Marketing your new DeFi or crypto project can be difficult. Here are 5 tips to help you get started: Build in Public You can make sure your project has users on day 1 by starting to share your journey the minute you start building your project. As soon as you know what you want to build, you can already talk about it. Start by creating a discord server and inviting others to join. They can be peers, former colleagues, anyone you think might be interested in what you are doing. Go to other discord servers and share your idea, too. Ask people’s opinions and invite them to your server. Share regular updates about your project and the problem you are trying to solve on discord and any other social media channels you use. You can write about any hurdle you need to overcome or things you have achieved. Those can be anything: from finding technical solutions to acquiring funding. Sharing regularly is a fantastic way to connect with people that believe in what you are doing and to learn from them too. If possible, you should also create a landing page for your product where you explain what your project is all about. This will give you a link to share with people that want to know more about the project. You can also use the page to direct your audience to your discord server or offer them a sign up form so you can send them an email when you launch. Get Your Messaging Right Make sure you figure out not only what your project is meant to do, but also the right way to explain it to future users. Most people won’t care about a technical solution and its features. However, they would like to know how your project will help them solve a problem, do something they couldn’t before and how that will make their lives better. Use the time before the launch to understand what really resonates with your audience. To come up with a good value proposition, I recommend looking into Strategyzr’s value proposition canvas. I always use it and it’s incredible! It will help you differentiate between product features and the benefits your users get out of using your product. Build Growth Into Your Product The most successful software products in the world have built-in mechanisms that make sure every new user acquired helps bring in additional users. In marketing, we call those growth loops. Do you already know how you are going to build one? In DeFi and crypto, airdrops, referral programs and affiliate marketing are common solutions for user acquisition and growth. Depending on how those are used, they can create a growth loop. But you can also try to come up with other solutions. Think of an incentive for your users to share your project on social media or invite their friends to use it. Think of something early on, so you can ensure your project grows sustainably after launch. Don’t Be Surprised by the Cost of Advertising and PR Young DeFi and crypto companies have a limited amount of advertising opportunities. Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter are usually off the table. On the other hand, many of these companies are extremely well funded. With only a handful of good websites talking about crypto and DeFi out there, the price to advertise on them has become ridiculously high. Publishing a press release on one platform (which will probably have 0 impact on your user base) can cost you up to $4,000. Do you see now why I told you to start building up your audience on day 1? If you want your marketing activities to have a reasonable cost, you will have to get creative and start early. Make sure your project has a face DeFi and crypto tend to make some people suspicious, and rightly so. There are a lot of scams in this space. As a consequence, one of your main concerns should be to start making users trust you as soon as you can. A great way to do that is giving your project a face. In other words, you have to get over your shyness and let your audience know who the person behind the project is. Your users want to know who you are and what you believe in. Talk to them. Use video if you can. By connecting your audience with the people behind it, you will “humanize” your brand, to use marketing lingo. You will give people something they can relate to that goes beyond the software they can use. And if they trust you, they will want to try out whatever you build and will be ready to give you honest feedback to help you make it better. Conclusion Building a project is just as much about coding as it is about building a community. Be transparent about what you are trying to achieve and the difficulties you are facing to get there. The friends you make along the way will not only help you get where you want to go, they might also be your first users when you get there.

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