Author: Emily Lai, Hype CMO

Compiled by: TechFlow

Crypto marketing work is dizzying: from choosing the right channels, to messaging, to team coordination. Should you invest in hosting an event? Do you need to launch an ambassador program? How should the incentives for a hackathon be designed? There's always something to do.

Great marketers simplify the process, plan, execute, and help you save budget at the same time.

Image: An effective marketing strategy can help you make sense of the seemingly complex situation

However, crypto marketing has become increasingly challenging at this stage.

What's going on?

As founders, builders, and marketers, what can we do?

Why? Here are three reasons: No new users!!!

Reason 1: Increased competition

The entire crypto ecosystem, from chains, infrastructure, to dApps (decentralized applications), is saturated, with each project vying for attention with its own tokens.

Image: Data source: on-chain data provided by @defillama, dApps and token data provided by @alvaapp

Image: For example, my friend @mumufengg has never used on-chain products (no hot wallet, no exposure to dApps), and his first experience reflects the confusion of new users

According to @DefiLlama, there are currently over 356 blockchains.

After a talk, I chatted with @cattybk (from @thirdweb), and he told me they've collaborated with over 2,000 EVM chains alone. So I checked @coingecko's data:

• Over 8,700 L1 chains

• Over 5,200 L2 chains

In addition, there are:

• Over 1,500 AI agents according to @cookiedotfun

• Over 50,000 new tokens added daily according to @pumpdotfun and @Dune

• 44 narratives tracked by @KaitoAI

The question is, are there new users coming in to support these new chains, infrastructure, dApps, and tokens?

Looking at the Total Value Locked (TVL), the performance of this cycle is on par with the previous cycle, and aligns with the trend of "Crypto" in Google search trends - a cyclical decline in search volume, indicating a waning mainstream interest.

Even if new users come in, they have to choose from hundreds of chains, not to mention hundreds of wallets. This is more confusing than ever before.

Image: Data source: TVL trend comparison shown by @defillama

Image: Google Trends showing the global search trend for "Crypto"

Reason 2: Fragmented target audience

The crypto audience is diverse, with each group having different motivations, further fragmenting the market.

Developers and builders:

• If you are a blockchain/network/ecosystem developer, you need to attract developers to build applications that can attract new users.

• This requires developer marketing and onboarding guidance. Developers' motivations may include: wanting to realize unique visions using your tech stack, obtaining development grants, or seeing higher chances of success based on network effects and distribution capabilities.

Customers and users:

If you are a protocol, dApp, middleware, or service provider, you need to attract users to generate revenue.

• For ecosystems, dApp teams may be viewed as customers.

• Note that users and token holders are not always aligned, as token holders may sometimes be speculators who don't actually use your product.

Venture capitalists, angel investors, and other investors:

• These groups provide you with funding, and their motivation is to achieve investment returns (ROI), often through tokens, whose performance is not always directly related to technology, user numbers, or developer numbers.

Retail and token speculators:

• These may or may not be your users. Their goal is also high investment returns (ROI) through token trading.

Technology partners:

These are typically other infrastructure or middleware projects. As blockchains demand more scalability, security, and cost-effectiveness, an entire middleware infrastructure ecosystem has emerged, including chain/wallet abstractions, cross-chain bridges, interoperability, modularity, and more.

• Additionally, there are service providers, not limited to agencies, but also including blockchain explorers, ad tech, unlocking software, and more.

• These partners typically have a broad audience to cater to, which is why business development (BD) is so hot in the industry.

Listing partners:

• Including exchanges, launchpads, market makers, brokers, and KOL trading. Their performance directly impacts the success of your token, and their motivations are often also ROI-related.

Regulators and institutional investors:

These audiences can bring significant liquidity, but can also lead to your company's downfall.

Beyond all these audience types, the globalization of the crypto industry further exacerbates market fragmentation. This means understanding cultural differences, coordinating information across time zones, and managing localized marketing efforts.

All of this makes crypto marketing much more challenging compared to Web2 marketing, which is more direct, clearer in messaging, and more aligned in motivations.

For example:

• Selling health supplements: targeting health-conscious people, the elderly, and high-income groups.

• Selling winter jackets: targeting people in cold climates, skiers, hikers, and snowboarders.

• Selling protein powder: targeting fitness enthusiasts and bodybuilders, excluding vegetarians (if it's whey protein).

Reason 3: Technology immaturity and trust deficit

Statistically, since Bitcoin's inception, the media has declared its "death" 415 times. In addition, the crypto industry has a notorious reputation for scams, money laundering, and criminal activities.

Image: Some news headlines about crypto may make your mother worry about your career choice

In 2021, the hype around NFTs and the metaverse attracted a lot of new users. At that time, many celebrities got involved. If you were working in the industry then, you might have received many inquiries from old friends.

However, this all came to a halt with the emergence of issues such as high Gas fees, token price crashes, and painful user loss experiences. These issues have led to a reputation crisis and a lack of trust.

Mainstream users have left the market, and we have entered a building (bear) cycle, while also welcoming thousands of new chains and middleware.

Image: The industry's focus oscillates between "we need more applications" and "we need more infrastructure". (Inspired by the visualization from @jillrgunter)

So, why are you still here?

I don't know, please take a deep breath, calm down, and tell me your reasons (I genuinely want to hear your story, as it's also important for your marketing).

For me, I fell into the Bitcoin "rabbit hole" in my college dorm room in 2013, because I loved its ethos of sovereignty and self-sufficiency.

Since then, I've also seen crypto being widely used in places like Argentina, Indonesia, and Turkey.

For example, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I mainly rely on crypto stablecoins to survive, in order to cope with the crazy hyperinflation there:

In addition, many companies are using blockchain technology and fully abstracting it.

Hats off to @benLLS from @octantapp, who mentioned @jia_DeFi, a company that helps emerging markets unlock capital and opportunities, and Hala Systems, which is dedicated to reducing harm, improving safety and stabilizing communities.

There are also companies like @bombocommunity that use NFTs to ensure the security of music ticketing, while abstracting the crypto language. @cattybk also mentioned some blockchain-based leisure games that are gaining a large user base outside of crypto Twitter.

Additionally, @mariashen (from @electriccapital) releases a developer report every year. Although the number of developers has decreased compared to the previous cycle, Web3 developers are still growing overall, indicating that we have not attracted net new users.

The reality is: even after 16 years, we are still in the early stages

Image: The classic early adopter curve from the book "Crossing the Chasm"

We have crossed the chasm, and the mainstream market with a high risk tolerance has accepted Bitcoin and views crypto as an asset class.

But we have not yet conveyed to them why we need thousands of blockchains, let alone an application that they can use every day, surpassing Instagram, Temu, TikTok, WhatsApp or ChatGPT (whose adoption rates are far faster than the crypto industry).

What does this mean? Are we not building what people need? Or... is it not mature enough.

I believe there are many kind-hearted people in this industry who are willing to drive social progress. I know some of them, such as @vijaymichalik, @arlery, @motherpredicte, @divine_economy, @alipaints, and this is just a small part.

If you are building the crypto industry with good intentions, what are the basic marketing principles you need to master and apply?

These are two slides I often show in my "What is Marketing" presentation, which basically distill marketing strategy into four words.

You can see me explain this in more detail in the video I collaborated with @modenetwork: click to watch.

There is also a version that was shared at the last India Blockchain Week (@ibwofficial), which mainly explores the background of founders/personal brands, using @megaeth_labs as an example: click to watch.

Three important tips for acquiring crypto users

There are seven audience segments in the crypto space, distributed across multiple geographic regions. In addition, your internal team members (business development, product, marketing, creative, legal, etc.) also need to collaborate.

In one of the AMOS series from @moremarketsxyz, hosted by @xkonjin, I participated with @reka_eth, and we invited @jaambutties (CMO of @nillionnetwork) to share how he coordinates brand activities.

This coordination can involve all stakeholders, amplify your marketing efforts, and help break through and capture the scarce and valuable attention in this space.

Ultimately, due to the early stage of the technology and the highly saturated industry, we do need to do some non-scalable things. This includes onboarding new users one by one, getting personally involved, and educating them.

Although I really enjoy showing @pumpdotfun to friends who have never encountered the crypto space, I also have to give a huge shoutout to @a1lon9:

What's even better?

To break through the attention fragmentation, you need consistent and continuous messaging and content output to maintain relevance.

This is why founders reply to tweets, why they participate in AMAs, and why they even appear in live videos now.

This is also why teams record at events.

Engage with users, developers, investors, and customers, and tell their stories.

You'll also get valuable product feedback.

My friend @shayyydz chose her first crypto wallet. At the time of writing, this post has 5,200 views because she chose @rainbowdotme.

Finally, if you are a founder or builder - this is the most important thing:

Let's go back to the earlier question "Why are you still here?" and do some self-reflection.

No one knows your "why" better than you. Tell us why you are building, why it's important. These stories are not only the vision you convey to your team, but also the core content for recruiting new members, attracting investors, and building a community.

Repeat these stories, try different content formats.

Thank you for reading this far. If you'd like, please also share your story with me.