5 Marketing Strategies Polymarket Is Using to Be Everywhere at Once – InstantFollowerz

If you followed the news or opened X this fall, you probably saw it Polymarket.

It’s that prediction market for politics (and more) that’s been everywhere lately. I’ve followed their rise over the past year from a no-name betting market to over $1 billion in assets under management — with a CEO on the cover of Forbes and presidential candidates mentioning them in speeches.

During the rise of Polymarket, I became friends with several members of their growth marketing team here in NYC. And one thing I keep asking them over and over again is, “HOW ARE YOU PEOPLE EVERYWHERE????”

Here’s what I learned.

An overview of Polymarket’s marketing strategy

Screenshot Marketing

The first time most people come into contact with Polymarket is not their website or app.

It’s usually a screenshot posted on SOCIAL MEDIA or in the news. And if you look at any Polymarket screenshot, you’ll see their name and logo.

This placement was no accident, I promise you.

While speaking with their team, I learned that a lot of A/B testing was done to ensure that their logo would appear on almost every possible screenshot.

Whenever a screenshot is shared online, from X to LinkedIn to TikTok to Reddit, Polymarket is there.

The logo and name are colored light gray so they don’t stand out too much to the point where you’d want to cut them out. They are smarter than that. Instead, the logo is subtle enough to be seen, but doesn’t take anything away from the image.

This is a genius strategy built for a SOCIAL MEDIA age that could not have existed decades ago.

In fact, there’s even a term for this style of marketing: it’s called screenshot marketingand includes using screenshots to make your marketing feel more natural.

It’s like sending screenshots of someone’s messages in a group chat. It’s juicy. Intriguing. And in the age of AI images and Photoshop, screenshots are unfiltered and raw.

Polymarket lives and breathes screenshot marketing. Cybersecurity brands like the $23 billion Wiz are doing just that. And I’ve used screenshots to go viral dozens of times.

In marketing, you always want to be as authentic as possible – and there’s nothing more authentic than sharing a basic unedited screenshot with your followers like you would with your friends in a group chat.

Marketing led by the founder

I firmly believe that every startup should work founder-led marketing.

Whether you’re Elon or an 18-year-old AI founder, you should always be the biggest voice and advocate for your company. If the founder doesn’t talk about the company, no one else will.

The founder of Polymarket, Shayne Coplan, definitely believes in the importance of founder-driven marketing.

He’s built his audience to 26,000+ followers on X, and keeps his content on a strict diet of 100% Polymarket-related tweets and retweets.

When Polymarket hit #1 in the App Store this October, Shane tweeted a simple screenshot (*cough cough* marketing screenshot) showing their success.

Since there has been a lot of questions and attention about Polymarket betting versus regular voting, Shayne tweeted to address this concern.

When Shayne spoke with renowned political pollster Nate Silver, he released a podcast to share this perspective on the construction of Polymarket.

Shayne is locked!

Everything Polymarket 24/7. No selfies with his dog. There are no pictures of his Lamborghinis. Not even pictures of his team. All jobs all the time. And that business is making billions online. You have to respect that.

Social proof

Usually when we think of social proof, we think of customer reviews.

But for Polymarket it’s a little different.

Instead of customers “reviewing” Polymarket, their social proof strategy revolves around two things:

1. Empowering thought leaders who talk about Polymarket.
2. Sharing new big bets on Polymarket (thereby normalizing the act of betting on Polymarket).

When other business leaders mention Polymarket, they republish and promote it.

When Polymarket hit #1 on the app store, Shayne tweeted a picture of it. When a presidential candidate talked about Polymarket during a speech, they tweeted about it.

But talk is cheap.

It is more important for them to show that people are actively investing money in the platform. They often post screenshots of big roles and share updates around them.

(Here we go again with screenshot marketing!)

Take advantage of ‘The Current Thing’

Public attention shifts as Charlie Sheen checks in and out of rehab programs. Do you remember him? Oh yeah, it’s been a while since The Current Thing.

You see, with the rise of the 24-hour news cycle, there’s always a new hot topic. And whatever The Current Thing is, people can’t get enough of it.

The polymarket was built perfect to take advantage of the current thing.

Whenever something happens in the news, Polymarket runs a betting market for it, which then creates content to promote it. It’s a perfect cycle. And during election season, there’s something new every day.

Here, you can see them post about the latest swing state odds keeping people up to date with the current swing state. When a new big movie hits theaters, they’ll be fired up market for it also.

Since The Current Thing is always changing, there’s literally an endless flood of good content ideas…which also means an endless flood of memes to make.

Meme Marketing

The Polymarket team are some of the best memelords on the internet.

I originally became friends with the Polymarket growth marketing team as they are customers of my meme marketing software, Memelord Technologies.

(If you haven’t already read my last HubSpot post on meme marketinghave a look.)

While Polymarket is a serious business with billions in assets under management, they also have a team of goofy viral memelords on staff — and even more meme sites and freelancers on a consulting basis.

That’s because when it comes to capitalizing on the moment, memes are tactic #1. They’re free, quick to make (and great for time), and by nature, they’re easy to share and go viral.

A tactic that really blew me away was how their SOCIAL MEDIA intern put Polymarket merchandise on popular memes. It is literally such a clever hack. You take an easily recognizable meme and put your brand assets on it. Easy.

The coolest part though is that they don’t just use memes for their content. Memes are incorporated into their UX and product philosophy.

They don’t just post memes, they run silly memey frivolous betting markets on what the Current Thing is. Like the betting market on whether the presidential candidates will say “skibidi” or “brat” before the election.

These silly betting markets are the perfect recipe for virality. Money + absurdity = virality.

How you can market yourself as Polymarket

Obviously, not all of us want to talk about politics in our marketing.

And even if we do, most of us can’t work.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t incorporate trends and What’s Hot into our strategies.

Every industry has its thing of the moment — whether it’s OpenAI’s employee exodus in Silicon Valley’s startup community, the fashion world’s Met Gala, or perhaps Black Friday for the e-commerce industry.

Look for The Current Thing and jump on it as soon as possible. Whether he uses mine daily email of new viral memes, X’s new trend analysis toolhours Hubspot Trendsmake sure you incorporate new trends into your marketing.

BUT…

… That being said, you can’t just rely on trends.

Even with me as a meme marketing guy, I don’t think you can just rely on memes or use The Current Thing for your marketing.

Yes, I wrote a book called Memes make millionsbut they can make you millions only if you have a good product and message.

This is what Polymarket has done so well.

It’s not just memes, trends and news that are out of date 24 hours later.

Shayne clearly explains why he is building Polymarket. Shayne hosts podcasts with industry leaders such as Nate Silver.

It’s the social proof of retweeting people like Elon Musk talking about Polymarket.

These are constantly updated screenshots of the political markets. It’s the cover of Forbes and billions in assets under management.

Polymarket’s marketing perfectly combines capitalizing on Current Affairs and using timeless marketing techniques. It is truly brilliant to witness.

Watch out folks – I think we’re witnessing the beginnings of a generational company.