Growth marketing uses data-driven approaches and experiments to acquire, onboard, and retain users.
The growth funnel from top to bottom includes awareness, acquisition, activation, retention, and referral. I have been researching how Web3 companies tackle their growth marketing and realize that some common strategies and hacks are shared between Web2 and Web3 companies. However, some new nuances need to be addressed differently for Web3 companies.
SEO is essential to driving top-of-funnel awareness for Web3 companies
SEO works well for complicated products like finance and insurance that require some degree of research before making purchase decisions. Web3 is foreign and somewhat intimidating to many people. Therefore, SEO is vital for many Web3 companies to address users' questions and concerns during the awareness stage. Many Web3 companies succeed by using traditional SEO keyword tactics like what-is, how-to, and learn-to keywords to write relevant content and improve keyword rankings.
Web3 companies use content marketing to boost loyalty
Web3 provides a new approach to brands and their content and a huge opportunity to enhance brand loyalty. With Web3-style content, companies engage with their fans, creating loyalty and ownership. In addition, companies are creating access and privilege with that content. For example, Web3 companies are increasing the utility of NFT as a token for membership and providing their NFT holders premium content and rewards. With the power of the creator economy in the Web3 world, companies can utilize content creators as part of their monetization channel.
Lifecycle marketing will still be driving engagement and retention for Web3 companies
In Web2, lifecycle marketing is vital in creating meaningful user segments and driving product engagement strategies via marketing automation platforms. The reason behind segmentation is to serve customers with tailored content and engagement strategies to drive revenue for the companies.
In the Web3 world, companies will still need to perform similar practices to drive revenue. For example, I recently watched this video in the Web3 growth summit by Vahe Baghdasaryan, Sr. growth marketing manager, CoinStats. He explained how he used behavioral science to create a CRM strategy engaging with abandoned users by using personalized push notifications, getting them back to where they dropped off and stating personalized value propositions.
Paid marketing is not yet the primary growth driver for Web3 companies
Due to many restrictions for crypto companies from paid marketing platforms like Google and Facebook, most Web3 companies have not emphasized using paid marketing to drive growth. Web3 gaming companies are not able to use traditional paid marketing as their growth driver either. In the article - Growth models for web3 gaming, the author Eric Benjamin Seufert described the challenges that Web3 gaming companies face.
"The current growth playbook for web3 games relies on a patchwork of highly labor-intensive and non-scalable tactics like partnerships, revenue share agreements, and web-based ad campaigns that convert very poorly, given the inherent friction from web click to registration to all of the crypto-related onboarding necessary. Mobile app stores don't currently publish web3 games given the alternative monetization scheme."
However, I believe that more and more Web3 companies will utilize Web3 browsers such as Brave browser to advertise their products and services. I wrote an article about the nuances of the Brave ads platform and shared my research, experience, and view of the browser.
The nuance of growth in Web3
Community
Community is key to Web3. Community members can be part of the workforce, co-owners of the companies, and voting members of projects.
Web3 community members have a high K factor, meaning they are more likely to be the company's evangelists and refer their friends and family because they are the coowners of the network. As a result, companies can roll out attractive referral programs to unlock the potential of the community for monetization.
Content creators
The evolution of Web3 enables creators to build their own creator's economy, which means they can directly monetize the content without going through a 3rd party. Content creators in Web3 are both co-owners and customers of the companies. The article - the future of the creator economy in a Web3 world perfectly describes the role of content creators in the Web3 world.
"Web3 will enable creators to not only own their content on existing social platforms, but also own a part of the platform they produce and distribute content on. Content can begin to be creator-owned and platform-agnostic through the use of NFTs, which act as proof of ownership and validate the content's authenticity."
Virality
Due to the high K factor of community, co-ownership, and scarcity of commodities, Web3 companies can often achieve instant virality. For example, The NFT bored apes went viral when the celebrities Gwyneth Paltrow and Serena Williams shared their customized apes on social media as their PFP. Owning NFT becomes a statement of gaining access to special networks or communities.
Some Web3 games also use the "play-to-earn" model to drive virality.
Web3 marketers can still utilize growth hacks from Web2
In conclusion, the power of Web2 growth hacks can still be widely used by many Web3 companies. In addition, web3 marketers can still leverage existing Web2 technologies to optimize their marketing tactics and stimulate growth more effectively.