Bootstrapped Marketing for Hackathon Projects: A Straight-to-the-Point Guide
Hey Builders, from my experience at past Metis hackathons, I put together a quick marketing template for your early-stage projects. No long lecture, just a straight-to-the-point guide to help you set up presence and introduce your project to audiences.
So here’s a handy step-by-step guide with templates, tools, and case studies to ease your job.
Step 1: Set Up Your Presence (In This Order)
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X (Twitter) → fastest visibility. Use hackathon hashtags and tag mentors/judges.
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Website / Landing Page → a simple Notion or Typedream site with your one-liner pitch + CTA.
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Telegram or Discord → community space for testers and feedback.
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Forum / DevPost Showcase → GitHub repo.
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Content Push → recap X threads, demo videos, build-in-public updates
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Partnership Outreach → DM relevant protocols and infra partners for retweets/collabs.
With this setup, you can launch a lean, scrappy campaign in under a week.
Step 2: Ready-to-Use Announcement Templates
X (Twitter) Post Templates
Launch Announcement
We just built XXX in 48 hours at [Hackathon Name]!
XXX helps [target users] do [core value] in a faster, simpler, and Web3-native way.
Try it here: [link]
Feedback is gold to us — tell us what you think! #BuildInPublic
Call for Testers
Early testers wanted!
XXX is live on testnet — solving [problem] with [solution].
If you:
Care about [niche]
Join our community & help shape XXX: [TG/Discord link]
Telegram Post Templates
Welcome Post
Welcome to the official XXX Community!
We launched XXX at [Hackathon Name] to [problem → solution in 1 line].
Thanks for being early — let’s build together!
Engagement Push
Want to shape the future of XXX?
We’re looking for early users to test our dApp & share feedback.
Top contributors get a shout-out!Join here
Step 3: AI Tools to Save You Time
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ChatGPT → write captions, blog drafts, FAQ answers.
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Canva / Figma AI → quick branded visuals.
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CapCut AI → edit snappy demo videos.
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Prompt for AI Design:
“Create a clean, modern Web3 marketing banner for a hackathon project called XXX. Theme: [DeFi/Gaming/Social]. Futuristic but minimal style. Add placeholder text for ‘XXX’ and tagline ‘Built at [Hackathon Name].’ Size: 1200x675 for Twitter, 1080x1080 for Telegram.”
Step 4: Learn from Winners (Case Study: Showtime, ETHGlobal Paris)
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Built dApp X + website + TG in week 1.
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Posted raw “we built this in 48 hrs” updates.
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Leveraged hackathon exposure (tagging mentors, hosts).
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Turned testers into testimonials → got covered in The Defiant + Bankless.
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Raised $7.6M from Paradigm & a16z Crypto.
Key takeaway: Don’t wait for perfection. Ship fast, share openly, refine with community feedback.
That’s it. No fluff. With this playbook, you’ve got the steps, templates, and tools to get your hackathon project in front of real users — without burning budget.
Here is the downloadable playbook.
Bootstrapped_Marketing_Playbook.docx (28.6 KB)
