Top Five DAO Marketing Strategies & Tools You Need

A Decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is a type of bottom-up entity structure with no central authority, where members of the DAO own tokens, vote on initiatives, and make decisions for the entity. Unlike traditional communities, DAOs seek to solve the primary aim of transforming interest-based communities into successful organizations.

If you’re new to the world of web 3 and don’t know how DAOs vary from traditional organizations, we will explain it in the most basic terms. In a DAO, token holders have equal ownership, and the community is governed and regulated through smart contracts. Because everyone can see what a DAO is doing and how much money it is raising, it offers greater transparency than traditional organizations. This significantly limits the possibility of fraud and censorship.

Here’s a tweet that beautifully summarizes decentralized autonomous organizations:

Why build your own DAO?

DAOs have been around since 2016, but they are getting more popular with the arrival of web 3.0. In the recent few months, several new decentralized autonomous organizations have emerged, attracting significant funding and a passionate community. They’re everywhere, and they’re doing crazy stuff like attempting to buy the US Constitution or an NBA team. According to DeepDAO, there are already more than 187 DAOs managing over $11 billion in assets. You have an excellent chance to build your own community and grow that into a successful DAO.

We’ve seen from the examples above that DAOs can be much more than simply a Discord server with a native token. Put another way, they’re groups of people who work together to accomplish a common goal while earning from its success. As a new type of business organization, DAOs offer unique advantages and challenges that can redefine traditional business models.

Now that you know why you should build your own DAO, let’s have a look at how you may go about creating one.

How to build your own DAO?

DAOs are community-owned businesses, and thus in order to create your own DAO, you must first create a community of like-minded individuals that share a common interest. However, if you have already built a thriving community and want to create a decentralized autonomous organization for it, you have two options:

Using a DAO structure for organizations offers several benefits and challenges. It allows tapping into a global network, eliminating bureaucracy, and raising funds efficiently. However, it also presents challenges such as the complexity of setting up and maintaining DAOs, the potential for scams and fraud, and the risk of conflicting goals within the network.

The first method is creating smart contracts and deploying them on programmable blockchains such as Ethereum, Solana, or Cardano. A blockchain developer or someone in your community who knows about blockchain development is required to do this.

The second way is an easy way. You can use DApps such as Aragon and DAOstack that allow you to develop and launch your DAO without getting bogged down in the technicalities of the blockchain. These DApps assist you in getting your DAO up and running by providing services such as members management, treasury tools, and governance infrastructure.

More tools that you can use to build a DAO

For management

Gnosis Safe - A multi-sig wallet that is widely used to handle community treasury.

CollabLand - Bots that offer token-gated access and tips in community channels.

Parcel - Treasury management to track and send funds effortlessly.

Tally - A governance platform to track on-chain vote history across various protocols.

Sybil - for Delegating on-chain governance and keeping track of it.

RabbitHole - A platform for rewarding tokens in exchange for completing on-chain work.

For communications

Boardroom - A governance portal for tokenholders to enable critical decision-making.

Snapshot - An off-chain voting platform for simple token-based management.

For community building and engaging with the community

Discord & Telegram: Platforms preferred by crypto and blockchain enthusiasts for building communities

Coordinape - Coordination game to determine which contributors(s) deserve token rewards.

SourceCred - Instance to track community participation and reward active members.

DAO Marketing strategies

Launching a DAO isn’t rocket science, but if you want to invite people and get some attention, you’ll need to execute specific tasks correctly, including the marketing side of your DAO. This section will identify the most crucial marketing aspects you should not overlook when starting your DAO, including leveraging blockchain technology and emerging technologies. A good understanding of these technologies is essential for creating effective marketing strategies.

When looking at DAO marketing services, influencer marketing can be key.

To attract new members and grow your DAO, it is important to research past clients of any marketing agency you consider. A customized and flexible marketing strategy tailored to your DAO's specific goals and needs is crucial. Understanding your target audience and how to engage them effectively will help you achieve your core objectives.

1. Clearly define your mission

Defining a mission is the first and probably, most crucial step while creating a DAO. You're giving DAO members a clear north star to aim for by ensuring this. The mission of a DAO can be pretty much anything. For example, Uniswap is a DEX whose mission is to construct an open protocol for transferring value. Friends with Benefits is a community of creators who want to build the perfect social club. Defining your objective is merely the first step toward constructing a DAO. But once you've nailed that down, you can focus on people who believe in this mission, which leads us to build a community.

2. Build a community

Read more on the topic and check out our Discord guide on building an engaging community for your blockchain or NFT project.

3. Provide ownership and reward to community members

You must determine how participants in your DAO will be rewarded for their contributions. An alternate viewpoint would be that tokens have secondary market value, which increases as the DAO becomes more popular. If your DAO grows in popularity, it will attract the interest of more participants who wish to profit from the DAO's creative efforts, right to vote on the treasury, and other benefits.

As a result, your DAO with aligned incentives for contributors can have the potential to outperform other DAOs in the long run. The more members who can be paid for their work/contribution, the higher the value of your DAO will be.

4. Encourage high voting participation

The value of a DAO is driven not only by the member activity but also by active involvement in voting, which allows the organization to adapt and develop continuously. The fact that members have voting rights does not guarantee to vote. By looking at the percentage of people who voted on each proposal, you can understand how involved members are in the decision-making process. This metric is more meaningful if the DAO's size is small. 

5. Host airdrops & giveaways

Airdrops and giveaways are excellent strategies to generate further interest in your DAO. They can assist you in increasing community awareness, increasing participation, and growing your social media presence. Furthermore, airdrops can let you create a free distribution of your DAO's token. They can also contribute to the initial value by allowing users to exchange their tokens.

We are here to help you

DAOs are opening up the era in crypto history by providing a novel mechanism for individuals to coordinate over the internet and have joint ownership. As interest in the field is growing, DAOs have begun to expand and push the limits of what is possible. Today, there are DAOs for investment, creating new products, networking, and much more. If you want to start a DAO with a genuine initiative that will alter the world. We are here to assist you in putting your ideas in front of the world.

FAQs for Launching Your DAO

What are the best platforms to build and launch a DAO?

• Smart Contracts: You can create smart contracts on blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, or Cardano. This requires technical expertise or a blockchain developer.
• DApps: Platforms like Aragon and DAOstack simplify DAO creation, offering tools for member management, treasury, and governance without deep technical knowledge.

How can I effectively market my DAO to attract members and funding?

• Define a Clear Mission: Clearly articulate the purpose and goals of your DAO to align and attract members who share your vision.
• Community Building: Utilize platforms like Discord and Telegram to gather like-minded individuals and foster discussions that strengthen community ties.
• Ownership and Rewards: Offer tokens or other incentives to reward community members for their participation and contributions, enhancing engagement and loyalty.

What strategies can enhance member participation in DAO governance?

• Encourage Voting: Promote active participation in DAO governance by simplifying the voting process and educating members about its importance.
• Airdrops and Giveaways: Use airdrops and giveaways to increase engagement and reward active community members, boosting interest and involvement in governance decisions.
• Transparent Communication: Maintain open and regular communication about DAO activities and decisions to ensure members feel involved and informed.

Further Reading on DAO marketing strategies

See Our DAO Marketing Guides