Welcome to Fixing Web3 Marketing: From Hype to Sustainable Growth – a series exploring the biggest challenges Web3 companies face when promoting their products. We’ll unpack the myths, missteps, and missed opportunities shaping this space, while exploring audience types, channels, and strategies for building real, sustainable growth.
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The Web3 Inception
When Gavin Wood, cofounder of Polkadot, coined the term Web3 in 2014, he envisioned a decentralized internet. A space where users could truly control their data and digital interactions. That vision quickly took root as blockchain technology evolved, first with Bitcoin and later through a wave of decentralized applications that promised to disrupt traditional industries.
By 2021, the movement exploded. Fueled by NFTs, DAOs, and token-based projects and amplified by celebrity endorsements, Web3 seemed unstoppable. But just as quickly as new projects launched, they crashed.
The hype cycle masked deeper issues: limited understanding among users, lack of lasting utility, and communities built on speculation rather than substance.
“Blockchain is the tech. Bitcoin is merely the first mainstream manifestation of its potential.”
—Marc Kenigsberg, founder of Bitcoin Chaser
And beneath it all lay an even deeper problem: marketing. Or rather, how Web3 projects misunderstood what marketing should be.
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Want to learn more about Web3 Marketing?
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- Your Ultimate Playbook to Resurrect a Dead Web3 Gaming Community
- Interview With Chainwire’s CMO on Redefining Crypto PR
- Why Most Crypto KOL Marketing Fails (And How to Fix It)
- Your Web3 Project Deserves More Than Just a Press Release
- How To Create A Strong Web3 Brand : The Bera Way
👉 Subscribe to the Web3 marketing tag for more stories.
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Why Web3 Marketing is Broken
Despite billions raised through ICOs and NFT projects, a huge portion of that capital has been wasted on poor marketing strategies that fail to deliver long-term value, community, or growth.
According to industry estimates, Web3 startups spend up to 40% of their capital on marketing—yet many see astronomical customer acquisition costs (CAC) and retention rates that drop below 30% after just a few months [Tom Tunguz, 2021]. Millions are burned on ads, influencers, and “viral” campaigns that barely touch mainstream awareness [FetchFunnel, 2025].
These moves are highly supported by myths such as:
- Growth is easy if you go viral on Twitter.
- Marketing isn’t a priority until we’re bigger.
- Let’s just build a community, and users will come.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. When your entire marketing strategy is built on hype and vibes, you sacrifice the consistency and clarity that drive real brand recognition and adoption.
Most Web3 marketing still targets a small, insular group of crypto-native users using the same tired playbook: build communities on X, Discord, and Telegram; hype token airdrops; and partner with influencers for visibility.
While that might create a short-term bump in engagement, it rarely extends beyond those small circles, making it nearly impossible to onboard the mainstream audiences Web3 needs to reach.
Stats to consider:
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$1.5 billion was spent by Web3 companies on influencer marketing in 2022—most of it failed to create meaningful engagement beyond crypto insiders [Blockchain Ads, 2025].
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Projects report CACs of $500 to $700 per user, many of whom abandon the project as soon as the incentives end [Tom Tunguz, 2021].
Add to that the increasing difficulty of advertising blockchain products, with restrictions from X, YouTube, and Google, plus algorithms that limit discoverability, and you get an industry forced to build alternative channels to reach its audience.
Meanwhile, new projects launch every day, each promising to be “the next big thing.” Most vanish within months. That noise makes it even harder to stand out, grow users, and maintain a clear vision.
It’s time for Web3 marketers to take a page from traditional startups – the ones that live or die by their go-to-market strategy. They identify their audience, clarify the problem they solve, and position themselves as the best solution.
Web3 startups? Too often they skip straight to “launch the token and post on X.”
Let’s break down the biggest mistakes holding Web3 marketing back.
1. The “Community” Myth
Many Web3 projects still believe community equals growth. That’s why they chase X followers, Discord members, and Telegram sign-ups instead of finding real product-market fit.
A project with ten thousand Telegram members looks great on paper — until 95% disappear the day after an airdrop.
Engagement is not adoption. Followers are not users. And hype is not a strategy.
Real growth comes from solving problems that people actually have. If your project vanishes once the incentives stop, it was never a community – it was a hype cycle.
So, while Airdrops may look like a growth hack – you give out free tokens, people rush in, engagement skyrockets – it’s short lived as your users drop the token, leave and you’re back to square one, poorer than you started with inactive tokens in your economy. If you’re not tracking these movements you may even have the perception that this was a success when it’s not – you’re failing to cultivate long-term engagement and loyalty, while wasting time and money.
2. The Overly Technical Blackhole
If you have a blockchain-based product and want to expand your audience, there’s no way around it – you need to convince Web2 users to transition. And that requires more than just introducing new technology; it means making your product accessible and understandable.
Too often, crypto enthusiasts and project owners talk in technical terms that excite insiders but confuse everyone else. And that confusion matters – it’s one of the biggest barriers to mainstream adoption. Most people don’t avoid Web3 because they tried it and disliked it; they avoid it because they can’t even figure out how to start.
The barriers are everywhere. Some products require users to navigate complicated setups just to try basic features. Each extra step is a chance to give up, and many do.
If you’re only marketing to other Web3 users, your audience pool is tiny, and shrinking fast as every project fights for the same limited group. Complexity drives up the cost of acquisition, slows adoption, and makes retention a constant uphill battle.
The best marketing doesn’t hide behind complexity, it simplifies it. If a project can’t explain its value in one clear sentence, it doesn’t have a communication problem, it has a positioning problem.
3. Web3 Marketing Keeps Missing the Basics
Traditional startups spend years refining their go-to-market strategy: who their customer is, what problem their product solves, why they’re better than the competition, and how they’ll acquire and retain users.
Many Web3 projects skip these steps. They lack a clear target audience, can’t explain why their product matters, and have no retention strategy. Without real-world applications, your Web3 project stays niche. The public doesn’t see the value, which hinders adoption and limits competition with established Web2 solutions.
The first step is understanding that marketing isn’t just engagement—it’s about clarity, positioning, and retention. Web3 projects need to think beyond Twitter hype and treat marketing as part of the product experience.
Every interaction, from landing pages to documentation, is marketing. The language you use, the clarity of your value proposition, and the onboarding experience all shape perception.
Publishing content with consistent cadence—whether blog posts, guides, or newsletters—helps build brand recall among the relevant audiences. Regular, valuable content keeps your project top-of-mind, reinforces your positioning, and nurtures trust with both crypto-native and mainstream users.
Founders should approach marketing like development: test, iterate, measure, and improve. Treat messaging like UX. Treat content like a roadmap. Because it is.
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The New Foundation for Web3 Marketing
The successful Web3 projects will master three things:
- Clarity: Explain what you do in human language.
- Utility: Build real value before broadcasting it.
- Retention: Design systems that reward participation, not speculation.
Strong marketing in Web3 isn’t about being louder – it’s about being clearer, more consistent, and more credible. The projects that combine education, storytelling, and product value will outlast the ones that rely on hype and tokenomics.
The Bottom Line
Web3 doesn’t have a marketing problem because it’s new. It has a marketing problem because it’s repeating the oldest mistakes in the startup playbook – believing that technology sells itself.
The fix starts with discipline: knowing your audience, crafting your story, consistently blogging, measuring what matters, and building trust through clarity. Because if users don’t understand what you’re building or why it matters, they’ll never stick around long enough to find out.
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At HackerNoon, we help Web3 builders cut through the noise and share real stories that reach the right audiences. Learn how to position your project for clarity and credibility – let’s talk!
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References:
- Amra & Elma (2025). Best Blockchain Marketing Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.amraandelma.com/blockchain-marketing-statistics/
- Blockchain Ads (2025). User Acquisition Trends – 2025 Report: DeFi, Crypto, and Gaming. Retrieved from https://www.blockchain-ads.com/post/user-acquisition-trends-report
- FetchFunnel (2025). Web3 Influencer Agency: 7 Powerful Ways for Real Results. Retrieved from https://www.fetchfunnel.com/web3-influencer-agency/
- Tom Tunguz (2021). Tokens as CAC – Are Crypto Companies More or Less Efficient in Acquiring Customers?. Retrieved from https://tomtunguz.com/tokens-as-cac/
- Market Research Future (2023). Web3 Marketing Market Size, Industry Report – 2032. Retrieved from https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/web3-marketing-market-12244
