If Your Web 3 Go-to-Market Strategy Doesn’t Include This, You are Toast

If you are thinking of launching a product in the Web 3 space via social tokens or NFTs, you cannot have a “Field of Dreams” mentality because if you simply build it, they will not come.

Big names and brands have flopped because they assumed their name or their brand would bring sales. They began with the brand instead of the customer. In crypto and Web 3, you must begin with the customer.

As a product marketer, your go-to-market strategy can make the difference between success and failure in these endeavors. In order to be successful, you must establish a means of cultivating community early. It must occur at the beginning of the process, even as you are brainstorming what the final product could and should be.

One of the primary places this happens is Discord. There are other ways, but we will look at Discord for the present.

What is Discord?

Discord needs to be brought into the early part of your go-to-market plan, where it will remain for the entirety of your product lifecycle (and sometimes beyond). For those not familiar with Discord (https://discord.com/), it is an invite only platform that allows people to share ideas and comments within different channels. It is similar to Slack as well as the chat rooms of the 1990’s. It may not seem like a value-add to your go-to-market plan, but Discord can do three things well if handled properly.

1. Discord Can Be the Community Residence

Sometimes the idea of community can seem cliche, yet it is very real in Web 3. If you join enough Discords, you quickly learn that every group is different. From the structure of the Discord to the way people interact with one another, each one is unique.

This is where the community interacts with one another. It is their home, their meeting place. It is the location where they can just be.

I am part of a couple of projects that are very positive, yet they each have a different vibe. I have also listened into a few Discords where I was not sure how the project worked or what the rules were, which was frustrating. Some were not about adding value but only about selling and getting out. Other Discords are simply a ghost town where nothing is said and no one responds.

Discord is not the community, but it can be the tool used to facilitate the conversations and build the community. To make it a positive community that adds value takes work and vigilance. We will discuss this more in a future article.

2. Discord Can Provide User Feedback

Early in any product development and marketing process, getting user feedback allows you to make adjustments easily and test new hypotheses at a very low cost. Discord is your feedback mechanism.

Active Discord members are willing to provide feedback and offer suggestions. You can ask a question or present an idea and you get instant feedback. If you respond to the feedback and make changes accordingly, you gain credibility with the community and serve the community well.

Part of the fabric of Web 3 is distributed ownership, which means the people in your community have a vested interest in its success, provided they think it is worthwhile. In many ways it is the reversal of traditional product ownership where a company builds a product and tries to sell it to customers.

Quick note: if you ask for feedback and then don’t make changes when appropriate, you lose credibility. Of course, if you don’t ask for feedback, you will also lose your audience.

3. Discord Can Measure User Engagement

If you think of the levels of customer engagement, following your social feeds would be level one. They may see your posts if the algorithm cooperates, but they are not vested in your business or product. If these followers frequently share or comment on your social posts, that might get them to level two. Signing up to receive emails would be level three. Being an active member on Discord moves them to level four because they have to take several steps to get there and then stay there.

Where you might advertise in the past or measure click through rate as a KPI, active users on your discord gives you a new way to evaluate engagement. A person can learn and listen on your Discord channel, but to comment and provide information requires work on their part. They are the people who will champion you, support you, and buy from you. Be sure to distinguish between active users and users who have only joined the Discord and have not been back since they joined. A percent active user metric can be a good tool (active members / total members = % active members).

Limitations of Discord

Full disclaimer–discord is not necessarily the best tool for community building, nor is it the easiest to manage. For example, when there are tens of thousands in the group, questions can get overlooked amidst the noise. Bots and fake DMs can lead people to fraudulent websites where information can be gathered or the contents of wallets can be stolen. Yet, Discord is a tool frequently used and has familiarity with many people. It is a solution that can work.

Conclusion

If you are considering a Web 3 project, make sure to consider Discord at the very beginning of your go-to-market plan. Promoting your community through social media, content creation, and email are necessary, but using something like Discord is the vehicle for your community interaction. Remember, this is not something that can be discarded after launch, but must be integral to the lifetime of your project.

Next time: Don’t Let These Three Discord Problems Wreck Your Go-to-Market Strategy