How To Cultivate An Engaged Crypto Community with Zac McKenna

Ty Smith0:00

What is up, guys? Today we are talking about the importance of community in crypto marketing and how to build an engaged, organic crypto community. With me today is Zac McKenna from Token Metrics. Token Metrics is a leading crypto data, research, ratings company, and Zac is senior marketing and business development strategist there. So, Zac, welcome. How are you?

Zac McKenna0:18

Doing well, Ty. Thank you for having me.

Ty Smith0:18

Of course, of course. So, before we dive into the importance of community and kind of the meat of it, can you tell me a little bit and tell the audience a little bit about yourself, who you are, what Token Metrics is?

Zac McKenna0:25

Yeah, sure. Absolutely. So, I'll go ahead and just start with what Token Metrics is. At a high level, like you mentioned, we're a cryptocurrency investment research platform. We're powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. So, that's what really ends up setting us apart from everyone else. Through these products, we're able to provide price predictions, model portfolios, and basically individualized ratings for over 6,000 tokens. And as far as what I do with the company, basically, I'm in charge of coming up with a lot of different marketing strategies that we implement along with just really engaging in our community. Like, one of the biggest roles I have is managing our affiliate network. We are partnered with the biggest names in crypto on YouTube, in Discord, Twitter, Telegram, just making sure that they're promoting our product and getting our name out there because it's a useful tool for anyone in crypto. So, we want to make sure everyone knows about it that will find value in using it.

Ty Smith1:24

Awesome. So, I mean, let's dive into community. How would you define an engaged, organic community in the world of crypto?

Zac McKenna1:31

That's a really good question. I mean, as anyone in crypto knows, community is the most important thing. A strong community can literally move markets. I would really define it as the fabric of who you are in crypto. Without your community, you're really nothing. They're the ones that support you, and you're the ones that is trying to make their lives better and give them a solution to a problem that they have had throughout their lives or are currently encountering. That's why I always view it as the way I position the company when we come up with new products, the way we message it, is that we always want to be listening to the community. We don't want to ever be pushing something on them of what we think is right. We want them to tell us what is right, what they really need, and we want to be the company that represents who they are.

Ty Smith2:27

Awesome. Yeah, I think community, I mean, marketing, community as a marketing concept is not a new concept, but it's never been, in my opinion, stressed at a level of importance that the Web3 crypto world has created. We're seeing now, I mean, NFTs, a successful NFT launch, we've covered it extensively on this podcast, it's an exercise in community building. Like, the ones that are selling out are the ones that have built the most passionate communities. The celebrities that have been successfully selling their NFTs are because they already have such passionate communities. It truly is what is making or breaking the success of so many crypto companies. So, how are you guys kind of investing in the community of Token Metrics?

Zac McKenna3:16

So, the way we kind of do it is, I'm not sure how many people are familiar with Token Metrics at this point, but we started out in about bear market 2018, launched on Black Friday, but we really engaged our community as we started through our YouTube channel. We're now at over 100,000 subscribers. And really, what it comes down to is just creating content and value for people that helps them achieve their financial dreams. That's what our whole core value is, is financial freedom for all of humanity. So, as long as we're creating content like that and giving people an edge to the markets that they can't find anywhere else, we're doing right by them, and that's the most important thing. But what you mentioned is actually very interesting. Like, NFTs right now are massive examples of how powerful community is. I think even with all the different DAOs coming up there, just showing, I think it was the golf one that just recently came about that made waves was LinksDAO, that they're buying a golf course. I'm not sure where that project currently stands on it, but it shows just the power of individuals coming together in a community to pursue a common goal. And that's what we are hoping to kind of harness with our product and our community. There's a reason why we call everyone in Token Metrics our crypto family. That's one of the cores of who we are, is because they truly are. And I believe that, firmly believe that they truly understand that and they feel that when they're interacting with us and when we work with them because they are very much builders of Token Metrics as much as they are customers.

Ty Smith5:00

And how deliberate has Token Metrics been in defining the community versus kind of letting it define itself?

Zac McKenna5:06

That's a really good question. I would say we let the community define themselves. We give them more of the outlet and the organization to do it, but we want them to have ownership of it. So that way, they can discuss what they would like to discuss, like involving our Telegram groups, different things like that, or YouTube, anything like that. We are very interactive with our chats. Through our platform itself, we offer specific Telegram chat groups where you'll literally be able to talk to our analysts in almost a one-on-one group setting and ask them any type of question on a project, and they'll be able to respond to you. Like, one of our, my favorite employees at Token Metrics, he's a fantastic guy, incredibly experienced, is Bill Noble. He's basically our master TA guy. And it's funny scrolling through our Telegram chats where people are just literally, especially when there's a crash in the market, they're just calling out projects, and he's charting them by hand and showing them what they do and where he's seeing like, 'This is a point of resistance right here. Start looking for buys here. There's accumulation here. Don't buy here. It's kind of a top.' It's very, it's very interesting, and it's, I think, a lot of people get a lot of value out of it.

Ty Smith6:14

Yeah, that's awesome. How early on do you think in the life cycle of launching a product or service in the crypto world should the focus be on development or building of a community?

Zac McKenna6:20

I would say that's honestly the first step. First step is creating a community because they're going to be able to, creating a community is going to be able to give you a base that will be able to guide where your product goes and how you should be positioning it. Because if you don't have a community, the worst thing that can end up happening is that you end up creating a product and essentially marketing it to an audience of zero for a solution that nobody's really looking for. So, creating that community first is critical because they provide a very good resource to give you true feedback, and it allows you to kind of have a very good solid base to serve as a launchpad for yourself.

Ty Smith6:42

Awesome. Yeah, I want to go through some like tips and tricks and just kind of important points that I think and then you think regarding the building of communities. The first one I have on here is just defining the values of the community and sticking to them, which is why I asked how intentional were you. Some people, some companies are very intentional with, 'This is what we stand for.' They define it real early. 'This is what we stand for. We only want to attract people that fit these values, that whatever, value the same things that we value,' and then aggressively recruit those people. Others just say like, 'We've built this product. We want to build a community of people that are interested in using the product, but beyond that, we're going to kind of let the community define itself.' I tend to skew to the first of saying like, 'Let's have a game plan of what we stand for and then making sure the community embodies those values.' So, that's number one on my list. Number two would be being very conscious with your own marketing, that it aligns and attracts the right kind of people. So, once you've defined your values, I think it's important to think about where those people live and then market them accordingly. And number three is just re-engage, re-engage, re-engage, re-engage. You have to just, community is like a place for people to live and converse, and I think people now need to constantly be re-engaged and just kind of like told what's new in the community and have like peers essentially in the community that are chatting them up all the time. Otherwise, the community dies out relatively quickly. Is there anything you would add to that regarding like tips to successfully build a community?

Zac McKenna8:35

I think, yeah, I think there's a few. I think honestly kind of the first one I want to talk to on it, about how you're saying kind of coming in with a game plan on it, I think that's very important. Kind of speaking to what Token Metrics, how we're very kind of organic with it, is essentially we didn't really come with a game plan saying, 'This is what it needs to be.' It evolved into that because our community evolved from the content we were making. So, we know what type of content we wanted, and we noticed essentially what type of value was needed in the overall crypto space. And by providing that, we almost naturally attracted the people that find the most value. And now, our entire community has involved into the space of very intelligent, sophisticated, and just people seeking more knowledge in the crypto space. And it's actually fantastic to see our community engage with each other because they're all trying to help and build each other up. And I think that's a great thing we've had, like through not only through our moderators that we have as the social media management, but we also have people in the community who really understand the value of Token Metrics and essentially police the discussion themselves and will push it in the right direction. So, I think that's kind of a very interesting thing to do. Now, one thing I think I wanted to add to your tips on it is when it comes to community, you always want to be innovating. You always want to be looking for where the next community is, who's the new audience that would find value in what you bring, and it may not be the same traditional media platforms that you're currently on. Like, I'm sure like when TikTok first came out, there's thousands of people thought it was just going to be a fad. It was going to be just something like Vine. It was nothing. But now, it's created into a great community platform that serves as a fantastic funnel for a product or for the communities or for push to a YouTube channel or any other type of content platform. So, I would say that is probably the most important thing in any marketer's tool set, is always be looking for the next big thing and for looking to innovate in how you can grow.

Ty Smith10:38

Cool. How would you kind of define your community that you guys have built? What's important to a community member of Token Metrics?

Zac McKenna10:42

I think honestly, I mentioned, I know I mentioned earlier in the podcast, but the tagline for where our community is, it's just crypto family. That's who we are. We're all in this race together with crypto. It's all one big family for us. We're always looking to make each other better, to improve things, to help each other learn, and to just grow the space in general in a very positive environment. It's not anything about like crypto tribalism or anything like that. That's, that's something that is not who we are, not something we want to be a part of. We want to make crypto a building block for everyone to achieve their goals of financial freedom. And I think our community does a great job of doing that. And like I mentioned a little bit ago previously, like they help each other a lot of the times. It gets to a point, honestly, where our community, where we have given them the tools in so many different ways that say if our analysts or something can't interact with them at that certain time, they already kind of know what they have said in the past. They're able to point like other community members in the right direction, and it's been a fantastic experience, which is why we've seen such tremendous growth across the board.

Ty Smith12:13

Yeah, before, I, you know, obviously the focus of this podcast is on community, but you did briefly touch on something that was interesting to me as, you know, I'm a crypto marketer, I'm always interested in what's working for different companies. You alluded to affiliate marketing being part of your marketing strategy. Can you speak to that a little bit more of the importance of affiliate marketing and any levels of success that you've found or not found with it?

Zac McKenna12:26

Yeah, absolutely. Honestly, affiliate marketing is our biggest tool for success. It's our biggest revenue driver for Token Metrics. It's what makes us who we are. But what's really important to us is that we're partnering with the right people. We want to partner with the right people who wield their power responsibly in the crypto space. And we want people who can see the value of the tool. And so, when they showcase it on their YouTube channel, on their blog, on their platform, we want them to have a full understanding of the tool and that they can use it reputably and so that they can truly see the value. Because it's very, it's actually very interesting to see in the YouTube space now, especially if you go across channels, who is mentioning us and how many people are using our research and reference it, especially when you look at timelines for different growth of channels, especially when certain channels have made big explosions in growth, particularly off their picks of coins, where their research came from. And that's been very important to us, and it's something we are looking to continue to grow. We have a great affiliate with our relation, or great relationships with our affiliates, and we're very excited to have them on board, and we can't wait to see where this all goes, hopefully to the moon and beyond with them.

Ty Smith13:35

Awesome. Any cool tools that you use for affiliate marketing, or is it kind of done manually still?

Zac McKenna13:39

Really, it's just kind of our platform is done through Tapfiliate. So, basically, that's what we kind of go, we go out and recruit different affiliates, bring them all on, and then kind of let them go free and just help them. We sometimes collaborate with them on content, provide them with a little bit of guides, give them walkthroughs, engage with their community, make guest appearances. But what's actually really great about our affiliate program is that it's not something we reserve exclusively for the biggest affiliates or biggest promoters in the space. Like, we give them a little bit of different features, we give them special access, different types of stuff, we help them collaborate content, but anyone can join our affiliate program. And basically, honestly, if any customer we have already has their affiliate account set up, and we also have a scholarship program set up as well where if you earn, like if you can be an affiliate, you can also earn a free account and earn commission at the same time. But what really honestly sets our affiliate program apart other than just having a really strong product that people can use is how we operate with it. We offer a 40% commission.

Ty Smith14:43

Wow. That's pretty significant.

Zac McKenna14:45

Yeah, it's something that doesn't happen.

Ty Smith14:46

What is like the going rate, what's like the going rate for like like a subscription to Token Metrics? Is it like a tiered system? How does that work?

Zac McKenna14:50

Yeah, so it's a tiered system. We have our basic, our advanced, our professional, and then we have our VIP. VIP is kind of on a whole different tier with a whole different access on it. So, it goes on a monthly basis, so you get, it's a nice little kind of SaaS model, which does a lot. And essentially, our affiliates earn commission for the first year or 12 months. And then, just that's how it works. It's a great model. I would say I would have to double-check the pricing on it, but I believe our middle tier plan goes for $99 a month. I would have to double-check that.

Ty Smith15:38

That's pretty good. I mean, 40 bucks a month per affiliate, per person that you refer, it's pretty good, especially with recurring revenue.

Zac McKenna15:43

Well, not only that, they also...

Ty Smith15:44

I know...

Zac McKenna15:44

They also get like, we set our affiliates up for success. We also give them the ability to give discounts to their users, and they're generally, they actually, they've all, not generally, they all are, they're a lifetime discount. So, for as long as the customer stays on and as long as they want to re-subscribe, they get a discount at 10%, I believe.

Ty Smith16:19

Yeah, I mean, I love the whole affiliate model for like SaaS companies and specifically crypto SaaS companies because everyone still, there's no like CNBC of crypto yet. I mean, like CNBC itself is trying to become the CNBC of crypto, but like they have other things on their mind. So, people are turning to YouTubers primarily to get their news, to get their trading information, to kind of scratch that itch of like, 'Where should I invest my money in crypto?' Super cool opportunity. I hope it lasts long term because I think it's really cool that it's really meshed up with the vibe of crypto being decentralized, that anyone can be a content creator, anyone can make a living online. I think the whole overlap between monetizing like the creator economy plus crypto is like super, super interesting. Before we go, obviously, us on the topic of community, like where does your community live? If someone wants to join the Token Metrics community, where can they find it?

Zac McKenna16:55

Yeah, absolutely. So, first thing I would suggest is just go to our YouTube channel, Token Metrics. That's honestly going to be the easiest way to do it other than going to our website, tokenmetrics.com.

Ty Smith17:25

Shout out to Dylan. He did his pitch on me on it.

Zac McKenna17:26

Yes, yes. Go go watch Ty's interview with Dylan. He's a, Dylan's fantastic. But yeah, I would go there, watch a couple of our videos. We have all of our links. Join our Telegram group, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, any of those. We're all there for it. And honestly, just check out our website as well, tokenmetrics.com. It's a great platform. You'll be able to see everything we do.

Ty Smith17:41

Awesome, Zac. Thank you very much for being here, and I appreciate your insights into both community and affiliate marketing. Super helpful stuff.

Zac McKenna17:45

My pleasure. Thanks for having me, Ty.

Ty Smith17:47

Yeah.