Exploring The Web3 Content Marketing Playbook: An Interview with Marc Sparrow

We recently spoke to Marc Sparrow, founder of Eureka Box, an independent communications agency focused on helping science and technology businesses enter, educate, and grow in international markets.

Marc built his stellar reputation in the PR and tech world over two decades, playing critical roles in the go-to-market campaigns that introduced 3G, 4G and 5G. His current client portfolio includes a wide range of companies within Web3, enterprise tech, mainstream fintech, quantum computing, space-tech and health-tech.

Technology continues to make seismic shifts to how we live and work, but content marketing’s remained essential to building a brand, said Marc. While taking his morning stroll during our call, he noted all the adverts and marketing messages competing for his attention. Wherever we go, we're constantly bombarded with brands trying to kind of capture our attention. Content marketing is a much better fit in terms of the way humans operate in the digital sphere because we're now blind to all these brands shouting at us.

“If you're giving me something that I'm interested in learning about, it's a much gentler, more human way of engaging with your audience,” he said. “It's a different form of engagement – being supportive, helpful, and providing useful information than simply shouting at you to get your attention.”

Currently, said Marc, the challenge faced by enterprise tech firms focused on driving conversions is that people are cynical that they’re being sold the next iteration of something they don’t need. For example, when companies first started promoting cloud computing around 15 years ago, one of the arguments in its favor was that it didn’t require a load of capital expenditure. However, today, pricing lists for the world’s top enterprise cloud computing companies – such as Google Cloud – come with many hidden costs that are hundreds of pages long. Instead of hyping up short-term benefits, marketers should focus on the long-term implications of innovation.

Web3 Content Marketing Tips from a Tech Veteran

Since February, Marc has been a founding partner of REKT Collective, a marketing partner for crypto and digital asset companies. He notes that companies are sometimes too quick to put all their resources into promoting the newest, shiniest tech instead of centering their messaging around its long-term benefits, citing generative AI as an example.

“I find it a little frustrating actually that suddenly everyone has decided generative AI is the game and that Web3 was kind of just a footnote,” said Marc. “It delivers capabilities that we've never seen from technology before, but there's a danger of overestimating how much of an immediate impact it will have.”

One thing he says Web3 marketers can do over the long term is produce original, creative content that delivers new ideas in a way that forces people to look at an issue from a different perspective. Focusing on the way these innovations will influence the way we live and work will make Web3 accessible to a wider audience.

“[When it comes to Web3] things can get lost in the top technical detail,” he said. “It’s about the core use cases that this technology makes possible. And that's where we need to focus the discussion. And over time, people will start to understand what is possible.”

Content marketers should look for gaps in conversations happening around Web3 and answer:

• What aspects is industry discussion overlooking or downplaying? 
• Where does the vision start to falter when it encounters reality? 
• What related discussions are going on in other industries that might shed interesting light on how we could look at a given topic? 
• What assumptions in our thinking should we challenge and refute? 
• If you're taking a brief from a client, what have they said that you've not heard or read elsewhere?

According to Marc, there are two things Web3 content marketers should avoid doing:

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Focus all communications immediately on the bottom of the funnel (aka customer conversion)

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“As if there’s a shortcut to trust,” said Marc. “I see many tech companies put a lot of money into trying to persuade people to buy immediately without having done enough work at the top of the funnel in awareness and education. Some brands pour loads of money into performance marketing, expecting it to convert into sales without having done any of the necessary groundwork in terms of building a brand so that it’s known for the things that you want to be known for.” 

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Pivot constantly just for the sake of being “agile” without implementing a long-term communications strategy

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“I understand the need to kind of be agile – operationally and from a sales perspective, in terms of chasing where the potential sales might be,” said Marc. “It's almost like a short-term memory of communications, where they're going out one day and saying they're a tiger, then the next day they're going out and saying they're a giraffe. What does that say in terms of consistency and credibility?”

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One surefire way to establish credibility, says Marc, is through thought leadership.

“Thought leadership is important for technology companies because they are defining the future, and it's essential to take people along with them if they want commercial success,” he said. “It has to instill a belief among many audiences that technology offers a route to getting things done more quickly, with less fuss and better commercial results. Only thought leadership content will be able to do that for you.”