Best Crypto Marketing Strategy to Scale Community and Narrative.

Written by Julian Stafford (ruthybuilds), founder of Surgence Labs, a specialist web3 marketing agency that builds narrative driven go to market strategies for crypto, DeFi and infrastructure projects.

Crypto marketing in 2025 is not just about getting attention. It is about owning a story so clearly that the market, KOLs and your own community can repeat it without you in the room. For most serious founders, working with a specialised web3 marketing agency or crypto marketing partner is really about one thing: building a narrative that compounds.

In an environment where a new chain, DEX or yield product launches every week, the winners are not always the ones with the best technology. The winners are usually the teams that control the narrative and run a disciplined go to market around it.

At Surgence Labs, we use a simple but aggressive framework for most launches:

Whisper → Tease → Shoutlayered acrossPre launch → Launch → Post launch

You can execute all of that and still suffer if the market cannot clearly answer one basic question.

A strong narrative fixes that. It is the foundation for your content, your token design, your community strategy and your BD.

• Make a website
• Open a Discord
• Do a points campaign
• Hire a few KOLs
• Announce the TGE
• PositioningIt tells people exactly where you sit in the market.Example: “A perp DEX where idle margin earns you yield” is much clearer than “next generation DEX”.
• Connection to incentivesIt makes it obvious what users can gain.Example: governance over billions in stablecoin volume, yield on assets they already hold, access to early ecosystem upside.
• A story that can unfold over timeIt gives you a clear thread from testnet to mainnet to TGE to Season 2 and beyond, instead of random campaigns.

There are three layers:

The Whisper, Tease, Shout framework is how we roll those layers out in a structured way.

• Market narrativeThe macro context.Examples: perp DEX rotation, stablecoin wars, L2 season, SocialFi wave, RWA yield.You cannot control this, but you must plug into it.
• Category narrativeThe slot you occupy.Examples: options DEX versus perp DEX, yield bearing stablecoin versus pure payments coin, “L1 where every action is rewarded” versus “developer first L2”.
• Protocol narrativeThe concrete promise.Examples: Deposit here, mint this, earn that.
• Stake here, gain governance and boosted rewards.
• Use the product, collect points that map to real upside.

We run this across the classic lifecycle:

• WhisperDecide and test your narrative with insiders before the public push.
• TeaseMake the story visible in public and give people a way to get early exposure.
• ShoutOwn the launch window with a focused, unified message and clear actions.
• Pre launchMostly Whisper, then Tease.
• LaunchTease plus Shout.
• Post launchControlled Shout, then a new Whisper around the next chapter.

Pre launch is where you win or lose most of your go to market. It is where you decide the story that will either compound for the next 12 to 24 months or trap you.

For example:

• Who this is for
• What outcome you change for them
• What proof you already have
• “Perp traders who want their idle collateral to earn yield.”
• “Stablecoin users who want yield without leaving the dollar.”
• “Onchain users who want every transaction to count toward ownership.”

You are pressure testing questions like:

• Founder to founder calls with high context KOLs and funds
• Decks and memos that lay out the thesis and token model
• Quiet feedback loops on positioning, token utility and launch structure
• Does this narrative make sense to professional DeFi users
• Does the token actually capture the value the story talks about
• Are we over promising compared to what the product can do in the first 3 to 6 months

You are not shouting. You are quietly preparing the system that will convert hype into durable users when you finally go public.

• A landing page that communicates your one line story and primary call to action
• Discord and Telegram structures that reflect your narrative and funnel
• Early dashboards and leaderboards that can display TVL, wallets, deposits, badges, actions later

Once your internal narrative is locked, you move into Tease. This is still technically pre launch, but now you are visible.

The reader should understand that something different is happening, but still have questions. Those questions are what you convert into signups, pre deposits and badge mints.

• “A perp DEX where your idle margin earns yield.”
• “A chain where every action counts toward ownership.”
• “A governance token backed by real stablecoin volume.”

All of these should reinforce the same idea. For example, if your narrative is “perps that pay you back”, then your early tasks and deposits should revolve around stablecoin deposits, margin usage and governance touchpoints, not random social spam.

• Waitlists and pre registration flows
• Badge or role mints that signal early presence
• Points or Miles systems where tasks are aligned with your thesis
• Pre deposit modules where users can lock stablecoins or native tokens to secure better future positioning

Give them concise angles, such as:

• “This governance launch sits on top of an already large stablecoin stack.”
• “This L1 is using points and badges to track every action, not just farming.”
• “This protocol lets you earn yield on idle trading capital.”

Launch is where your work in Whisper and Tease either pays off or gets exposed.

For example:

• One or two sentences that capture your story
• One primary mechanic for participation
• One main place to act
• “A perp DEX where idle margin earns yield. Deposit stablecoins, trade, and farm governance on top.”
• “An L1 where every action counts. Connect your wallet, claim your ID, start earning points toward governance.”

Users should be able to move from a tweet to your app to your community and see the same story reflected everywhere.

• X or Twitter carries your key narrative lines, stats and KOL amplification
• Discord and Telegram carry support, detail, FAQs and live instructions
• Launchpads, dashboards and in app views show live numbers and progress

During launch, highlight:

• TVL and volume milestones
• Wallet, badge and deposit counts
• Leaderboards of top participants

If you positioned your token as a governance asset, explain exactly how governance will work and how value will flow to holders. If you positioned the chain as “every action counts”, show how actions will continue to be tracked and rewarded after the initial campaign.

• Recap what you promised during Tease
• Show how that is now live in product mechanics and incentives
• Give a clear picture of what happens in the next 30 to 90 days

You repeat the cycle. Align narrative inside the circle first, then Tease out, then Shout again when you are ready.

• A major new product line
• An expansion to another chain
• A new season of points or emissions with a different focus

If your story is yield on idle collateral, your future campaigns should focus on deepening that. If your story is “every action counts”, your metrics should show that you keep tracking and rewarding actions, not only those from the first season.

• Every new campaign reinforces the same core story
• Your token and reward systems keep rewarding the behaviours your narrative claims to care about
• Your public dashboards continue to prove your claims with real data

Crypto marketing rewards teams that treat narrative as infrastructure, not decoration. When you get this right, your campaigns stop being isolated events and start working like a compounding system that pulls users, capital and attention back to you over and over again.

• Clarify your one line narrative and make sure the whole team agrees on it.
• Use Whisper to stress test that story with insiders and align token mechanics and launch structure around it.
• Use Tease to create controlled FOMO with clear, aligned actions like pre deposits, badges and points.
• Use Shout to dominate the launch window with a single story, a single mechanic and a single place to act.
• Use Post launch to close the loop on your promise and set up the next chapter.