Web3 Marketing Thinking Transformation: From Market to Operation Thinking

Author: Tracy Source: X, @CTracy0803

Looking back at the previous article "Web3 Marketing Thinking Transformation: Building a New Framework with Investment-oriented Users as the Center", it is mainly based on the establishment of an expected market framework based on investment-oriented users. Therefore, in this article, I will share a more detailed implementation strategy based on the market framework.

In the traditional Internet industry, valuable user behaviors are mainly concentrated in downloading and paying. But for the Web3 industry, the truly valuable behavior is to buy and hold tokens. Therefore, the Web3 market should think around tokens, adopting a trading mindset rather than a simple growth mindset.

1.Growth vs. Trading Mindset

As marketers or operators, we are all familiar with the AARRR growth model. This model optimizes the user growth process of products or services through layer-by-layer conversion, providing startups and product teams with a standard operational growth program framework to drive the continued healthy growth of products.

However, this growth model can only be applied to product users, not investment users. An obvious example is that new users and recommendations are almost completed simultaneously. When a project is announced to be invested by Binance, countless users will automatically recommend it, thereby passively completing new users.

Therefore, in the face of investment users, we need a new funnel model around assets. The following is the model I summarized, with data from a certain project attached.

Hold means holding for more than 1 month

Second,Awareness

Awareness is the number of people covered through various market means. These means mainly include publishing financing information, operating official social accounts, and various activities. Cover enough people through different channels so that more people know about the project.

Currently, the market energy of most projects is concentrated on the Awareness layer, relying on financing as an expectation to obtain user data.

However, users attracted by financing alone may eventually become selling if they are not effectively operated.

3.Interest

When some people understand the project, they will have an expectation for the project. The more the expectation is in line with their investment logic, the higher the degree of interest will be.

So, how to effectively convey expectations?

First, there should be a clear product and mental positioning. Good mental positioning is the most effective way to spread expectations. For example, Binance's product positioning is a cryptocurrency exchange, and its mental positioning is "the world's number one cryptocurrency exchange." "First" not only stuck the user's mind, but also conveyed a very high expectation.

Overall, "first" or "largest" is a shortcut to enter the user's mind.

Secondly, expectations are not just repeated publicity of positioning, but also need to form a narrative constellation by disassembling the positioning. Still taking Binance as an example, the positioning of "the world's first cryptocurrency exchange" can be broken down into data such as the number of users, trading volume, and the number of countries covered, in order to consolidate the label of "the world's first".

In addition to the main narrative of "the world's first", there are more sub-narratives, such as the deeds of the founders in promoting the development of the industry and the selfless dedication of the team. These sub-narratives are also constantly strengthening the main narrative.

It is expected that through waves of publicity, as the positioning is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Fourth,Activation

User interest is the first step, and then it is necessary to use various means to make users active, thereby increasing their sunk costs. To this end, there are many mechanisms in the market, such as points, dividends, pledges, etc., the purpose is to increase the sunk costs of users as much as possible.

Since the expectation of issuing coins is a single expectation, it is easy to cause users to feel bored over time, so measures need to be taken to maintain users' interest or raise expectations.

1. Maintain interest

There are many ways to maintain interest. For example, the project party can split the expectation of issuing coins into several parts, and continuously release expectations to prolong the duration of attraction and attract more users to join.

2. Raise expectations

Raising expectations can enhance users' expectations by releasing more good news and expanding market publicity.

When the user's sunk cost is high enough, many users will choose to paralyze themselves and continue to support the project even if the project performs poorly. Because admitting mistakes is extremely difficult for most people, the more you pay, the harder it is to leave.

However, no matter which method is adopted, once the project party overdraws expectations, users who have paid a lot of costs will feel "cheated" and thus develop rebellious emotions. Therefore, managing expectations is a very dangerous and complex task, and it is important to pay attention to changes in group emotions.

V. Purchase

Users who purchase tokens can be divided into two categories: short-term trading profiteers and long-term holders. This section focuses on how to attract short-term traders, while long-term holders will be described in detail in the subsequent Hold section.

At present, the current situation faced by many project parties is that there are many interested users, but few users are willing to actually purchase tokens. How to achieve the transformation from interest to purchase? The key lies in manipulating group emotions.

How to manipulate group emotions? The answer can be found in the book "The Crowd". Here are some specific scenarios and methods in Web3:

(1) Visual persuasion

By observing the chat records of the cryptocurrency WeChat group, we can find that there are two main ways of expression that users like: MEME and stories. Therefore, stories of getting rich quickly are enduring because they can stimulate users' imagination.

(2) Repeating keywords

Whether it is adding a project logo after the username or adding a # tag in a Twitter message, the core is to repeat keywords continuously. Even if you don't know the specific content of the project, you will remember its name.

(3) Touching emotions

Find out the emotions that the group is interested in and use these emotions to influence the group's thinking. For example, stories about project owners being suppressed by the government but still resisting can touch users' emotions.

(4) Charisma

Leaders are usually crazy and determined. They ignore the contempt of others and are willing to sacrifice themselves for their beliefs. Therefore, using the charisma of the leader to infect the group is the fastest way to get the group to act. This is also why the project party will look for KOL (key opinion leaders) to become ambassadors, because KOLs are capable and influential.

(5) Leverage on fame

This is one of the most commonly used methods in Web3, that is, to endorse yourself through more prestigious institutions or people. For example, as long as the token can be listed on Binance, everyone will think it has hype value.

(6) Token market making

When the token continues to rise sharply, the group sentiment will naturally rise, attracting more people to participate.

(7) Regret

Many people will remember the 100x coins they missed, so using this regret can make users who sold BNB early excited about the new opportunities of benchmarking BNB.

Through these methods, manipulating group emotions to achieve one's own goals is the highest goal of marketers. And the ability to manipulate group emotions is the real barrier of Web3 marketers.

Six,Hold

From a certain perspective, the relationship between the project party and the user is similar to the relationship between a man and a woman. The Awareness stage is to show users that you are their ideal partner, and the Interest stage is to show the dimensions of each ideal. The Activation stage is like the warm-up period, while the Purchase stage is to confirm the relationship, and the final Hold () stage is "marriage".

So, how can we make the coin holders who are looking for excitement willing to "marry" the project party?

Currently, Web3 projects are divided into two types, one is entrepreneurial projects, and the other is MEME, which correspond to different strategies.

1. Entrepreneurial projects

In "The Coming of the Post-Material Era", Zheng Yefu mentioned that people's three needs are comfort, awesomeness and excitement. The excitement of currency speculation is obvious. Whether it is high leverage or emerging tokens, it can quickly bring exciting experiences.

However, holding coins is not always exciting. To some extent, this is contrary to human instinct. Therefore, we need to start from the dimension of "awesomeness". The "awesomeness" here does not only refer to showing off or worship, but in reality represents the pursuit of recognition and success.

In reality, in order to pursue recognition, people often sacrifice some comfort. Therefore, only by pursuing excellence can users be encouraged to be patient and make certain compromises.

So, how can we be "awesome"? My opinion is that Web2 entrepreneurship is like getting a perfect ending by upgrading and killing monsters, while Web3 entrepreneurship is more like a journey to learn from the past. The difference between the two is that ordinary entrepreneurship needs to achieve profitability or monopoly, while Web3 entrepreneurship not only needs success: it also needs to achieve "myths".

To become a "myth", you need not only victory, but also twists and turns. Whether it is the ninety-nine eighty-one difficulties, or the founder's divine personality against power politics, or even the mistakes that shocked the world, these can all construct a "myth".

"Myths" are not only the best way to grab attention, but also to lead users. At this time, users are very likely to project themselves onto the project party, and the success of the project is equivalent to the success of the user. In this way, users will willingly invest more time, energy and money to make the project better, thereby achieving self-success and perfection.

An obvious manifestation is that when a project is attacked, users will feel that they are also attacked, so they will stand up against the attackers to maintain their "orthodoxy".

As for those who fall behind on the road to learning, their regret often prompts them to become the main purchasing power in the future.

2. MEME projects

In addition to entrepreneurial Web3 projects, many MEME projects have also emerged. The purchasing logic of such projects is different.

Due to the short development cycle of the MEME project, traditional marketing methods are difficult to apply, so the only way is to grab attention and make the token into the "Schelling point" of the track.

"Schelling Point" is a concept in game theory, which refers to the natural, special or highly relevant options that people tend to choose without communication.

For example, if you are interested in the field of AI, you will naturally choose to buy Nvidia's stock. This also explains why a sector in a certain track will become the focus of the market. Once it becomes the focus, users will spontaneously hold the relevant tokens for a long time.

How to make a token become the Schelling point of the track?

They gave each other an example. There are 100 million retail investors in the encryption circle who don't know each other. How to make them choose to buy a certain coin?

If a big and eye-catching news happens and is related to a certain coin, then everyone will form a tacit understanding. In this case, the news needs to meet two conditions:

1. It must be a big news of global concern that can attract the attention of users;

2. This news must be able to establish an association with a token;

Therefore, when the relevant track is paid attention to again, this token will naturally become the object of hype, especially if the track has long-term development potential, users may hold this token for a long time.

According to the innovation diffusion theory, once innovation passes the initial stage, it will gradually be dominated by marketing and branding, and the complex network growth model also describes that when the competitiveness difference is not large, the nodes that have already occupied the advantage will obtain more new links.

Therefore, the project party needs to continue to exert efforts at key nodes and frequently appear in the user's field of vision until the token becomes the Schelling point of the track.

When the token becomes a Schelling point and a small number of people become the core force of the group, the consensus foundation of the project has been established. After that, the project party only needs to maintain and consolidate the first-mover advantage to move forward steadily.

VII. Summary

The growth of traditional Internet relies on data thinking, and all strategies revolve around "purchase". However, the success of Web3 lies in winning the "hearts of the people", and it is necessary to attract and maintain user loyalty through trading thinking. Only in this way can the project achieve long-term value and continuous growth of users.