Initial coin offering, or ICO as they are abbreviated are viewed as the first and finest embodiment of confidence between new technology like the blockchain and the traditional exercise of crowdfunding. They might have had their own share of scams but have emerged victorious out of that tarnished image, again cementing their place in blockchain-based fundraising with better regulations and reliability.

Although everything connected with the blockchain might seem complicated on the surface, tools and experiences have made launching ICO a simple and straightforward process. A lot of platforms have been made available that make the process of launching your own ICO an easy undertaking.

However, the real challenge when it comes to ICO is its marketing. With such a vast space, growing popularity, and limited availability of investors, effective marketing plays a major role in determining the lucrativeness of an ICO.

There are different ways to market an ICO. It is, by its definition and function, a digital entity, and all the aspects of digital marketing will apply to ICO as well. In addition, there are a few marketing strategies specific to the ICOs and anything involving blockchain and crypto at large.

Let us look at the different strategies involved in marketing your ICO

The white paper

The white paper can be considered the single most important document in the entire process of marketing your ICO. The white paper should contain every possible information that the investor might seek before investing in your ICO. It should be noted that not every investor and not every interested person might read all the information presented to them on the white paper, but anyone who reads it is bound to be extremely interested in investing in your ICO.

Your white paper should contain information on the product, the problem it aims to solve, the effectiveness of the product in solving that particular problem, the team and its credentials/credibility, the economics of your token, and more importantly, the tentative timelines. The white paper should be made available on the website.

The website

The Internet is about three decades old, but the website has not lost its supremacy in being the primary source of information on the Internet. It holds true for your ICO as well. The website should contain segmented information and should be made easier for common people to understand. It should cover every aspect of your ICO but need not be as detailed as your white paper.

Including the LinkedIn profile of the people involved in your project will also help in strengthening the credibility of your ICO. Making the website as interactive and intuitive as possible makes it easy for common investors to access information that they might need to view and verify before they make a decision to invest in your ICO.

Just like any other website, your website should also be made compliant with the best practices for search engine optimization. It should also be supported through link building so that your website ranks on the top of results on popular search engines for relevant search terms. It is to be noted that some of the most popular advertising platforms have imposed heavy restrictions on advertising anything related to crypto and blockchain. You might have to heavily rely on your organic leverage to make the best of mainstream platforms like search engines and social media.

Social media

Social media can’t be considered to hang out as a giant of the Internet. Also waiting for promotions to happen naturally might not be possible, it is always possible to organically engage with your audience. There are a lot of Facebook and LinkedIn groups dedicated to discussing cryptocurrency and ICOs. You can actively participate in those group discussions to introduce your ICO.

There are certain influencers on platforms that you can get in touch to talk about your ICO, your product, and your offering.

Email marketing

Email marketing can be considered the grand old daddy of digital marketing, and even in spite of its seniority, it is one of the most dependable platforms in terms of relevance and conversion. The key to an effective email marketing campaign licensing is that, instead of blasting emails in an organized fashion, it is highly recommended that you create several buckets of email lists, so you can tag people by the “amount“ of interest they have shown towards your product.

Instant messaging

With the increase in mobile usage and the dependency on smartphones, instant messaging platforms have doubled up as marketing arenas. Platforms like Telegram, Slack, and Steemit can help you organize groups and stay in touch with interested investors. it is to be noted that the last one is a dedicated social network for anything related to blockchain, and it even rewards content creators with its own crypto coins. You can keep them informed on the important breakthroughs, milestones, and bits of information like your own blog.

Blog

Your blog can be considered the casual side of your website. It is where you can share information without being too serious but at the same time, keep your visitors engaged with the latest content. Your blog not only needs to cover the aspects of your product but about crypto business in general.

Apart from everything mentioned above, that are a few specific marketing methods that hold true only with respect to crypto and ICO.

Bounty campaigns

Bounties, by definition, are rewards given to individuals for completing certain tasks that might not be easily possible. There are two different types of bounty campaigns that can help strengthen your offering.

The first kind is the one rewarded for finding bugs. It ensures that while your ICO becomes popular, it is also continuously perfected through ongoing debugging. People who find and fix these bugs can be rewarded with tokens. The second kind is for marketing. These tokens can be rewarded either for blogging or tweeting.

Participating in crypto forums

There are a few forums that are intent and focused on discussing things related to cryptocurrency, blockchain, and initial coin offerings. Marking your presence in those forums is extremely important. Although it might not give you the width in reach, it definitely helps in gaining better traction with the right audience. Places like Bitcointalk are perfect examples of where you should mark your presence.

In addition, there are sites dedicated to listing ICO tokens. These sites are bound to attract investors who are on a constant lookout for opportunities to invest in crypto and ICO. Some premium sites might charge you a fee to get listed, but the results surely will fetch you more investment.

Air dropping

Airdropping is considered the crypto equivalent of giving freebies to influencers, so they will talk about your product. Your tokens can be airdropped to certain public addresses, so those influencers will talk about your ICO, increasing visibility and curiosity.

Handling negative talk

Although this might not be a part of your mainstream marketing efforts, this process helps in retaining the aura that you are creating and not losing it during the most crucial time when your token sale is being intense.

Always ensure that a customer support team is available to sort out any issues that your investors might face. Customer support should be available across multiple platforms, and should also constantly scan social media for any issues or negative press.

Conclusion

As much as there is a vast availability of companies in developing your ICO, there are equal opportunities for you to outsource your ICO marketing to ICO marketing agencies. An agency that specializes in ICO marketing will handle all the aspects of your ICO perfectly. The activities according to conversions and analytics, will be monitored continuously ensuring a  perfect ICO marketing solution.

All you need to do is get in touch with a company that specializes in ICO marketing and let them know of your requirements. The ICO marketing company will take care to absorb your business needs, craft a marketing plan, create the white paper and every other needed resource, and ensure that your ICO  is an epitome of success in development and will also find proportional success in marketing.