Inside Web3 💎 | Don't chill, Shill

Hello guys,
It’s Julian :)

You were 2242 to read the first edition of INSIDE WEB3 💎, that's really cool!
Every week, I will give you an update on the evolution of the newsletter, upcoming guests, partnerships, etc. The idea is to make this newsletter community-based, to give voice to those who wish to share their Web3 entrepreneurship discoveries 🏴‍☠️✊

I've opened my Twitter DMs so feel free to message me if you want to share something :) BTW, we may change the stack if I find a more community-oriented tool.

This week, I wanted to talk about marketing in Web3 and specifically marketing strategies that are often used in Web3 like shilling, AMAs sprints, forum posts, incentive marketing strategies, etc.

Here is the plan for this edition

• Introduction to Marketing in the Web3

• Some marketing actions that work in Web3

• Don't chill, Shill

Introduction to Marketing in the Web3

Being in Web3 for a while, I can tell you that in the early days of this new web, there were big differences between the marketing of Web3 and Web2 projects.

One of the main reasons is that the majority of traditional advertising methods such as Facebook Ads, Google Ads, TV ads, or even physical ads did not accept the promotion of a large majority of Web3 projects (Crypto projects, NFT, Blockchain-powered, etc.). Web3 companies had to experiment with other ways to promote their projects (discussions on specialized forums, shilling on communities, AMA session), etc.

As Web3 and its applications start to become more mainstream, the marketing strategies used by Web2 companies (ads, collaboration, product placement, specialized advertising) became more used.

The evolution of marketing in Web3 makes me think a lot about the evolution of marketing in E-commerce:

For a long period, Web3 projects were known only by blockchain enthusiasts, had their own place to meet and share their projects. Like the first e-commerce sites that were adopted by the first web users, through new web-based advertising approaches.

Then Web3 projects became more common and we saw a bit more aggressive marketing campaigns, especially in the NFT and Crypto world. This reminds me of the development of dropshipping which had more aggressive marketing, responding to the growing demand.

Today we are in a period where the supply starts to exceed the demand, the product & project takes more space as the competition increases and people know the market better. Like the evolution of dropshipping towards e-commerce 2.0 / DNBV where consumers are harder to approach and where your product and its quality have a bigger space.

The first brick of a web3 project is often its community

Often even before the product is developed, one of the main missions of a Web3 project is to create a large engaged community. A community of people who will be both your customers and your ambassadors.

As Web3 and its applications start to reach the general public, the marketing strategies used by Web2 companies (ads, collaboration, product placement, specialized advertising) are more and more used. However, there are still differences, especially in the funnels of these marketing strategies (called Loop in Web3).

Have you ever seen an advertisement for an NFT or Crypto project? Have you seen anything in common? Ads from Crypto or NFT projects are often redirected to a community (Discord or Telegram). They very rarely put their "product" in an ad, but rather highlight their community.

Most Web3 projects are on Twitter, Discord, and potentially Telegram. These are the centralized platforms they use to connect to large audiences. There are new Web3 channels like Mirror, but you need to stay present on traditional Web2 platforms. Web3 doesn't mean you have to cut yourself off from everything.

Create the right loops

Loops are the paths taken by your customers, the equivalent of funnels in Web2. The goal is to choose the right path for your future customer. A good CTA (call to action) from your Twitter can be to join your community on Discord.

Behind that, you can set up your discord with an affiliate system to earn points to potentially participate in the presale of your token. You can ask your community to shill for your project to earn points to be on your whitelist...

Some marketing actions that work in Web3

Create partnerships: Collaborate with influencers, media, satellite sites, and subreddits.

Encourage your community with a whitelist: Turn your community into marketers by having them perform marketing actions to have a better chance of getting a spot in your presale.

Social proof: Partner with funders, corporations, auditing firms, and KYC agencies.

Shilling: Indirectly promote your project to the public to create excitement for it.

To give you an example, with SAFU, we went from 5000 unique visitors to 1.260.000 unique visitors per month. How did we do it?

• Development of a free API and establishment of partnerships (with coin listing platforms) to integrate our API tool for free in exchange for backlinks + link to our platform for premium scan

• Multiplication of partnerships with investor communities on Telegram, Twitter, Subreddits (@CryptoLaunchBsc, @DailyStarsBSC, @Moon_Toons, etc.) Organization of AMA (Ask Me Anything) where Sacha and I presented the project to external investors Referencing our token on a centralized exchange platform that has 1,000,000 users (CoinTiger)

• Massive shilling by our community

+ Some other secret actions I will share in a future edition 🤫

Zoom on Shilling

Shilling is when a person or group of people indirectly promote a project, often acting as a customer, in order to create hype around the project, create brand awareness, and redirect potential customers to the project in question.

When the demand for a product increases, its value also increases. The strategy is very simple, talk about your project so that it stays in the mind of potential customers constantly, until they decide to join your project and participate.

To be clear, the shilling was not invented on Web3, it has been a common practice in many industries for many years. For example, it was used in traditional financial markets to influence investors' investment choices.

The shilling enters murky waters because there are no regulations or rules against promoting a particular product. In the traditional financial market, it is illegal to promote a product because of the possibility of fraud for what the product may promise. However, the situation is not as black and white as it seems. It must be proven that the "shilling" activities placed uninformed parties at risk of loss.

You can shill at different places:

There are many places where you can shill, the most common are social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also use Telegram, Discord, and even Reddit.

Twitter: A single tweet can reach a large audience. It is a quick and effective way to get the word out about your project.

Telegram: A great platform for advertising. You can find many micro-communities on various topics that can help you promote your project.

Discord: Good way to communicate, with the possibility to create different chats within the same channel.

Instagram: You can use Instagram stories to create an audience and promote your project. You can also use the apps by choosing the right hashtags.

Facebook: You can shill on Facebook groups, join some groups where members are looking for a solution that you solve with your project. Simply post about the background and value of your project that you want to promote, along with a link.

So how to start?

You have several ways to shill. You can shill yourself, with your own accounts or by using automated bots that will shill for you (TelegramShillBot, QQSHILL)
My personal contact for TG shilling: @FastSafee

You can try to approach people who have a large audience (celebrities, influencers...) and offer them to shill/promote your project in exchange for tokens of your project. You will reach many people directly.

Finally, you can create a shilling program with marketing incentives.
You can organize a pre-sale for the token behind your Web3 project and create a whitelist. You will ask people who want to be on the whitelist to perform shilling marketing actions to have a better chance of winning a place in the whitelist.