A marketer should be a constant learner.

While we are so accustomed to the current Web 2.0 and know how to play around with its ecosystem, the buzzwords like metaverse, crypto, NFT and Web 3.0 interrupted our routine and always appear in the headlines of our news feed. I think, as a marketer, it is good to have some FOMOs.The healthy FOMO will drive us to continuously upgrade our paradigm and learn new things. That’s how we grow our lives and careers.

What is Web 3.0 and how different it is from Web 2.0

What we are using now is Web 2.0. Smartphones, the app economy, the rise of subscriptions, the rise of scalable platforms, streaming media and sharing economy are the key representative business models on Web 2.0.

Web 3.0 is decentralized, open, and of greater utility by leveraging blockchain technology. Its representative features include dapps, ESG friendly eCommerce, AR & metaverse as a new OS, the decentralized web, the rise of privacy, local experiences and commerce, creator economy and anonymity.

Why we need to get prepared for Web 3.0

According to Crypto.com, Global crypto owners are near 300 Million, it’s predicted to hit 1 Billion by the end of 2022, and over 18,000 businesses are already accepting cryptocurrency payments. My intuition is that it’s never a losing game for marketers to keep an eye on where the people go and where the money goes. And highly possible the current latest generation and the next generation will spend most of their time on Web 3.0. By marketing on Web 3.0 at its infant stage, we are building our infrastructure there as well as contributing to its development.

It’s never comfortable to learn something new, especially when there are both positive and skeptical views about Web 3.0.

It confuses you, demotivates you and hinders you. I started to work on virtual reality content marketing in 2015, I still remember all day and night my boss and the team spent on research and design about how to make a cardboard goggle so we could reduce our cost and make the project more distributable and scalable. As a result, the tremendous opportunities we earned for our company in this pioneer VR project was the best reward of all the hard works. I assume the journey of exploring Web 3.0 for all of us will be similar to my VR project experience. Through research, brainstorming, communications, different initiatives and partnerships, there will be newly-forged paths, broken barriers, accelerated timelines, and groundbreaking discoveries.

I started casual investment in crypto a few years ago, and in 2021 my interests in Web 3.0, DeFi and NFT quickly went up. In order to really get a quick insight about Web 3.0, I believe the best way to learn is by doing it.

In Jan 2022, I got a chance to work as a part-time marketing contributor at a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). As an observer and practitioner on both Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, I am trying to summarize some ideas about marketing in the two ecosystems to share with my fellow like-minded marketers who never stop learning new things. These ideas are not 100% right, and it depends on how you define right and wrong, also there are no “one-size fits all” approach. Marketing strategies vary from industry to industry, and from ecosystem to ecosystem. Therefore, this article only serves as a personal sharing.

Marketing is a dynamic process in which you can reach your target audiences through different methodologies and mediums. Web 3.0 at its infant stage could be a method or a mean for marketing, depending on what your marketing objectives are.

**Stay agile and nimble in marketing practice, as someday you might need to make a quick adjustment either on your objective or your approach. **What I meant by that is marketing could or might be a way to discover a new business model for your brand, especially with Web 3.0. A good example of that: Ralph Lauren Is Now Selling Digital Apparel For Avatars Inside Of Zepeto.

I am a Web 2.0 Native Brand, what can I do?

As Dr. Marcus Collins introduced in the STEPPS formula the “S” which stands for Social Currency, it is about the idea that a person’s social status is dependent on the information they have. Everybody wants to be the in-the-know friend who always has great recommendations. Because of this, the most valuable content is content which can be shared. You can use social currency to create quality and innovative content that excites your readers or even to become a trendsetter in your industry. As a Web 2.0 native brand, use these Web 3.0 buzzwords and create social currency for your customers, to make them feel good and most importantly exclusive.

• In short term, some experimental campaigns might be a good way to start. Web 3.0, blockchain, DAO, NFT, DeFi and Crypto are buzz words on social media that you cannot ignore at all. Buzz words sometimes imply opportunities for marketing. Even though you missed the chance to be creators of these words, you can ride on them in collaboration with some of their creators to attract the attention of the wide public. How:
• Mint your existing digital assets into NFTs and airdrop or sell them to your customers. i.e..: your brand’s original design manuscript
• Mint new NFTs of your brand by working with big-name artists and NFT marketplaces. Make it a limited edition or exclusive for a certain period. Remember that owning an NFT right now is a symbol of social status, thus NFT is indeed a type of social currency. Case studies:

• Organize metaverse events: e.g.: events at Dencentraland
• Leverage Web 2.0 platforms’ NFT initiatives/features: Twitter’s NFT profile picture, Meta’s metaverse, Shopify’s NFT marketplace.
• If your leadership team has strong faith and clear insights into Web 3.0 and crypto, then you may try the following ways, which could be a heavy investment and serious initiative:
• Tokenization: create your own token either by yourself or adopt a widely recognized cryptocurrency to be your token.
• Allow your customers to buy your tokens and use them for your products as payment.
• Membership NFT
• Set your feet on Web 3.0 social media. None of these social media is mega-popular yet, and the user experience of these platforms is not at their optimal level yet. Picking a few platforms and studying them if they suit your brand might be worth a try. Top Web 3.0 social media: Hive (2.3M accounts by end of 2021), Odysee, Mirror.xyz, creation.io, subsocial.network, onlyfans.com, Peepeth, and Dapps ranking

I am a Web 3.0 native brand, what can I do?

As a Web 3.0 native brand, there are some ideas on how to market your brand on Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. Again, the essential step is to define your success metrics of marketing initiatives.

Crypto, NFT and Web 3.0 are still new to most internet users, I found lots of Web 3.0 native brands have been making lots of efforts in educational content marketing. I know some DeFi brand only wants to target crypto veteran, so their primary goal is not to convert users from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 but acquire users who are already on Web 3.0, which they call as crypto natives.

One of the key concepts on Web 3.0 is that users can be investors and stakeholders of the Web 3.0 native brand, this concept has been adopted mainly by some DAOs, but not really by centralized companies on Web 3.0 such as Coinbase, OpenSea, etc. While that could tell us the mindset of most of the crypto natives, they are either investment-oriented or out of curiosity, they have lots of doubts or questions, and they constantly seek answers and tips. With this understanding, marketers of Web 3.0 native brands could consider:

• community marketing. Use the SPACES model to run community marketing and design metrics to make it measurable and efficient.

• Storytelling existing testimonials. i.e.: how crypto / DAOs/ Web 3.0 / NFT are changing his/her life, career, etc.
• Educational content series: the pioneers are the builders of Web 3.0, they are engineers and entrepreneurs, they are also investors, stakeholders, and users of your product and service, target them by creating technical tutorial content. Case study: Whiteboard Series with NEAR
• Organize competitions such as Hackathon: Metabuidl Hackathon by NEAR
• Leverage collective wisdom for content creation and content marketing: run $WRITE campaign.
• Meme marketing: As Dr. Marcus Collins taught in the STEPPS formula, “ Not surprisingly, people share things that they care about. Emotions of awe and excitement drive people to share content. Choosing your audience — and knowing them — is important in your quest to create viral content. What will excite your readers? Creating audience-centric pieces that they care about is the best way to engage them.” And among all types of emotions, humour always stands out in emotion-related marketing content. Example: For Web 3.0 native brands, it’s highly encouraged to use meme to create this emotional connection with your user.
• Influencer marketing
• Position yourself as a contributor to the development of Web 3.0, so issuing reports about your learnings at Web 3.0 and your prediction about the future would strengthen your positioning and brand in this ecosystem. Case studies:

Tracking and attribution are the key challenges of marketing on Web 3.0, they exist for both Web 2.0 native brands and Web 3.0 native brands. Thus, defining success metrics for your marketing campaign on Web 3.0 is the first step to win. Otherwise, it is easy to get lost or fly blind. Another important reminder is to be careful of scams and fraud.

Last but not least, for both Web 2.0 native brands and Web 3.0 native brands, try to avoid jargon in your marketing communication. Prepare your marketing communication messages like speaking to your grandmother. I heard more than 100 times people came to ask WTH is NFT and Web 3.0…if you interpret NFT into ownership certification on blockchain for your digital assets such as photos, videos, posts and articles, they will thank you very much.

Looking back at the development of Web 2.0, it took nearly 10 years for it to reach its peak time. For Web 3.0, it is hard to tell when it will become more mature with wider adoption and utilities. Regulation remains as a high ladder to climb for every Web 3.0 native brand.

It is highly possible that there might be a version of Web 2.5 to bridge the gap between 2.0 and 3.0. We marketers together with all the innovators such as engineers, PMs, designers, visioners, etc. will help build the bridge for more and more people to step on and go across time and space.

References:

1. Future of Metaverse and Web3 by Goldman Sachs
2. Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 by Investopedia
3. Difference Between Web 2.0 And Web 3.0 by 101bockchain.com

About the author:

Cecret is a marketer with over 10 years of diverse experience in brand marketing, influencer marketing, partnership marketing, social media marketing, community marketing, performance marketing, and product marketing. She used to be a marketing contributor at a DAO, she is also a crypto owner and NFT collector. She likes to write about NFT and Web 3.0. She served brands such as Amazon, TripAdvisor, and a B2C startup where she started experimenting virtual reality content marketing in 2015. Brands/events/celebrities/artists she collaborated with: Lady Gaga, Karen Mok, Chen Man, China-Italy Biennale, Burning Man, LinkedIn, Turkish Airline, Air New Zealand, BMW, MINI COOPER, WoW World Championship, etc.