5 Marketing Strategies Polymarket Uses to Be Everywhere at Once

If you’ve been watching the news or opening X this fall, you’ve probably seen it Polymarket.

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

Over the course of Polymarket’s rise, I have become friends with several members of their growth marketing team here in NYC. And the only thing I keep asking her is: “How are you everywhere???”

Here’s what I learned.

A breakdown of Polymarket’s marketing strategy

Screenshot marketing

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

Typically this is a screenshot posted on social media or in the news. And if you look at a screenshot of Polymarket, you will see its name and logo.

This placement was no coincidence, I promise you.

During conversations with their team, I learned that a lot of A/B testing was done to ensure that their logo appeared on almost every possible screenshot.

Whenever a screenshot is shared across the internet, from X to LinkedIn to TikTok to Reddit, Polymarket is there.

The logo and name are in light gray so that it doesn’t look so intrusive that you’d want to cut it out. They’re smarter than that. Instead, the logo is just subtle enough that you can see it, but it doesn’t detract from the image.

This is a brilliant strategy designed for the age of social media that wouldn’t have existed a few decades ago.

In fact, there’s even a term for this marketing style: it’s called Screenshot marketingand it’s about using screenshots to make your marketing look more natural.

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

Polymarket thrives on screenshot marketing. $23 billion cybersecurity brands like Wiz do it. 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 simple, unedited screenshot with your followers, just like you would with your friends in a group chat.

Founder-led marketing

I strongly believe that every startup should do this Founder-led marketing.

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

Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan definitely believes in the importance of founder-led marketing.

He has grown his audience to more than 26,000 followers

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

Since there were a lot of questions and attention on Polymarket betting compared to regular surveys, Shayne wrote a tweet to address this issue.

When Shayne spoke with famed political pollster Nate Silver, he tweeted the podcast to share his perspective on building Polymarket.

Shayne is locked up!

All Polymarket 24/7. No selfies with his dog. No pictures of his Lamborghinis. Not even pictures of his team. Always all business. And this business makes billions on the Internet. You have to respect it.

Social proof

When we think of social proof, we usually think of customer reviews.

But things are a little different at Polymarket.

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

1. Amplifying the thought leaders talking about Polymarket.
2. Sharing new big bets on Polymarket (thereby normalizing betting on Polymarket).

When other business leaders reference Polymarket, they repost it and exaggerate 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, he tweeted about it.

But talk is cheap.

For them, it is more important to show that people are actively investing money in the platform. They often tweet screenshots of big bets and share updates surrounding them.

(We’re back to screenshot marketing!)

Capitalize on “what’s current.”

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

You see, with the rise of the 24-hour news cycle, there is always something new and current. And whatever “The Current Thing” is, people can’t get enough of it.

Polymarket is being built perfect to capitalize on the current issue.

Whenever something happens in the news, Polymarket sets up a betting market for it, which they then create content to promote. It’s the perfect cycle. And during election season there is something new and current every day.

You can see them here Post about the latest swing state odds Keep people updated on the current swing state thing. When a new big movie comes out, they crank it up market for it to.

Because The Current Thing is constantly changing, there’s literally a never-ending flood of good content ideas… which also means there’s a never-ending flood of memes to create.

Meme marketing

The Polymarket team is one of the best memelords on the internet.

I originally became friends with Polymarket’s growth marketing team because they are customers of my meme marketing software. Memelord Technologies.

(If you haven’t read my last HubSpot post on meme marketing, check it out.)

While Polymarket is a reputable company with billions in assets under management, they also have a team of goofy viral memelords on staff – and even more meme pages and freelancers on a consulting basis.

Because when it comes to capitalizing on “The Current Thing,” memes are the No. 1 tactic. They’re free, quick to make (and great for when you’re pressed for time), and inherently easy to share and go viral .

However, the tactic that really blew me away was how their social media intern placed Polymarket merchandise in popular memes. It’s a clever hack in every sense of the word. You take an easily recognizable meme and place your brand assets on it. Simply.

But the coolest thing about it is that they don’t just use memes for their content. Memes are built into their product’s interface and philosophy.

Not only do they post memes, but they also open silly meme betting markets on what The Current Thing is. Like betting markets on whether presidential candidates will say “Skibidi” or “Brat” before the election.

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

How you can market like 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 whatever’s current into our strategies.

Every industry has its own current thing – be it the OpenAI workforce exodus in Silicon Valley’s startup community, the Met Gala in the fashion world, or perhaps Black Friday for the e-commerce industry.

Keep an eye out for “The Current Thing” and jump into it as soon as possible. Whether it is my use Daily email with new viral memes, The new trend analysis tool from Xor Drift Kings Media Trends, make sure you incorporate new trends into your marketing.

BUT …

… However, you can’t just rely on trends.

Even as a meme marketing guy, even 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 only make you millions if you have a good product and a good message.

This is what Polymarket has done so well.

It’s not just memes, trends and news that become outdated 24 hours later.

It is Shayne who clearly explains why he is building Polymarket. It’s Shayne who does podcasts with industry leaders like Nate Silver.

It’s social proof that people like Elon Musk retweet when they talk about Polymarket.

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

Polymarket’s marketing perfectly combines the use of The Current Thing and the use of timeless marketing techniques. It’s really great to witness this.

Listen up folks – I think we’re witnessing the beginnings of a generational company.