How to promote an ICO in 2018?

How to promote an ICO 

Image Source: Eva Media, Inc. Digital Marketing Agency

If you are interested in promoting your ICO, this is your article

If you are only interested in investing in ICO's, this is also your article. Why? Because marketing will depend on the success or failure of an ICO and therefore the revaluation of the token in which you invest.

Of course it is much easier to sell a good project than a bad one, but a good one with bad marketing is doomed to failure, while a mediocre project with good marketing can complete your ICO successfully (The medium to long term future of that project it's another story)

So, let's go to the topic:

How to promote an ICO in 2018?

The ICO era is currently in a phase of change, and every day the media talks about the latest news revolving around cryptocurrencies. We are waiting for the ICO of the Telegram company to become the largest ICO in cryptocurrencies, since it will raise more than 5,000 million dollars.

At the end of 2017, the average number of ICO campaigns closed at three per day. There are a lot of unsuccessful ICOs that have not reached their minimum capitalization, so it is not as easy to do one now as it was in 2017. So we can finally forget about the "Garage ICOs" and become more serious about this way of fundraising.

In terms of marketing an ICO, the total budget for success is increasing and so is the initial cost of investments. You must create a prototype and get the approval of the communities and advisors if you want to be successful.

The average cost of outsourcing ICO marketing to one of the top agencies starts at around $ 280,000, not including legal fees of $ 20,000.

In this article we will discuss the costs of starting an ICO this year. We will also include comments from experts from agencies and owners of ad networks.

1. ICO announcements

Variant 1: outsource an agency

The cost: $ 25,000

What to expect:

At least 10 popular ICO listings. 
Payment options included.

Variant 2 - by yourself

The cost: ~ $ 15,000 (must include the manager's salary so he or she can send the information)

Cost of the main lists:

http://www.coinschedule.com/ - 0.02 BTC 
https://www.ico-list.com/ - 0.3 BTC 
https://tokenmarket.net/ - Free, manually selected, up to 2 weeks 
Icoalert.com - Free 
https://cointelegraph.com/ico-calendar - from $ 10,000

ICO rating agencies

There are companies that could audit and qualify your ICO for investors. You will receive a special report on the investment attractiveness of your ICO and it could appear on the list.

https://digrate.com/ - 1 BTC for the report 
https://icorating.com/ - $ 20,000 per report 
https://icobench.com/ - Starts from 0.4 BTC

Brian Kean, Director of Business Development ICORating.com:

Most importantly, the project must be well "packaged". All materials (white paper, website, etc.) must be composed in the language of the investors to make the project more attractive to them. It is important to bear in mind that in 2018, investors in ICO will become more professional and there will be more traditional financial market players among them.
Secondly, it is extremely important to build personalized relationships with investors: contact them directly, present them at a cryptocurrency event and organize a personal meeting with them. It is important to keep in mind that information about projects qualified by ICORating is sent by mail to the list of funds, which significantly increases your chances of being noticed. In general, well-developed relationships with investors and agreements with them ensure that at least the flexible limit is collected during the ICO.

Yaroslav Lunev, Chief Strategy Officer Merklion: t.me/yardy

Personally, I like ICObench and ICOdrops. These guys know what they do, and this is the reason why more and more people trust them, a fact that is reflected in the traffic figures. I remember them starting first, having a good dialogue with the audience from the beginning.

2. Paid Advertising

Variant 1: subcontracting to the agency 
Cost: of $ 150,000 (budget + work)

What to expect:

Advertising campaigns of Facebook, Google and Twitter 
Specialized purchase of cryptographic ads

Variant 2 - for yourself 
The cost: ~ $ 3,000 per month for advertising administration + budget

Platforms to work:

Advertising campaigns of Facebook, Google and Twitter 
Specialized traffic purchase:

https://cointraffic.io/ - Minimum budget: $ 10,000 
https://coinad.com/ - Minimum budget: 0.01 BTC 
https://a-ads.com/ - Minimum budget: any

You can find more networks here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1108616.0 - Bitcointalk updates the thread with advertising networks and scam alerts.

Optimal strategy:

Start with the channels for which you have ad managers. You can gain traction with traditional ad networks like Facebook and Google. Eventually, you can move to specialized cryptographic networks a few days before your ICO and in the first days of the sale.

Yaroslav Lunev, Head of Strategy @ Merklion Agency: t.me/yardy

It's easier to find a Bitcoin on the street than a professional advertising manager. Make sure that this person knows your trade. My advice is to go to an agency and work with them. And if you can sell them your idea, you can pay them with tokens, at least partially. But I would also hire an ad manager so that I can continue with the work of the agency in the period after the sale of the card.

3. Events

This should be the main focus of your activity, since this is where you can find and communicate with investors face to face to obtain your first capital. You must remember that the capital of the masses will come if you manage to raise the initial capital of the investors of the Major Leagues.

You can find the list of upcoming events in 2018 here:

https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-events/ 
https://www.coinschedule.com/#events

Pay attention to these upcoming events as well:

https://www.blockchainweek.com/

home

Keynote - World Blockchain Forum - Investments & ICOs

The North American Bitcoin Conference - Miami - January 18 & 19, 2017

http://arabcomgroup.com/DubaiCryptoexpo.com/ 
http://www.icosummitkazan.com/index.php

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Variant 1: subcontracting to the agency 
Cost: from $ 20,000 (tickets included)

What to expect:

Management of investor relations 
Variant 2 - for yourself 
The cost: from $ 10,000 (tickets to events in case of advance purchase)

Get prepared:

You should be familiar with networking. 
Have a clear plan about your product and business

Optimal strategy 
Start with online communication from the beginning, before knowing them. Try to build your relationships online and send them important information. Then, work on your presentation before an event and try to make appointments. Do not forget to follow up. Fundraising is a continuous process that takes time.

4. Public relations and dissemination of media

Once you have all the descriptions of your products and your site ready, you can begin your public relations outreach. Next, we will discuss online activities.

Variant 1: outsource to the agency 
The cost: from $ 50,000

What to expect:

Up to two unique press releases distributed on important sites. 
Up to 5 articles published in the most popular blockchain media.

Variant 2 - for yourself 
The cost: unpredictable (starting at $ 10,000 for publication on top-tier websites)

To prepare:

If you do not have relationships with top-level websites, it will be very difficult to obtain the discount. 
You must be ready to generate quality content and distribute it. 
Try to work with companies like http://bitcoinprbuzz.com/. They have packages to distribute press releases at attractive prices.

Optimal strategy

Make sure your main account has high quality content. Outlets will be happy to publish analytical research content for free. Set a budget of approximately $ 10,000- $ 20,000 for high-level publications and distribution of press releases. But if you have good content, you could go viral very quickly.

If you have a good budget, an intelligent strategy would be something like this: 1) market study 2) list the countries where you will start promoting your project 3) find a local public relations agency in each country (the big agencies work with all the regions of several countries) 4) your internal public relations manager will coordinate all activities. If you can not do it this way, try to create a Content Generation System for yourself, keep in mind, however, that this is not easy.

5. Specialized forums and SMM

Variant 1: outsource to the agency 
The cost: from $ 30,000

What to expect:

SMM 
Work in forums such as Reddit and Bitcointalk 
Rewards Campaign (Bounties)

Variant 2 - for yourself 
The cost: ~ $ 5,000

To prepare:

You can hire good social managers in Upwork.

Try to find proven Bitcointalk managers for both your reward and your signature campaign.

The list of communities to consider:

Bitcointalk.com 
Thematic sub- dits: / r / ethtrader / (~ 84,000 subscribers), / r / icocrypto (~ 9,500 subscribers), / r / bancor / (~ 2,600 readers), etc. 
Quora Discussions: There are many discussions here about different ICOs, specific cryptocurrencies and blockchains, in which you can actively participate. 
Professional LinkedIn groups: there are several groups for every taste, each with thousands of players. 
Facebook groups: ICO, cryptocurrency and blockchains problems are also discussed on Facebook (for example: ICO, Financing, Angels, Seeds, Investors, Startups).

Optimal strategy

The main budget should be earmarked for a good campaign of signatures and rewards. It is difficult to obtain good results and manage the process, but there is the possibility of success.

6. Native ads - Tell the world about your product

You really should consider this strategy if you have a low budget or a great product that you want to tell the world.

The agencies include this part in public relations, so here we will describe the variants on how you could do it yourself.

Step 1 
Create your content plan with respect to your product and market. You should investigate the sites where you want them published and try to research your main articles and editorial policy.

Step 2 
Create a detailed plan for each of your articles for the writer (could be a freelance writer). With this plan, try to ask questions that must be answered during the article and provide links to sources where the writer could find the information.

Step 3 
Hire a great blockchain writer and proofreader at Upwork (prices can start from $ 500 for 1,000 words from a good writer. (No cheap contrasts, you'll just end up wasting your time and money).

Step 4 
Access the websites to post your content. It can take time (for example, it could take up to a month after the approval to be published on Entrepreneur.com). In most cases, you do not need specialized websites (but it is useful because crypto investors are reading them all), you can simply post on their specialized websites. However, it will be difficult to explain to rookies how to invest in cryptocurrencies.

Hack 1: The main advantage of native articles is that they get organic traffic from Google, so you can start to see more traffic reaching your ICO. Keep in mind that it is better to start early, well before your ICO.

Hack 2: Try to make the content strategy of the website where you want to publish. If it is a news item or a daily analysis website, its content will be lost very quickly.

Specialized companies to outsource this:

Cointelegraph.com (this is the most important cryptography website, they do native ads, but the price is very high and starts from $ 10,000).

Howtotoken.com (A website of encryption guides.) Project has a team of authors trained to create excellent product manuals that explain your product to encryption investors.The cost of writing and distributing to your audience costs up to $ 1,500. Contact team@howtotoken.com for more information).

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