Marketing in GameFi DAOs: Building the Future Day by Day

Web3 and GameFi are a maze to promote your brand in. Where should you focus your marketing efforts to build the future of gaming in 2022? And how to navigate novelty and uncertainty?

Gaming communities and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are a great way to know cool people and find a job fast on web3. Gamers are demanding, they like constant hypes, direct and clear communication, being immersed in new worlds, and sharing what they experienced.

The key strength and weakness of GameFi, which all “web2” marketers are faced with from the start, is that this industry is still a maze.

On the one hand, this is due to and, in turn, creates constant innovation and trends, furthered by players’ ever-changing tastes and profit opportunities. It allows constant lymph to the industry.

On the other hand, marketing for DAOs is like building the future day by day. Unless you are a developer, forget long-planned campaigns or frameworks. Community work is what makes the difference. And community evolves and requests fast.

This simply means that marketing within GameFi DAOs needs to rely on areas of actionrather than evergreen channels or methods, leaving plenty of space for changes and leveraging the community to ensure scale.

Here are my suggestions on how GameFi DAO marketers should build the future of gaming in 2022.

🤔WHY

What is GameFi DAOs’ objective? Create an ecosystem around them that allows them to balance supply and demand for assets, and financial and human capital among the different actors in the space (gamers, developers, investors). They position themselves as the engine behind games’ traction and players' enjoyment.

For this to happen sustainably, DAO marketers need to focus first on community and its growth. That ensures constant fresh blood for newly-released games and a pool of enthusiastic individuals ready to recommend to the world cool games and the group of players they are proudly part of.

That is your why.

🕵️WHO

Gamers first. Developers and investors are next.

Gamers. The age range is between 12 and 35 years old, they are tech-savvy and hungry for games but not too wary of web3 scams or mechanics yet. Most of them study or have full-time jobs already, and use Play-and-Earn as a source of enjoyment, collection, or passive income. Long were the days the majority of blockchain players came from Southeast Asia, GameFi is expanding rapidly across continents, facilitated by real-world contextual factors and games more likely to find regional passions, such as the ones of the sports category (football, cricket, chess). Building communities able to cater to young crowds through localized experiences(language, celebrations, VIPs) is then key.

Game Developers. Scattered across the globe but mostly in big US, Europe, and Asia’s capitals. Few of them are crypto natives and most will launch their games in 2022. They need noise and sustained crowds for their titles.

GameFi investors. Rather than big investment groups, it is business angels and small VC groups that are early in the space. If you think vanity indicators are not important to them, think again. Given this highly innovative industry, investors bet on teams, communities, and followers. Growing followerships and buzz across your social channels is, therefore, a priority.

🗺️WHERE

Channels on where to focus your marketing efforts are:

• Discord: most if not all brands, DAOs, and organizations in the NFT space have a Discord server. Use yours to communicate and grow your community. Use others’ to spread the word about your activities. Beware of scams.
• Twitter and Facebook: depending on the country communities are based in, socials are the best place to get in touch with gamers, influencers, and brands alike. This is where most communications happen and news is shared. Better tap into as many groups and conversations as possible.
• Telegram: THE messaging app to connect with the GameFi ecosystem, have fast exchanges and share content with some other communities you care about or handle. Beware of malicious bots.
• Youtube/Twitch. Best venues to follow and engage with streamers and perfect platforms to air your players’ live streamings. Get proper streaming equipment though.
• Website/Medium. Nice to have, especially for investors, developers, and the web3 public at large, where you can publish your articles/reports/updates and whitepaper.

💡HOW AND WHAT

• Have a passion for Gaming. P&E games have different mechanics than traditional ones, so try different titles and understand how they work. This will help a lot in targeting prospective gamers.
• Leverage your community to make noise. Involve members to organize regular events, contests, and tournaments to give players visibility, and have them share news and DAO opportunities with their networks, rewarding them for their efforts. The sky is the limit.
• Initiate and execute co-marketing activities. Many GameFi enthusiasts have quickly become streamers and KOLs in the space. They are also generally accessible on their social channels, so have a chat with them, align your ambitions with theirs and start cool campaigns together, either organic or paid. Developers also need noise for their game, leverage their network, and organize AMAs or tournaments with them. Think outside of the box, be concrete, and shout it out.
• Become part of GameFi associations. Established groups like the Blockchain Game Alliance can help you gain market updates, new trends, and meet experts or KOLs. They are a resourceful channel.
• Remain lean. Check regularly the traction of your activities and challenge yourself to understand how to optimize traffic and conversion into your community. Experiment, make mistakes, learn, try again or try something else. GameFi changes all the time, be comfortable with sudden turbulences.

Takeaways

1. GameFi will likely see fundamental changes in 2022 as more and more gamers flock into web3 and more gaming brands get invested in decentralization and NFTs.

2. Marketing within GameFi cannot rely on long-term plans and campaigns. Listen, build, learn fast and build further. Keep your eyes open to new trends or KOLs for ideas and collaborations.
   
3. Leverage your community. Community growth is key for DAOs, so involving members in your promotional activities, and driving your traffic to convert new members is your primary goal.

Get in touch with Nicola on Twitter or Linkedin or his poems page on Instagram!