The goal of this article is to explain the good and bad of ICO marketing and how the companies are using marketing before and during the release of new cryptocurrency or new token.
Marketing strategy for ICO has been changing and since, cryptocurrencies have been in the spotlight for few years, many companies were using false claims to entice investors and because of these practices, legalities has become the biggest challenge in the crypto space.
A sound ICO marketing is not always that sound, here is a brief collection of facts related to the advantages and disadvantages of ICO marketing.
ICO is considered as the biggest cryptocurrency trend today. Business startups take Initial Coin Offering (ICO) as a way to crowdfund capital through selling cryptocurrencies or token of the blockchain.
Initial coin offerings or ICOs, have successfully and quickly evolved into a robust multibillion-dollar sector and it’s anticipated that a lot of blockchain projects will go the ICO way to raise funds in the future. Therefore, ICO marketers will have to fight really hard to grab the attention of inconsistent, critical token investors.
ICOs are in demand because they are a great tool for generating fund for new cryptocurrencies since, the pre-created token can be easily traded on all cryptocurrency exchanges if there is demand for it.
Just after the tremendous success of NEO and Ethereum, investing in an ICO is considered as the smart idea. In addition to the NEO and Ethereum success, the early investors are now hoping to get a return of 200,000%.
Companies including Centra, made several false claims related to partnerships, and Plexcoin through which investors got motivated and were expecting higher returns. Such strategies were useful to attract investors, meanwhile also drew the attention of the SEC and put a stopover “strike it rich” marketing strategies.
The Social Media Policies
Social media marketing acted as the controlling tool for ICOs and brought value to the ICO projects.
As soon, as the Cryptocurrency drew irregular attention, the social media giants woke up.
Facebook revised its advertisement policy, stated that the social media site is banning ICO-related advertisements. Few months later, Twitter also represented new policies under which the advertisement of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and token sales were prohibited globally.
This step created a wave of fear in the cryptocurrency community and eventually, everyone started looking for stable and verified ICOs offering.
Listings like Top ICO List, ICO Alert, Bestcoins, and many other which were offering services to the ICOs and community, discarded ICOs with a scam in order to prove that all these listed companies are authentic and having strong foundations.
Startups planning to crowdfund with an Initial Coin Offering, focused towards being listed and verified rather collecting Facebook Likes.
However, companies like Centra were still engaged to utilize deceitful tactics like adding celebrity endorsements for product promotions.
Such endorsements created more skepticism on which SEC stated that endorsements like these may be unlawful, if there is no disclosed source and amount of any compensation to be paid directly or indirectly by the company for the endorsement.
Transparency above Board
ICO marketing teams were strictly instructed to devise the new strategies since various services were emerged to rate ICOs based on specific guidelines.
This measure was taken to ensure the transparency, welcoming greater number of institutional investors entering into the crypto-market. This audit was necessary for the ICO survival.
Today, ICOs are required to specially focus the potential legal ramification associated to their claims. Government agencies are also taking great part to take strict notice against ICOs and cryptocurrency legitimacy.
Advertising campaigns must be designed carefully if something is announced, there are no take backs and governments of the countries can disrepute the cryptocurrency community.
Keeping Up With Latest Trends
Cryptocurrencies are highly dominant when it comes to public perception, which is not always dependable therefore, cryptocurrency marketing, requires constant knowledge of the latest trends to figure out how these currencies can effectively discriminate without hindering any legal rule.
The value of cryptocurrency is based on the hype that’s why any good or bad marketing can change its value by million dollars therefore, marketing requires constant knowledge of every aspect along with various legal reviews.
Fortunately, today many organizations are focusing on the legal facts to support the crypto space and promoting actual utility rather false claims.
Transforming Adage
You have to spend money to make money, this was a common adage and today this saying has completely transformed into a more rational phrase that is you have to spend money in the right places to make money.
People are getting smarter, taking notice of the doubtful advertisements that attempt to take advantage of them.
For constant stability, ICOs require a good team, right funding, right product and their investors trust to move forward in the market.
Author Bio:
Hamas Hassan is a Digital Marketing Executive working for Cubix, a software development company in Washington, DC. He loved to write everything which revolve around emerging technologies of today’s era like Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Mobile Apps, and Digital marketing tactics. By having a vast grasp over those helping thousands of readers to learn and enhance their knowledge and expertise.
