7 Rules For Marketing Web3/Crypto Startups

I’ve had 10+ calls this month with crypto projects asking the same question:

"How do we improve our marketing and build our community?"

Instead of repeating myself over and over, I’m sharing the playbook here.

These 7 rules are going to flip how you think about marketing and community-building in crypto. You’ll understand why so many projects get it wrong—and how you can get it right.

#7 is the highest-impact secret you NEED to know.

Let’s dive in.

1. No Community = No Party

Want your community to care about your project? Then care about them first.

If your community experience sucks, they’ll move on—there are plenty of other projects they can join.

Ask yourself: Would I enjoy spending time in my own community?

If the answer’s no, you’ve got work to do. Make it a place people want to be.

Pro tip - to make the community fun and engaging, build a story—a lore. A narrative that the community can resonate with and identify.

This was one of the main focuses for Zenrock, and it’s why they built a community of 35,356 users in just 29 days. People aren’t just joining because of the product—they’re joining because they believe in the story and mission behind it.

Your community needs to feel like they’re part of something bigger than just a token or a protocol. When they have a narrative to latch onto, they’ll be more invested in the journey.

Want to see how we did it for Zenrock? Check out their case study on how we got 35,356 users in 29 days here.

2. Stop Selling, Start Connecting

If your project’s Twitter account constantly talks about your product, guess what? You’re posting ads.

And people hate ads.

Think about it. When you go on YouTube to watch a video, you skip the ad as fast as possible, right? The same applies to CT.

So, if your tweets feel like ads, don’t be surprised when people ignore your brand or avoid engaging.

3. Your Community Is Your Content Goldmine

Your community is your best content engine.

Here’s why you should interact with and repost their best content:

1. It’s likely better than what your team creates (sorry, but it’s true).
2. It shows you value their contributions.

Imagine this: Someone in your community makes a killer meme, and you repost it from your main account. That’s massive validation for them and signals to everyone else that you recognize great work.

4. You’re Competing with Memes, Not Other Protocols

Your biggest competitor isn’t another protocol.

It’s influencers, memes, and trending topics on Crypto Twitter (CT).

People open Twitter to see Cobie’s posts, the latest ETH ETF memes, or whatever’s trending—not to hear about your product.

If your content doesn’t entertain, inform, or spark curiosity, you’ve already lost the attention game.

5. Small Scale = Big Impact

In the early stages, your community will be tiny—maybe 5, 10, or 20 people who care about what you’re doing.

That’s a good thing. It’s your chance to show gratitude and build strong, 1:1 relationships with your early supporters.

Don’t worry about scalability yet. If you can’t win over 10 people, you’ll never get to 10,000.

6. Copycats Don’t Win

No two projects are the same. So why would you copy another project’s strategy?

A good marketing and community strategy comes from first principles, not from cloning what someone else is doing. What works for one project might flop for yours because the product stage, audience, and reputation are entirely different.

On top of that, trends in crypto move at lightning speed. Yesterday it was Solana, then XRP, then TON, and now Bitcoin. Copying someone else’s playbook means you’re chasing yesterday’s hype, not building for what’s next.

That’s why staying ahead of trends matters. Since we work with dozens of clients, we get a bird’s-eye view of where the space is heading based on the kinds of projects we’re being approached for. It’s not guesswork—it’s pattern recognition.

Take inspiration from others, sure. But build something that fits your project, your audience, and your moment. Copycats never lead the pack.

7. Good Tech = Great Marketing

You’ve heard it before: offense is the best defense. In crypto, good tech is the best marketing.

We’re not just talking about building a strong tool or protocol—most of the time, those are too technical to hook users initially. Instead, create a experience inside your project that pulls users into your ecosystem and gets them curious + engaged.

Here’s how:

• Onboarding tours: Teach them how to engage with your product.
• Referral programs: Reward users for bringing in their friends.
• Task dashboards: Gamify their experience and guide their engagement.
• Mini-games & quizzes: Make interaction fun and social.
• Competition features: Let users compete with friends for rewards.

We’ve seen this work wonders. For example:

• Zenrock: Over 45k users onboarded.
• Supernormal: 90k+ users and counting.

Check out our case studies on our website here.

The Big Picture

Marketing and community-building aren’t just about firing off tweets or setting up a Discord server. They’re about building a system that connects with real people and scales with purpose.

The projects that get this right win. The ones that don’t? Well, they’ll stay stuck posting ads and wondering why no one cares.

You’ve got the playbook. The rest is up to you.

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