ICOs, or Initial Coin Offerings, are growing in popularity as a medium to attract public investors for a project or company. But with the rising popularity of cryptocurrencies, and the high number of new coins being introduced every day, it can be difficult to separate your project from the rest. Due to the nature of cryptocurrencies, marketing has to be adapted to reach the potential investors where they are, which tends to be online. In this article, we’re going to give you a few pointers on how to promote your ICO the right way.
Get Familiar with Popular ICO Calendars
If you’re going to launch an ICO, the first thing you should do is familiarize yourself with the variety of different ICO calendar sites out there. These will allow you to advertise your upcoming ICO along with a few announcements before the official launch. Many will also have a rating system that could act as an additional selling point for your coin. Some of the most popular ICO calendars include Coinschedule.com, Cyber Fund, CoinGecko.com, ICOCountdown.com and ICOCrowd.com just to name a few.
Promote Your ICO on Professional Communities
While ICO calendars are a must and a great way to announce your ICO, they don’t do the best job at actually showcasing what your ICO is all about. They also aren’t the most interactive platform and don’t allow you to provide your audience with immediate feedback, which could be a very powerful tool. This is why you should focus on spreading the word about your ICO via professional communities and various social networks as well.
However, be careful not to cast too wide a net. Instead, you should focus on specific thematic communities that revolve around cryptocurrency and investing. Subreddits like /r/ethtrader/, which has over 84,000 subscribers and /r/icocrypto are great places where you can start building an organic buzz around your coin. Popular forums such as Bitcointalk and crypto specific Quora, Facebook, and LinkedIn groups and discussions are also great places to publicize your ICO.
General Topic Media, Blogs, and Native Advertising
Now that you have social media and ICO calendars covered, you should start focusing on online media. The first thing you should do is look for a blog to advertise news and information about your token. Medium is a very popular platform to do this, but you could also consider posting ICO sponsored posts on popular cryptocurrency blogs as well.
Publishing press releases to media outlets isn’t a bad idea, but with the current number of ICOs being launched, you shouldn’t expect a publication to publish your press release for free. And if they do, it’s often after the ICO was actually launched.
If you were thinking of targeting popular cryptocurrency publications, you should set aside a budget for your content to be promoted. And depending on the particular publication, you could easily pay in the tens of thousands of dollars for a single article, so be prepared for that.
It is worthwhile to note that you shouldn’t focus solely on cryptocurrency or blockchain related publications since you’ll have to compete with so many different projects which may or may not have to do with actual cryptocurrencies or ICOs. Instead, try to look for relevant online media, including those revolving around online business, and publish columns there to attract attention from new investors.
ICO promotion is all about being prepared and using all the marketing tools at your disposition. But above all, announcing your launch through the proper outlets and having a solid content marketing plan in place are the two essential components of any successful ICO promotion strategy.
