The Essential Guide to DeFi Marketing: Part I – Pre-Launch stage

A DeFi project needs to be seen, heard, and spoken of if you’re planning on sending it to the moon. So when preparing the pre-launch of your DeFi project marketing campaign, you need to know how and who you are going to advertise to. Once you gain an understanding of with whom you want to interact, where they gather, and what their issues are, you’ll be able to steer your DeFi marketing campaign in the right direction. Simply use the tools we have gathered and you will soon be set for just the right product unveil.

What is DeFi?

When DeFi stepped into the finance field, many people had doubts about its success. Nevertheless, in its short lifespan DeFi has amassed a whopping $120 billion worth of assets (and growing!), held in decentralized finance projects. 

Decentralized finance (DeFi), or crypto finance, aims to replicate financial institutions with cryptocurrency (DeFi coins) and financial products, essentially negating the need for banks. It’s done through a system of applications (dApps) that are built on smart contracts (pretty similar to the apps on our smartphones). Essentially, we now have the opportunity to borrow, take loans, and earn interest on cryptocurrencies we own, as we would with our normal cash. All without requiring proof of identity, Social Security number, or other personal information!

But oh does it go way beyond this. DeFi and crypto delve into something much deeper and more complex, arising from underlying concerns within the current finance ecosystem… 

DeFi aims to solve some of these, and at the core of it all is to provide access to financial services that are permissionless and open to everyone, regardless of ethnicity, geographical location, cultural identity, and so on. 

Marketing For Early Stage DeFi Projects

There are several DeFi and crypto marketing instruments out there for you to try your hand at, and we’ll go through the most effective ones below. 

– Landing Page and Website

Your DeFi project might already have a website filled with many pages, but the Landing Page needs to stand out in its own light. This is where the Display ads will direct potential subscribers to, so it’s a principal element to nail. Your DeFi or crypto marketing strategy will all lead here, so this standalone page needs to define everything you do from this point on. Think of it as being the ‘center of attention’, which needs to pull focus from potential clients. 

Communicate the WHY and HOW!

Its sole aim is to grab interest through a specific Call-To-Action (CTA) button (Learn More, Sign-Up, Subscribe). The purpose is to make your clients click, whether it’s to subscribe to a mailing list or to receive notifications. Think about including a brief video about your DeFi project or crypto coins, which works great for boosting organic visibility and engagement. 

– Influencer Marketing

People trust people, so if you want to strengthen the position of your DeFi project, then you’re going to want to work with key opinion leaders (KOL), and DeFi influencers. Influencer commerce is all the rage at the moment, because everyone loves recommendations from people they consider trustworthy. Many DeFi and crypto bloggers and influencers have worked hard to achieve a loyal following within this industry, so it makes sense to try and leverage their credibility, whilst building your own reputation and brand awareness. 

The type of content that stays online forever!

YouTube, Instagram and Telegram have dominated the crypto coins and DeFi fields and are popular channels for both decentralized finance and crypto topics. Although KOL and influencers offer multiple formats, the most profitable one is likely to be a review, because most will dive headfirst into your DeFi project’s platform, shedding light on its benefits to all their subscribers. As a tip, try and take note of the DeFi groups they join, crypto coins communities they’re part of and DeFi forums they interact with – and join them, too! See what they see, read what they write, and understand what makes them tick.

Instagram steps into the game as the latest addition to the social channels used for DeFi marketing. Perhaps it is not the most obvious choice when you run your pre-marketing campaign. However, it plays into the omnichannel marketing strategy, where you reach your prospective leads everywhere they go. Viral posts, of course, can do magic for the growth of your DeFi startup, and although it is often outrageous, but serves as a good example of how to go viral from the get-go.

– Display Ads

At the pre-launch stage, your advertising budget might be tight, so you’re going to want to get the most out of your money and this is where a well-established crypto display ads network shines. Keep in mind that it’s important to tailor your DeFi ads to target the right crowd, so do consult with the platform’s reps for the most effective crypto marketing campaign setup.

The more you’re seen by relevant people, the more aware of your brand they become

Brand awareness is crucial to the success of your DeFi project, as it fosters recognition and trust in a company. Trust lies at the heart of decentralized finance, as it deals with money – something that most people find hard to part with. Therefore, your pre-launch is where you make yourself known. It’s where your DeFi project lays its foundation, and if your foundations are weak, it won’t stand for long. You’ll want to get this right, so spend with sense! 

“DeFi is all about finance and hence, the audience must get a feeling of assurance that the project in question is here to stay and that it is structured to perform as intended. Whilst the latter is achieved with clearly outlined purpose and logic, the former is often down to exposure, achieved with Display ads”

– Matvey Diadkov, CEO of Bitmedia

– Email Marketing

Growing your mailing list will undoubtedly benefit your DeFi marketing strategy, and in this case, the more the merrier! It’s a gradual process but commences with the leads generated through the Display ads and Landing Page. 

Keep your audience updated and build up the engagement!

Emails may be configured to be sent out according to a specific day, time, and so on. Most importantly, email marketing can become a great tool for nurturing your DeFi startup community. In other words, it lets you stay in touch with every new user that shows interest in your brand and acts as a continuous reminder of your developments. Check out Sendinblue and Mailgun as tools for your DeFi marketing email initiative.

– Crypto Partnerships

Taking on the world of already popular DeFi projects is a move that requires a multi-tool strategy. This is where joining forces with other projects can give you early access to your own early bird users. Since all partnerships are created with a mutually beneficial outcome in mind, find ones that can be used to both your advantage. In return, you will get access to an already existing pool of users who are ready to migrate to your services and at the same time appreciate the DeFi product you offer.

– Groups on Social Media

Not many people would be surprised to know that a lot of product and service research is conducted on social media, because all of us have done it. These marketing platforms seem basic enough, but often not given the focus they deserve. The audience is fundamental, but you have to find out what they want, need, and how your DeFi project can address these. 

Be everywhere where the crypto crowd is!

Use social media groups and pages dedicated to your project to add links to your website and share articles about your venture, videos, whitepapers, and litepapers. Communities that share a common interest in decentralized finance are already active, so take advantage of what’s already out there. Release content regularly on the DeFi project’s social media accounts (Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, Telegram, Facebook, and others) so that you can increase indexation, community interest, and visibility. 

– Reddit & Telegram in DeFi marketing

Both of these are well-known for attracting crypto early birds. Promote your DeFi project in DeFi subreddits and on community forums within Telegram (which can support up to 200,000 in one community alone!) by sharing links to DeFi project related articles and topics. There are two ways to approach the DeFi marketing on Reddit. First, is to go fully organic, which is when you engage in conversations and get discussions going on decentralized finance and the part your projects plays in the DeFi game. Second option is to speak to DeFi related subreddit moderators and discuss how you can promote your startup with their help and reach the audience the subreddit has access to. 

Another way to market on Reddit is to get in touch with the Reddit Ads division. The platform offers such marketing as a stand alone service and instead of targeting just one crypto community, can help you reach a much larger slice of audience. It may be costly, but the outreach might be the one that delivers unmatched performance in terms of conversion. 

Telegram channels such as the BTC Champ and IEO Pools attract users of a different demographic, as well as cryptocurrency traders, that may just be what your DeFi project needs. Similar to DeFi marketing on Reddit, you will be faced with either paid or organic marketing, where the latter implies talking to users, firing up a conversation and becoming the information source for the community in question.

DeFi marketing tools summary

The above touches upon the marketing that any DeFi crypto project should take into account. One size doesn’t fit all, and along the way, you might find others that will work for you. When planning a pre-launch of your DeFi or crypto coins project, the more knowledge you acquire, the more you’ll know where you need to be. A CTA by itself isn’t enough. Neither are randomly posted articles on obscure platforms. Instead, think of marketing your DeFi project as a chain, interlinking indefinitely with each other as your reputation and following grow.

Also published on: https://bitmedia.io/blog/defi-marketing-pre-launch