Welcome to the highly anticipated Part 2 of our comprehensive series on Web3 marketing strategies for both bullish and bearish markets. In Part 1, we delved into the challenges and nuances of marketing in this revolutionary space, exploring essential pillars like personal branding, partnerships, podcasts, and key opinion leaders (KOLs). Understanding how market sentiment shapes each approach is crucial in navigating the unpredictable world of Web3.
Now, in this instalment, we're excited to uncover the remaining four marketing pillars and equip you with practical insights to adapt your marketing plan seamlessly to market sentiment. We'll explore the power of content and SEO, the potential of email marketing, the intricacies of paid ads, and the art of building a thriving and engaged community.
As the Web3 landscape evolves rapidly, agility is key. By staying informed and being ready to pivot, your marketing strategy will always be at the forefront of this decentralised revolution. So, without further ado, let's continue our journey into the ever-changing landscape of Web3 marketing.
The role of a solid content and SEO strategy is pivotal in shaping the perception of your project, regardless of market conditions. But this is something often completely neglected and forgotten about in Web3— perhaps due to the fact that results are typically not immediate (and certainly not as thrilling as the fast results of KOL campaigns). It may take some time before you start seeing significant results from content plans and strong SEO—usually 12+ months or so. Many companies aren’t interested in waiting that long. However, due to this chronic neglect, content and SEO strategies have become easy wins for the projects that actually implement them! Alright, that’s great—but how should you adapt your strategy based on what the market’s doing?
During a bear market, your content should address investors' concerns. Prioritise creating educational content, FAQs, tutorials, and guides that provide valuable insights and practical advice. You should target keywords related to risk management, stability, long-term value, and most importantly the “how’s” and “what’s” people search for to seek answers.
For Coinbase, the current bear market has been a time to consistently create articles that are security and education focused. They know that people aren’t searching for new coins and opportunities right now—they’re Googling how to keep their investments safe. Here are some recent article titles from Coinbase as examples:
During a bull market, however, you must pivot your SEO efforts to attract investors looking for high-growth opportunities. Target keywords related to emerging trends, innovative solutions, and potential returns to capture their attention (but thoroughly research and understand the legalities in your jurisdiction regarding content about potential returns and the use of disclaimers). Develop content that highlights growth stories and exciting opportunities in the space, and focus on creating engaging, shareable content to captivate your audience and make the most of the market enthusiasm.
In the previous bear market, Coinbase constantly published articles about the new coins it was offering for trading and new features it was rolling out for investors to use. Why? Because that’s what the people wanted to hear. Everyone was more interested in opportunity than security, risk rather than safety. Here are some Coinbase article titles from late 2021:
It's important to note that SEO is an ongoing process, and continuous efforts are necessary to maintain and improve your website's performance in search results. Additionally, SEO is just one part of a comprehensive marketing strategy, and combining it with other marketing efforts can lead to even better results and a more robust online presence. Patience, consistency, and adaptability are key to reaping the full benefits of both SEO and content strategy in general.
Email marketing provides a direct line of communication with your audience, making it an invaluable tool in both market conditions—but as an extension of your content creation plan, it’s important to follow different strategies with your email content depending on the market.
In a bear market, use your email newsletters to provide regular updates, market insights, and educational content. Maintain transparency to foster trust among your audience—and remember that there’s no need to ignore the fact that there’s a bear market. In fact, it’s an opportunity to build trust with your readers by addressing the state of the market from a grounded, head-on perspective.
Odyssey DAO (winner of Product Hunt’s 2021 Golden Kitty Awards), is a decentralised community committed to spreading effective Web3 education. Their 12-day email newsletter teaches the fundamentals of Web3 development to developers interested in getting into Web3. After you’ve gone through the newsletter, you can go back to the site and check out the different development tracks the DAO offers. What a perfect example of leading with educational content in a bear market.
And on the flip side, in a bull market, utilise email marketing to share exciting updates, new partnerships, and investment opportunities. Create a sense of exclusivity and urgency to encourage action. These are not times to hold back—ride the hype by bringing out new email campaigns detailing roadmap milestones and new announcements that will capture people’s attention.
One example is Airdrop Alert who ran continual email newsletters on the upcoming and featured airdrops available through their platform. This kind of content is primed for a bull market when users are hot to buy and always on the lookout for opportunities.
No matter the market sentiment, it’s important to ensure you have all foundational elements covered, such as welcome flows and automations. These are incredibly easy wins (that a lot of Web3 projects actually miss out on!).
Paid ads are powerful and valuable tools for Web3 projects. Whether you're running ads on Twitter, YouTube, or via Programmatic, the conversion funnels you can create, along with the targeting and retargeting capabilities within such niche audiences, is unparalleled. Here’s how to advertise well in both bull and bear markets:
In a bear market, projects should focus more of their efforts on the bottom of the funnel. Now’s not the time to acquire a bunch of new users, but to engage and educate existing ones. It’s important to focus on a mixture of educational content, thought leadership, community engagement, showcasing real-world use cases, project updates, and value-oriented incentives. Use paid ads to highlight the value proposition of your project—whether that looks like promoting blog posts, webinars, interviews, case studies or something else entirely. Coinbase is our example once again, and it’s because they have some of the best marketing in the business. In 2022, they put out an advertisement in The Wall Street Journal that had one phrase at the top of the page in larger font than the rest: “Trust us.” What a bold statement in the wake of the FTX meltdown. But you know what? It worked! They went on to explain in the ad that “trust us” might be the least trustworthy phrase around right now, but that Coinbase is a US-based, 1-to-1-asset-backed company—and more importantly, that bad actors are always bad, but that crypto is still good. They laid out what their value proposition is (safety and security) while building trust in crypto as an industry.
In contrast, during a bull market, projects should focus more on top of funnel activities, where you can use paid ads to reach a wider audience you’ve never spoken to before. Here you can promote enticing campaigns to encourage first time users to engage with you. You can also highlight innovative features, and market momentum to attract investors looking for high-risk, high-reward opportunities. As a high-profile example, look at Crypto.com’s Super Bowl ad, featuring Lebron James himself. In the commercial, Lebron gives his younger self the advice to “call your own shots.” Shortly after, the text “Fortune favours the brave” appears on screen. Now, your company may or may not be working with the marketing budget of an exchange like Crypto.com, but the lesson to be learned here is clear. In a bull market, it’s all about communicating the excitement of possibility and potential to your audience, however that may look for your product or program.
No matter the market sentiment, paid ads play an extremely important role in keeping momentum and visibility for your Web3 project. While your budget may increase or decrease in bull or bear, it’s something which should never be stopped altogether. And don’t forget, paid ads aren’t just about putting money behind content on your project pages, but also about boosting founder profiles as part of your personal branding strategies.
Web3 communities really are integral to any project. After all, these aren’t just followers who like and comment with emojis as you may find on Nike’s Instagram page—these are your retail investors, builders, developers, and in the case of DAO’s, members of project initiatives who vote with their own cold hard cash (tokens, actually). So the word “community” doesn’t quite do them justice, because without them, your project would be nothing. Despite this, most Web3 projects are left a bit clueless as to how to manage and engage their communities effectively.
In a bear market, it’s recommended that you focus largely on support and engagement. Provide platforms for discussion and address concerns promptly. Encourage community members to share their experiences and provide feedback, which will help to foster a sense of camaraderie and trust. Ensure you’re “showing up” consistently and frequently in your community via AMAs and Twitter Spaces, and really help to nurture them along their journey. You must proceed in the mindset that you work for them, not the other way around.
Let’s take a look at an incredible decentralized autonomous organization (DAO): LearnWeb3. This company has created a full-on Web3 coding education plan, and it’s all for free. But they don’t stop there, because they know that even though their product is incredible, they’ll fail without a strong, growing, and engaged community. So they’re active in their Discord (50k+ members). Soon, they’ll be hosting a workshop with Hack, which is a smart contract auditing company. And they do regular Twitter spaces and weekly Web3 Wednesdays with their communities as well. In short, they’re crushing it with maintaining a thriving, loyal community through tough financial times.
In a bull market, the heightened enthusiasm provides an opportunity to foster a vibrant and dynamic community. Here, you can encourage more user-generated content, host events, and incentivize participation to build a sense of belonging and excitement around your project. In bull markets, it’s a great time to do Twitter raids, drive ambassador programs, run competitions and giveaways and even to convert community members into contributors via onboarding platforms like Zealy, Layer3, Guild or tokenproof.
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is the ultimate example of a Web3 project that took advantage of the bull market it found itself in during 2021. In-person events. An actual yacht party. Spinoff collections (Bored Ape Kennel Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club). Commercial usage rights. An online clubhouse! The list goes on and on. The point here is not to copy what BAYC did—that probably wouldn’t make sense for your project, because their users aren’t yours. So find things that would create excitement and exclusivity for your users or audience, and then do those things!
Regardless of the prevailing market conditions, make sure to keep a steady finger on the pulse of your followers, readers, and investors—the number one thing that they need to see is that you care and are responsive to them.
In the dynamic landscape of Web3, adaptability is the key to success. Understanding how to tailor your marketing strategies in response to bull and bear markets can provide a competitive edge, enabling your project to thrive in all conditions. In bear markets, emphasise the trustworthiness and reliability of your project, while in bull markets, focus on showcasing new opportunities for your audience and riding the wave of hype. By applying the eight marketing pillars covered throughout parts 1 and 2 of this article, you'll be well-equipped to create a marketing strategy that stands the test of time.
Now that you have gained valuable insights on tailoring your Web3 marketing strategies to different market conditions, it's time to assess your current approaches. Consider how you can implement these insights to effectively navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by shifting market sentiments. The Web3 landscape is ever-evolving, and there is no one-size-fits-all strategy. By understanding the nuances of market sentiment and adjusting your marketing pillars accordingly, you can confidently navigate the challenges and capitalise on the opportunities that come your way. Stay agile, innovative, and responsive to ensure your marketing strategy remains relevant and successful in this dynamic and revolutionary space.
As always, we welcome your feedback, and thank you for reading!
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