Common ICO Marketing Pitfalls

Creating a hot new startup is a cumbersome task…even when you’re in the middle of a cryptoboom (even if that doesn’t exactly apply in August 2018!).

Here’s some quick pointers on stumbling blocks to avoid if you want to take your Token Generation Event to the moon:

Leaders and Founders That Don’t Work Their Butts Off

A startling fact I come across in a lot of cases is that some teams just don’t have the energy nor the motivation nor discipline to carry out a business. It takes a ton of both emotional and intellectual energy to day-in day-out face rejection and carry on!

Startups require hard work!

This is especially important for the CEO!

Hard work for the founder and CEO requires involves a lot of face-to-face time with all of the stakeholders in the project: investors, token purchasers and community.

Token Sales That Fail to Build a Community

Users are not only your customers and content creators…they’re your project’s backbone. Engage them! PM them in Telegram if they are generating interesting discussion to lock them in!

There will be “normal” people eventually, but for now, you need to be where the crypto folks are at.

A lot of the hard work is keeping discussions going on all your channels…engagement, engagement, engagement.

Even if you’re one of the 10 people getting private investment in the space, you need a community to support your project, or you’re doomed.

Token Ecosystem — It’s a Jungle Out There

Your token ecosystem is critically important…

An improper tokenomics design could ruin your platform 100% if all stakeholders are not properly engaged and incentivied.

Token ecosystems are new structures.

There’s no one solution here, but make sure it’s passed the sniff test of everyone on your team, and maybe get an objective observer / advisor to comment.

Make Your White Paper the Right Paper

Your white paper is like your college essay.

It won’t necessarily get you “in” but it could very easily ruin your chances.

No typos, no grammar and no cheap images.

Get Shutter stock for high quality photos and get a designer on http://MatchBX.com to do graphics properly (mm@axpire.com for more info).

This document should explain aspect of your project in detail.

And remember, reports have sound that the best white papers are, on average, at an eight grade reading level, so don’t over complicate!

Demonstrate Social Proof

In blockchain, like in the early internet, big ideas are key.

Instead of broadband its protocols and instead of http it’s DApps.

In line with the engagement point, make extended use of blogs.

***

I make extended use of all of these points at BlockchainWarehouse, the world’s best blockchain accelerator. If you have a project that could be a fit, shoot me a note at msm@blockchainwarehouse.com.

***

If this was helpful, claps are always appreciated :)

Common ICO Marketing Pitfalls was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.