drop off during onboarding due to confusing UX or unclear messaging.⁴
The best educational marketing strategies meet users where they are - through explainers, visual storytelling, and interactive experiences. Tutorials, workshops, courses, webinars, FAQs, and community-led content make the ecosystem feel less intimidating and more accessible.
The Role of Trust in a Skeptical Market
Web3’s history is filled with both innovation and scandal. Rug pulls, hacks, and scams have left a credibility gap. Chainalysis reported that crypto scams accounted for over $5.9 billion in losses in 2022,⁵ a number that still affects perception today.
Trust, therefore, begins with transparency:
- Founders showing up with names and faces, not avatars.
- Honest communication about progress and setbacks.
- Consistency in both bull and bear markets.
The projects that last won’t be the loudest - they’ll be the most reliable.
Sustainability Over Speed
The culture of Web3 has long favored immediacy: instant launches, instant liquidity, instant virality. But sustainable growth looks more like clear positioning, consistent communication, iterative education, toughtful partnerships, and… patience.
According to Messari’s State of Crypto (2024), projects with long-term community education initiatives have 2.5x higher retention rates than those focused solely on token incentives.⁶
The truth is, good marketing compounds - it’s slow to build but hard to break. Every blog post, video, and tutorial that genuinely helps users understand your product adds to a foundation that lasts far longer than any trending campaign.
That’s how sustainable ecosystems form, through habit.
How the Best Projects Are Already Adapting
Top Web3 projects are moving beyond hype and experimenting with sustainable strategies that combine education, usability, storytelling, data, and retention. Here’s how:
- Education-first content: Partnerships like Polygon x Coursera and Binance Academy, as well as university collaborations and open courses, show that structured learning drives awareness and builds trust.⁷
- Human-friendly onboarding: Wallets like Magic.link and Coinbase Wallet use email logins and familiar interfaces to reduce friction and make blockchain accessible.⁸
- Storytelling over specs: Case studies, testimonials, and community spotlights turn technical features into relatable, human-focused narratives that demonstrate the real-world impact of the project.
- Data-backed marketing: Using on-chain analytics (e.g., Dune Analytics, Nansen) and engagement metrics like transaction volumes or product usage allows teams to measure true retention and campaign effectiveness, rather than focusing solely on token price or follower counts.
- Bridging Web2 & Web3: Collaborations with mainstream brands (e.g., Nike x RTFKT, Starbucks Odyssey) and integration into existing platforms help projects reach audiences beyond the crypto-native niche.⁹ Also, expanding beyond the Web3 niche by leveraging traditional media and using social platforms outside of your projects’ bubble can bridge that audience gap.
- Enhancing interoperability: Ensuring Web3 solutions seamlessly interact with Web2 platforms, offering easy migration paths and bridging tools, makes adoption simpler for mainstream users.
- Retention over acquisition: Implementing loyalty programs, insider access, unique experiences, or real-world rewards encourages long-term engagement and keeps users coming back.
The projects that succeed tend to follow a simple rule: hide the complicated parts of Web3 and focus on benefits users actually care about. They understand that users don’t care about blockchain itself—they care about what blockchain can do for them. After all, most people don’t understand how the internet works either. They just know it lets them carry out their intended use.
— EAK Digital, The Current State of Web3’s Go-to-Market & Adoption Challenges (January 13, 2025)¹⁰
The Long-Term Play: Making Web3 Human Again
Web3 was never meant to be about speculation, it was about participation. The future belongs to projects that remember that. Marketing in this new era is less about “getting attention” and more about earning trust through storytelling, education, and data, striking a balance between creativity and clarity. The next frontier isn’t marketing blockchain itself, it’s marketing what blockchain enables: ownership, fairness, and freedom. Success won’t come from the loudest token drops or the flashiest influencer campaigns, but from those who teach, explain, and show up consistently - projects that make Web3 make sense.
The industry must evolve from hype to understanding, from noise to trust. Projects that communicate clearly and simply, that focus on real value and long-term engagement rather than short-term buzz, are the ones that will scale globally and foster communities that stick around. In Web3, clarity and human-centered marketing are the ultimate competitive advantage.
At HackerNoon, we help Web3 builders cut through the noise and get their stories in front of the right people. You could be next. See how we can grow your Web3 project -
References
- ConsenSys, Global Survey on Crypto and Web3, 2023. https://consensys.net
- Electric Capital, Developer and User Growth Report 2024. https://www.electriccapital.com
- ConsenSys, Global Survey on Crypto and Web3, 2023. https://consensys.net
- Cointelegraph Innovation Study, 2024. https://cointelegraph.com
- Chainalysis, Crypto Crime Report 2022. https://go.chainalysis.com
- Messari, State of Crypto 2024. https://messari.io
- Polygon x Coursera; Binance Academy; university collaborations, 2024.
- Magic.link, Coinbase Wallet, 2024.
- Nike x RTFKT; Starbucks Odyssey, 2024.
- EAK Digital, The Current State of Web3’s Go-to-Market & Adoption Challenges, January 13, 2025. https://eakdigital.com/the-current-state-of-web3s-go-to-market-adoption-challenges/