DeFi Marketing Odyssey – Maria Maganes

and I have started completely randomly in this space I was previously working as a marketing strategy in Sky TV so basically I I went from the post to um to this uh and I've started my uh um Journey as a uh solo marketing person at a so I was the head of marketing but I was alone so I was the marketing team basically then I I went to in in maker and then balancer uh and now I'm um I'm the VP of strategy at hype agency which is a web three marketing agency uh and I co-founded spaghetti with mat so uh basically I want to start with this ad with this disclaimer which is uh we don't have any like best practices in the space uh yet because it's too young so everything you will see in this presentation is not like a setting Stone rule or anything but it's just from my experience um six years experience which is long for being web free in the web free space so this is as the marketers in the space in the defi space specifically overwhelmed by a lot of like um requests uh communities telegram chats um uh please grow your Twitter base without but we don't have budget so what do you do uh then uh the market going up and down and now it's down down no but it will be up uh then some babysitting because a lot of Founders are bit crazy since they are super uh smart and usually super smart people is also a bit crazy uh then a lot of legal restrictions a lot of um compliance regul regulations that you have to stick with so it's it's a bit of a mess you know and you need to you need to have a plan so which is this plan uh I think that there are four things uh that a defi marketer a defi marketer need to do um and uh I basically summarize them here so the first is understand what we Market which is not easy especially in defi because as we know thei protocols IFI projects are a bit complex complicated but we don't have to be scared everyone can understand everything uh and but but it's very important to understand what you are talking about before like marketing this to to the external audience um the second is to invent our job and our best practices um because unfortunately as I said before we can it's a new uh Target it's a new space it's a new uh topic so there are no best practices uh and we need to try try fail retry then the the third is constantly catch up Marketing in defi is uh very challenging and um it's not easy uh so the first thing you need to remember is that your strategy need to be sustainable what does it mean a lot of uh marketers make uh campaigns based on the like uh um current mood current fashion for example airdrops or points program okay but then what like you need to have in mind when you do something that this needs to like uh get the users in but then retain them so it's not like I give you money to join my project and then you don't care anymore so you leave because I stop giving you ER tokens it's something that you need to these are like like the the strategy should uh should be I make this campaign to attract user but then I need to have a plan to retain the users so you need to focus on this as well uh and um this is a mix I would say between marketing but also ux product product management itself uh so you need to have a good collaboration with the team as well trust this space in particular since money is involved is very like um trust based meaning that you uh like you can't um promise something that to to your customer to your users that you can you can't uh like commit to so when you share a road map you need to like stick with it uh when you have fees you need to show them uh in in the ux in the UI um and you need to be consistent uh in your communication so when you uh choose your tone of voice you need to stick with it so you're not if you're you're a B2B project and you want to be serious and collaborate with institutions Etc you select your tone of voice which is a bit serious and then from one day to another since me mem is are fashion you start to do M marketing uh and it's it's not consistent so it's it's not consistent that the trust is a bit broken like that uh and then show your face it's also cool in my opinion now especially because everyone wants to know who is behind um the defi projects uh because everyone like we need to to convince the the users that uh we are not a scam you know so if I show that my founder is this person with this background uh and he participates to to to the to the talks to the conferences Etc it's good uh because it increase the trust in the project and founder branding is a very very um Hot Topic in in our uh in our space and then the team it's very important so that uh the team is fundamental because as a marketer you need to learn from them uh and you and you need to um do whatever it it's needed so you are I am a marketing lead if I need to write the tweet I will write the Tweet I'm not like working in AO because I'm the lead I don't do anything anymore if I need to do some BD even if I'm marketing lead I will help you if I can so the important thing in our space is don't hire someone that just want to like do it's it's super like um strict in in his view of what he needs to do with his job so our job description uh should be as a marketer should be very broad uh and uh open in my opinion and then you as a like as a founder or as a head of marketing you need to hire the right people um because I think that the skills hard skills are not important as the soft skills like um hard skills can be uh learned especially in this very new space hard skills um sorry soft skills are in there so you need to basically say elect based on how the Vibes you know and how ready someone is to um is to to work to learn to work with you passionate about the project Etc so uh finally uh what are the key areas of defi marketing and web web free marketing but in particular defi um these are the areas uh some some of them are similar to The like traditional marketing so contents events um social media PR but Community uh is a word that is like um not important outside defi or web free as inside so Community is the root is the base where you build your the rest of your marketing communities uh intended as users as um Builders if you are for example a layer two or like a technology as a supporter uh the ecosystem in general so you need to nurture your community and then everything is in circle everything is connected to to each other so uh contents is uh is connected to events you need to basically tell a story choose your narrative and tell a story but starting from the like strength of your community especially in defi because they are your supporters and word of mouth is still the most um important weapon then final remarks uh so uh marketing techniques are evolving uh together with the space so we need to stay on top of them and embrace them like like use uh onchain analytic tools use um make e space Twitter space uh use lens use farcaster the new tools is very important and we are we need to be the first using them and like embrace the web free uh space uh to do marketing then some traditional principles are still valid um so uh listen uh like for example know know your target what's your uni selling proposition uh you like you need to like make a seat and and ask yourself why why did I start this project what problem are are I am I solving why I am better than I don't know this project I don't want to mention anyone but this project um for the like taking uh strategies or automations so select your unique selling proposition your competitive advantage and one and go for it and like based on your target users and who who you want to to attract and retain and then uh yeah being snob in the space doesn't pay uh a lot of times during these six years I have been in the situation where you uh are as small project that want to collaborate that want to collaborate with a huge project and you would need their help to amplify um and after one month you are the big project and and so it's like why in my opinion you you you need to help each other especially in this phase where we are all growing together so if you are a a yesterday when I joined we were five people and nobody gave a you know about now it's completely the opposite so and I have found myself in a in a situation where oh who are you who is sun and now it's like a sun is God you know so it's something that you when you are in this big project need to remember I I don't I don't want to be snob with with the small project because they can eat on top of my head maybe tomorrow so uh be friends again especially in this time where we are all an ecosystem and we need to bring liquidity in and to scale together uh I that's it very short easy peasy thank you e for