Web3 marketing isn't the easiest thing to do if you don't have a background in it. With this post, we hope to open your eyes a little on things that can help you get more traffic and build a better community for your project.
When it comes to Web3 Marketing you need to understand that a lot of Web2 tactics are going to be used since websites are still using Web2 hosting and design. Will we see a Web3 type hosting and design system? Possibly, but right now it's all Web2. This is why you still need to use older tactics in order to advertise, optimize, and get people to find you online.
Are there ways to market yourself in a Web3 community or website? Sure! But those communities and websites are built on Web2 and that's why we need to focus on those methods first.
When you start doing SEO you need to think of it as building a house. If you have a solid foundation it will hold anything you build on top of it. If you have a bad foundation it will crumble as soon as you start building!
You need to start with on page optimization and then move to off page optimization in order to build your house. Can you do both at the same time, yes, but it's much more difficult if you aren't sure what you're doing so we urge you to focus on one then move to the other.
This is the act of optimizing your pages so Google and everyone else will like what they see. You will go through every page of your website, not just your homepage, and you will begin to optimize certain things. When optimizing these things you will need to focus on your keywords and making sure they are in there so Google and the other search engines are more likely to rank you within their search results for that specific word or phrase.
The things you need to look at when it comes to on page optimization
This section could go on for weeks, because there are so many different ways to do this, and there are even more ways being invented!
So, I'll go over the basics so you can understand how it works.
Off page SEO is the act of basically building links on 3rd party websites and linking back to your own. You'll want to get a dofollow backlink for your website because this is essentially a vote in the search engines eyes to rank you a little higher within their search results. Now, getting 1,000 backlinks (votes) doesn't always mean you'll be on top of the search results if your competitors have 500 votes. There's a weighting system to Off Page SEO and the better the link is, the more weight it has, and the better it is for your website. Sometimes you can get 5 great backlinks and be on top of the search results when your competitors have 1,000s of low quality links. It happens all the time.
When you're just starting off, you'll want to focus on these types of backlinks, and if done right you will see your rankings begin to move a little. Also, SEO is an ongoing thing and you'll never be finished, but it will start to feel like a natural fit within your daily work life so that's not a bad thing at all.
Now then...
Guest Posts: This is where you contact a website, ask them if you can write an amazing article for their blog, and you are not charging them for it. Most of the time, if their blog is suffering from lack of content, they will gladly say yes and you'll be able to hammer our 1-2 pieces for them to publish right away. This is where you'll want to link back to your website and get a little boost when it comes to SEO.
Remember when I talked about the weight of a backlink and how it better to have higher quality ones? Well, this is where you also need to think of that. The easiest ways of finding a list of quality blogs is to do a simple Google search for "your niche blog" (without quotes) and compile a list of them. Typically, you will find a lot of good ones at the top of the search results, so you don't need to worry too much, but it's always good to run them through the Ahrefs.com DA checker to be sure they're as good as you would hope they are. Anything over DA 30 is typically a good website to start getting links on. Anything over DA 50 is great for getting your first links. Anything over DA 70 might laugh at you asking to write them guest posts because they know exactly what you're doing lol.
So, start with lower DA sites and work your way up the list.
Forum Posting: This was a great way in the past to boost your overall SEO but it's not as good anymore. You can still get a little boost here and there from comments, but not nearly as much as other methods, so we won't go into as much detail here.
When posting to forums you still need to be niche specific and not randomly finding ones that allow you to post. Sure, you can get some links on an automotive forum for your cleaning blog, but it won't help much in the long run and that's just wasted time.
What you'll need to do is post a sort of advertising or sales thread with quality images and a link back to your website. You'll also need to go back from time to time and respond to anyone that may have commented on it. You need to be actively talking to these people because time and time again we've seen these types of forum threads get out of hand and turn into a witch hunt because they OPs aren't responding. Could these people simply click on your link and contact you through your chat bot or contact page? Sure! but they won't lol.
Software: This isn't something you want to play with. Can it help you build backlinks on 3rd party websites? Yes, definitely. Will it help your rankings in the long run? Never!
Back in 1997 to maybe 2012 you could actively use software to build your backlinks and you'd actually rank pretty easily. You could build millions of backlinks over 24 hours and watch your rankings soar to the first spot in the search results.
Fast forward to the current day and these same methods using software will get you placed at the end of the search results for keywords that could have easily been ranked for if you just did a little work.
Please, if you're just starting out, avoid using SEO software because it will never work in the long run. You'll actually create more work for yourself when you have to clean it all up.
Most people like to do SEO and build up their content, but it takes a long time to rank, which is why we always tell people to run some PPC campaigns to start bringing in traffic today.
There are plenty of guides out there that can teach you the intricacies of how Adwords and Microsoft Ads work so we'll go over the basics and help you understand what they are.
Adwords is for placing ads on Google and Microsoft ads is for placing ads on Yahoo and Bing. Google has the market share, which is why we suggest you try them out first, and if you really want to you can try out Yahoo/Bing advertising and see if that's a better fit. But, for now, start with Adwords.
Now then, using Adwords is pretty straight forward. You create your account, set up your campaign with ads, add your keywords, set your maximum bid per click (don't pay based on impressions at first), and submit your campaign to be approved. Sometimes these campaigns get approved within an hour but sometimes it can take a day before they're live.
Once your ads are live, you'll want to make sure they're running smoothly, and always be sure that your CPC (cost per click) was set correctly. If you forgot to set your CPC, you might spend $10 per click, and if your daily budget is $10 then you're only getting 1 click for the day. Double and triple check that you set your CPC bid low at first and you can always increase it from there if needed.
You'll want to add 5-7 different ads for each campaign. This means you're going to write 5-7 different titles and descriptions for the same campaign that is sending traffic to your website or blog. NEVER get attached to one of your ads because you will likely be deleting it later. You'll want to monitor these 5-7 different ads over the next couple weeks and delete the ones that aren't performing well. After deleting the ones that were bad, you'll want to mimic the ones that were doing well, and now you'll have a powerhouse set of ads running. Repeat this a few times, over the next few months, and your ads will be fine tuned to pull in all your ideal visitors.
Remember, your ads can be perfect but that's not what sells your service or keeps people coming back to your website. Your on page optimization and site need to be just as good in order to keep people coming back. So, make sure your website or blog looks great an people will gladly browse it.
This is a pretty common thing to do in Web3 since Twitter is one of the main hubs for content when it comes to NFTs, Crypto, DeFi, GameFi, etc. Sticking with Twitter is definitely what you want to do but you'll also want to branch out as much as possible and get your content on as many platforms as possible.
An easy method for publishing loads of content on various platforms is to use a combination of Hootsuite.com and Zapier.com
Using both of these in tandem will allow you to schedule content through Hootsuite and publish on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and various other mega platforms. Using Zapier along side Hootsuite will now give you access to many more platforms to post to because Zapier can pull your Tweet, Faceook post, Instagram post, or Pinterest post and publish it on a smaller social network or even share it on a blog if that's what you set it up to do. This is one way to automate your social media marketing as much as possible and spread your reach dramatically. One scheduled post through Hootsuite can now be on 100+ different websites if you already set up Zapier to run accordingly.
You'll always want to make sure that people know to contact you on Twitter, Facebook, Discord, etc. to get in touch with you. If you prefer to be contacted on Twitter then you need to make sure each scheduled post has your Twitter profile URL linked on it and not just your @ because 3rd party platforms won't link back to your profile unless there's an actual link. If you prefer to be contacted through Discord, be sure to leave an invite link in every post, and they will reach out. Bottom line is leave a specific method of reaching out to you, or make sure it's mentioned, and people will come to you if they really need help.
Also, remember to use specific hashtags when tweeting or posting online. This will bring in plenty of new views, probably some bots but that's fine, and you'll see your business grow. Remember to keep it neat and not add 30+ hashtags to each post. 5-10 are acceptable through.
Web3 is all about community and that means you'll need to spend a lot of time on this one. SEO, PPC, and other forms or growth are awesome but building the right community is what will push you to the next level far quicker than paid ads and optimization.
Now, with that being said, growing a community isn't as easy as it may seem. Sure, you can go on a gig website and order 10,000 twitter followers or get someone to shill for you through Discord DMs, but that's won't pay out in the long run.
You need to think "Quality not Quantity" and you will grow at just the right rate and have all the right people with you. To do this you need to respond to all the mentions, retweets, comments, etc. that are related to you and also try to push your social handles and website/blog whenever possible. Pull people in, keep them engaged, and they will keep coming back.
There's no easy way to do this, because it takes a lot of effort that can't be automated, but you can grow your community over time if you simply engage with others online. Sounds simple, isn't really, but can easily compound over time and you'll be glad you started now instead of tomorrow :)
Final Thoughts
Marketing in Web3 is a different type of monster but has a lot of Web2 aspects in it. This is why a lot of Web2 tactics still work in Web3, but you'll still want to be on the lookout for anything new and exciting in Web3 that allows you to collaborate or even advertise in front of your target market. Take your time, set everything up right the first time, and practice patience because we all know this isn't going to be a win over night. It takes weeks or months to start seeing any sort of traction and the best companies are the ones that push through down times and build their following over time.
You got this!
WAGMI <3
