Blockchain technology is kickstarting the next technological revolution, and innovators everywhere are looking for a way to cash in. Whether you’re building a new web 3 project, a new cryptocurrency, or a specific tool to monitor Solana’s price increase, it’s vital to have a strategy to market and build a community around your new product.
How do you start?
Understand your target audience
Before you begin executing any strategies, it’s a good idea to spend some time conducting market research. Who is your target audience? What kinds of preferences and values do they have? What channels of communication do they use to socialize and engage with others? How do they learn about new blockchain projects?
The better you understand your audience, the better you’ll be able to customize a strategy to serve them specifically. Highly relevant, targeted strategies are always going to outperform excessively generalized ones.
Start with core documentation
You’ll also need to build a foundation of core documentation that new users can read and understand. Be as thorough and specific as possible with your project description, but also create FAQ pages that are shorter and more digestible. This way, casual users can easily get a high-level vision of the project, while investors and passionate users can do a deeper dive.
Develop a brand identity
Consider developing a brand identity around your blockchain project. What is your ethos? What do you stand for? What type of personality does your brand have and how is it different from the personalities of competing projects? This will help you craft all your marketing and community building messages with the same, consistent voice, leading to a much more coherent foundation for your community-building efforts.
Spread the word on blockchain forums
There are dozens of major blockchain forums where crypto and blockchain enthusiasts gather to discuss new and upcoming projects—and exchange ideas with each other. Once you have some of your core elements in place, start spreading the word about your project on blockchain forums.
It’s important to remember that your role here isn’t necessarily to hawk your own product, but rather to engage with other users on their level. In pursuit of this, avoid overtly selling people on your product, and instead talk about it like an average user. Similarly, you should be willing to engage with people on other blockchain topics to increase your credibility and strengthen your community bonds.
Establish a social media presence
Next, you’ll be ready to establish your social media presence.
- Choose the right channel(s). There are dozens of viable social media channels for blockchain project community building, but some of them are going to be more relevant for your specific project than others. Choose a collection of channels that makes sense for your target audience.
- Post regularly. Post consistently so dedicated fans always have something to consume and to increase your overall visibility.
- Use visuals. The technical specifics of blockchain projects can be text-based and a bit unnoticeable, so spice things up with more visuals—like infographics.
- Follow others. Start following other people in the blockchain community, including developers and fans. It’s an easy way to build your network and increase your visibility.
- Engage. Arguably the most important piece of your social media strategy is engagement. You need to engage with other people and make them feel seen if you want them to feel like an active part of your community.
Send regular newsletters
Email marketing has a ridiculously high ROI, in large part because it’s so inexpensive and easy to manage. Start collecting email addresses from your community participants and make it a point to send out a weekly newsletter. Encourage people to remain subscribed by offering them freebies, promotions, and premium content.
Provide value
Your community is going to grow faster and much more reliably if there’s a reason for people to get involved, so try to provide value to your community members however you can. Teach people new things, help them learn more about blockchain, provide feedback on their projects, and offer free or discounted items to your community members as often as you can afford.
Plan meetups
Finally, once your community has met a certain threshold, you’ll be able to plan some live meetups. This is an opportunity for your community members to get to know each other on a deeper level—and a chance for you to see your thriving community in action.
Starting a community around any blockchain project is challenging, especially at the start. But if you have a strong foundation of loyal, committed community members, it’s going to be relatively easy to continue growing.
If you have a budget for additional marketing and advertising, it’s going to be even easier.
