Growing a Web3 product without a budget: Talent Protocol case study

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Epic Web3

Dec 19, 2022

GM, Web3 explorer 🖖

This is Epic Web3 Newsletter — your weekly dose of actionable insights from the major Web3 experts.

Every Monday at 10 AM (WET/GMT) we take your products TO THE MOON 🚀

🎉 Epic Web3 Summit recordings are available!

What weeks they were! We’ve gone through 5 days filled with super helpful keynote speeches and smart AMA sessions.

Hey, did you miss it for some reason?

No prob! Happy to share that we’ve uploaded all the Epic Web3 Summit recordings to our video library. There you’ll find case studies by Unstoppable Domains, 1inch, Talent Protocol, Balancer & other Web3 best builders. No fluff, just real-world knowledge.

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The Summit was a success and we definitely believe that our brand-new content can help you boost your product. But don’t take our word for it — see what others say!

Hey, the recordings are available via Epic Web3 Membership — but no need to commit if you didn’t find it useful. Just try giving it a chance with a 14-day free trial period, cancel anytime 😉

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🧞‍♂️ How to grow a Web3 product without spending a bunch of money? Community Insights on Frugal Marketing.

Epic Web3 Genie is here 👋

I like collecting insights from the Web3 community and bringing it to you. Being a magical creature myself, I admire people who can do magic — especially those who know how to grow Web3 products from scratch. Come say “gm” on Twitter or Telegram 😉

And this time I’m digging into a very intriguing topic — the concept of frugal marketing. Spend less, earn more — isn’t it everybody’s dream?

Let’s learn how it helped Filipe Macedo, Co-founder & CMO at Talent Protocol, to grow his Web3 product:

First things first. Talent Protocol is the Web3 professional platform and community where high-potential individuals can build an on-chain resume and launch a talent token, allowing anyone to easily invest in their careers.

Here are some amazing numbers the product’s got so far:

— 150K registered users;

— 566 talent tokens launched;

— $630K invested in talent (P2P).

Filipe Macedo explores 4 strategies of frugal marketing that you can try to apply to your business. But keep in mind — only two of them worked out well!

1️⃣ Talent House ✅

Idea: launch a scholarship to help high-potential builders attend their first Web3 event.

Outcome:

— 1000+ applicants;

— 60 scholars from all over the world attended their first Web3 hackathons and conferences;

— Improved brand sentiment & awareness.

Total Cost:

— Sponsors: $138,000 ($30k left to organize another Talent House)

— Inhouse: $0

2️⃣ Merch ✅

Idea: create a swag line people actually want to wear and use.

Outcome:

— Recognizable merch that people actually wear;

— The company ran out of merch very quickly — that created a sense of exclusivity;

— Big backlog of requests.

Total cost: $3,400

3️⃣ Referral Waitlist ⚠️

Idea: limit access to the MVP to create more FOMO and interest by making it feel exclusive.

To create the waitlist system, Talent Protocol used the Viral Loops tool, and afterward they used token rewards for inviting people to the platform.

Outcome:

— Quick and exponential growth by 10x BUT

— Low quality of users;

— Big churn rate.

Total Cost:

— $1000 (Viral Loops)

— 50K tokens

Lesson learned: Build your community around the product, and not the token. The latter might be the fuel, but not the fire. So focus on your product as the key go-to-market strategy and the foundational layer to the community.

4️⃣ Editorial & PR ⛔

Idea: use long-form content (newsletter and podcast) to attract quality users and be able to monetize it later.

The company hired a full-time content lead, guest writers, a podcast & PR manager, etc. to achieve “no-cost” growth.

Outcome:

— Low engagement score: only 250 total podcast listeners & 700 blog readers/per month.

Total Cost:

— Podcast: $8000

— PR: $7000

— Guest writers: $2400

Lesson learned: Using long-term content to build an audience doesn’t mean you’re making a self-sustainable project; your audience might not turn into a community and won’t stay with the product long.

These are just some of the highlights that Filipe shared during the EW3 Summit. If you wanna get deeper insights on all four strategies, grab your chance and watch his full video 👇

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