The success of an Initial Coin Offering relies on an effective marketing strategy that follows an ICO checklist. To ensure a positive impression on potential investors, it is important to follow an ICO checklist that covers all the necessary marketing aspects. The ICO serves as an opportunity to establish trust and credibility with investors, and any missteps in the strategy can leave a lasting negative impression. It is essential to carefully consider and execute each step of the checklist to shape investors’ perception of the team and project in a positive way.
Fortunately, we’ve got an ICO checklist to guide you through this whole process and make it a success. If you want to achieve a successful ICO fundraising, then you should take some notes. The checklist below highlights the critical details that will guarantee a flawless experience during initial coin offering fundraising.
What’s an Initial Coin Offering (ICO)?
ICO is a technique through which blockchain businesses get money to run new projects. They do so by getting Ethereum, Bitcoin, or other fiat currencies in return for issuing cryptocurrency tokens. ICOs provide companies with an opportunity to distribute crypto coins with a prospect of value appreciation in the future. When this happens, early investors will reap the best benefits through great returns.
The ICO model was first unveiled in 2013, July to sponsor Mastercoin, which is currently known as Omi. Thereafter, there have been countless ICOs with an approximate value of 12 billion USD. The model of the Initial Coin Offering is beneficial to startups since they’re not liable to regulations set by venture capitalists and financial institutions. As such, they can enjoy a smooth process of raising money for their projects.
Types of ICOs
There are two major ICOs available. Therefore, you can decide which one favors your project and focus on that one. They include:
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Public ICO
This type of funding through ICO engages all public backers or investors. That means anyone has an opportunity to take part in it. However, they tend to be less popular than private ICOs due to regulatory concerns.
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Private ICO
As the name indicates, a private ICO only permits a particular group of investors to take part. Therefore, they tend to have limited backers. Additionally, only a few approved personalities or companies can participate in this event.
With that information at hand, let’s get into how ICO works. More specifically, we’ll talk about how to create it.
How to create an ICO
Want to raise money for your blockchain project through ICO? Well, you only need to get through three simple steps. The best news is that any crypto company can easily execute these steps. With that in mind, here are the steps:
Step 1: Creating a whitepaper
A whitepaper is similar to an IPO prospectus and it serves the same role. Therefore, if you’re launching an ICO, creating a whitepaper is an important step. The whitepaper should cover the details of your project. For a start, it should demonstrate what your project is all about. Additionally, it should indicate the objective of the project and the need it will fulfill. Most importantly, it should highlight the lifespan of your ICO campaign.
Step 2: Creating a yellow paper
As you work on your whitepaper, you should also work on the yellow paper. Unlike the whitepaper, this document provides deep insight into the project. It highlights the technical details that include complex calculations about your crypto project from creation to structure and valuation.
Step 3: Issuing tokens
As mentioned earlier, an ICO campaign enables companies to raise money by issuing free tokens and earning fiat currencies in return. That’s what happens in the third step. However, if the fundraising fails to meet the target, then all the investors will get their investment back. At that point, the project is considered unsuccessful.
As a company, you can guarantee the success of your project through extensive marketing. To reach your target, you can begin doing this long before the set date for issuing tokens. When you achieve the target amount within the time limit, you can invest it in the project.
ICO Checklist 2022
1) Start with a road map
A road map is an essential step in your ICO checklist because it determines the investors’ response to your project. As with launching any other type of company, you must first understand your project or product. That’s the first step to a successful ICO campaign. It’s also important to master your growth strategy and target audience.
Oftentimes, you’ll start with the whitepaper. This document provides a clear outline of your project, enabling the investors to project whether it will succeed or fail. It also plays a part as a structural plan for your entire project.
Therefore, you must include the entire plan of your project in this document because investors would want to know these details. Meanwhile, ensure every schedule and expectation is reasonable to avoid deterring prospective investors.
2) Assemble an execution team
Another vital step in your ICO checklist is the assembling of the execution team. When you’re initiating an ICO, creating a team to help you execute your plan is everything. That’s because it involves a lot of operations and multitasking that one person cannot manage alone. There’s no guaranteed success when you work alone.
Also, you don’t just need a team of workers; your team must comprise professionals in this industry. Professionals can account for every step they take in executing an ICO campaign. Moreover, they’re familiar with this field. As such; they’ll contribute to ensuring there are no setbacks.
Involving an experienced team adds value to your project. Therefore, you should invest time in compiling a team of people who are crypto or blockchain enthusiasts with an ambition to make a difference in their careers and life.
3) Build an engaged community
The most effective way of getting enough audiences or investors to back your ICO campaign is through community building. That said, completely relying on a white paper showcased on a fancy site with awe-inspiring vocabulary is no longer enough. Even when coupled with a well-outlined roadmap, the impact is not enough to attract serious investors.
Therefore, a successful project must engage the community as a major approach. Through such involvement, they can look into the community’s views as opposed to solely relying on their vision. With the community feedback, they’ve got an important tool they can leverage for project marketing as well as traction. This also allows them to popularize the project as being personalized to meet the user’s needs as opposed to catering exclusively to the founders’ needs.
By using community engagement as a primary strategy or business model, you’ll also develop a following for your products. The following will be essential during your product launch, testing, and use. As a consequence, you will raise awareness about your ICO across platforms where your investors are.
4) Assess the viability of the business and technological capabilities
Oftentimes, many projects rush into ICO due to the prospects they have for funding generation. As such, only a few remember to assess the viability of their project and technological capabilities. While ideas are great and inspiring, they may not appeal to your investors due to the popping up of unforeseen issues. Moreover, your chance of satisfying the target clients can be slimmer if some of these issues are technological.
Furthermore, your tech design also must align with the legal framework of the tokenomics. Without this, it will remain unappealing to the serious investors you’re targeting. With that in mind, the legal framework and your technology must always be in line.
If you have superior technology on the blockchain, it’s time to unleash it. Oftentimes, people underestimate security and scalability, which are vital in this industry. Therefore, consider a unique approach like investing in independent audits, reviews, and effective security tests. Lastly, think about the value of blockchain tech to your business. Meanwhile, note down minor mistakes since they can generate greater impacts.
5) Develop a marketing strategy
While PR strategies and community building are crucial in establishing your presence in this industry, it starts with solid marketing. On that note, you should set aside almost 5% to 10% of your target funds from the ICO campaign to market your project. This amount guarantees an effective campaign that will ensure your project succeeds.
Speaking of ICO campaigns, the most effective ones comprise web ads, social media ads, influencer ads, and more. Additionally, you can have great influence over your target audience with your communication strategy.
Therefore, you should share your progress and goals across major social media channels including Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook. That’s not all – you can now find and join ICO conversations on social platforms you least expect. These include Telegram and Discord. This shows that all the social channels are valuable when it comes to ICO campaigns. The same channels form platforms where you can build communities and engage them continuously at a personal level. That’s true even after you launch your initial coin offering (ICO).
6) Always follow a straightforward ICO process
When dealing with the financial elements of an ICO process, the best bet is to follow a straightforward process. In other words, do not rely on chance alone, but rather focus on guaranteed outcomes. Moreover, presenting yourself as a professional is a great value that will make you unique and guarantee success.
There’s a crucial need for safety and transparency when running an ICO process. You can start by preparing your safety arsenals. Ensure you choose those with impenetrable security features. Additionally, you should engage full automation for all your transactions and then incorporate them in “smart contracts”. Finally, create an escrow account where all the funds will be directed to establish trust between you and your investors/ stakeholders. Ensure the account supports multi-signatures.
Reliability and trustworthiness are two qualities that can guarantee the success of an ICO project. They will also help you to be decisive when the time for listing comes. Getting your token into a major exchange listing is groundbreaking. That’s because the evaluation will be based on its correlation with the coins you can exchange it for.
Merits and demerits of an ICO
Before you choose any financial model, it’s important to learn about its advantages and disadvantages. In this section, let’s look at the pros and cons of an ICO:
Pros
- No intermediaries: The absence of intermediaries is a major benefit when it comes to using an ICO as a fundraising model. This is thanks to blockchain tech. It allows for fast and efficient transactions since you’re dealing with the investor directly.
- Global marketplace: An ICO doesn’t restrict you to a specific geographical location. On the contrary, it provides you with a chance to work with investors from all over the world.
- Fewer barriers to handle: traditional fundraising is also handy in generating capital but it has many limitations. As such, it becomes hard for a startup to tap into this sector when they’re looking for funds to sponsor their projects.
Cons
- The ICO space is dominated by a significant number of scammers. Truth be told, there are many scammers ready to swindle you through ICOs that look legitimate. Since the platform has the least requirements for companies to satisfy, it creates a hot spot for scammers.
How Pressfarm can help
Pressfarm is a PR agency that partners with brands in the tech industry, including SaaS, crypto, fintech, cybersecurity brands and more. They have PR packages that are tailored for companies, startups, and individuals. Backed by a team of experts, Pressfarm will design stunning ICO content designed to market your campaign to users and investors. The following are some of the services you’ll benefit from when you work with the team at Pressfarm:
- Targeted pitches
- Guest posts
- Press kits
- Press releases
- Personalized media contacts
- PR services
- Crypto influencing
- ICO marketing
- And more
Conclusion
Let’s face it, launching an ICO campaign is not a walk in the park. It requires a significant investment of time and money. Luckily, there’s an alternative. That’s doing ICO background research. In addition to reading this article, you can look for more informative content. Merely doing research and educating yourself boosts your chances of succeeding with your ICO campaign. When you’re ready to launch your campaign, make sure you get expert help where you need it.