Blockchain isn’t going anywhere. Despite a difficult year, this field is still filled to the brim with exciting projects, fantastic ideas, and value to be gained. With that in mind, it’s not hard to see why this field is predicted to be worth over $175 billion by 2025. But, for those just entering this space, it can be hard to know where to begin.
If you’re a CEO that’s looking to break into the world of blockchain, this article is for you. Instead of going through the many different marketing strategies that you could try out, we’re going to focus in on one of them that makes the biggest difference.
Community-building, in any other field, is just something that your brand pursues on the side. However, in the world of blockchain, a strong community is the difference between a project that people love and contribute to, and one that eventually falls to zero. If you’re only just getting started, this is the perfect time to start building your community.
In this article, we’ll demonstrate how you can build a community around your crypto project, as well as show exactly why this is the marketing strategy for blockchain brands.
Let’s dive right in.
Build a Community from the Ground Up
So, you’ve got all of your branding in place, a whitepaper written, and a great project that’s ready to launch. Now what? Before focusing on expanding your project, you need to make sure that there are people interested in following your progress and seeing your success. You need a community.
The first step in building a community is ensuring that you have places where people can congregate. In our digital age, this means having Discord, Telegram, Twitter, or other social media channels where people can actively see your brand and interact with you. Even better if you’re also an active member of these communities, as your presence will help people connect with your brand even fast.
After setting up these spaces, here are the steps you should follow to build a crypto community:
- Create a Brand Story
- Give Prestige
- Extend Your Community
Let’s break these down further.
Create a Brand Story
When people don’t understand your brand and haven’t heard of you before, the only way to get their attention is by creating something that they relate to. A faceless corporation doesn’t exactly scream friendly and relatable. That’s why it’s so important to have a brand story on your site that goes into the fundamentals of your project.
When we say fundamentals, we don’t just mean what your brand offers and what it hopes to achieve. While that will get investors hooked, it won’t capture many community members. Instead, you’re going to want to dive into the personal side of your company. Include personal details, photos of your team, and any other elements that humanize your brand.
These small details can make a big difference and will help persuade people to take more interest in your brand. The more open you are, the higher the chance that someone reading will relate to your brand. Once something you write resonates, they’ll be much more likely to come on board.
Give Prestige
Once you have a few core community members, award them with some level of prestige in the community. Make sure this is earned and not done just by nepotism. Look for people that frequently contribute to your brand’s social channels and recognize their involvement.
By giving someone a rank in your Discord or priority in Telegram, you’re thanking them for their loyalty. This, in turn, makes them even more devoted to your brand. With this, they’ll be more likely to then spread the word even further.
What’s more, other members of the community that see these mod figures will know that if they contribute a lot, they’re going to have something to strive for. This can contribute to even more participation down the line.
Extend Your Community
Finally, once you have a base community that’s active, you want to introduce measures to kickstart rapid growth. There are two amazing ways of rapidly getting more people in your community once you have a few core members. Try both of the following:
- Referrals — Offering people referral codes that they can give to their friends in exchange for crypto or other benefits within your community. Over 65% of marketing teams believe that word-of-mouth marketing is the most effective form you can turn to. By using your community as a force for further recruitment, your number can quickly spiral.
- Airdrops — Airdrops incentivize people that aren’t already in your community to get involved. This can bring in new members, which can then convert into core parts of your community if things go well. And, even if not, this will boost the liquidity of your project.
Using both of these tactics at the same time will help to rapidly snowball the size of your community. From there, you’ll have a devoted group that will always interact with your content, build up your brand, and help to ensure the success of your company going forward.
Final Thoughts
The deeper you go into the world of blockchain, the more evident it becomes that community is the center of all success. No matter how amazing your product is, you’re never going to experience success or mass adoption if you don’t concentrate on first finding a community to follow you.
We’ve seen time and time again in this field. Especially during bear markets, the only projects that survive are those that have a community that supports them through the rough. If you’re a CEO, focusing on this should be at the very top of your to-do lists.
Once you have an active community, people will begin to pass your project along, with word-of-mouth marketing becoming one of your strongest forces. What’s more, communities snowball, meaning it will eventually become self-sustainable.
Best of luck building your crypto community in 2023!