# Mobilise not Market

By [Leviosaa](https://paragraph.com/@leviosaa) · 2023-06-21

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I studied marketing, then I tried building ‘marketing’ for web2 startups, from e-commerce to SaaS to fitness startups, what was interesting in those cases was, that marketing was used as a tool to get the word out, get the relevant audience to come and test the product/service out and the amount of media money you’ve to shell out for that is incredible.

The normal playbook would include testing and piloting multiple campaigns with different messaging different creatives to finally identify the linear equation of the media mix, messaging mix, audience mix. While this playbook logically isn’t wrong, yet there was something which always bugged me- it was built as a reaction, as a response, on the results you get. The best kind of marketing is inbuilt in a product, look at Apple, look at [Harley](https://www.referralcandy.com/blog/harley-davidson-marketing-strategy), look at [Glossier](https://www.glossier.com/).

This is when I’d started reading about Web3 projects and protocols and how is it that these businesses are different. What’s most interesting about Web3 marketing is- it is proactive, it starts from day -1, it starts when you do not even have a product, it starts by finding a real problem and then mobilising the audience who truly believes in it and then that audience becomes your ambassador and it drives more relevant people. Everything that’s done or should ideally be done is to mobilise this community which is super specific to your project whether it is in gaming, defi or NFTs. While the execution strategy might differ, the core remains the same.

It isn’t based on spending insane amount of time, effort and resources to build the tech, build the product but based on building the audience who might want to solve a similar problem is product thesis is based on. While naysayers might flag it to be hype led marketing, not realising hype is just a byproduct of a bunch of people getting super excited about a problem and coming together to solve it.

You don’t necessarily build a community, it gets built. Cults are built on common causes, similar goals, similar value systems and that’s exactly what web3 founders need to understand. Is your narrative strong enough to propel people to come forward and support you? Is your narrative compelling enough for the people to rally behind you? Now, we know why we need to mobilise, not market.

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*Originally published on [Leviosaa](https://paragraph.com/@leviosaa/mobilise-not-market)*