4-Phase Marketing Roadmap

After the launch of the “Help, Earn, Win!” web app, our Twitter followers have increased by a factor of 7, our Discord members by a factor of 35. Now although this is incredible news, one has to be careful for with PR events like these one not only attracts possible investors and new community members interested in the project, but bots and scammers as well. Nevertheless, the community base we could build with both the HEW app and the fast evolution of the project within the last months provides a solid foundation to build and grow upon. In this article we now present a longer-term marketing roadmap, designed for the time until the launch of our 3D Riders NFT collection. (Exact date tba soon!)

We have split the roadmap into four phases: filter, grow, solidify, hype. Each phase has its own objective and its own key points. Let’s have a look at each of them.

Phase 1: Filter

The aim of the first phase is to filter out as much bots and “fake” followers in general as possible, so we can focus on the “real” followers which are actually interested in our project. This is the only of all four phases where we expect our community size to acutally decrease, although it would be great of course if the number of new Riders joining outpaced the number of bots leaving. Some key components of this phase are:

• Find and instruct Discord mods (in progress a.t.t.o.w.) and prevent spam-like behaviour
• Filtering bots manually, e.g. groups of new Discord members who have joined in blocks with same-structured usernames, Twitter accounts and Twitter statuses, and introduce a Captcha for Re-Entry to our Discord server.
• Contests/giveaways/raffles which can only be won by those who actually know our project (e.g. Whitepaper quiz, Medium article contest, etc.) or who recently engage with the community (e.g. Discord engagement bot, etc.)
• Feedback / surveys / studies (with rewards) to analyze how new Riders find us, what we could do better, etc.. This then allows us to put focus on the right things.
• For the existing community: Twitter spaces about our project and our story, Discord AMAs about our project, other interactive events.

Phase 2: Grow

The main objective of Phase 2 is a sustainable growth of our community. After we have filtered out most bots and “fake” community members, it is time to grow with real people. The main focus lies on telling the world about what we have planned, getting a wider circle of people to know our project and actually become interested in what we are doing. We want to create an organic base of new followers, which we can solidify in Phase 3 to then build hype upon in Phase 4. Some key components of this phase are:

• Collaborations with other projects to bring communities together and make our project known within their communities, AMAs with other projects in our Discord (to connect Discord communities), Whitelist spot giveaways
• Twitter spaces explaining the concepts of our P2E in full detail and a Litepaper giving a simple summary of everything we have planned, so people can get to know our project in more accessible ways than our 40-pages whitepaper.
• Expanding our social media to other channels like Telegram, Reddit, Instagram, etc. to reach more people.
• Educational content to pull in people from outside the NFT and crypto community. We still have to decide on the exact form and channel for this.
• Award NFTs or Badges like the “Proof of Attendance Protocol” (POAP)

Phase 3: Solidify

After we have organically grown a follower base with people interested in the project and wanting to know more about what we are doing, the next step is to provide them the information they are seeking, to ensure them that our project is thought-through and to explain in full detail how everything works, so no questions are left open before we launch. This will bring the advantage of a (mostly) fully-informed community, which is a key factor to build hype upon later. In Phase 3 the focus lies on providing information, not on necessarily growing the community. The key points include:

• Further Twitter spaces as well as YouTube videos explaining game mechanics, project organization, our minting process, etc. in an illustrated and easy-to-get way
• Twitter spaces and events such as talks and debates on some underlying topics, like what P2Es should certainly have, the future of NFT gaming, etc., to provide our followers with background information and context on the things surrounding our project, not only on the concepts inside the project.
  We have also thought to implement these talks and debates in the form of presentations, where people with cool ideas can share their visions and insights with the community. (like TED talks, for example)
• Establishing trust within the community by setting up a team page, telling our story, getting feedback, voting and commonly deciding on the projects’ future.

Phase 4: Hype

The last phase before launch is all about creating hype: We want to get as many new people as possible to join the Riders Gang. The supporter base we have grown and solidified in previous steps will attract new people due to a FOMO-like effect. (There’s already a lot of people following this project and everybody already is well-informed, so one doesn’t want to miss out or at least wants to see what it’s all about.) Also, the Riders who have joined the Gang in previous steps can now provide information and answer the questions of new Riders. This means that, contrary to Phase 2, we can have a fast growth rate for there is no need to focus most of our marketing on informing people anymore. Instead, the “hype”-phase focuses on the following key points:

• Influencer marketing, NFT event- and drop calendar listings, Twitter Raids, Discord/Twitter/HEW contests, further Whitelist spot giveaways, Discord rambles
• Twitter spaces with main focus on minting, rarities, strategies and gameplay
• Sneak-peeks, trailers, teasers
• Exclusive Riders to win and/or gifted to important people from the Avalanche (or broader crypto) community
• Merchandise
• We will also try to provide sneak-peeks / playable betas from the game already previous to minting.

This marketing roadmap is a first guideline to what we have planned in the following months. Feel free to complete it by giving us feedback or bringing up your own ideas, or to ask questions is anything is not clear to you.

We’re thrilled hearing from you and until then, let’s shred! 🏂