Why traditional marketers fail in Web3: Avoiding these failures
“You can fork code, but you can’t fork a community.” I wish I had come up with this gem of a saying. I use it extensively. I also wish I knew who to credit it to. Heard it on a podcast several years back, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.
2023 marks my 10th anniversary working in the blockchain industry — primarily in community and marketing. The number one lesson I have learned is how valuable communities are: how powerful they are, and how unique each one is. And, they’re the only reason your projects can become a success or failure.
You can replicate marketing plans, you can fork Github repos and you can poach developers and other professionals from your competitors. However, if there is one thing you cannot do, it’s copying and pasting a community — no matter how hard you try.
Over the years I’ve witnessed the tragic demise of several accomplished and veteran traditional chief marketing officers. I’ve witnessed great projects slam into a go-to-market dead end. Projects treating the community as a nuisance they are forced to tolerate, simply copying what others are doing and forcing it to fit in tend to not do well. They pretend to care for the community publicly while ignoring their value internally.
In Web2, you have customers and clients. You have sales targets and KPIs to meet. Your goal as a marketer is to convince people your product is better than the next. You know your client’s identity. You own their data. You grow your customer base through advertisement dollars. The communication is generally one-sided. You offload interactions onto Customer Service to deal with any complaints.
It really is quite simple. You’re not selling anything. You’re raising awareness, and letting people figure out why you matter
Read more on cointelegraph.com
