Inside Web3 š | How to build a strong web3 brand?
Learn the essentials to create a powerful brand around your Web3 product
Hello guys,
Itās Julian :)
Hope youāre ready for todayās edition, a lot of value around marketing tips and strategies we implemented to skyrocket our projectsā¦ š
Mobula is still under construction, we have released the latest Alpha version and migrated from App.Mobula.Finance to Mobula.FI. We had a lot of great reviews on the Alpha version of the dApp and we were able to improve several bugs for now. Feel free to give us your feedback.
The plan of the edition:
1/ Top 5 Resources of the WeekĀ
2/ The intervention of the week: Tristan from the IFC ā½ļø
3/ Top 3 Web3 Entrepreneurial resources of the WeekĀ
4/ Focus of the week: How to build a strong recognizable brand in web3? āØ
1/ Top 5 Resources of the Week
š° $4,5 billion funds launched by a16z to invest in the metaverse gaming industry! One of the most popular crypto venture funds allocates a record amount of money for web3 startup investment.
šāāļø $4,5 million fundraiser for a social impact based DAO in web3ā¦ UnicornDAO is willing to empower NFT movements based on women and LGBTQ+ empowerment.
š±Lensā protocol for decentralized social media launched by Aave. Social media disruption is on the moveā¦ The ambitious Web 3.0 decentralized social media ecosystem project is already described as āa permissionless, composable and decentralized social graph that facilitates the construction of Web 3.0 social platforms.ā
š¶ Universal Studio Music to enable NFT soundtracks to release! Artists will now be able to drop NFT music tracks using LimeWire, an NFT marketplace for music-related assets.
šŖšŗMore and more European family convinced by cryptocurrenciesā¦ A recent survey highlighted a huge increase in Web3 interest all across Europe, mainly for investment and savings purposes
2/ The intervention of the week: Tristan from the IFC ā½ļø
Another great speaker for this week! Really glad to welcome Tristan, CEO of the IFC, a soccer-based web3 project. Since he already has lots of passionating things to tell you, I won't make you wait any longerā¦
My name is Tristan, Iām 26, from France. I am the CEO of the IFC, which I co-founded with Antoine, the CTO. Antoine and I are football fans. We played a lot together during our childhood and spent a lot of Saturday nights eating burgers, playing Fifa, and drinking beers, with another friend, Sebastien. It was our golden weekly routine. When the pandemic arrived in 2020, football stopped, and we were locked down.Ā
One night, I saw my brother playing with his friends in an online multiplayer football tournament. It was awesome, with huge emotions. The next day, he had another tournament scheduled. And without any reason, the tournament was canceled. No explanations. Such a pity, I was very excited to watch him play. So I decided to organize my own tournaments, and Antoine joined me to develop a website to help me. Today, our app allows anyone to create, grow, and participate in e-sport competitions. We have 4K+ active players, in 50+ countries, and we host many competitions from Europe and Africa.Ā
When we started the IFC, we had no idea of web3. We just wanted to build something that gathers all virtual football fans at the same place and build with them a solid competition ecosystem with common rules. By spending two years talking with players, getting daily feedback, and organizing events, we became aware of many problems in those underground competitive ecosystems.Ā
Thatās why we started digging web3 technologies: To implement team ownership with NFTs, structure interactions between teams and players with smart contracts etc. In a nutshell, we have been attracted to web3 to solve existing problems in web2 ecosystems. We just closed a 500Kā¬ funding round with successful web3 entrepreneurs to build this part of the project.Ā
My main tip would be to use web3 as a tool to solve problems, not as a communication strategy. Our current users donāt know web3, and they see crypto and NFT as a scam. Itās not surprising. But if I tell them about Ā« team budget Ā» (wallet), Ā« team which value raises when better results Ā» (NFT), Ā« contracts between players and teams Ā» (smart contracts), and Ā« coins Ā» to interact in the IFC ecosystem (crypto), they love it. No need to use technical words. Everyday words work well. Unless you only target web3 enthusiasts.Ā
Using web3 as a communication strategy is nice to raise funds with NFT without any product, but it creates a lot of delivery expectations and speculation. It will take more time to build a project without emphasizing web3, or NFT. But roots may be stronger in the long run.Ā
And after that, it is possible to reward your first users, those who give daily feedback and that help you build without expecting something in return. Another tip is to be ok with the fact that many people know stuff way better than you. Talk to them, meet them, and do the same for those who want to meet you and talk to you. So we can grow together.
3/ Top 3 Web3 Entrepreneurial resources of the WeekĀ
The best resources to build your business in web3, just for you š
š„ Creating a successful NFT Strategy for your companyĀ
š„ Build a real-world dApp from scratchĀ Ā Ā
š„ Brand and Marketing Differentiation in Web3
4/ Focus of the week: How to build a strong recognizable brand in web3?Ā āØ
During the race into web3, itās more important than ever before that entrepreneurs take care of their brand. There are so many projects out there, some being really promising, some others staining the trust of customersā¦ Even if you built the best tool in your area, you wonāt manage to get anywhere without working on your image.Ā
Like any other brand, you first need to get visibility. And as a web3 entrepreneur, itās really important that you build a strong and recognizable visual identity. Cryptos, NFT, Metaverseā¦ for many people, all this is still some part of a futuristic technology that they could dream of. Your brand identity has to be at the level of their expectations. Itās what people will remember on social media and thatās how they will recognize it. To do so, engaging a talented designer is one of the best investments you can make. Having a well-constructed graphical identity will bring trust, consistency, and legitimacy to your project. Have a look at Mobula, we spent a lot of time working on the user interface of the app and the website with 3D designers because we thought this would be a non-negligible feature of the product. And people reported very good reviews on this aspect: the graphical work and the interface are essential for your dApp. But the most representative is our security label Safetin, because we added something moreā¦
Due to the increasing number of projects and all the promises of decentralization, people have high-level expectations of their experience with your product. And they are looking for more than a simple app or NFT projectā¦ theyāre waiting for an impacting user experience and a complete brand universe. People know Safetin because of all the storytelling built around security in Ancient Greece and all the visuals going with it. Maybe we are not the biggest security label in web3 yet, but we are the most recognizable one. Thatās what makes us special when dealing with all other blockchain security labelsā¦Ā
As a wanna-be powerful web3 brand, youāll have to create a powerful message going with your visual identity. Most people engaged in web3 are looking for something different from their previous experience in web2. They are willing to use products with strong values and ideals and mostly with a vision. Your vision is the cornerstone of all that youāre building, carried by your mission! You need to provide more than a simple product: people donāt buy what your product is made for but why it is made for. For instance, at StaySAFU, we donāt provide a token scanner, we aim at securing the whole BNB chain. With Mobula, we didnāt decide to launch a data aggregator, our mission is that anyone should be able to query and have access to reliable data on any existing crypto tokenā¦ You need to be ambitious, people follow leaders and projects that they believe to be able to change a piece of the world. Among the crazy amount of existing web3 projects, youāll find very few bearing a solid purposeā¦Ā
So here is my advice: force yourself to dictate a guideline, an impacting mission and youāll directly put your project in the 1% of web3 products with a clear vision. This will make all the difference very quickly! To do so, understanding peopleās deep pains will help you. Just have a look at social media, when we launched Staysafu, many people were complaining on Twitter about scams on the BSC: the mission was clear, helping them feel secure and make the BSC a safer place! Concerning Mobula, many customers were desperate not to have control over huge data hubs like CoinMarketCap or CoinGecko, with long listing processesā¦ the pain was also very easy to identify, we had to bring back a feeling of control to these users! People will remember your āWHYā more than what you really doā¦ And this can go through a motto that youāll repeat everywhere.Ā
But what do people like even more than ambition? Storiesā¦ Building impacting storytelling around your mission is the best way for people to remember it. Find a special, a peculiar element in your team, your journey, your personalityā¦ or just a special introduction, a funny phrase, whatever element that people will be able to remember about your company. Then build a nice story around the way you had this idea, what personal issue it was solving, and how you see the world with your project. Storytelling is important to drive people and make your mission understandable. With StaySAFU and Safetin, we communicated a lot about the importance of security and decentralization for ourselves, the way we had been scammed and tricked when starting crypto investment, and the impact it had on our visionā¦ The best way to achieve it is when the founders are perfectly mixed up with their projects. And this aspect will be transmitted through an essential point for any entrepreneurā¦ š
Personal branding! Thatās very important for your own personal image to be aligned with what your project is looking toward. Develop a reputation as an expert on your topic through different channels. LinkedIn might be the most important one because it will make it possible to reach lots of people pretty āeasilyā. To do so, you need to choose a position, to determine how you want people to see you and what they should know you for. Find a funny or inspiring nickname that people can remember. Thatās funny how most web3 entrepreneurs know me as NomadPirate instead of my real name in meetings. Write a lot of content to be perceived as a web3 influencer. Substack, medium, and blogging are good ways to reach people with high-value content. Finally, itās good to be invited to podcasts, conferences, and events to promote your project carried nice storytelling associated with your personal ventureā¦ People associate people with projects easily and your expertise will bring consistency to your company.
The next part of the process: make friends! To build trust around your name, youāll need to have references, a good network, and partners you can trust on. In the first steps of the venture, your brand will rely on mouth-to-mouth, recommendations, and customer referral. Web3 is still in an early phase, and everybody starts to know each other very soon. Thatās very important to take part in events, and animate entrepreneurial communities with a common guideline: care and give first! Try and find solid partners to provide mutual promotion and complete your offers with other features and aspects of the services supported by third parties companies. At StaySAFU, our unfair advantage was the high visibility given by our 200,000 daily scans. Offering this visibility to other web3 projects having a good reputation was a good way for them as well as for us to acquire more visibility. Win-to-win partners will anchor your brand in a long-term strategy and will be a powerful advantage in the future.Ā Ā
Focusing on your marketing communication, itās important that you force yourself to maintain a recurring activity on social media. The key is to target your key customers with a multilateral communication, using both Discord and Telegram for intern communication and grow your community with transparency but also Twitter and Instagram to develop the image of your brand. A project carried out by a committed community will inspire even more people to join the venture. To do so, bring the maximum possible value to your customer with branded content to reinforce your expertise in your market and become unmissable. There would be much more to say concerning brand development in web3 but these are my basics to get into a great market positioning.
Julian (Nomad Pirate)
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