So you’ve launched a crypto project. Now, the million dollar question becomes – how can you get people to trust it?
You’ve got this great idea for a new protocol, exchange, NFT project, or product in the Web3 space. You gather an awesome development team. You architect a system with security front of mind. You launch tentatively into the cryptoverse…and are met with, well, skepticism.
It’s hard out there for an upstart crypto founder! But at this point who could blame the users. With stories of hacking, rug pulls, and other mainstream scandals popping up by the day, people in the crypto space and beyond have become very wary of new projects – and who could blame them?
So how do you get your project to stand out from the pack and appear legit and trustworthy? This article will explore a few tried and tested methods for doing just that. Let’s dive in.
Get the Word Out Through Press Releases
By this point, most people are familiar with the typical crypto marketing tactics that businesses employ. We’re talking about the hype building strategies across social media and forums that are intended to shill tokenomics and encourage speculation. But people can quickly see through these cheap efforts these days.
Instead, when big events or milestones occur in your business – let’s say you launch your testnet, get that funding round closed, or your first flagship product ships – it calls for something more than low effort hype building – a well-crafted press release.
Crypto newswire services can help you spread your messages far and wide by putting your newsworthy content in reach of some of the top journalists across the Web3 space.
Getting published across leading publications such as Blockonomi, CoinDesk and CoinTelegraph will go a very long way towards building trust and credibility.
Not only does this act as a seal of approval from the journalist and publications that cover your story, but it also increases brand awareness and that ever-important social proof that you need to establish legitimacy.
Lock Down Your Security
You already know that operating in the crypto universe demands security above all else. One vulnerability and one exploit can spell disaster for a project, especially those that are in their early days. Yet, there are still an alarming number of projects that skimp on the basic safety procedures and ignore the fundamentals so that they can reallocate resources elsewhere.
To help put users and investors’ minds at ease, you need to run your protocol, exchange, or whichever product it is that you are offering through rigorous penetration testing.
On top of this, you can hire reputable auditing firms within the crypto space to help uncover holes in your code and discover any flaws in your architecture. If any gaps are discovered, you need to plug them immediately.
At the same time, it will never hurt to share the results or summaries of your audit findings so that you can reassure everyone that you’re taking these vulnerability precautions seriously. This is the best way to demonstrate your commitment to the safety and security of your users and their data.
Keep Your Promises and Establish a Track Record
In the blockchain world, you don’t have to look too far to find the project that is continually over promising and under delivering. If you are a user, investor, or simply a fan of a project, there is nothing more frustrating than to see this happen time and time again.
For example, let’s say that some slick team rolls out a product roadmap with quarterly deliverable targets. Awesome. The only issue is they totally blew the deadline for a promised feature launch by months. Not awesome. Nothing erodes community faith faster than these unmet expectations and broken delivery timetables.
Yes, you may have valid delays, but transparency is key. Keep users in the loop with clear roadmap update posts. Share what milestones you do accomplish on time as proof-of-work for your execution capabilities. There will always be hiccups, but consistent reliability builds bonds between builders and users.
Talk With Your Community
By now, most founders know the importance of community building. There are coins out there with minimal innovation and almost zero new tech, but they find themselves prompted up by staunch believers and an incredibly engaged community of supporters.
With that said, a lot of crypto businesses put in the hard work building a community, only to neglect it and forget to nurture it as time goes on.
The thing is, the people that make up your community are human beings. They need to feel as though they’re always kept in the loop, that they are respected, and that they are continuously engaged with what’s going on around the project. As such, don’t just shill announcements to your community – get them involved.
Host AMAs for product questions. Jump into Discord conversations. Run polls on feature priorities. Provide feedback mechanisms like email forms. Opening channels for dialogue that go beyond hype broadcasts makes people feel valued, giving them “skin in the game”.
Don’t forget, even responsiveness to criticism is huge for trust-building. No one expects you to be omniscient, but showing you listen and care cements loyalty just as much as anything else.
Share Who’s On Your Team
A lot of the time, crypto projects can seem like faceless organizations. While decentralization and anonymity are part of the culture, people ideally want to see who the humans are behind the projects they invest in.
With this in mind, don’t keep your team hidden behind the curtain. Feature bios of your founders, core dev team members, and advisors on your website. Let visitors get to know the brains behind the operation.
Highlight any past achievements, relevant expertise, and credentials. Getting splashed by the reflected glory of ace engineers or business geniuses on your team inspires confidence in what you can accomplish, and it helps to build that all important credibility. Having well-known crypto advisors and investors lending their brand also boosts credibility. Let folks know about the VIPs betting on your success!
Final Word
Never pass up a chance to reinforce reliability through promotions done right, airtight security, roadmap accountability, responsive user interactions, and by showcasing the stellar talent you have on your team. At each stage of your journey, operate with radical transparency to build public confidence over time.
Adopt that community-centric commitment, even if you’re still a small fish in a big pond. The idea is to plant the seeds with early supporters that will eventually blossom into reciprocal success as you grow.