Jared Polites, a partner in Rarestone Capital is an active Web3 fund that also has a marketing arm (Rarestone Labs). Rarestone Capital has been a leader in marketing and investing in DeFi protocols, NFT drops and Web3 infrastructure plays since 2020. Because the market is constantly changing, we caught up with Jared in order to learn more about Jared’s industry experience and discuss how projects can be best positioned for marketing success.
How can you offer tips to help projects create a marketing plan for their project?
Polites: Like traditional acquisition of tech users, project managers need to develop a communications strategy. It should discuss what they offer and how that directly affects their users. Be consistent is the first key. Going “stealth” is a wild card strategy that can be used early on to gain momentum, but should not be the focus as a roadmap progresses. My advice is to over-communicate or under-communicate. Especially since attention spans are decreasing and community members will take their interest elsewhere if they don’t know exactly what is happening and when.
A second thing to do is ensure that at least one marketer is on your team. Although it sounds easy, we have seen many dev-heavy groups neglect to market until the last moment. These situations are fine for agencies to be outsourced, however, you must have an internal point of contact to coordinate and oversee each activity. Anyone, even junior, is acceptable. A common misconception is that a good enough product will market itself, but the industry is becoming more crowded and moves at warp speed – you have to stand out from the crowd.
In 2017 what has changed in the way projects are promoted?
Polites:Users, communities, and even speculators have become more sophisticated, and are often less forgiving. In the current cycle, short-term strategies that were common in the past are quickly identified if they prove to be detrimental to projects. One recent trend, for example is the questioning of the long-term benefits of stakestaking. In the early stages of an industry strategy, staking is often considered a useful tool that rewards loyal long-term users and makes for strong community announcements. However, some players in the sector are questioning whether staking can sustain itself. Staking is a strategy to preserve a positive price trend and lower sell pressure. Or, are the stakes really about community?
This is the list of questions that project managers must answer when creating a marketing strategy.
How do companies promote themselves?
Polites:Most aren’t long-term-focused. Be sure that your marketing strategy is aligned to your long-term vision. For example, I see founders get caught up with flashy marketing campaigns that are detrimental to a project’s long-term token health. If there are lots of emissions, the interest in the project will spike early and fade as members go on to other things. It is important to understand the risks associated with a marketing campaign and how they can be mitigated. You don’t need this information to lose momentum or create an impossible situation.