Most Crypto Projects do marketing wrong. Here's the fix.
Here's a web3 marketing approach
I’ve been working with a couple of projects to help them grow & market themselves. Most marketing & growth strats out there are inefficient. Through a lot of trial & error, I've figured out a good process that's repeatable that helped me grow projects fast.
Crypto projects are fighting for attention. 100s of projects launch everyday. Gaining eyeballs, a following & a community decide the fate of a project. But most projects do this wrong. An approach that worked for me is something I call the value based approach.
Hold back on selling your product.
One of the biggest mistakes I see is projects selling themselves a lot right off the bat.
What I mean by this:
• Only posting about your product
• Constantly shilling features
• Only centered around trying the product
The problem with this, is that you’re one of the 10k other people doing this. Most people don’t care if you’re 5% better than x. You’re just another project selling itself. No one’s really interested in what you’re doing, especially when you’ve like 100 followers.
There’s just too much of this sort of shilling. Instead, focus on providing value for free.
Clearly define your initial target audience
Your target audience isn’t just all of crypto. Be hyper specific on who this project is for, this is the basis for good marketing.
Who is your target?
Web2 devs looking to get into web3?
Crypto newbs who are looking to understand DeFi?
young, non native golf enthusiasts?
Your approach changes based on who it’s for. Different communities like different things. The more specific the better.
Once you’ve your target figure out
Where these people hang out (twitter? Instagram? local golf club?).
What these people like ( how do other projects reach them? What works? What doesn’t)
If you’re in a new space, you’ll have to experiment more. But, keep it user based.
Provide value for free
The #1 thing to gain a following of interested people is to provide value for free.
In a world where every project & company is looking to simply extract money from their users, those that provide value for free stand out & are trusted more.
Value can come in multiple forms.
If you’re a web3 job platform,
Write a guide for web2 devs looking to enter web3
Write guides on the various tools & languages to learn
Aggregate job boards & share for free
Interview people who got jobs & share how they did it
Look at what your target audience wants & give it to them, for free. This is probably the most important thing you can do to grow. Think of different things that are relevant to your audience & produce quality content (Twitter is a great platform to do this).
Value for free = fast growth
When you provide value for free, people are inclined to follow you, listen to what you say & actually become users. This is FAR more valuable than just shilling.
This leads to fast growth. This works, we gained 500k impressions & 3xed following in just 12 days from nearly 0 following this approach Just give value for free anon.
Invested followers vs numbers
Invested followers are the most valuable. They are far more important than numbers.
Invested followers:
Are interested in what you’ve to say & engage with your posts
Are far more likely to convert into users
Care & benefit from what you’re building
It’s much better to have 1k invested followers instead of 10k followers who don’t care as much. Providing value for free is a great way to gain invested followers who are likely to become users. We’ve been able to gain a high % followers who are interested in the project.
Run Experiments
Crypto is new. There’s no set playbook that is bound to work. Keep experimenting with different strategies to find what works for you.
Be Dynamic
Set up a hypothesis. “These sorts of posts will be valuable to our users”
Collect data: Look at analytics, what the users are saying. Did your hypothesis hold true?
If it didn’t - what was good? What wasn’t so good. Restart with a new hypothesis & plan
Be community focused.
You’re building something for users. Listen to what they say.
Talk to your community.
What do they want to see? What do they like & dislike?
Look at the analytics
Crypto = Community
Crypto is incredibly centered around the community. Keep experimenting & working with the community to find what’s best.
Application > Tech
Tech is cool, but what people really care about is the benefit & application to their lives. Don’t center your messaging around the tech. “Our product uses x chain + jargon + more jargon” No one really cares.
Instead, focus on the benefits.
” you can save 5 hours”
“ you can save 2k in gas fees”
Here’s an example from Apple’s Marketing
Apple does marketing particularly well. They focus on the value & benefits & skip out on the jargon & technicals. The same thing applies to what you’re building.
Content is even more important in crypto
Unlike web2, there’s still a huge learning curve & not as much quality content. Don't hide your product behind different layers of complexity. You are far more likely to stand out & grow simply through providing quality content.
Designs & Skimmability
No one has the time or the interest to spend a lot of time reading about what you’re building. Make your content & messaging concise, crisp & skimmable. Use great designs & visuals to do a lot of the talking instead.
Concluding thoughts
This value based strategy has worked well for me & the projects I worked on. This has lead to fast growth & a more engaged & interested community. It’s also great for the larger crypto ecosystem.
And that's it. Want help with your project? Let’s work together. Shoot me a DM on my twitter
I hope you found web3 marketing guide useful. Let me know how it goes. More interviews, alpha & guides coming soon. Follow my Substack to keep up.
Also, Follow my twitter @Cov_duk for daily insights & alpha.