Token Launch Marketing Playbook: Pre-TGE to Post-Launch

Every token launch has three distinct marketing phases.

Phase 1: Pre-TGE (6-12 weeks out). Build the community, establish narrative, attract the right investors and early adopters.

Phase 2: TGE window (launch day through week 2). Maximise attention from the right audience. Convert interest into action. Manage the narrative when things don't go perfectly.

Phase 3: Post-launch (weeks 3 through 12). Retain the community. Convert token holders into active users. Prevent the post-launch drop from becoming a death spiral.

Most teams spend 90% of their energy on Phase 2. The projects that sustain themselves spend at least as much on Phases 1 and 3 combined.

Before any outreach: get the story right. Who is this for? Why now? What does this do that nothing else does? This needs to survive contact with a sceptical crypto audience.

A Telegram or Discord that grows from zero to 10,000 members in the week before TGE is not a community. It's an audience that will leave when the price disappoints. Start building genuine community 12 weeks out, minimum.

The KOLs you want need to know you before you need them. Introduce the project 8-10 weeks out. Give them early access. By the time you're ready to activate, they should already be familiar with and ideally enthusiastic about the product. The full playbook for KOL selection is in our <a href="/blog/kol-marketing-crypto">KOL marketing guide</a>.

Press relationships take time. Start 3-4 months before your milestone. Follow relevant journalists, comment on their work, and share background when you have a real story. The angle that works is one that would be interesting even without the token.

Exchange and launchpad conversations take longer than most founders expect. Start 10-12 weeks out. A project with an engaged community, press coverage, and visible traction gets better terms.

Content should be pre-written and scheduled. Announcements, explainers, FAQs, responses to anticipated FUD. Community managers briefed and ready. KOL posts timed.

Have a minute-by-minute plan for the first 12 hours. That sounds excessive until you've watched a team scrambling to respond to basic questions while their Telegram floods.

Monitor sentiment in real time. If something goes wrong, and something usually does, get ahead of it. Silence while the community speculates is worse than acknowledging the issue.

Token prices drop after TGE. Almost always. The expectation-setting has to happen in Phase 1. If the community has been briefed on typical post-launch behaviour, the first dip doesn't produce panic.

This is where most projects stop doing marketing. It's the most important phase for survival.

The goal: converting people who bought your token into people who actually use your product. Content that teaches people how to use it, onboarding guides, live sessions where the team walks through use cases.

Don't go quiet. A weekly update, regular community calls, ongoing content that tracks the product roadmap. Silence signals abandonment, even when the team is building.

Set a minimum publishing cadence before launch and stick to it. Have a content calendar for the first three months post-launch drafted before TGE.

Before TGE, confirm you have:

- Narrative documented and approved by the whole team

- Community channel active with 8+ weeks of history

- At least five KOL relationships established and briefed

- PR angles identified, journalists contacted

- Exchange or launchpad conversations at advanced stages

- Content calendar for launch day and first 30 days

- Community management team staffed and trained

- Post-launch retention plan written and assigned

Most projects miss three or four of these. The ones that miss none consistently outperform.

For broader strategy, <a href="/blog/crypto-marketing-strategy-2026">Crypto Marketing Strategy in 2026</a> covers the full picture. For PR timing, <a href="/blog/crypto-pr-2026">Crypto PR in 2026</a> covers what gets coverage.

Get in touch with the <a href="/services/pre-tge-marketing">Fracas team</a> if you're planning a token launch.