TL;DR
- Most pre-TGE mistakes come from talking to the wrong audience: big KOL blasts everywhere instead of building trust with people who would actually hold the token.
- If you’re running an airdrop, get it right. It usually rewards your longest-standing community, and getting it wrong means a wave of FUD on day one.
- Launch day needs very close coordination between KOLs, your own posting and your exchange partners.
- After TGE, keep communication tight, give people a real reason to hold, and protect the trust you’ve built.
90 to 60 days out: foundations
Know who you’re talking to: The most common mistake we see before a TGE is marketing to the wrong people. Big KOL blasts everywhere get your name seen, but not by the people who matter. You want to build trust and get in front of people who would actually be interested in buying and holding the token.
Narrative: Write down in one line why anyone should care about your token. Not the tokenomics, the reason. Every brief, post and AMA comes back to this line.
Channels: Get the website, docs, X, Discord and Telegram live and consistent. Put verified contract links and an anti-scam message in place now, not on launch day.
Waitlist: A waitlist gives you a number to grow and a list to activate on launch day. Gate it with an action, like joining Discord or completing a task, so you can tell interested people from passers-by. For Titan Exchange, a KOL campaign and Discord alpha calls drove 150K+ waitlist sign-ups for a testnet launch. For SolanaFunded, our full go-to-market produced 200K+ email sign-ups.
60 to 30 days out: build trust
Community: KOLs send people to your Discord and Telegram. If those rooms are empty or unmoderated, the traffic bounces. Set up roles, regular founder updates and AMAs, and track active members, not totals.
First KOLs: Start with a small group of well-matched KOLs whose audience could become holders. Good KOLs need time, and you’ll learn which angles land before the big spend.
Partners and collabs: Line up ecosystem partners, other communities and co-marketing. For Sugartown’s NFT launch we ran 350+ community collaborations, and the same approach works for tokens.
Get the airdrop right
For a lot of projects the airdrop is how they reward their community, and it has to be right. The people receiving it are often the ones who farmed your product or have been around the longest. If they feel short-changed, you get a massive wave of FUD on day one that you can’t control.
Be clear about who you’re rewarding and why, and check the criteria against your real early users before you announce anything. Research on past drops shows how hard this is: Airdrops: Giving Money Away Is Harder Than It Seems looks at how much of a typical drop ends up with farmers rather than the users it was meant for.
30 to 7 days out: turn up the volume
Main KOL waves: Sequence your KOLs so the story builds: the problem first, then the product, then the launch details. Don’t brief everyone to say the same thing at the same time. Twenty identical posts in an hour turn people off. For Treehouse Finance, we focused on high-quality KOLs to amplify the TGE as it listed on Coinbase, Upbit and Binance, and the token launched at 1B+ FDV.
Regional pushes: If you’re targeting Asia, use local KOLs in local languages. For Scallop, we ran a KOL campaign for pre and post-TGE awareness across key Asian Web3 markets (300M+ launch FDV, 700K impressions).
What you say about the token: Get legal advice on what you can say before and after launch. a16z crypto’s 5 rules for token launches recommends not discussing your own token, airdrops or token economics before launch, and not talking about price after it.
Launch day
Launch day needs very close coordination: KOLs, your own posting, the community team and exchange partners all have to move together.
- Schedule your posts and KOL content, but keep someone awake in every time zone.
- Share the contract address only through official channels, pin it everywhere and warn people about fakes.
- Brief mods on the questions people will ask about claims, listings and vesting.
- Have a plan ready for outages, FUD and price swings.
Our work on launches is go-to-market on X and KOLs, so for exchanges and liquidity we’d point you to specialists. a16z crypto’s 5 rules for token launches says to approach listings and liquidity “with extreme caution”, usually with a market maker. Its operational guidelines cover audits, custody and lockups, and warn that custodians can need months of notice. Exchanges run their own processes too, such as Coinbase’s listing application.
The 30 days after TGE
The team has to keep very close communication with the community after launch. Going quiet is how momentum dies.
The token also needs utility: a reason for people to buy it or hold it. Plan post-launch content, a second KOL push and onchain tasks that give new holders something to do. Artery Chain used onchain task campaigns to onboard 200K+ users and generate 4M+ transactions.
Above all, keep the community’s trust. Once it’s gone, it’s very hard to win back.
Common mistakes
- Talking to the wrong audience with big KOL blasts instead of building trust with likely holders.
- An airdrop that short-changes the people who were there first.
- Every KOL saying the exact same thing at the same time.
- Rushing KOLs because the TGE date moved.
- Promising price outcomes.
- Going quiet after launch day.
FAQ
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