Monero is getting bigger every day, and I believe we could start thinking about having a place where we can discuss marketing strategies, resources (artwork, images, concepts, etc) and even gathering funding for marketing purposes in the future.

This is no different from what we already have today. If someone wants funding to promote Monero or something like that, they usually come in the funding forum or publish their idea on reddit. I believe we could create a place only for that: a hub, group, channel, forum, where people who want to be implicated in the “Marketing” part can join and discuss the direction the Monero Project should be taking.

This way, the developers will be focusing on development; and the designers and marketers will be focused on delivering the Monero message/experience the best way they can.

The idea

Create an official hub, a place, a wiki, a channel, where people can come to discuss and share resources. In this place we will find:

• Official community-approved / developers-approved images, resources, colors, “styling guide”, etc.
• The Monero Project “brand”: what is Monero, what Monero wants to achieve and how to properly send the message (wording, etc).
• Why Monero: what Monero wants to achieve and deliver to each user using different personas (as suggested here).
• Problems solved by Monero: use-cases where Monero is the only or best solution available. This helps in marketing campaigns and we should have a handful available.
• Who’s our market: who we’re trying to reach and discussions on the best ways to reach these people (our market changes and evolves during time and different markets ask for different approaches).

Another section of this hub will include official community-approved / developers-approved GUIs and applications. Are we going mobile? Let’s create a sub-section only for how the mobile design should be presented and share the resources, ideas. The developers’ involvement is crucial to make sure everything that was suggested is feasible.

• Mobile-client
• Desktop-client
• Official plugins (eCommerce, ePayment, etc)
• Everything “official” that might require development of sorts.

With this information clearly available and with the “official” stamp of the Monero Project, we will be finally able to create solid marketing campaigns that are completely aligned with the community and the developers. We will then be able to conceive and brainstorm about:

• Outreach: how we can raise awareness of the Monero Project to new people? What channels should we use? What message should we send to an audience that is completely new to cryptocurrency?
• Targeting: how we can raise awareness of the Monero Project to people who know what cryptocurrency is? To people who are very concerned with their privacy and that Monero will be a “perfect match”.
• Nurture: how can we make sure that these people, our “community” and our new users are updated with the Monero Project updates? Mailing lists; blogs; twitter. Official and easy channels where people can be constantly reminded that the Monero Project is alive and is fighting for their right to digital privacy and freedom.
• Closing the deal: at some point we might try to create campaigns to attract e-Commerces and stores that we want to use Monero. What can we do to close this deal? Can we create concise and friendly guides on how a merchant can adopt Monero? What resources can we create and offer?

Having a sensible and true marketing strategy in place will surely help Monero’s cause. Monero is important not only because we want the price to raise and make money, but because Monero is fighting the good fight.

I believe that having a hub, a place where we can freely discuss these things without getting “lost” amidst hundreds of others threads and subjects, is a good idea.

I believe that the developers might find useful to have this kind of discussion placed “somewhere else”. And I believe the artists and marketers might find useful to have these resources and information promptly available in a consolidated channel.

I would love to hear what the community thinks about this idea and subject. If we’re going to do this, we should do it right. There’s no rush – absolutely no rush at all to create marketing strategies and campaigns. But sure there’s no bad in getting these things in place for when the time comes.