How to advertise ICO and promote it

How to advertise ICO? Since the end of 2020, there has been a significant increase in interest in cryptocurrency, and we now see a new wave of cryptocurrency marketing attempts to enter the market. As a result, a solid ICO marketing strategy can help you spread the word about your project and attract thousands of clients.

To be successful, a cryptocurrency must have an effective ICO marketing strategy to promote the ICO and enable it to reach its target market.

However, marketing an ICO (or any other cryptocurrency project) is not the same as marketing a regular project.

Let’s look at the key components of an ICO marketing strategy and how we can use them to jumpstart your project and bring in more results.

How to advertise ICO

• Promotion of ICO to institutional investors
• Advertising of ICO to private investors

Advertising of ICO is done to get two types of investors namely the private and institutional investors.

Promotion of ICO to institutional investors

1. A well-written whitepaper
2. Conferences and events
3. Press releases and publications
4. Direct marketing

Well-written whitepaper

A whitepaper is a well-documented report that assists readers in making sound decisions and it can either help or hurt your ICO marketing efforts. It should be used as a teaching tool to explain how your project works, answering questions like:

• What issue are you resolving for your clients?
• How are you addressing that issue?
• How likely is it that your project will succeed?
• What distinguishes you from your competitors?
• What is your technological architecture?
• How will you deal with any potential legal issues?

Here are some things you can do to make your whitepaper more relevant to your potential investors.

1. Provide important and relevant analyses.
2. Be brief but explicit.
3. Make it user-friendly.
4. Make a relevant road map.

Provide important and relevant analyses

A good project investigates its market, customers, and competitors. While some of your regular customers may not be interested in this information, potential investors will be.

Include non-biased data in your whitepaper to help you stand out from the crowd of cryptocurrency projects looking for funding.

Another critical aspect of a cryptocurrency project is its legality. Explaining how you intend to handle any potential legal issues will increase your credibility.

Be brief but explicit

Don’t create more content for the sake of creating content. However, do not disregard information that a reader may find interesting. Explain how your tokens are distributed as well as the technology that powers your project.

Make it user-friendly

It should not be difficult to read a whitepaper. Use images to help explain your information, and emphasize your most important points with headings, bold, or italics.

Whether a person reads your entire whitepaper or just skims it, they should be able to take away key information that will help them understand what your project is about.

Also, don’t overlook the font.

Nothing ruins a whitepaper more than a poor font choice (or a bad font pairing). Make your whitepaper look professional and unique while remaining readable.

You can use the following typography combinations:

• Source Sans Pro and Playfair Display
• Montserrat & Bebas Neue
• Roboto Condensed and Raleway Heavy
• Lato Bold and Lato Light fonts

Creating a table of contents will also assist your users in quickly finding the information they seek.

For easier navigation, include hyperlinks from the table of contents to each chapter and subchapter of your whitepaper.

Make a relevant road map

A roadmap that only briefly discusses the history of your project is a bad roadmap.

Simply stating that your token was successfully launched in May 2021 will not suffice. Describe your concrete accomplishments and SMART goals for the future.

This will demonstrate not only that you are on the right track, but also that you are capable of effective planning.

Conferences and events

Blockchain and cryptocurrency conferences and events are springing up all over the world, and they are an excellent marketing channel for communicating your ICO in person. The costs of conferences and events, whether through sponsorship or attendance, can be quite high, especially if there is a lot of travel involved, but events and conferences typically generate good ROI as part of your ICO marketing strategy.

It is strongly advised that the founder(s) attend as many conferences and events as possible prior to and during the ICO. The best way to build trust and communicate your message is to get in front of people. Crypto conferences, road shows, and events are where big deals are made. By not attending, you are not giving your ICO the best chance of success, so make sure that there are resources allocated to crypto and blockchain events within an ICO marketing strategy. Simply put, your ICO will fail if it does not have a visible presence on the events calendar.

Press releases and publications

By associating yourself with high-profile publications, press releases can help you generate brand awareness and improve your brand image.

However, getting a major crypto publication to write about your company may require a significant investment. So, before you begin investing, do some preliminary research. Examine how other projects launched their products and ask questions like:

• Which websites did they visit?
• Did they raise enough money to cover the costs of their project? If the answer is yes, how quickly should you act?
• Have they reached their hard cap?

Additionally, examine the market to determine which USP (Unique Selling Point) you should promote in order to increase your chances of converting new audiences into customers.

When your research is finished, begin writing your press releases, making sure to position your ICO in a unique way.

However, a good public relations campaign goes beyond simple press releases. Hold a press conference or event, conduct interviews, appear on a podcast, and highlight any awards your ICO has received.

Don’t squander your best opportunity to promote your ICO with a public relations campaign.

In the past, there have been some truly memorable ICO campaigns. Bancor, for example, raised USD 153 million in 3 hours and Stox raised USD 33 million in 34 hours.

So, how did these ICOs (such as Cryptoflix, Iryo, Cloudmoolah, and Bunnytoken) successfully close their crowdfunding campaigns? They never dismissed the importance of having a public relations strategy.

Direct marketing

This is just another effective way to spread the word about your upcoming cryptocurrency.

Many people will disregard a marketing email even before they read it, negating all of your efforts to create an engaging email marketing campaign.

The better option is to collect targeted mobile phone numbers of potential users and send SMS marketing texts to them directly. Mobile messages are more likely to be read and are usually well received by interested users. You can outsource the task to an SMS marketing company or software.

Advertising of ICO to private investors

1. Community building
2. Social media marketing
3. Airdrops marketing campaigns
4. Paid ads
5. ICO listing
6. Build a website
7. Content marketing
8. YouTube and Influencer marketing
9. Affiliate and Email marketing
10. Interviews and podcast
11. SEO
12. Bounty programs

Community building

A strong community can be the most effective way to promote your brand.

What is the first source of information you consult when researching a product? It is from people who have already purchased or used the product. You can directly engage with people who use (or are interested in using) your product by creating your own community. They can also provide you with critical feedback that will help your project succeed.

The fact that you almost always have an active number of followers or audiences within a short period of time pretty much opens the door to it. A strong community should be one of your long-term objectives because it lays a more stable foundation, which will be reinforced by your project’s steadily growing reputation.

Finally, as long as you’re proactive in engaging with and assisting users, whether, in other communities, social media, or forums, you’ll almost always be heading in this direction.

Social media marketing

The community and social media management are essential components of any successful ICO marketing strategy. The power of social media and community channels can make or break an ICO, depending on how and to whom it is communicated. The most popular and powerful free channels are:

Reddit: The Reddit community is likely the most difficult to crack. This community is knowledgeable and unforgiving, and it provides a high level of exposure that can be leveraged by participating in quality subreddits or commenting on other threads.

But, before you start creating a subreddit to promote your brand, there are a few things you should consider.

• Please do not spam. We all despise spam. Nobody, however, despises spam as much as Redditors. Don’t post content solely to shamelessly promote your brand and products. Instead, try to assist the community and add value.
• Pay attention to your surroundings. Reddit is a democracy, and the voting system can help you understand what matters most in your community. Simply paying attention to what your community wants can help you greatly improve your product and customer experience.
• Don’t promote toxic behavior. People can easily remain anonymous on Reddit, and some may abuse this privilege. It is important to try to make amends with an angry customer, but never engage or waste your time with a troll.

Facebook: Although you can no longer advertise your ICO on Facebook, there are numerous groups and pages that discuss blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and ICOs. Facebook also provides an excellent opportunity to create and maintain your own community.

Quora: Providing quality, well-written content and remaining active in threads on Quora has proven to be a good, targeted source of high exposure. Threads on Initial-Coin-Offerings (ICO) can help you get your message out to the right people.

Twitter: Despite its advertising ban, Twitter remains a social media powerhouse. And crypto brands are fully capitalizing on it. Twitter is one of the best channels for informing your audience and keeping them up to date on everything related to your ICO. And you don’t have to be overly formal.

Many major brands used (and continue to use) Twitter for lighthearted and humorous campaigns, and fans love it. That doesn’t mean you have to turn into a Twitter buffoon. However, a lighthearted approach will undoubtedly help your fans fall in love with your brand.

Telegram: This was launched in 2013, and is now the most well-known social network in the cryptocurrency market. Telegram had over 550 million monthly users in January 2021, and it’s no secret that most ICOs and even numerous cryptocurrencies have their own Telegram channels.

A Telegram group can have a significant impact on your ICO. This allows your (potential) clients and investors to interact directly with your team. Simultaneously, you will be able to efficiently receive feedback directly from the people who are important to your business.

Airdrops

The majority of successful marketing campaigns provide freebies to prospective customers/investors.

Crypto airdrops, on the other hand, are based on a similar concept. An airdrop occurs in the ICO space when a blockchain-based startup gives away free tokens to potential customers.

Many businesses have successfully airdropped their tokens in the past; notable airdrops include Aktie Social, Eligma, and Bunny Token.

Most airdropped tokens are frequently communicated to targeted audiences via social media posts and popular forums such as bitcointalk.org.

Airdropping is becoming one of the slickest ICO marketing strategies of all time; this will undoubtedly spark the next tokenized wave because everyone loves getting their hands on crypto freebies.

In 2021, several projects, including Venus, Ampleforth, SORA, and 1inch, used airdrops as part of their ICO marketing strategy. And the trend will continue as 2022 progresses.

Paid ads

Paid advertising is by far the quickest way to build a network of ICO supporters. However, one of the major issues with paid advertising is the previously mentioned growing list of rules and regulations. However, this does not mean that ICO advertising did not find a way.

There are numerous cryptocurrency advertising platforms (such as Coinzilla) that can assist you in promoting your project and reaching your target audience through various types of advertising, such as native or display.

Developing a display advertising campaign for brand awareness is one of the quickest ways to get your project off to a good start. No matter how good your project is, if no one hears about it, it will become just another project.

There are several factors to consider when selecting an advertising network, including:

• The size of its publisher network
• The available campaign creation tools
• The available ad formats
• The statistics you will have available
• The support offered

The size of its publisher network

The more publishers an ad network has, the greater your potential reach. High numbers, on the other hand, are usually eye candy. So, pay attention not only to the size of the network but also to the quality of the publishers.

Having access to websites like Investing.com, Steemit, or CoinMarketCap will be extremely beneficial.

The available campaign creation tools

Targeting your audience by country or device, or optimizing the zones in which your banners appear on a website, can help you save money while getting the best results.

Targeting your audience is probably the most important aspect of creating a display campaign. These options are available in the Campaign Settings section of Coinzilla’s campaign creation tool.

Examining your Google Analytics user data can help you determine which types of users convert better, allowing you to maximize your conversion rates.

The available ad formats

The only limitation to the available ad formats is the ad network you use. While some ad formats outperform others, we usually recommend testing several formats to see which one works best for your campaign.

Some websites only display certain ad formats, and if your target audience is present, it is always a good idea to include them in your campaign.

The statistics you will have available

You can easily test multiple variants and optimize your campaign on the fly if you have direct access to the performance of your campaign.

Clicks, impressions, CTR, and costs are all metrics that should be monitored while your campaign is running to ensure peak performance.

The support offered

Let’s face it, sometimes we create a campaign and it fails miserably. Perhaps a bug prevents you from depositing additional funds. Perhaps you’d like to speak with a specialist about your campaign. Or perhaps you just have a few questions and need answers.

A designated support manager can assist you in resolving issues as they arise, ensuring a smooth advertising process from start to finish.

ICO listing

An ICO listing service can help you get your new or upcoming ICO listed on the top ICO listing sites. These services are very affordable and simple to use, making them an excellent choice for anyone looking to list their new ICO. There are now a variety of ICO websites where people can search for and track the latest ICOs. ICO list, a service created by a group of experienced entrepreneurs, is one such example. Users can search through a database of over 1,000 active and upcoming ICOs on the ICO List. ICO listing websites also provide detailed information about each project, including the team behind it and the ICO’s purpose.

Build a website

A good website can serve as the foundation for your digital marketing strategy for your ICO. It is what will make an impression on your intended audience. So, before you launch your ICO, make sure your website is optimized. Plan out the layout of your website ahead of time. It should be simple to navigate, with a simple design that allows visitors to obtain as much information as possible in the shortest amount of time. A website with a lot of unnecessary information can turn visitors away, hurting your ICO marketing.

Content marketing

While you may not be permitted to promote product advertisements on Facebook, Google, or other major networks, you are permitted to promote something far more important – content.

Content marketing is a powerful tool for growing your business and generating leads.

While Facebook does not allow cryptocurrency token sale ads, it does allow the promotion of cryptocurrency-related events, education, videos, and news, as well as blockchain technology information. It also allows the promotion of crypto trading platforms, cryptocurrencies, and crypto mining hardware/software, but only with permission.

YouTube and Influencer marketing

Some of the most complex ICO-related details can be visually explained, making them easier to remember. And this is where YouTube’s worth comes into play.

Creating a YouTube channel and hiring a great influencer marketer will not yield results unless a solid marketing strategy is in place. This is why many YouTube influencers create a strategy for promoting an ICO.

For example, many influencer marketers will release the first video explaining how to use the coin or token in the real world – the problem that it will solve right now.

Following that, the following videos can explain how the project’s technology works, as well as other details about the token sale.

So, in a sense, the power of an influencer marketer quadruples when combined with a solid YouTube strategy.

Affiliate and Email marketing

Better reach, as well as more direct and effective marketing methods, are some of the benefits of well-executed affiliate marketing and email marketing campaigns. Keep your email marketing messages targeted toward the audience you intend to send them to. Engage with them with the intention of establishing trust and transparency.

Affiliate marketing is a fairly certain way to get the exposure you require, as long as you’re willing to pay commissions to businesses and other crypto project owners who choose to work with you. The greater their credibility and reputation, the better, because this same acclaim will eventually trickle down to you the longer you work together.

Interviews and podcast

Audio content has always worked, and it continues to have clout through more modern options like podcasts. It’s safe to say that you shouldn’t be afraid to take advantage of their benefit of allowing you to inform interested parties about the details and features of your project. Regularly releasing podcasts keeps your audience engaged, especially if you can consistently come up with interesting content.

When it comes to interviews, you don’t need to look any further than influencers to figure out who you should contact. This allows you to interact with a large, already established audience. Who knows how many of them are interested in getting into cryptocurrency or learning about profitable investments?

SEO

Last but not least, there’s good ol’ SEO. It is technically the foundation of your digital marketing, so it should be high on your priority list as well. Nowadays, ranking high in search results implies reliability and trustworthiness. This is why it is just as effective as any previous public relations strategy.

As you may already know, Search Engine Optimization is not determined by a single factor. To promote your ICO, you should concentrate on keywords that you use in your business listings. Don’t overlook the feedback, social shares, and mentions you receive.

Bounty programs

Bounty programs involve providing individuals with incentives and rewards in the form of free coins in exchange for completing tasks. These programs can help promote your ICO if done correctly. This is due to the fact that these tokens raise awareness about your ICO. Bounty programs should be monitored because too many free tokens can harm your ICO’s reputation. In contrast, too few tokens may not motivate people to assist you with your marketing camp.

Conclusion on how to advertise your ICO

It can be difficult to market an ICO. However, it is not impossible.

You can turn yours into a successful case study by developing a solid strategy, maximizing your efforts, and investing in the right places.

Always track your progress and adjust your campaign and strategy based on the results. If you don’t, how will you know if you’re spending your money on the right channels and not wasting it?

Google Analytics is possibly the best tool for tracking your website.

If properly configured, it can assist you in determining how effective each of your traffic sources is, which brings in more revenue and which is a waste of time and effort.

FAQ on how to promote ICO

Last Updated on July 8, 2022 by Nansel Nanzip Bongdap