ICOs have been in the eye of the storm that the Wild-West of cryptocurrencies has been watching brew, have triggered the Venture Capital community and the whole investment landscape.

Some say that Initial Coin Offerings are the future while others assert that companies which choose this way to raise funds for their projects are because they have something to hide. Both are very simplistic ways of thinking, however, there is no doubt that if done properly, its a very effective way to raise money, especially if the idea behind the project truly has a real value. ICOs aren’t regulated (yet) and there have been many scams around, with millions of dollars invested that have gone into a black hole in the hands of unscrupulous people. The Wall Street Journal released a report which showed that 20% of ICOs were shady or straight scams. However, there have been many great projects that proposed world-changing ideas and chose to raised funds through Initial Coin Offerings.

Big tech companies started changing their policies and forbidding most crypto-related advertisement. Startups now face the challenge of marketing ICOs without paid ads in most major Social Media platforms and search engines. If you are feeling lost, this article intends to help and make it easier for you to begin promoting your project. You will have to elaborate a strategy according to your project’s needs and of course, your budget.

Note: We are assuming that you already have a solid whitepaper with real and detailed information about the team and project, including a timeline, roadmap, token details and how the use of the crowdsale funds proceeds at least. If that’s not the case, none of the below will help you. If you are not transparent, everyone will be skeptical about your intentions.

Website:

Basic of basics. Without one, there are very few chances that your ICO will go any further. It needs to be clear, easy to navigate and it should provide all the essential info about your project, including team members and links to their Linkedin profiles. Your website is your showcase and it should resume your Whitepaper.

Social Media and Forums:

Even though paid ads have been banned from most of the major SM platforms, it’s still very important to have social media presence, it needs to be constant and this includes forums as well. Start by setting up your project’s Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter(very popular between the crypto community) and Instagram(not really essential but useful) accounts. Telegram, the mobile messaging platform is an excellent way to start building your community and let people clear doubts. Bitcointalk is by far the most famous crypto-forum and you should do an official announcement. Reddit is also frequented by crypto-lovers, there you can start a message board (called subreddit), do an official announcement or set up an AMA(Ask Me Anything) session as well. Facebook, Linkedin and Slack have many groups and pages that discuss cryptocurrencies and ICOs and could attract new investors.

Bounty Program:

This concept borrowed from the gaming world is a crucial part of your strategy. It’s one of the most common practices adopted by ICOs, in which participants get tokens as rewards in exchange for performing specific tasks. Sounds easy? It is not that simple. If rewards are too little, it won’t help and it will probably show low results, but neither does giving away too many as it will raise doubts about how financially viable the project is. Choose the tasks to be performed and the reward wisely, planning is decisive.

ICO listings

There are countless different websites where you can list your ICO, paid and free. Here you can find an article published on Hackernoon with 100 listing sites.

Press Releases

Publishing press releases on well-known media sites or blogs (crypto-related) will increase the community’s trust in your project and will help to spread the word quickly. PRs are old-school methods of letting everyone know that you are out there and it’s worth investing in them.

Email Marketing and Newsletters

Setting up a newsletter subscription form on your website is very useful as email marketing is a very effective way to reach possibly interested investors.

PPC ads (Pay Per Click)

There are many different cryptocurrency/blockchain websites and blogs that allow you to buy both display and native ads. Here are some crypto ad platforms that can be helpful: BuySellAds — CryptoBar, TokenAd, AdEx, Cointraffic and SmartyAds.

Influencer Marketing

There are several bloggers and YouTubers that are creating quality content for crypto-lovers who may be interested in reviewing your ICO. Influencers are able to captivate the interest of their viewers and followers and bring new investors to your project. Some may accept tokens in exchange, some others may charge you a specific amount in both fiat or cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, we want to make clear that we do not recommend celebrity endorsement. Celebrities that are non-related to the cryptocurrency world will just raise suspicion on whether your ICO is a scam or not, so it’s mostly just a waste of money.

Crypto Events

Conferences, seminars, and meet-ups provide a great opportunity to meet possible investors face-to-face. You can choose to attend, sponsor or even held an event. Here is a list published by Hackernoon with the most important conferences around the world in 2018.

Did we miss anything? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment below if you think there’s something else you think it is worth adding.