1 Table of Contents Understanding The Issues 3 The Issues: 4 Solving The Issues 5 1. Increasing Knowledge on Simplicity & Effectiveness 5 2. Rebuilding the Distinction of Marketing & Advertising 7 3. Talking With Your Community 8 4. All About The Benjamins (*Benefits, not $) 10 5. Ser, this table has a $100k Buy-In 12 6. Why Do I Even Buy These NFT’s? 14 7. There’s No Such Thing As Luck; But Moving First Helps 16 8. It’s All Connected 18 **Bonus** Patience, Young Padawan 19 **Bonus** Overcoming Friction 20 The Solutions 21 #1. People Like Us Do Things Like That 21 #2. The Moment The “I Can’t Believe This Is Meat” Revolution Will Begin 24 #3. Would You Rather “This” or “That”? 26 #4. It’s Not Like The Tortoise and The Hare... But It Is 28 #5. The #1 Health & Fitness Podcast in the World 32 #6. The Human Decision-Making Process... as easy as 1, 2, 3 35 #7. The Two Universal Types of Language 39 Affirmations & Negations 40 Soft & Solid Talk 40 Reflections and Projections 41 #8. Master Storytelling & Win the War for Attention 43 In Closing 45 2 Devs, Artists, Creators, and NFT Founders are many things. One thing they’re not though is marketers. And it shows This whitepaper seeks to form the foundation for an in-depth analysis and overview that dives into: 1. Understanding the core issues when it comes to successfully marketing in the NFT Industry 2. Strategies to solve these core problems that you’ll be able to immediately use 3. Strategies & Examples to help you make real-world decisions when it comes to your marketing Understanding The Issues This web3 industry is moving so fucking fast it is hard to keep up. Wolf Game came out 2 days ago at the time of this writing and already there are another 10+ projects modeling the game trying to get fast growth and returns... ...people look at this and think the reason for a project that achieved success like this one success has something to do with what they did in the marketing, development, and build-up to launch (*note: we’re two weeks gone from when Wolf Game began and it’s now a distant memory for most) Honestly, 99% of it is just noise. That’s the Truth The principles that lie at the foundation of success like Wolf Game is the fact they were the first mover in the space. They gamified the experience, utilised fantastic game theory principles and managed to time things correct They did not get lucky... But they were in the right place, at the right time, with the right product and the right message (*note: these are two separate things) Most will look at a project like this, BAYC, Cool Cats, HeadDAO, Olympus and more and think it’s the systems that they have in place and the kind of marketing they did that created their success They see the noise and miss the key aspects that generated success - especially when it comes to marketing Put simply, there are 8 key issues for projects when it comes to marketing that projects need to understand and solve if they wish to build a project that has both short, and long-term success 3 The Issues: 1. Lack of knowledge on how to market simply & effectively 2. They have a collapsed meaning between marketing and advertising 3. They talk to their community and not with their community. And they do not listen at all 4. They focus on the features of joining them, not the value or bennies (*benefits) 5. They focus only on the “table stakes” and there’s no remarkability for people 6. Don’t understand people act emotionally, and not rationally 7. They think “first movers“ are doing everything right and don’t see this as just noise and not effectiveness 8. They think success in the project & marketing comes from a roadmap and utility 4 4 Solving The Issues 1. Increasing Knowledge on Simplicity & Effectiveness The best knowledge you’ll ever receive is going to come from first-hand experience and the feedback and data learned from things that did not work Anyone can listen to a podcast, read a book or an article and let that information sit in their brain... ...many will even attempt to execute on it and lack the patience and trust in the process to keep trying when things aren’t working Note: there is a difference between insanity and repetition Think about the best in the world at any given thing. Deliberate practice is one of the core reasons they are where they are. They did the same thing over and over again in order to ingrain the pattern and build the body of work to get to where they were They did not try something different at the first time of failure OR the 1,000th time for that matter They knew that what they were receiving was feedback - that’s all... and the faster the feedback the faster they can make small changes in their attempts This is what I love about baseball (*and marketing). A hitter can receive immediate feedback to be better on the very next pitch He can sit back and wait after being early on the curveball and make solid contact with the next pitch. He can also distinguish between success and failure by valuing his performance on the quality of at-bats, not the outcome Going 0-4 and hitting 3 line drives and another solid contact in the hole for a great play made by the SS is better than going 3-4 with 3 bloops on terrible swings With your marketing, implement and execute. That’s how you will build your knowledge base ● Try things ● Receive the data back. ● Analyse it ● Repeat The other challenge when it comes to knowledge is understanding which metrics matter More is not better... Only better is better Quality > Quantity. Period Tools of Rock knew this. They saw thousands of people joining their dc each day and knew something was up. They implemented new security protocols, removed a fuckton of bots, and bettered their project 5 Their community went from 10k to 4k, but it was better. Now, they’re about to fucking moon... The # of people in your discord does not really matter up to a certain point. The number of followers you have on Twitter does not matter, nor does the # of likes, retweets, comments, and more... So what does matter? Engagement and attention The challenge is you cannot truly measure these in an effective and efficient way - and yet we think we can And they blind us from what really matters - noise vs successful outcome It’s not about the number of people - it’s about the number of those people who were moved to take the action you wanted them to take 100 likes on a post are great for the ego! But if none of them joined your dc, was it really a success? 10,000 people in your dc due to the giveaways and collaborations are great! But if they don’t mint because they don’t see your value outside of a quick flip; has any good work really been done? A final note on this... ...in a prior business, The Youth Academy, where we scaled to mid-6 figures inside 24mo - marketing was my thing We took a GaryVee approach and became a media company and were able to support 10,000+ youth in a very short period. Here’s the thing though - the videos and content we created received <5 likes and comments From that perspective, they sucked... ...but when we went out every weekend to kids sporting events, the number of parents coming up to us and saying “we loved this post"‘ or “that video from last week was fantastic. I loved how you...“ People were seeing them. People were loving them. People were coming to The Youth Academy because of them. The social and egotistical metrics didn’t show this - but the real metrics that mattered did 6 2. Rebuilding the Distinction of Marketing & Advertising One of the main things that creators, devs, and founders get wrong is they combine marketing and advertising into the one thing They collapse the distinction between the two and confuse one for the other Most projects think they're marketing but what they're really doing is advertising See, any form of energy that is input to the business in regards to attention and awareness that has finances behind it, or is paid for, is advertising Any kind of giveaways, shill, paid ad, collabs, and more that you’ve handed Eth over for is advertising. And when you look at the majority of projects, this is where they commit 100% of their time, energy, and attention to So they're not actually marketing! They’re advertising and missing 90% of the equation So, as a dev, creator, or artist - what can you do? What the hell is marketing? Put simply, it is simple human communication and connection The question you should as yourself is: “how can I communicate the core benefits of my project and show people all of this real value that my project holds?” If you show people what’s in it for them, they’ll give you their attention and then you have a chance to move them into an emotional state (*positive or negative), that will drive them to take an action you’d love for them to take The thing that does this is value - both perceived value and real value To create this - tell stories, create content that’s valuable, put up posts that are valuable, form relationships that have value Do that, then do it again and again and again If you can communicate your projects value effectively across any medium that works for you AND WHERE YOUR KEY AUDIENCE IS - you’ll put yourself in the best position possible to market effectively (*note: it’s not about the posts, content, relationships, and more - it’s about what you use to create them... the words... more on that later) Show people the value and they will likely end up joining you at some point in the future. Focus on consistently putting the right message in front of the right people at the right time 7 3. Talking With Your Community Now that you know what marketing is, you can start doing it with your community... Notice I didn’t say at your community or to your community. Great marketing is co-creation and collaboration; not lecturing or a dictatorship Far too many projects will talk at, or to, their community and position themselves as they key to it all. They become the expert, the authority, the hero when that’s not what it’s about at all.. Your community is the hero! They’re Luke Skywalker, Frodo or Neo... ...and you’re Yoda, Gandalf or Morpheus By marketing at or to your community you strip them of their power and minimise the emotional connection you can create. If you’re marketing like a lecture right now it’ll read like: here's what you need to do... here’s what you need to think about... you’re not good enough yet or don’t have enough yet, but you can when you have THIS thing or DO THIS thing By taking this stance you’re devaluing your community and limiting them. Yes, fear is a powerful driver - but so is abundance, love and potential. In fact, oftentimes it’s more powerful The truth is this... No one gives a flying fuck about your shiny shit Sorry, but they don’t What they care about is themselves. They care about what's in it for them. Does this help me solve a pain or a problem? Does it help me achieve a goal or an outcome that is valuable to me? ● No, it doesn’t? I’ll go look for something that does ● Yes, it does? Then I’m all in! Quest Nutrition did this better than most. In an industry that “did not need another protein bar”, they excelled One reason for this is doing what they called, mirror marketing. They reflected back out what their community was giving to them For example, if their community said they wanted something or found something valuable, they created content about it for them. If their community created an awesome bit of content, then they shared it back out 8 What this did was create an ecosystem that people wanted to be part of because they were heard, they were seen and they were valued. They knew that if they expressed something or shared something with them they would be received and potentially have their idea shared for all to see In return, everything that Quest was sharing in their marketing was highly valuable to them because Quest was simply repeating what they were being told They actively listened, then reflected it back to people One of the best that you can do when it comes to your marketing is to listen Listen to what your community wants and then give it back to them to communicate in a way that is like a two-way conversation There is no lecturing. There is no dictating. There is an active conversation between people Provide value, educate, inspire, and entertain in a way that is like a way conversation. That right there is a key to successful marketing 9 4. All About The Benjamins (*Benefits, not $) Yes, that’s right. Not money. Benefits... Technically, there are only core things people want when it comes to products, services, or access. They want things that are going to help them to: - Make money - Save money - Save time - Minimize their effort - Remove their physical or mental pain - Increase their status in their society/group ...all of these are benefits Your marketing must continually highlight and shine a spotlight so fucking bright on all of the benefits that your community receives from being a part of your community The key here though is that it's not just about any benefits, it’s about benefits your community cares about Your community has to want them and value them If you can show them benefits that they value and desire, you’ll be in the best position possible to move them to join your project And as a bonus, your marketing will be super simple and effective Where most devs, founders and artists go wrong here is that they will focus on features thinking they are benefits It’s not about how fast the car goes, the kind of tyres it has or the kind of engine under the hood... ...it’s about the experience and feeling of having the wind blow through your hair on a weekend as the tunes blast out of the radio and the love of your life is by your side, smiling and having a great time Humans buy benefits, not features What you need to do is turn your features into benefits. To do this you can write out the feature and then state the reason as to why it exists Structurally, this could look like using “so that”... ● We included this feature so that you get this benefit ● We included this feature because it allows you to go and have this benefit ● We made our discord gated so that you guys get even more exclusive content and we ensure there are only people in this community who believe in what we’re doing here. This ensures you get a better experience, a better community, and less fud and negativity This is how you create benefits 10 This is how you show people what's in it for them This is how you elicit either their positive positive emotions or their negative emotions At the end of the day, we are emotional creatures. We make every choice based on emotion and justify rationally at a later date Your benefits are the key to the emotional lock of your communities choices and decisions 10 11 5. Ser, this table has a $100k Buy-In When creators and artists think of what to include in their NFT Project to provide value and stand out, that is, to market their NFT - they solely focus on the “table stakes”... ...that is, the things simply required to “play the game” - and there’s no remarkability to their project that makes people differentiate why it compared to another NFT project (*note: the art does matter here, but unfortunately not as much for the majority of the market as it should) Much like marketing & advertising, most people have a collapsed definition between: a. What actually matters for a successful NFT b. What is simply the table stakes to play the game that is the NFT Industry This NFT space moves fucking fast. A day can feel like a week or even a month. With so much innovation and creativity happening, a lot of the things that used to be innovative and front-of-industry ideas have fast become table stakes that everyone else has and is using As such, these things have lost their uniqueness and remarkability. The once “Purple Cow” has become just another brown cow and lost all its shine We're seeing right now when it comes to wolf game. In less than 48 hours an abundance of other NFT games using the same mechanisms have popped up and are now essentially competing against Wolf Game So simply saying in your marketing that “we have this function and that function... you can earn this value and that value“ doesn’t stand out as it’s saying the same thing as everyone else but that you can get apples and not oranges, or you can buy electricity and not gas At the end of the day, you’re still buying the same thing, it just has a different name There is no tangibility or differentiation. There is no secondary drive for people to jump in. Look at what happened with DAO’s, and how there was an insurgence of them simply because there was this neophilia, and this FOMO and this hype around DAO’s... ...people assumed and thought there could potentially be some kind of passive income received, so people aped in. This caused more DAO’s to be created and now there's a stagnation in these projects because people are realizing “oh god, this isn't anything different here... this isn't what I imagined that it would be” So when you focus solely on the table stakes in your marketing, like: ● We've got great art ● We have tokenomics ● We've got a great community ● We offer this small value... ...you’re missing out on a lot of potential marketing power and potential secondary sales as there’s no real reason for someone to buy into your project 12 The two best examples that I have seen that have been world-class add being remarkable and adding extra on top of Table Stakes include: 1. Vee Friends: they have real-world utility inside them. Sure, Gary Vee can do it simply because he's God damn Gary Vee. He can add a real-world utility to his token like “this one gets you a 24hr day with me” and “this one gets you a 2hr dinner“ because of who he’s created himself to be. People value that and will therefore pay for it. The lesson here is that this is the value he’s created to add to his tokens so the value is more than the table stakes needed to play the game 2. Tom Bilyeu & Impact Theory: Tom is bringing to the table both real-world utility and online utility. Founders Key provides: a. Metaverse experiences b. Access to different media & comics c. All these different stories and all these different channels in a way that mimics Disney and all its movies d. Some keys even provide you with partnership rights - so if you have an idea we can now co-create and work together VeeFriends and IT! have added value on top of the table stakes. That's all they've done. Go back to part one of the marketing series and you’ll see they have added value for their community that is specific to their community in the form of value their community wants That's it, that's all that they've done. It is simple. It is brilliant. And it is effective because they have delivered the table stakes but then they have also added all of this other value on top of it And this ties into the next issue... 13 6. Why Do I Even Buy These NFT’s? Why do people want BAYC, HeadDAO, Cool Cats, Punks, and more? Yes, it’s for the $ that comes with it and the potential to increase on your investment, but predominantly it’s status (*we simply do not want to admit it as such) When it comes to our marketing you must understand that people act based on emotion first and not logic and rationality We talked about this briefly in part two - and the point to hammer home is that we are emotional creatures We do everything based on emotion, and we justify it rationally at a later date. We bring our experiences we bring our assumptions, we bring our opinions and our thoughts to the doorstep of every single present moment We don't ever have all of the data, but we think we do (*hint: we’re world-class liars and self-deluders). So whatever portion is missing, we simply imagine & create the data to fill it in ourselves Take books for example... Why do people buy non-fiction books? Why do people purchase the likes of a self-help book or business book? They have no freaking idea about what's inside. They have no idea of the words that are in there, the lessons inside, or the concepts that will be in there They buy the book based on the story that they tell themselves about the author, about what they imagine based on the cover, about what they imagine is inside based on the blurb and testimonials about it That is why they will buy the book. It's an emotional choice They think to themselves, “this book is going to solve this problem that I have internally. This book is going to help me achieve a goal that I have. I don't know what specifically, but I know enough about this author to know what to expect”, and then I fill in the blank pieces for myself The same goes for shoes... ...why do people buy the Yeezys? It's not because they're comfortable. It's not because they look better. It's because of how that person is going to feel and how they are going to relate to themselves when they're wearing the Yeezys and the story they tell themselves about who other people think they will be because they are wearing that shoe It's emotion And this is one of the reasons that most people are buying NFT's. The other is money and status 14 Most people won't admit this to themselves but watch... wherever the money goes, people are going to follow and follow fast. Why? Because it's emotional. There's an emotional attachment to it. “I have the chance to essentially “get rich quick? I want to play that game!” It’s going to be fun & exhilarating (*hint: emotional states). The whole status game ties into the psychology exactly like the shoe example above. It’s Reebok vs Gucci. Tesla vs Toyota If I have a Bored Ape; who does that make me? Essentially, I’m no different than when I didn’t have the ape, but people are going to perceive me in a certain light they are going to put me inside a specific category that is better than if I didn’t have the ape The same is true if I own a Punk, a Doodle, or a Mutant Cat. The NFT is a status symbol. And people want that status association that comes with owning a specific NFT People want to be perceived that way, they want to feel better about themselves, but it is still all status How can you create this for yourself? Stories AND Offer. If you create a story and a brand (*a storybrand) that people value and perceive as being valuable - people will begin to associate status with it And if you NAIL your offer (*see this thread on how to create an offer so good people would be stupid to say no to it ) people are going to ape in even more as there’s so much value and goodwill in it for them With this, more people will jump in, and more people will hold... and with time more perceived value is going to be created Soon you’ll have something that people want to jump into because either: a. it provides them with status (*social incentive) b. it provides them with monetary gain (*monetary incentive) 15 7. There’s No Such Thing As Luck; But Moving First Helps People think “first movers“ are doing everything right and they don’t see this as simply the noise that it is... ...they think what’s been done can be attributed as reasons for the success; when in Truth there was a little luck, great timing, and first-mover principles involved - not effective execution I forget what Naval Ravikant once said about luck, but essentially there is no such thing as it. What there is, is being in the right place, at the right time, with the right people, and the right tools When people look at the NFT space they see these successful projects and forget to take this into account Yes, there are things these projects got right at the beginning; but oftentimes they were simply the first mover - and the first mover in any space is always going to see the market share and success at the beginning The thing about first movers is that they don't have to do everything right to see success. They can fuck up as much as they want because they're the first in the category and there are no rules or expectations yet... ...there are no standards to achieve As such, they will receive the majority of the attention Look at HeadDAO and Mutant Cats. Both realised they had issues with their contract and have had to go back and rework things. People didn’t know or didn’t care much as they were the first movers in the space and were making it up as they went along Look at HeadDAO and the crash of their $HEAD token when altcoins pumped. Their strategy was to focus exclusively on Blue-Chip NFT investments for their vault, thinking that as the vault increased in value so would their token. And so they added Fidenza’s and BAYC and more - only for the market to crash and with it their $HEAD token It dropped from about $27 to $1.18... ...the system was broken because the value of their token has nothing to do with the value of their vault in reality - only in imagination They saw success because they were first movers. But what can you do if you're not a first mover? You listen to Tim Ferriss and create your own category. You create a brand new category of one for yourself to play inside of, and at the same time become the first mover in this space Using the HeadDAO example, they were one of the first DAO’s. Now all of these other DAO’s are popping up in the same category of being a DAO 16 Success will come for the DAO’s who create a new category for themselves inside of the DAO Category HeadDAO may be the one that invests in Blue Chip NFT's. Olympus may be the DAO that acts like a hedge fund. But what's going to be the DAO that invests in real-world businesses? That’s a new category of DAO What's going to be the DAO that invests in play to earn gaming for their members? Again, a new category of DAO By doing this you’re creating a new category of DAO where you’re essentially saying “hey, you join us if you're interested in this thing if you want to be a part of a DAO that invests in this kind of thing” The P2E Gaming DAO essentially creates and receives passive income for its members and for the DAO. This DAO can then invest in other P2E Games, or another blue-chip NFT’s, or in other real-world businesses, or in crypto and altcoins, depending on what's happening in the market This is also a great way to diversify into high, medium, and low risk investments for the DAO - again, potentially a new category of DAO The key to these categories is that, once again, they’re all driven by value and that value is created by the community To be successful in your marketing know that: 1. There’s really no such thing as luck 2. Yes, moving first helps - but creating a category of one for yourself will do more wonders for your marketing. 17 8. It’s All Connected Know this, the success of a project & its marketing does not come from one thing specifically - it’s not a roadmap, artwork or utility - it’s the interconnectedness of everything Have a simple and solid roadmap Have some utility that is highly valuable for the people that you want to attract Have community aspects that again, the people will find valuable and want to be there for after they mint Have internal value that creates a family vibe Have badass artwork Form incredible relationships with other projects and business And create leverage for yourself in your marketing by doing less with more... ...what do I mean by this? Let’s say we're looking at content: 1. Shoot a video 2. Strip the audio for a podcast 3. Strip the text and get it transcribed for a blog or article 4. Cut down specific sections to form smaller pieces of audio, video, and written content too *Note: when it comes to leverage in your marketing you can either use: 1. Specific Knowledge - takes time to build 2. Labour - yours or other peoples (*often costing capital) 3. Capital - money you need to receive 4. Tech/Systems - do it once, then have the tech and robots continue doing it for you And now, from one thing you have multiple things. It’s all connected guys... ...it’s all connected 18 **Bonus** Patience, Young Padawan Before we get into the specific marketing strategies; display patience to all of this. Think about how long it takes you to make a choice or a change in specific things... ...some smaller choices happen overnight, others take time The same is true for your community Yes, you’ll have people ape-in and join due to FOMO or hype; but what’s the quality of this type of person to your community, project and its future? My good friend, and CEO of #1 H&F Podcast, Barbell Shrugged, once told me they take 6 months of lead time to market their products and services... ...they focused heavily on nutrition for 6 months if they had a nutrition product coming up they wanted to sell This meant the majority of podcast guests, articles, content, videos, and more was nutrition-focused to pre-frame their audience about the pains + problems they experienced with their nutrition and make it front and center of their minds By doing this, when they then positioned their product as something to solve these issues people are thinking about and be something to help them achieve their goals - people would take action Use Pareto’s Principle here - 80% long-term focused (*nutrition-focused content) and 20% short-term focused (*health-focused content) For your project, this would be 80% long-term value and 20% hype and FOMO It is your ability to display patience and expand your time horizon that will influence your ability to succeed in this space. The longer the runway, the bigger the plane that can take off... 19 **Bonus** Overcoming Friction One of the biggest hurdles and aspects of human nature that we’ve got to work with is our innate unconscious response of skepticism to those things that we do not understand Right now, the societal narrative that’s associated with crypto, web3, and NFTs is that it’s a ponzi-scheme, a joke, a short-term cash grab, and it’s not here for the long-term As such, you’re going to meet friction in bringing people into your project OR face adversity in people FUDding you and more One choice here is to try and educate people to help minimize and remove this skepticism to help them understand and see the Truth of what’s happening... ...if you attempt this know it’s a long-game to play and you have no control over the people; solely the educational content you’re putting out into the world. You cannot change human behaviour, you can only leverage it - people will understand when they want to understand; so put the content out and detach from everything else The other choice is to put the fucking blinders on and just do you. Speak only to the people who are open to listening and fuck everyone else. Take the #PirateMentality and be the rebel who’s sole conviction is on their mission and the success of their project Whilst this secondary approach may create more friction and adversity because it will be more polarizing, you’ll form a stronger attraction & connection with the people who DO believe - to the point they’ll go to war with you and for you in the midst of the FUD from the non-believers 20