TL;DR
- Agency: when you need a lot done fast, usually around a launch, TGE or mint.
- In-house: when marketing is a permanent daily job and you can hire well.
- Fractional CMO: for stable periods when you need direction more than hands.
- Most crypto teams end up with a mix: a small in-house core, plus an agency working alongside them as part of the team.
- If the product is too early, unaudited or not good enough yet, don’t hire an agency at all. Marketing can’t fix that.
First: are you ready for marketing?
Before you choose a model, check you have something worth marketing. If the product is too early, hasn’t been audited or just isn’t good yet, hiring an agency and spending heavily on marketing is a waste of money. Marketing can help a good product, but it can’t save a bad one.
You need a good baseline first: a product that works, a reason for people to use it and a plan for what happens after they arrive. We turn projects down when that baseline isn’t there.
The three models
Agency: You bring in a team that already has the KOLs, playbooks and channels. The upside is speed: you can’t hire a KOL lead, a community lead, a content writer and a strategist in three weeks, but an agency can start on all of it in that time. The downside is that an agency only knows your product as well as you’ve taught it.
In-house: Your own hires know the product best and stay after the launch. But crypto marketers with real networks are hard to find, slow to hire and expensive, and one person can’t cover KOLs, community, content and partnerships across time zones.
Fractional CMO: A senior marketer works part-time for you, sets the strategy and manages freelancers or an agency. It’s cheaper than a full-time CMO and good for direction, but they won’t be running your Discord at 3am in launch week.
How they compare
Agency: fast to start, and the KOL and partner network comes with it. Product knowledge depends on how closely they work with you. Best for launches, TGEs and mints. Main risk: generic work after launch.
In-house: slow to start because of hiring, and you build the network yourself. Product knowledge is the highest of the three. Best for ongoing growth. Main risk: slow, with single points of failure.
Fractional CMO: medium speed to start, with their personal network. Medium product knowledge. Best for strategy in quiet periods. Main risk: not enough hands.
What to use at each stage
- Pre-product or idea stage: founder-led marketing, plus advice. Don’t buy a retainer yet.
- Building toward testnet or mint: a small in-house community person, plus an agency for community growth and collaborations.
- 8 to 12 weeks before TGE: an agency working alongside your team for KOLs, partnerships and launch execution, with someone in-house owning the plan.
- After launch: scale the agency down to what’s actually working, or hand over to in-house plus a fractional lead.
How agencies and in-house teams work together
We’ve worked alongside in-house marketers and fractional CMOs many times. The way it works best is simple: we join as regular team members, not an outside supplier.
Splitting the work comes down to where resources are best used. We agree with the team who owns what, take on the parts where our network and experience add the most, and leave the rest with them. We don’t want to overstep.
Gumbo World’s founder said our teachings were still valuable a year after launch, and LT3’s founder said we stuck around and stayed part of their community after the work finished. For SolanaFunded, we ran the whole go-to-market from zero to $1M MRR in the first month.
FAQ
Talk to us
Not sure which model fits your stage? Book a free strategy call and we’ll tell you honestly, even if the answer is “not an agency yet”.
Need a growth partner?
Book a free call and we’ll talk through your project and where to start.
