Author: Tracy Source: X, @CTracy0803
Looking back at the previous article "Web3 Marketing Thinking Transformation: Building a New Framework Centered on Investment Users", it mainly established an expected market framework based on investment users. Therefore, in this article, I will share more detailed implementation strategies 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 pure growth mindset.
1. Growth vs. Operational Thinking
As marketers or operators, we are all very familiar with the AARRR growth model. This model optimizes the user growth process of products or services through layer-by-layer transformation, providing startups and product teams with a standard operational growth program framework to drive sustained and healthy growth of products.
However, this growth model is only applicable to product users, not investment users. An obvious example is that new users and referrals are almost done simultaneously. When a project is announced to be invested by Binance, countless users will automatically recommend it, thus passively completing new users.
Therefore, when facing 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
2. Awareness
Awareness refers to the number of people covered through various marketing means. These means mainly include publishing financing information, operating official social accounts, and various activities. Covering enough people through different channels allows more people to know about the project.
At present, 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 sellers if they are not operated effectively.
3. Interest
When some people learn about a project, they will have an expectation of it. The more the expectation fits their investment logic, the higher their interest will be.
So, how do you communicate expectations effectively?
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." "Number one" not only captures the user's mind, but also conveys a very high expectation.
Overall, "first" or "biggest" is a shortcut to enter the user's mind.
Secondly, expectations are not just about repeated promotion of positioning, but also about forming a narrative constellation by breaking down positioning. Taking Binance as an example, the positioning of "the world's number one cryptocurrency exchange" can be broken down into data such as the number of users, trading volume, and number of countries covered, in order to consolidate the label of "the world's number one".
In addition to the main narrative of "world's first", there are more sub-narratives, such as the founder's deeds in promoting the development of the industry, the team's selfless dedication, etc. These sub-narratives are also constantly strengthening the main narrative.
It is expected that wave after wave of publicity will be needed so that the positioning can be deeply rooted in people's hearts.
4. Activation
The first step is to get users interested. The next step is 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, and pledges, which aim to increase users' sunk costs as much as possible.
Since the expectation of coin issuance is a single expectation, it can easily cause users to feel bored over time, so measures need to be taken to maintain user interest or raise expectations.
1. Maintain interest
There are many ways to maintain interest. For example, the project owner can split the coin issuance expectations into several parts, continuously release expectations to prolong the duration of attraction and attract more users to join.
2. Raise expectations
Raising expectations can enhance user expectations by releasing more positive 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. This is because admitting mistakes is extremely difficult for most people, and the more they 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 resistance. Therefore, managing expectations is a very dangerous and complex task, and it is important to pay attention to changes in group emotions.
5. 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, many projects are facing the situation that there are many interested users, but few users are willing to actually purchase tokens. How to achieve the conversion 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 trading WeChat group, it can be found 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 you add a project logo after your username or add a hashtag to your tweet, the key is to repeat the key words. Even if you don’t know the specifics 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 a project being suppressed by the government but still resisting can touch the emotions of users.
(4) Leadership 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 leader's charm 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 KOL has ability and influence.
(5) Using reputation
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, group sentiment will naturally rise, attracting more people to participate.
(7) Regret
Many people will remember the hundred-fold coins they missed, so using this regret can make users who sold BNB early excited about new opportunities to benchmark BNB.
Through these methods, manipulating group emotions to achieve one's own goals is the ultimate goal of marketers. The ability to manipulate group emotions is the real barrier for Web3 marketers.
6. Hold
From a certain perspective, the relationship between the project owner and the user is similar to the relationship between a man and a woman. The Awareness stage is to show the user 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 excitement-seeking coin holders willing to "marry" the project party?
Currently, there are two types of Web3 projects, one is entrepreneurial projects and the other is MEME, and these two types correspond to different strategies.
1. Entrepreneurial projects
In The Coming of the Post-Materialistic Era, Zheng Yefu mentioned that people have three needs: comfort, awesomeness, and excitement. The excitement of cryptocurrency trading is obvious. Whether it is high leverage or emerging tokens, it can quickly bring exciting experiences.
However, holding coins is not always exciting, and to some extent, it goes against human instinct. Therefore, we need to start from the dimension of "awesome". The "awesome" here does not just mean showing off or worship, but in reality represents the pursuit of recognition and success.
In reality, people often sacrifice some comfort in pursuit of recognition. Therefore, only by pursuing excellence can users be encouraged to be patient and make certain compromises.
So, how can one be "awesome"? My opinion is that Web2 startups are like getting a perfect ending by upgrading and beating monsters, while Web3 startups are more like a journey to learn from the past. The difference between the two is that ordinary startups need to achieve profitability or monopoly, while Web3 startups not only need to succeed: they also need to achieve "myths".
To become a "myth", one needs not only victory but also twists and turns. Whether it is the 81 difficulties, the founder's divine personality in fighting 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 can guide 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 users. In this way, users will willingly invest more time, energy and money to make the project better, thereby achieving self-success and perfection.
One obvious manifestation is that when a project is attacked, users feel that they are also under attack, so they will stand up against the attackers to maintain their own "legitimacy."
As for those who fall behind in the journey to obtain the scriptures, their regret will often prompt them to become the main purchasing power in the future.
2.MEME item
In addition to entrepreneurial Web3 projects, there are many MEME projects. The purchasing logic of these projects is different.
Since the development cycle of the MEME project is relatively short, traditional marketing methods are difficult to apply, so the only way is to grab attention and build 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 in the absence of 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 token a Schelling point of the track?
They gave each other an example: there are 100 million retail investors in the crypto world, and they don’t know each other. How can they choose to buy a certain coin?
If a big and eye-catching news happens and is associated with a certain coin, then everyone will form a tacit understanding. In this case, the news needs to meet two conditions:
It must be a big news that attracts global attention and can attract users' attention;
This news should be able to establish an association with a token;
Therefore, when the relevant track attracts attention 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, while the complex network growth model also describes that when the competitiveness difference is not large, the nodes that already have an advantage will gain 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. Conclusion
The growth of traditional Internet relies on data thinking, and all strategies revolve around "purchase". However, the success of Web3 lies in winning "people's hearts", and it is necessary to attract and maintain user loyalty through operational thinking. Only in this way can the project achieve long-term value and continuous growth of users.
