Cryptocurrency Marketing Guide: Think Like a Product Manager

Author: Jim

Compiled by: Shenchao TechFlow

Think about the last time you saw an advertisement.

You might have been tired, your mind blank, just wanting to watch a nice cooking video on YouTube, only to be interrupted by a 90-second ad about laundry detergent or something similar.

Or, you were listening to a very useful podcast, suddenly interrupted by, "Next, a message from our sponsor."

Your body tenses up, your heart races, and you frantically hit the "skip ad" button, wishing you could get rid of it immediately.

We’ve all done this, and it has always been this way. Since the first merchant shouted out their goods at the market, people have been bombarded by advertisements while also trying to find ways to ignore them.

So, if we all agree that ads are terrible, why do you think others will like your ads?

Oh, you think you’re not advertising?

Actually, the definition of advertising is "announcements promoting products in public."

So every time you tweet about your project on Twitter, that’s advertising.

However, most founders always make the same mistake.

They think founder-led marketing is just talking about their projects on Twitter, so they keep posting ads, only to be ignored. They tweet for a week, find no interaction, and give up. (Don't blame the "algorithm," it's not its fault.)

When I first launched Catalyst, I made the same mistake.

I desperately promoted my product, but no one was interested at all.

I spent a lot of energy writing tweets that were completely ignored, and it felt really bad. I even thought about quitting Twitter altogether and just focusing on being a product manager for Catalyst.

At work, I switched back and forth between writing product requirement documents and crafting tweets. Gradually, these two began to intertwine in my mind, and I finally understood:

I needed to stop thinking like a marketer and start thinking like a product manager. I needed to approach it from the user's perspective and create tweets that solve problems for my "users" (followers).

This was the key to unlocking the code of founder-led marketing.

Become the product manager of your content

A Product Manager is the "voice of the user"—understanding their needs and ensuring the product satisfies them.

Being the product manager of your content means deeply understanding your followers and providing them with what they truly want.

Think about it: why do people go to Crypto Twitter? Their purposes are simply:

1. To make their lives better;

2. To seek entertainment.

For point 1, they might hope to find valuable information (like trading advice) on their timeline. For point 2, after a whole day of losing money, they just want to laugh and relieve the pain.

This is the type of content you need to create. If you can achieve both, that’s even better.

However, most founders always mess it up—they can't suppress the urge to self-promote. They think not about "What do my followers need?" but rather "How can I show others how great I am?"

Your content should either be useful or entertaining; otherwise, it’s garbage.

Let me tell you how I do it.

I try to be useful by sharing my experiences as a founder (like this article!).

At the same time, I also express my dissatisfaction with the current state of the crypto industry and the existential anxiety I feel for dedicating my career to this "absurd industry," making it entertaining.

Coincidentally, these two types of content perform the best.

Of course— I can’t always post content unrelated to my project. I need to connect the content to my project because I have growth goals to achieve, and the company needs to survive. Otherwise, my team and investors will question what I’m doing every day.

This leads to a million-dollar question: How do you find the balance between providing value and promoting your product?

I’ve found two key principles that can make promotional content truly effective:

(1) If you must promote, do it moderately

In fact, there is research on how to balance promotional and non-promotional content (sometimes referred to as the "give-and-take ratio").

For example, in a TV show, about 13 minutes of every 60 minutes of airtime is advertising. In terms of ratio, that’s about 2:7 (for those not good at math, that’s 13/(60 - 13)).

Looking at Facebook, they are a bit "milder," inserting 1 ad for every 4 posts, so the ratio is 1:4.

For Twitter, especially in a "dynamic" space like Crypto Twitter (CT), I personally prefer to reduce the promotional ratio. I adopt a 1:9 strategy, meaning 10% of the content is promotional, and the remaining 90% provides value.

But just knowing when to promote isn’t enough. If your promotional approach isn’t engaging, all efforts will be in vain. The real secret lies in how to promote.

(2) If you must promote, do it tastefully

My favorite ads don’t even look like ads.

For example, those funny ads—like Duolingo's humorous comments on lone wolf trading or their Super Bowl ad; or those ads that can move me to tears, like this unofficial Nintendo ad; and some weird ads that you just have to share with friends.

The best ads are entertaining, so entertaining that you forget you’re being sold to. So strong that people are willing to spend their free time watching ad compilations on YouTube.

So, how do you achieve this?

Again, think like a product manager (PM)—What do your users really like?

If you have no data, start with what you like as a reference. Most of the time, if you’re working on a consumer-facing (B2C) product, you and your users may share similar interests.

Here’s what I did in the CrossCats project:

I noticed our Discord channel was filled with cat memes, and I loved watching "Adventure Time" as a kid. So we combined the two and created Cupcakes and their team.

(See tweet)

Excellent Founder Marketing Practices

But to be honest, I’m still far from the benchmark of "founder-led marketing." So let’s look at those founders who really do it well.

Before we start, one very important point: Don’t try to replicate what those successful founders are doing now. Their influence has formed a positive feedback loop, and basically, anything they post will go viral.

For example, those ambiguous short phrases used to create hype only work when you already have a certain follower base.

Instead, you should study the success stories of those founders when they were less known.

Take Rushi, for example—he gradually gained fame by becoming a supporter of Move and writing in-depth articles about why Move is significant in the context of trends like parallelization and inscriptions.

Then there’s Keone, who adopted a strategy similar to mine—documenting his experiences while building the Monad project, including everything from hiring to community building:

(See tweet)

(See tweet)

Have a Never-Give-Up Spirit

I hope this article helps you resolve your doubts as a founder when creating quality content—so you won’t waste time posting content that no one cares about.

But remember, just knowing these methods doesn’t equal success.

If you really want to stand out in founder-led marketing, you must be persistent. This is a long grind, and results won’t come overnight.

If you don’t believe me, you can follow those excellent founders I mentioned and turn on their tweet notifications. They post high-quality content multiple times a day, continuously providing value.

Don’t treat this as a short-term task; it’s not something you can accomplish in a week or a month. You need to make it a habit—spend at least 1 hour a day for several years.

If you’re truly willing to put in the effort, the rewards are immense. With a strong personal brand, you’ll find that recruiting, collaborating, and fundraising become much easier.

If you think this is too hard, accept this fact: Becoming an excellent founder requires tremendous effort, and there are no shortcuts. Not everyone can become a great founder because not everyone is willing to give their all for it.

But if you truly desire success, you will give it your all.