Don’t lose $10,000’s – Avoid Costly Marketing Mistakes

• Collab Outreach: Promising connections with hundreds of communities to help hyper-grow yours.
• Social and Discord Management: Offering to manage your social media and community channels, ensuring continuous engagement.
• KOLs and Ambassadors: Providing access to key opinion leaders and brand ambassadors to promote your project.
• Raid Groups: Assembling groups to flood your social channels with engagement, creating the illusion of organic interest.
• Influencers: Leveraging influencers to talk about your project, aiming to drive massive investment and interest.

These services are often presented as the golden solution to all your community and investment/capital raise woes. However, the reality is much more complex and often deeply disappointing leading to severe marketing mistakes.

The Harsh Reality – 5 Key Marketing Mistakes 

Most agencies offering these services come from a Web 2.0 background and lack a deep understanding of the Web 3.0 space. 99% of them have never launched their own project, deployed their own smart contract, created their own collection or connected to marketplaces (OpenSea, Magic Eden etc) or exchanges (Dex or CEX). Their solutions are often superficial and designed to be easily monetised by them with no real forethought of how it affects the project.

Here is what most actually do, now I say this so you can speak with these agencies and really ask pertinent questions not just to be wide eyed to the promise of riches and supreme strategy that they may discuss. Here is what they don’t want you to know: – 

1. Collab Outreach: High-profile projects like BAYC or Doodles are unlikely to collaborate with emerging projects lacking reputation. You’re more likely to be connected with projects in a similar or slightly better position, often with bot-driven communities. These collaboration services typically focus on quantity over quality and rarely result in significant growth. Quick tip here, one thing many agencies and freelancers do is provide a spreadsheet with wallets as a result of the apparent work, here please ask for validation as often No validation and no verification is provided. You need 3rd party applications that prove these are active users looking to join the community as early adopters.
2. Social and Discord Management: While management is crucial, agencies often fail to create genuine engagement. Superficial interactions don’t build a loyal community. Daily GM’s in the feed or superficial conversation can easily be purchased elsewhere, look for discord groups they currently manage, ask them and ensure that there are thriving communities of mods and managers with a great community vibe. Quick tips and points to consider, projects often lack creating a user journey mapping process to funnel all data and activities to one central point. For example Telegram is trending, so how do you move telegram users to discord or a website for optimum conversions and users in the community. This is something very few projects get correct and something which doesn’t require significant investment that brings great ROI for campaigns. Getting you funnels and processes right is Key!
3. KOLs and Ambassadors: While they can drive temporary attention, the audience engagement is often fleeting and not genuinely interested in your project. Again here you need to delve deeper, what are ambassadors actually going to do for the project, is it simply a retweet every time you post a key post as this really isn’t good enough in my view, it has to be value driven are they championing your project are they bringing real value, creating intros, brining real community, joining your spaces for support and additional credibility if not again you need to ask the question why not! Typically agencies and freelancers will already have a list of favoured influencers which they will push when actually this is very lazy work, many projects have specific nuances which need to be taken into account, community types, follower types and connections to these influencers is critical, We have no favourites, it’s the right people for the right community, direct introductions.
4. Raid Groups: These groups consist of people (or bots) incentivized to comment on your social channels for rewards, not out of genuine interest. This engagement is superficial and doesn’t translate into long-term support. This is something that can be leveraged if done strategically well and is almost an artform on how to maximise any investment in this type of service, very tricky to get right but impact can be there. 
5. Influencers: The days when a single YouTube shout-out could drive massive investments are over. Today’s audience is more discerning and sceptical of influencer promotions.so this need to be taken for what it is another form a brand awareness, influencers don’t hold anywhere near the power they did in 2017 people are far more hardened and aware of influencer exit liquidity mechanisms now and so this again needs to be treated with car and real strategic approach on how to utilise correctly, picking the correct ones is only the starting point! 

The True Challenge of Building a Community

Building a community of genuine supporters who will buy your token or NFT is incredibly challenging. It requires a well-thought-out, structured approach and significant effort. Strategies that work are not one-size-fits-all; they need to be tailored and continuously adapted. Unfortunately, many agencies can’t provide this level of service, instead offering glossy presentations that are regurgitated for all prospects.

Red Flags and Tips for Avoiding Marketing Mistakes

Here are some red flags and tips to help you evaluate marketing agencies and avoid falling into these common traps:

1. Overpromising Results: Be wary of agencies that guarantee success with hundreds of collabs or instant engagement boosts. Quality always trumps quantity.
2. Lack of Transparency: Ask for detailed case studies and references. Reputable agencies will gladly share their success stories and client contacts. Don’t just rely on a report, speak with clients, dig into their experiences and more. 
3. Superficial Engagement: Avoid services that rely on raid groups or incentivized engagement. Look for agencies that prioritise genuine community building (not rid group driven). 
4. High Fees with Low ROI: Evaluate the cost against the promised services. High fees should correlate with high value and tangible results.
5. Customised Strategies: Beware of one-size-fits-all solutions. Effective marketing strategies should be tailored to your project’s unique needs.

Finding Real Solutions and Avoiding Marketing Mistakes

Instead of falling for these common pitfalls, seek out agencies with a proven track record of delivering sustainable results. Here’s how we at ANSG can help:

• • Strategic Exposure: We focus on comprehensive strategies that build lasting visibility and engagement.
  • Optimised Community Growth: Our Discord audits and community collaborations foster genuine growth and interaction.
  • Expert Guidance: We provide personalised strategy consultations that align with your project’s unique needs.
  • Shared Risk & Shared Reward: Adding influencers and ambassadors to a campaign which have a vested interest which are both rewarded by payment now also tied into the success for the project is critical.

By partnering with an experienced and transparent agency like ANSG, you can avoid wasting thousands of dollars and ensure your project’s success in the competitive NFT landscape. I’ve seen firsthand the difference that a well-executed strategy can make, and I’m here to help you navigate this journey.

Ready to elevate your project’s momentum? Let’s start a conversation about how we can make a meaningful impact on your project.