“We live in a world where perception is as important as reality, if not more,” said Inc. 500 Entrepreneur and Web3 and Blockchain Investor, Brian D. Evans who is a prominent figure in the space and boasts over 1 million Twitter followers . In such a world, traditional companies have learned to invest heavily in marketing and branding to put themselves in the best market position. No wonder the overall ad spend in 2021 was $780 billion.

Brian D. Evans
Brian D. Evans Brian D. Evans

For the nascent Web3 space, more attention has been placed on the technology (which is not wrong), especially by those developing the products. But to believe that a good technology alone will speak for itself is a lie. We asked Brian D. Evans, who has been investing in the Web3, crypto and blockchain space heavily since 2016 what his tips were to make a project stand out. “If we think back to Web2 and the era of social media products coming into the market, such as MySpace and Facebook, there’s a reason Facebook eventually dominated the space. And it wasn’t because they necessarily had the best tech on the block at the time. This is good old fashion marketing and branding, starting at a very grassroots level, that made them get and keep traction.”

He went on to say that the web3 space is dynamic with constant development, scaling, and multiple ups and downs. There are tons of projects and iterations, so even great projects can get lost in the crowd, Evans continued. “For example, it’s possible that the next most popular blockchain in 3 years might just be the one that cracks the marketing and business development code, or could be one that markets to another industry well such as Gaming, or might be one that doesn’t even have the most features but has phenomenal perception.”

Effective marketing and branding are very necessary for the success of any web3 or blockchain project, but never to the detriment of the products. Without branding and marketing, the target audience is entirely likely to get distracted with shiny object syndrome and forget about it, even if it has superior tech.

Why Marketing and Branding Is Key for Web3 & Blockchain Projects

Here are more of Evans tips for Web3 and blockchain projects. The role of marketing and branding for these projects is similar to what they achieve for traditional projects. They include:

1. Brand Awareness

Every day, new blockchain projects launch. Since this industry is rapidly growing and highly competitive, projects sometimes find it hard to target the end users. Users often get distracted with the value of a token or NFT, and can sometimes get lost in a maze of similar products. Without marketing and branding, you can’t create product awareness. So your valuable and useful project will struggle to reach the target audience without an effective marketing campaign and business development plan, to make you stand out from the pack. The best projects know this, and that's why you see them at the top of the charts and top of mind. Evans said that oftentimes his work with projects focuses entirely on brand awareness, an often missed opportunity, but there is certainly more to it than that.

2. Improve Credibility

Many bad web3 projects have found success in the space riding only on marketing and branding. Think of Terra/Luna. This shows how even a fundamentally flawed project can achieve credibility solely due to marketing. In their case, they relied heavily on an outspoken, oftentimes arrogant Founder who captured the attention of the media while offering too good to be true annual yield on depositing your crypto with them. So, even if you have a good product (hopefully not as flawed as Terra), you’ll need marketing and branding to improve its credibility. Even established projects continue to spend on marketing to maintain their market position.

3. User Acquisition and Retention

Evans helped a top 10 mobile video game gain millions of users in a matter of months. At the time, they were just one of many games trying to gain market share, and the mobile video game space was very comparable to the current state of Web3 & Blockchain (in its relative infancy). Evans knew it would require more than just marketing to keep users. This is where the story behind the product, and unique selling points matter. Branding and marketing can only do so much if there’s nothing to back it up. Web3 companies need to invest as much effort as possible into creating great products, with a great “reason why”. Due to the plethora of new projects every cycle, user retention can be tricky.

But it doesn’t end there. Communication and the communities themselves are key for Web3, more so than Web2. People commonly say that they feel heard more in the Web3 world, with more direct access to projects and their leaders, this certainly helps retention.

4. Attracting Investors and Partners

Marketing and branding aren’t only for users. They’re also for engaging investors and partnerships. Those who put their funds or time into Web3 & blockchain projects do so partly based on their perception of the project. Evans, who has invested into a long list of projects, and has his own private Web3 community Affinity Collective, says that companies and projects in this space need to band together, they are stronger together, that’s why partnerships work so well in this space. In fact, they might even work more effectively than in the Web2 space due to the nature and ethos of these new-age Web3 communities.

Bottom Line

Web3 companies are in a unique position when it comes to marketing and branding. They have the edge over traditional companies because they’re blockchain technology natives and can quickly attract a user base if they play their cards right. Whether as Non-fungible tokens, metaverses, blockchains, Defi, cryptocurrency, highly engaged Discord communities, or other products, Web3 companies have additional tools at their disposal (and unique marketing opportunities) over their web2 counterparts.