Initially, ICOs appeared as a straightforward means to fund digital startups with a veneer of simplicity and transparency. However, during the ICO boom of 2017-2018, the lack of marketing support led to a wave of scam projects that discredited the ICO space. So, is the ICO concept dead? Far from it. ICOs remain alive and more popular than ever, provided they are backed by a robust ICO marketing strategy.
To put it in perspective, startups raised a staggering $4 billion through ICOs in 2017. From the start of 2017 to mid-2018, funding surpassed $17.8 billion. After a decline in late 2018, ICOs recovered in 2019, exceeding $14 billion. Fast forward to 2021, and ICOs had already raised around $21 billion.
In the post-pandemic landscape, we see a decline in the number of ICOs, which can actually be viewed as a positive signal for the crypto and digital space. Fewer ICOs suggest that quality is improving, scams are on the decline, and the most promising ideas are gaining prominence.
However, today, a successful ICO necessitates an effective ICO marketing strategy. Such a strategy is essential not only to generate demand but also to instill confidence in investors, especially considering the lessons learned from the 2018 ICO landscape. Content marketing, in particular, takes the spotlight, as it’s considered the most effective way to promote a business, with over 80% of brands endorsing its significance.
The Best Practices for Developing a Winning ICO Marketing Strategy for Your Blockchain Initiative
Creating hype for your ICO project is the main objective of your marketing strategy. SMM used to be sufficient to achieve this in 2017-2018, but times have changed. You need to employ a variety of crypto marketing tactics and tools to generate hype. These are the most crucial ones:
1. ICO Whitepaper
When it comes to marketing your product or technology, you have various options for presenting your specifications. You can use yellow paper, blue paper, one-pager, two-pager, and so on. These documents are informal and commonly used in sales and marketing. However, for cryptocurrency marketing, they are not enough. You need to write a Whitepaper that covers all the aspects of your ICO. A whitepaper is the first thing that investors read in the digital space. So, you need to make sure that your White Paper explains your technical solution and also highlights the advantages for investors, early adopters, and partners. In other words, your White Paper should be like a business plan. Here are the main sections of a Whitepaper:
- How your project idea fits the market needs
- The team members and their skills
- The expected return on investment
- The allocation of tokens
- The feasible timeline of the project
- The measures to prevent illegal activities
- The social impact of your business
2. An engaging and functional website
A well-crafted whitepaper can serve as the foundation for a project’s website. In today’s digital age, it’s common for over 90% of potential investors to explore a project’s website to gain insights. On the website, the project is typically presented concisely, focusing on its key advantages. A visually appealing design with captivating visual elements can be more persuasive, making it important to prioritize plan over excessive text content. This approach encourages visitors to explore the whitepaper for more in-depth details. To enhance the website’s visibility and attract investors, incorporating SEO elements is essential.
3. Calendars of ICO Listing
An effective strategy for grabbing the interest of investors involves listing your project on ICO calendar websites. This not only offers visibility but also highlights your project as it approaches launch. Typically, the registration process on such platforms is straightforward, requiring essential project details like the title, token information, website, and contact information. Well-known calendar platforms include Coincodex, CoinGecko, and ICOdrops.
4. A sequence of regularly issued Press Releases
Press releases serve as a dependable content format for project promotion. These polished announcements are disseminated through news platforms, effectively generating interest in the project. Typically, press releases are reserved for significant milestones in the project’s evolution. The most effective distribution method involves utilizing a network of specialized news outlets. It’s essential to highlight investment opportunities within these press releases. They form the foundation for all other content, including blog posts and social media updates, playing a pivotal role in shaping the project’s community and supporting community management efforts.
5. Features of promotion in social media
Social media platforms that cater to professionals, such as Bitcointalk, are more effective for ICO promotion. Quora and Reddit are also useful for engaging in discussions. A catchy design is essential. LinkedIn posts can attract potential partners and professional investors. Short explainer videos on YouTube and Instagram can create hype. However, Facebook and Twitter have banned ICO advertising.
6. Paid advertising and SEO
Paid ads are allowed on most social media platforms if they meet some simple requirements. The Paid ads can boost organic reach by using SEO techniques. Google Ads can drive traffic to a website with a low pay-per-click rate.
Read Also: The Evolution of Blockchain Marketing: Strategies for Success
SEO is also a great way to raise funds. It improves the ranking and the traffic of the website. The more visitors, the more investors and investments.
7. Bounty Programs and Airdrops
Bounty programs are a popular way to generate hype in the blockchain space. They also help to grow the project community and ease the pressure on the marketing team. Bounty programs reward users with tokens for promoting the project through various actions. It is important to balance the difficulty of tasks and the amount of tokens issued. A low reward will not attract people; a high bounty can make the project look like a scam.
Airdrops are another common method to create hype and build community in the blockchain area. The same rule applies: an excessive airdrop can raise suspicion. The best way to get attention is to register on trackers such as Airdropalert, Airdropaddict, Airdrops, and Earni.
8. Affiliate Marketing and Influencer Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a paid way to attract investors by expanding the reach of your ICO. The affiliate marketing is similar to a bounty program for partners. Affiliates help to generate leads and bring in investors. They can get their commissions in tokens.
Influencers, who promote your ICO to their followers, can increase the number of participants and the trustworthiness of the project. They also boost the conversion rate by raising the number of registrations and subscriptions. Influencers are useful for making your ICO stand out from other projects.
9. Email Marketing
Email marketing is a powerful way to promote your ICO project and attract potential investors. You can use catchy newsletters and personalized messages to keep your subscribers engaged and interested in your project. You can also add subscription and registration forms to your website or landing page to grow your email list. To save time and money, you can set up autoresponders for your Emails that will send automated messages based on certain triggers. Email marketing also allows you to track and measure the performance of your campaigns and optimize them accordingly. Email marketing is a vital part of ICO marketing strategy as it helps you increase your conversion rates and build a loyal community around your project.
ICO Content Marketing
Content crypto marketing is the best way to reach a wide and diverse audience, from novices to experts who are looking for large-scale investments. You can use different types of content to appeal to different segments of your target market, such as:
1. Make a Blog for ICO Marketing
A blog is a great way to drive organic traffic and increase the dwell time on your site. It also boosts the engagement and conversion rates of your audience. A blog is a key element of cryptocurrency marketing as it captures the interest of the crypto community and creates a positive image for your project. A good blog post should have internal and external links, SEO (popular keywords), and videos if possible. You should also update your blog regularly to maintain the interest of your readers.
2. Explainer Videos for ICO
Explainer videos are a powerful way to showcase your brand and explain your value proposition. According to surveys, more than 90% of companies that have used explainer videos find them effective for their marketing goals. Explainer videos can also increase the conversion rates on your landing page by more than 80%. There are different types of explainer videos that you can use, such as PowerPoint presentations, slideshows, animated films, illustrative videos, or interviews with your team members. Each type of explainer video has its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on your target audience, budget, and message.
3. SEO Content
To make sure that your quality content reaches your target audience, you need to optimize it for better ranking on search engines. Search engine optimization, SEO, is not just about using artificial techniques with keywords in different ways. There are simple and effective ways of SEO, such as: updating your site regularly; using high-quality images; and using trending keywords in important places in your text content, such as headings, meta descriptions, and image alt texts.
4. Ties in the Community
Building relationships in the crypto and blockchain communities is a crucial and final step in your ICO marketing strategy. The crypto community is a valuable and active part of your potential investors. You can find these crypto communities on popular social media platforms and on specialized sites. However, since some social media platforms ban crypto marketing, you should avoid using promotional content. You should also adapt your tone of voice to the groups’ topics, which can include not only digital currencies but also crowd sales, crypto assets, blockchain, blockchain startups, ICO listing, etc.
Strategies for Paid ICO Advertising
The challenge of promoting an ICO through social media or search engines is linked to the restrictions imposed by some platforms on cryptocurrency-related advertising. To address this, it is advisable to entrust this aspect of ICO promotion to ICO marketing services well-versed in the industry. However, the team can certainly handle these tasks independently by carefully planning and structuring their efforts.
Marketing strategies encompass various tactics such as running paid social media ad campaigns, utilizing specialized ad aggregators, and collaborating with influencers.
Paid Social Media Promotion: Paid social media posts offer extensive reach at a cost-effective rate. However, it’s crucial to ensure that these posts don’t solely focus on promoting your ICO; they should also provide valuable insights into industry-related topics. Rather than direct ICO advertising, the approach should involve sharing informative content about digital currencies in general. Furthermore, attention-catching visuals in your posts can significantly enhance their visibility on social media. You can gauge the effectiveness of this paid promotion by monitoring the growth in new subscribers or followers.
Display Campaign: Utilizing specialized cryptocurrency advertising platforms enables you to access the audiences of multiple prominent niche websites. These “display campaigns” incorporate a variety of advertising formats, including banners, video clips, flash notifications, and text-based messages. By employing an advertising integrator, the process of running an advertising campaign is streamlined, reducing its overall complexity.
Attracting Influencers: Leveraging the perspectives of ICO influencers can generate greater interest in your project and enhance your credibility. This applies not only to individuals but also to influential crypto-focused websites. Posting paid content on these leading platforms, such as Cointelegraph, CoinDesk, and The Daily Hodl, among others, can be more straightforward.
When collaborating with influencers, they may also share your content in exchange for compensation. However, it’s essential to assess whether their audience aligns with your target demographic. Additionally, you should evaluate the quality of their content and the size of their active subscriber base to ensure the best results.
The Future Ahead
ICO marketing strategies don’t necessarily require complex or unconventional techniques. As mentioned earlier, it might seem that a company launching an ICO can manage everything independently, but this can be deceiving. Certain key aspects of ICO marketing, such as whitepaper creation, SEO, web design, video production, crafting professional press releases and blog articles, and running effective paid advertising campaigns, often demand experience and resources that many teams lack.
While it’s possible to develop a marketing plan based on the information provided in the article and execute it in-house to save costs, when you factor in the actual expenses and the time-sensitive nature of the dynamic market, it becomes evident that substantial savings might not be achieved. As the market expands and competition intensifies, professional ICO marketing agencies, like Ninja Promo, play an increasingly vital role in the success of ICOs. Opting for an experienced and successful ICO marketing agency is often the wisest choice.
If you are searching for a professional ICO Marketing company then look nowhere than SAG IPL – ICO Marketing Company. It is among the top prominent and leading companies that have highly skilled employees to serve all kinds of ICO marketing services with unique strategies to its clients. The employees are rich in experience in both traditional to advanced marketing tactics. For their services, they charge economically and also ensure delivery of the assigned task on time.
