Web3 Marketing Strategy Guide: From Token Issuance to Community Operations

The Uniqueness of Cryptocurrency Marketing

The marketing of cryptocurrency faces the challenge of an extremely small target audience. In 2023, there were only 23,000 monthly active crypto developers, expected to rise to 30,000 in 2024, while less than 0.1% of the 28 million developers globally are involved in crypto. In such a highly vertical market, marketing must focus on the three core needs of developers:

• Technology: Solving practical problems, such as composability in the Rollup ecosystem.
• Economy: Exploring sustainable revenue models for public product development
• Value: Create a unique value proposition that is attractive to developers

Cryptocurrency marketing needs to redefine growth methods, with the core of the developer community being precise value resonance. Economic incentives are just the starting point; what truly drives growth is the construction of a technological ideal country where developers can find professional value and spiritual belonging. Once achieved, they will spontaneously promote ecosystem development.

We need to abandon the mindset of pursuing scale from the Internet era and instead adhere to "depth first": understanding the technical preferences of each core developer, even their pet names, and maximizing the experience of the top 10 users. Technical idealism itself is the best medium of communication. In this field, the power of 100 deeply engaged participants far surpasses that of 10,000 superficial users; real growth comes from these seemingly non-scalable deep connections.

Positioning and Strategy of Layer2 Projects

The Rollup ecosystem is an extension of Ethereum culture, and its open nature has given rise to a unique "competitive-cooperative ecology"—all Layer2s are jointly strengthening the Ethereum network. This requires marketing to balance dual positioning: it must highlight commercial value while also emphasizing the core mission of expanding Ethereum. The most effective proof method is technical binding, such as defaulting to using ETH to pay Gas fees, which demonstrates the symbiotic relationship with Ethereum more than any slogan.

When evaluating Layer 2 strategies, resource endowment determines differentiation. Well-funded projects like BASE under Coinbase can independently build ecological brands using the resources of a listed company; whereas resource-limited Layer 2s need to deeply bind with Ethereum, leveraging its industry credibility for a cold start. This resource-oriented marketing strategy choice essentially reflects the "Matthew Effect" of the crypto ecosystem — the strong get stronger, while emerging projects must make good use of leverage.

Developer Relations(DevRel) and Marketing Synergy

Developer relations ( DevRel ) should be deeply integrated into the marketing system. Developer documentation, as the primary touchpoint, needs to have a unified control over language style and conversion paths. Currently, DevRel is evolving into the role of content creator, addressing tool usage pain points through programming tutorial videos and other formats. This evolution requires DevRel to possess stronger marketing thinking and execution capabilities.

The success of the developer ecosystem depends on building a closed loop of "product-economy-community." Taking the privacy sector as an example, its professionalism naturally filters out target developers. During the cold start period, a dual approach is needed: both to explore commercial potential and to track the progress of early developers, providing high-value support such as media exposure and strategic consulting at critical moments. Although this deep operation is difficult to scale, it is key to creating a project's moat.

The essence of cryptocurrency marketing is ecological coordination. It is necessary to explore developer stories while actively identifying needs and promoting product iterations. The core lies in helping developers succeed through deep support: actively engaging on platforms like GitHub and Twitter, first addressing actual building challenges, and then spreading the word once the project matures. This "empower first, speak later" closed-loop model is the truly effective path for ecological construction.

Token Issuance and Brand Synergy

The core of token issuance lies in balancing its dual attributes. It is both a marketing activity and a financial product. The quality of the economic model design directly determines the fate of the project, and the explosive or incremental path must be chosen based on the project's characteristics. On the implementation level, three key points must be grasped:

• Engage in in-depth discussions with economists about the value positioning of tokens, avoiding rigid application.
• In-depth study of the practical application scenarios and usage habits of different markets
• Establish a sound post-listing management mechanism, including community sentiment management, team incentive mechanisms, and information disclosure norms, etc.

The core of community operation strategy lies in clearly identifying the types of objects for long-term resource investment. Currently, the community is flooded with bots and AI accounts, making it difficult to determine if those actively speaking in the community are real users. Therefore, it is essential to accurately target the audience.

• Early supporters who are highly aligned should be cultivated during the testnet phase.
• For PoS networks, node operators and validators (, whether institutional or individual stakers ), are key opinion leaders.
• Establish a structured operation mechanism, such as regular community conference calls.

The key is to not only widely collect market feedback but also to learn to filter out the noise. If you try to respond to every online voice, you will only fall into the quagmire of ineffective information.

Founder Influence and Marketing Resource Allocation

The core advice to founders is: shape the image of a domain expert, rather than a product salesman. Specific methods:

• Discuss industry pain points based on professional insights, rather than directly selling products.
• Build influence publicly through expertise
• Make good use of personal channels to convey in-depth perspectives

Founders are advised to choose the most natural form of expression: those who are good at conversation should do podcasts, those who are good at writing should write long articles, and those who are comfortable in front of the camera should make videos. There is no need to force oneself into forms that one is not good at; for example, those who resist public speaking can avoid large occasions. The key is to incorporate personal style into professional content—adding a touch of humor for a fun twist, and unique expressions for creative types. Finding a relaxed yet professional way to deliver content, combined with effective communication strategies, yields the best results.

To build an influential brand in the cryptocurrency space, it is essential to establish a deep connection with the founders. Only through one-on-one communication can one truly understand their core vision and entrepreneurial intentions, thereby infusing the brand story with soul. This is the foundation of successful marketing, and there are no shortcuts.

Regarding the allocation of marketing resources, the uniqueness of cryptocurrency marketing lies in the fact that: often marketing concepts and visions begin before the product is fully mature. This stage requires continuous trial and error to find the most suitable communication methods.

Personal suggestion: The best marketing launch timing is 6 months before the product goes live. Promoting a non-existent product too early can lead to market skepticism, while promoting it too late can result in missed opportunities. The key is to find the golden timing for storytellers and communicators based on an understanding of the product delivery cycle.

For projects that require community co-construction, marketing intervention can happen earlier. For example, when running a decentralized testnet, even without a "formal product" or mainnet, it is necessary to attract node operators to participate.

The Marketing Start of Startups

When the startup team first recruits a marketing head, the core principle is: only select versatile talents who have worked together before. Such candidates must meet three key conditions: a deep understanding of work styles, seamless collaboration ability, and a willingness to be hands-on. In the early stages, even the CMO needs to operate social media (. Practice has proven that this kind of familiar cooperation can quickly open up the situation—compared to the risk of using newcomers, the tacit cooperation with familiar comrades can better withstand the pressure of entrepreneurship and avoid team rhythm disruption due to improper personnel usage.

The marketing team construction should follow the dual standard of "general foundation + vertical specialization": each member must be capable of handling basic tasks such as writing tweets, formatting emails, and live voice broadcasting, while also possessing professional depth in specific vertical fields. This team structure, divided by field rather than function, has been proven in practice to maximize the effectiveness of small teams. By not setting traditional job boundaries, each member becomes both a versatile talent and a field expert.

The recruitment in the crypto industry should return to the essence of business. SaaS projects aimed at developers can completely introduce mature marketing talents from traditional tech fields, such as experts skilled in operating developer communities. Instead of sticking to the hard requirement of "must have a crypto background", it is better to focus on the transferability of candidates' professional abilities. The rich SaaS talent resources in tech hubs like San Francisco can quickly supply verified marketing talents for crypto projects.

Local Operations and Community Culture Integration

The core of the globalization of cryptocurrency operations lies in building local trust networks. When entering new markets, it is essential to introduce local partners through reliable channels—there are significant differences in business practices across countries: some regions are more accepting of long-term cooperation based on trust, rather than American standardized contracts. A lack of local relationships can lead to cultural misjudgments and communication failures. The optimal path is to leverage existing resource networks for endorsements, rather than cold-starting unfamiliar development.

By establishing localized Discord channels, we can effectively identify and cultivate a group of highly active community members. The specific operational model is: first, systematically train local members to master the project documentation, gradually building a decentralized cultural dissemination network. This localized operation based on daily collaboration tools is essentially creating a new type of online relationship network, naturally nurturing the community ecosystem through high-frequency interactions.

Community operation needs to discover and cultivate core supporters. When a project enters an important development stage, those actively participating contributors can become an effective talent source. By incorporating them into a formal system through mechanisms such as technical ambassadors or local event organizers, it can maintain community engagement while establishing preliminary market resources. When there is a need to introduce professional service providers, these foundational relationship networks can provide reference suggestions and reduce the difficulties of starting from scratch.

The core of the activity strategy in the cryptocurrency industry lies in precise positioning. While large events help with brand exposure, the return on investment is hard to measure; in contrast, small high-end events can achieve business cooperation and key networking at a lower cost. Mature projects should focus on high-value participants, while emerging projects should avoid blindly exhibiting and instead create boutique events in vertical fields. Essentially, it is about pursuing quality rather than scale.

Cryptocurrency activity strategies should focus on three key points:

• Plan in sync with the product roadmap to ensure major releases and important activities are aligned.
• Standardize budget usage to avoid simply using activity funds for relationship maintenance; all sponsorships must align with a clear ecological strategic direction.
• Focus on efficient forms of activities, engaging core groups through small closed-door meetings, while also hosting professional events such as developer conferences.

Offline events allow the team to directly observe developer feedback, identify potential users, and even discover regional communities, bringing opportunities for global expansion.

Cryptocurrency marketing needs to take advantage of meme culture as a special narrative tool. Memes can cleverly transform complex concepts while strengthening the sense of community belonging. The key lies in establishing a balance mechanism: core accounts maintain a professional tone but provide operational personnel with reasonable creative space, which can enhance work enthusiasm and produce high-quality content. Memes should be an organic part of the overall communication strategy, testing and selecting expressions that can resonate with the industry, rather than using them sporadically.