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

Excellent marketers will simplify the process, formulate a plan, execute tasks, and help you save budget at the same time.

However, crypto marketing is becoming increasingly challenging at this stage.

What happened?

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

Why? There are three reasons below: No new users! ! !

Reason One: Intensified Competition

The entire crypto ecosystem, including chains, infrastructure, and dApps (decentralized applications), is saturated, with each project competing for attention with its own tokens.

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

After a talk, I exchanged with @cattybk (from @thirdweb), and he told me they have collaborated with over 2,000 EVM chains. So I checked the data from @coingecko:

• Over 8,700 L1 chains
• Over 5,200 L2 chains

In addition, there are:

• According to @cookiedotfun, there are more than 1,500 AI agents
• According to @pumpdotfun and @Dune, over 50,000 new tokens are added daily

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

Looking at the Total Value Locked (TVL), the performance of this cycle is comparable to the previous one, and is consistent with the trend of the term "crypto" in Google search trends - the search volume is cyclically decreasing, indicating a waning interest from mainstream users.

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.

Reason 2: Fragmented Target Audience

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

• Developers and Builders:

If you are a Block/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 funding, or seeing higher chances of success due to 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 do not actually use your product.

• VCs, Angels, 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.

• Tech Partners:

These are usually other infrastructure or middleware projects. As blockchains expand in terms of speed, security, and cost, an entire middleware infrastructure ecosystem has emerged, including chain/wallet abstractions, cross-chain bridges, interoperability, modularity, etc.

In addition, there are service providers, not limited to custodians, but also including blockchain explorers, ad tech, unlocking software, and more.

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

• Listing Partners:

Including exchanges, launchpads, market makers, intermediaries, and KOL traders. Their performance directly impacts the success of your token, and their motivations are often also related to investment returns (ROI).

• Regulators and Institutional Investors:

These audiences can bring significant liquidity, but may also lead to the failure of your company.

In addition to all these audience types, the globalization of the crypto industry has further fragmented the market. This means understanding cultural differences, coordinating messaging across different time zones, and managing localized marketing efforts.

All of this makes crypto marketing more challenging compared to Web2, where messaging is more direct, and motivations are more aligned.

For example:

• Selling health supplements: targeting health-conscious people, the elderly, and high-income individuals.
• Selling winter jackets: targeting people in cold climates, skiers, hikers, and snowboarders.
• Selling protein powder: suitable for fitness enthusiasts and bodybuilders, excluding vegetarians (if it's whey protein).

Reason 3: Immaturity of Technology and Damaged User Trust

According to statistics, the media has declared Bitcoin "dead" 415 times since its inception. In addition, the crypto industry has also gained a notorious reputation for fraud, money laundering, and criminal activities.

In 2021, the boom of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse attracted a large number of new users. At that time, many celebrities joined the industry. If you were working in this industry then, you might have received many inquiries from old friends.

However, all of this came to a halt due to the following issues: high Gas fees, token price crashes, and painful user loss experiences. These problems have led to a reputation crisis and a lack of trust.

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

So, why are you still here?

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

For me, I fell into the "rabbit hole" of Bitcoin in my university dormitory in 2013, because I loved its principles of sovereignty and self-sufficiency.

Since then, I have also seen cryptocurrencies being widely used in places like Argentina, Indonesia, and Turkey.

For example, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I mainly relied on crypto stablecoins to survive the crazy hyperinflation there:

Furthermore, many companies are using blockchain technology and fully abstracting it away.

Kudos to @benLLS from @octantapp, who mentioned @jia_DeFi, a company helping emerging markets unlock capital and opportunities, and Hala Systems, dedicated to reducing harm, increasing safety, and stabilizing communities.

There are also companies like @bombocommunity, using NFTs to ensure the security of music ticketing, while abstracting away the crypto language. @cattybk also mentioned some blockchain-based leisure games that are massively onboarding users outside of crypto Twitter.

Additionally, @mariashen (from @electriccapital) releases an annual developer report. While developer numbers have declined slightly from the previous cycle, Web3 developers are still growing overall, indicating we are not just attracting net new users.

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

We have crossed the chasm, and the mainstream market with high-risk tolerance has adopted Bitcoin and views cryptocurrencies as an asset class.

But we have yet to convey to them why we need thousands of Blocks, let alone an application that they can use every day, surpassing Instagram, Temu, TikTok, WhatsApp, or ChatGPT (whose adoption rates far outpace 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 good-hearted people in this industry who are willing to drive social progress. I know some of them, like @vijaymichalik, @arlery, @motherpredicte, @divine_economy, @alipaints, to name a few.

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

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

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

There's also a version that was shared at the last India Blockchain Week (@ibwofficial), focusing on founder/personal branding, using @megaeth_labs as an example: click to watch.

Three key recommendations to acquire crypto users

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

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

This coordination can involve all stakeholders, amplifying your marketing efforts and helping to 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.

While I very much enjoy showing @pumpdotfun to friends who have never encountered the crypto space, I also have to give huge props to @a1lon9:

What's even better?

To break through the attention-scattered landscape, you need consistent messaging and content output to maintain relevance.

That's why founders reply to tweets, why they participate in AMAs, and even now appear in live videos.

This is also why teams record at events.

Dialoguing with users, developers, investors, customers, and telling their stories.

And you also get valuable product feedback.

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

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

Let's go back to the "why are you still here?" we mentioned earlier and do a self-check.

No one knows your "why" better than you. Tell us why you're building, why it's important. These stories are not only the vision you're conveying to your team, but 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 tell me your story.