Introduction to Crypto DeFi Marketing Strategy
As of July 26th, the total market capitalization for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) according to Coingecko has reached a mouth-watering $66bln despite the recent market bloodbath indicating that the DeFi trend is still at large considering its untapped potential. The DeFi ecosphere consists of a plethora of sectors, from lending on open-sourced protocols like Aave in return for monetary gains to trading on decentralized exchanges (dApps) like Pancakeswap and UniSwap; the DeFi trend has managed to replace fundraising sources from Initial Coin Offerings (ICO’s) to a wide extent while ensuring the prevalence of Initial Dex Offerings (IDO’s) on launchpad platforms like Trustpad. Ever since the prevalence of DeFi, trends have consistently changed from using centralized platforms to the latter.
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Questions remain if DeFi can assist in the Great Finance Migration from Centralized Finance (CeFi) to the more transparent and tamper-resistant alternative. Nevertheless, experts agree that DeFi has managed to eliminate counterparty risks by using smart contracts and technology to remove intermediaries between the concerned parties in a transaction.
Regardless of your DeFi project being a social media platform where content is stored in a manner while leveraging off of Blockchain tech or it being a startup providing insurance to DeFi protocols, improving Search Engine Optimizations (SEO) and increasing brand awareness is considered vital in the space. According to Google Trends, searches for DeFi have been soaring and it is important to keep up with the latest marketing trends to increase popularity and users.
The following image represents searches for DeFi on Google Trends indicating that interest has risen despite a bloodbath in the cryptocurrency markets.
Ways to Improve your Crypto Brand Awareness with Marketing
There are plenty of DeFi marketing services and techniques to explore, the ones below-mentioned are strategies that well-known DeFi projects have employed at some point in time, and also what we can help here with at Crowdcreate.
Optimizing Crypto Search Engine Optimization ("SEO")
Focusing on specific and trending DeFi trends in the realm of crypto achieves great success. Using specific keywords helps divert prospective users to your site and sparks an element of curiosity.
In the image below, MyDeFiPet has specific keywords in its Twitter Bio that are widely searched; hence, words like DeFi, NFT, gaming, etc are guaranteed to increase your impressions – that ensures your ticket to the moon is reserved!
With that said, in times of altcoin dominance being considerably high, several trends have emerged and it is important to stay on top of them.
Updating your project’s information on DeFi tracking sites
DeFi tracking sites have been the bulk of attention and are a go-to for prospective investors to conduct their due diligence. Hence, it is of the utmost importance to update your project’s information on such sites.
The most notable DeFi tracking site is Coingecko and offers an extensive list of DeFi projects by top 100 market capitalization along with details of their tokennomics, exchanges, etc. According to Google Trends, Coingecko has been getting a good amount of searches and it is definitely worth to have your project listed there.
- Another such notable DeFI tracking site is defiprime that offers an extensive list/overview of projects in the space and neatly categorizes them by sector.
Moreover, updating your token logo on sites like dexguru ensures that your investors only use the coin that has all of its credentials updated. Hence, it also acts as a tool to deter them from purchasing fraudulent coins.
Other notable tracking sites include DeFiPulse and DeFiRate.
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Target Crypto AD Networks and Display Campaigns
While Google may have restrictions on using its advertisement services for crypto-based projects, reaching out to your specific cryptocurrency target base is one of the oldest tricks in the book. What better way is there to reach out to the wider crypto community than running a catchy advertisement for your DeFi project on Ethereum’s largest subreddit?
Here are good Subreddits to follow:
Build a Strong Brand Image in the Crypto Industry
Despite DeFi’s massive potential and application, crypto is still considered the ‘Wild West.’ As regulators brace to ramp up restrictions in the realm of crypto and DeFi, new concepts and applications are spreading their roots rapidly. Hence resorting to security reviews of smart contracts and the team’s reliability is considered as a huge metric in determining how secure a project is.
A good strategy employed by the likes of formation.fi is determining and making the risks of participating in yield-farming transparent. This reassures your investors and users of what to expect and the risks of doing so. After all, a major selling point of DeFi is its transparency and the fact that it has everything on-chain for verifiability and it acting as an openly auditable algorithm.
Lastly, audits from certik and reviews from the likes of rugdoc have proven to be a benchmark in determining the vulnerability of smart contracts to hacks and rugs. Having a review from such sites makes the inherent risks of participating in DeFi due to smart contract vulnerability transparent. A masterstroke move would be to advertise your audit scores and a brief description of your DeFi protocol on websites that DeFi enthusiasts use to read up on security reviews (like rugdoc).
Updating the Crypto Community on Medium
Gone are the days where you merely share company news and project updates. Diversifying to sharing educational content related to the sector you’re operating in and challenges facing the crypto ecosphere (bonus points if you organically mention how your DeFi project is solving that) is widely considered the norm as it helps improve SEO. Moreover, it simultaneously educates your audience of the reason why you started the project in the first place and comes across organically rather than hard-core shilling.
The following is Onomy’s Medium page, a protocol that brings Forex to the Blockchain in a DeFi-worthy manner (i.e. ensuring the requirements of decentralization and collateralization are met). In doing so, it prioritizes and prides itself on having educational content that provides valuable information for the space in general. The bulk of its medium articles are focused on educational content such as analyzing AMM’s and application-specific Blockchains rather than discussions about their own protocol.
Post on Crypto Subreddits
Having a strong and loyal community is a must. In doing so, ensure that there are Organic Q&As in your Telegram/Discord group to come across as organic. Moreover, getting the word out is crucial and in order to fuel that initiative, a method with a proven track record is to have a referral program. If your project is a yield-farming AMM, you can offer the referee to get a given % of their referral’s income/yields like this one below.
The following user talks about DPI (DeFi Pulse Index) being added as collateral to Aave’s lending protocols and why they think that doing so is beneficial for the ecosystem. Have talking points for your DeFi project that encourages your community to talk about them and helps spread the word.
Use Crypto Influencer Marketing and PR Mentions
The following Twitter thread is from Bitcoin Jack, a crypto influencer constantly analyzing the Crypto Twitter space. In his thread, Jack mentions about Freeliquid – a DeFi project that allows you to increase your stablecoin yields. By referring to the prospects of having a juicy Annual Percentage Rate (APR) on your stablecoins, he seems to have garnered attention from DeFi enthusiasts seeking to park their crypto in return for high yields. You can access our crypto influencer list here.
Lastly, backing from figureheads within the crypto industry like Mark Cuban generates waves and gets the word out about your project. Before Iron Finance Crashed, Mark Cuban’s involvement with the DeFi protocol and algorithmic stablecoin ecosystem had DeFi enthusiasts flocking to the site.
Crypto Giveaways/Airdrops/Bounty as Marketing Campaigns
While relatively costly but effective, giveaways have become the talk of the town. The most well-known example of a DeFi project to pursue this strategy is UniSwap. Currently valued at a staggering $10Bln, the ERC-20 based AMM surprised its users with a massive airdrop and has managed to attract many users to its site.
Realistically speaking, airdrops are not always limited to mere giveaways and airdrops, feel free to stretch the horizons and find the best fit for your project. Experiment with contests, games, Q&A sessions and constantly engage your community with exciting and alluring activities.
Run Crypto Trading Competition Events for Marketing
Improving trading volumes is considered vital to increase popularity and for more visibility on coin tracking sites. If your project is listed on an exchange that has order book mechanisms, a trading competition (i.e. incentivizing traders to make buys/sells) helps narrow down the spread between bids.
Crowdcreate runs popular crypto conferences and NFT conferences that have thousands of people attending. Running your own crypto events are a great way to get more users, attract investors, and get connected with your target audience. Crowdcreate’s full service crypto marketing agency can help you execute on this.
Setup Crypto Strategic Partnerships
Partnering up with like-minded and similar DeFi projects allows for cross-promotions and both sides to benefit from doing so. Partnerships may not be limited to cryptocurrency & DeFi but you may as well test out the waters outside it. A notable such project within the space is Vechain that partnered up with Shopping.io to enable token holders to make payments to its E-Commerce platform via its native coin.
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Conclusion on a Crypto Marketing Strategy for your DeFi Project
Whatever your marketing strategy may be, it is important to keep in mind that it fits with your project’s goals/ideals. There is no specific strategy for achieving exponential growth to DeFi marketing and hence resorting to trial & error and proven strategies with similar DeFi projects is the way to go. After all, marketing isn’t just about allocating a given budget, it’s about achieving a sound reputation that reaffirms your commitment to security whilst simultaneously offering attractive monetary gains and getting the word out.
Despite whatever strategy you aim for, we here at Crowdcreate have an optimized and custom-made Crypto marketing strategy guide for your DeFi project. Contact our team at Cowdcreate and let us discuss the strategy that’s best for you.
