Web3 Product Market Fit and Marketing Strategy For Blockchain Startups in 2024
Communicating with representatives of blockchain startups, from time to time, I see how irresponsible, chaotic, and sometimes even with distrust, they approach marketing and brand building. You would think they only focus on development and don’t need marketing… But!
If you ask a random founder, they will say that brand awareness, loyalty, the number of users, and partnerships are essential for the project’s growth. Everyone wants their product to be recognizable and become a brand name. However, most founders have no idea how to hire a marketer, how to evaluate their effectiveness, and how much time is needed to implement specific activities.
My name is Daria Volkova. I’m a Product Marketing, Branding, and Communications professional working with blockchain-powered products. I create Value Propositions and build brand awareness among users, developers, and VC funds.
In this article, I explain how marketing influences Product-Market Fit, which product marketing activities show a good result, and how to implement a strategy-first approach in Web3 product marketing.
The main problems with marketing in the Web3 startups
A founder with a coding/engineering background knows how to create a complex blockchain protocol or a decentralized crypto exchange down to the smallest detail. Still, when the question comes to choosing a color for the logo, a person hesitates and leans almost on tarot cards to make a decision.
In this part, I describe three main problems in marketing and related directions in Web3 startups.
Problem 1. Exaggerated expectations
Web3 startups with good funding ($10M+) try to hire people from enterprise companies (overpaying heavily) to get some expertise from the big players like Kraken, Binance, Coinbase or Meta.
Sometimes, it ends with the fact that a person with experience in big corporations faces the processes inherent in a wild startup. Then, this person gets disappointed and leaves or is fired because expectations and results don’t match.
Problem 2. "Go with a flow" marketing approach
The other projects have a very infantile approach to working with the brand. They do something they like without considering the audience and solving specific business problems. Just for fun!
One of my dialogues with a representative of the project at the Ethereum-related event:
– Why did you choose a fox for the logo of your project?
– This is not an ordinary fox; this is a fennec!
– That’s great. Why fennec?
– Well… We wanted to create a mascot because everyone in the niche does that. Therefore, the choice fell on fennec. We recently redesigned it. Look, now it is more cute!
Hackernoon
