4 PR tips for DeFi startups

As an industry, decentralized finance – better known as DeFi – is having a watershed moment. The sector shot past the $100 billion valuation mark last year, with total user estimates surpassing one million. The impact is real, and DeFi’s astronomic growth and relative newness present some unique PR opportunities for startups in the sector. Who and what will determine DeFi’s narrative is anybody’s game. What that means for DeFi startup PR is that anything can happen. Startups ready to tell their brand story to the world have the chance to make some serious waves.

If you’re one such leader of a DeFi startup who’s feeling ready to go public with your brand message, there are a few things to keep in mind. Choosing and working with a high tech PR agency, particularly one specializing in crypto, is a process that works best when you know what to expect, where you are, and what you want. If you want to hone your DeFi brand story and make your PR efforts pop, follow these tips from the get-go.

Know the skill level of your target audience

DeFi has quite the learning curve, and the advanced user experience is very different from the experience of everyday users dabbling in trading memecoins. You need to have a clear idea about what skill level of DeFi user your product or service is suited to. You need to have an equally clear idea about who you want to reach with your PR efforts, and their respective skill levels. If you make a DEX aggregator wallet plugin catering to serious traders only, you’re likely going to be very selective about your audience. If you make a tool that helps users of all kinds track their on-chain portfolio, you’ll probably want to reach everyone from advanced users to the crypto-curious. You and your PR agency should know exactly where your target audience falls on the skill spectrum, and adjust accordingly.

Be able to explain what your DeFi startup does in plain language

DeFi, blockchain, crypto, NFTs – these are jargon-heavy worlds, and it’s more than a little opaque if you don’t speak the language. Unless you’re going after only the highest-level users, your target audience is not going to intuitively know every acronym or what “non-custodial” and “decentralized perpetuals” mean. And, quite frankly, people aren’t going to be interested in your story if they can’t even begin to understand it. You and your PR firm should be able to explain your product or service in plain language using real-world comparisons and examples. You win people over by meeting them where they are.

Think bigger about what you’re for than what you’re against

One of the most dominant press narratives in DeFi right now centers on how DeFi presents an alternative to corporate finance and billion-dollar banks. That’s significant in more ways than one, but it’s also the most obvious narrative. If you want your startup’s messaging to cut through the noise, you can’t rely on the same story everyone else in the sector is telling. It’s great that you’re an alternative to traditional modes of finance. It’s better if you can pair that with a demonstration of what’s new and exciting that your startup is establishing for the first time. 

Plan where you’re going, but know where you are

The early stages of tech PR are all about strategizing for the future. There are lots of conversations about who you want to talk to and what you’re going to do in the coming months and years. We love a bright future as much as the next agency, but particularly in a space as new as DeFi, it’s important to have an equally solid understanding of where your startup is on its roadmap right now and what realistic expectations can be set based on existing data. It’s important to remember (no matter how ambitious your PR strategy) that the first audience that’s going to be open to listening is your existing users. Don’t forget them in the process. DeFi PR is a space as new and rapidly evolving as DeFi itself. If your startup is branching out and getting into it, you’re doing so at an ideal and interesting time. By having a rock-solid grasp on your audience and your PR goals, you’re setting yourself up to cut through the noise and help determine the narrative of the industry itself. That’s no small thing.